By Brian Lohnes

BangShift.com

Street racing is a strong crime for a police officer, but in Canada, any traffic violation involving 50 kph (31 mph) over the speed limit brings the charge of street racing. That law went into place in 2007, and more than 15,000 people have been charged with street racing since then. In this case, an Ontario Provincial Police office was reportedly going 157 kph (97 mph) in an 80 kph (55 mph) zone when he ran a stop sign and crashed. He was on duty, but not on a call. Surprisingly, the officer remains on duty but can’t drive for 7 days. Read the full story at The Windsor Star.

By Katherine Helmetag

Atomicalex

So you want to import that Skyline, eh? It had better be at least 25 years old, according to last week’s output of the Ministry of what they claim to call roads up there. Full text (French interspersed with English) after the jump. No word if cool conversions like Joe’s (RHD-EG6) 1993 Civic conversion would be legal… Hmmm…..

Continue reading "Quebec Bans RHD Cars??" »

By Jen Dunnaway

Editor

Elvisuperman over at the Camaro5 forum snapped these awesome pics of rows upon rows of new Camaros in the lot of GM’s plant in Oshawa, Ontario. As one forum member said, “looks like an angry herd ready to eat anything in its path!” I’m assuming that includes the doubters who argued that the oft-postponed muscle car was vaporware. Look out!

Thanks to Annie for the tip. More pics below the jump, and check out the current Camaro5 thread here and additional night shots here.

Continue reading "Here They Come: Army of Production Camaros Massed in Oshawa" »

By Rob Einaudi

Editor-in-Chief

Today Canada announced that they will provide Canadian GM and Chrysler operations with a $3.3 billion aid package. Full story at Reuters.

I’ve been up in Canada for the last few days visiting with my dad, and since car-craziness is genetic, it didn’t take much for me to persuade my old man to come check out one of my favorite Canadian junkyards. I don’t know how I’ve managed to neglect Pick A Part, this little gem of a yard less than an hour’s drive east of Vancouver, but I think it’s been vastly improved in the last five years or so. For one thing, its online vehicle search is the most user-friendly I’ve ever seen for a junkyard: not only can you search by model and year, but it’ll even tell you what engine each car has and what color the body is. Once you’re there, they don’t ding you with admission or wagon-rental fees, but instead hand you a printout listing the rows and numbers of the cars you’ve asked about so you can locate ‘em. There’s a tool bin from which anyone can borrow whatever it is they’ve forgotten (just bring it back: honor system), and the staff is similarly generous with things like engine hoists (“just take it”). It’s not like it’s the world’s hugest yard, but it’s got mad variety and is meticulously organized, with a lot of older iron: the overall character of this yard seems more 70′s/80′s than 90′s, though there’s a ton of late-model stuff as well. The verdict: If you live anywhere in the Pacific Northwest or Western Canada and you have not yet been to Pick A Part in Chilliwack, this yard is absolutely worth traveling for, especially since you know what’s going to be there when you arrive. I got a fender and bumper for my diesel Escort, and I’m going to be driving up again in the near future to strip their Eagles. See more junkyard pics after the jump!

Continue reading "Great Pickin’s in Chilliwack, BC" »

We don’t cover too many Canadian car shows here at CarDomain, so we figured it was time to show our friends in the Great White North a little appreciation! I got word from SoundDomain guest blogger HzEmall that the BC Classic & Custom Car Show was this weekend and it was something I simply should not miss. So after checking out their website and Googling the show to check out previous event coverage I was sold. The quality of cars this show pulls is amazing. So much so that Chip Foose and George Barris are both going to be at the show! So tomorrow I’ll hop in the GTI and head north. Event photos to follow… Keep your browser locked to CarDomain for more. Follow the jump to check out the show poster.

Continue reading "BC Classic & Custom Car Show" »

Don’t get me wrong: Earth Day is nice and everything, vehicle smog sucks, and anyone who wants to give up their car for the common good is fine by me (woo-hoo: one more parking space!). Problem is, no one can ever just leave it at that. Take this bunch of Toronto-based folksters, for example: they sacrificed one of their own cars, painted it white, and turned it into a writeable petition aimed at putting an end to the automobile for once and for all. The group, Streets Are For People! (an outlandish claim if I ever heard one), wants to take all the tax dollars used for car manufacturing subsidies and funnel them into mass transit and bike paths. That’s cute and all, and I was additionally tickled that the extended version of the petition wants to "Ban the advertising of automobiles (just like cigarettes)". The group hasn’t addressed how they’re going to "deliver" the petition to the Canadian government on Earth Day without burning any fossil fuels. But don’t feel genuinely threatened: they’re in Canada, remember, so it won’t amount to anything. They can have your car when they pry it from your cold, dead fingers.

Source: Spacing Toronto via AutoMotto.

Not Canada! Come on, Canada? They’re supposed to be our civilizing influence to the north, that kind neighbor who politely knocks on our door with a smile when we’re partying too loud at 3 am. But now, they’re getting into the scuzzy business of senseless vehicle scrappage, all in the misguided name of environmental salvation. John Baird, the bureaucrat Canada’s put in charge of the environment, is expected to propose a $90 million windfall in federal handouts for scappage outfits with names like Bye Bye Beaters and Car Heaven, who are smacking their chops in anticipation of growing in power and ramping up their efforts to destroy our automotive heritage. Further outrage after the jump…

There are a number of problems here. First of all, vehicle scrappage does very little to save the earth. The average car produces an obscene amount pollution during its manufacture and its disposal—by some estimates, at least much as it does during a whole lifetime of driving—so wrecking serviceable cars for the sake of cranking out new ones is wasteful and counterproductive. Second, older cars tend to be some of the best-maintained cars on the road (why do you think they’ve been around so long?) and aren’t generally the emissions-belching monsters that people make them out to be (there’s a term for that: it’s "scapegoating"). Third, vehicle scrappage is politically motivated and is very lucrative for certain special interests. Why incentivize car owners to dispose of their perfectly good, running vehicles just for the sake of simply producing more? Tellingly, the program will offer rebates on a new car for anyone willing to relinquish their faithful beater to the crusher. It amounts to a free economic-stimulus package for dealerships and automakers, one that’s paid for by taxpayers–and by old cars. Canada, don’t do it! If you fall, who’s supposed to be our bastion of civilization?

More at CTV.

Ford of Canada, as part of its "Powered by You" campaign, has been making car commercials without any cars in them. Check out this mini-documentary on the making of its new human car ads, which recreate the shape and look of its current vehicle lineup using nothing but a few exterior parts and a troupe dancers. Don’t expect crash-test results to be made public anytime soon. To view the commercial only, click here.

Via AutoMotto

Lots of bikers just bite the bullet and put their machines away during winter, but for this guy on Canada’s Red Tiger Racing page, that wasn’t good enough. So he mounted the widest available dirt bike tires onto the wheels of his CBR, and now this baby can go where other crotch-rockets fear to tread. He tested it on pavement, and even at 80MPH, it’s still stable. Bad-ass! Thanks to Dave for the tip, and check out the Red Tiger Racing page for shots of this radical off-road machine tearing up the dirt!