He took it off so everyone could hear the upgraded turbo and BOV..

That, and everyone kept looking in it, so they took the hood off to see stuff better

 

photos from canada today: http://www.flickr.com/photos/clauret...7602049768275/









too lazy/tired to link to full sized images right now.. so just click that first link to see the 70+ photos I uploaded (haven't looked at most of them, they're probably out of focus and crap)

 

Holy ****, that's a lot of Pros!!!! Lovely!!!!! It's like a Protege Farm!

 

nice!

 

Familia Picnic? Looks like a bunch of ToProtege member cars.

 

yessir

 

I drove my car 50 miles after washing it yesterday and my rims are already grossly speckled with brake dust. I took a pic, but forgot my USB cable to put in on my computer (maybe later). Chris, your rims are pretty 'open' like mine, do you have this problem? Or are my pads dusting way too much?

 

I remember reading on the other forum about 'sealing' your wheels every season. I wonder if this would help. These rims are higher maintenance than my ex-girlfriend.

 

Definately..adding a clearcoat to the back of the rims is a great way to keep them nearly maintenence free. A lot of people also suggest sanding the ridges down, on the back side of the rim, to make the surface more smooth, and give the dust less places to hide.

 

I'm more concerned with the front side of the rims, since they're more visible.

 

my front rims are black (brake dust FTL) - i really need to clean them really bad... i did get the car washed over the weekend (thanks to mother nature)

 

Even with autocrosses the only time brake dust sticks to my wheels is if I drive in the rain. It's probably your pads. My Hawk HPS dust a bit more than the KVR CF pads I had (meh) but the only place I ever notice any is on the silver calipers. (again, after driving in the rain). I get a rusty looking brake dust color.

Even with some driving in the rain and one autocross, these are my wheels after not washing the car for a week and a half..

(pic is out of focus, overexposed (at least my car is) and huge:
http://flickr.com/photo_zoom.gne?id=1393807227&size=o

 

I want your rims!!

 

1 is bent (just a slight lip bend.. enough to upset the wheel balance but totally repairable) , another has a scuff (not curb rash.. just like a scratch on the paint on the edge, probably from mounting tires), and another one has a slight scrape on a spoke (there's 5 wheels.. so the other two are absolutely mint.

but I like them too much to sell

 

Meh, hard to tell on gunmetal rims from 15m away. I doubt mine would look as shiny as yours after that treatment. But I haven't been happy with these pads since I put them on--they SUCK.