08/31/2026
The Illusion of Community: How Elitist Gatekeeping, Favoritism, and Hidden Bias Are Rotting Montreal's Car Scene
⚠️ CONTENT WARNING: This article discusses racial profiling, misogyny and harassment. All screenshots referenced to names, photos, and plates blurred.
- The Return to a Stagnant Scene in Elitism
Earlier this season, I dropped by Epicure car meet again after two or three years away just to see a friend. Once there, I looked for any sign of evolution compared to what I remembered. There was none.
Right away, the atmosphere felt identical to the one I had left behind: hyper-curated, performative, and guarded by an absurd, club-style "doorman" policy at the lot entrance: a dynamic almost unheard of for standard community meets in Montreal and everywhere.
Instead of building an inclusive community for automotive enthusiasts, the event operated under arbitrary control. Entry was granted not by clear, fair standards, but by clear favoritism. Clean, enthusiast-built cars were routinely turned away under the pretense of strict quality control, while many vehicles belonging to the organizers' inner circle rolled straight past the gate.
Witnessing it gave me the envy to write an article simply addressing this useless gatekeeping & how superficial elitism, passive-aggressive social media callouts, and fake drama were draining the passion out of local car culture.
- The AMG Incident and Selective Drama
That operational hypocrisy had many peaks, like during a recent meet when three Mercedes-AMGs were apparently denied entry at the gate. Relegated to parking on the public street outside, the drivers eventually pulled away, revving their engines on their way out.
What followed was the organizers' familiar public playbook: a long-winded social media statement framing the drivers as aggressive, making threats of permanent bans, and publicly shaming them for noise on a public road.
And it's the aftermath that does the most damage. After every meet, a public shaming post goes up, and it instantly turns the comment section into a free-for-all. What should be a car discussion becomes a wave of hate, racial profiling, and pile-ons directed at whoever was called out. It's not a one-off, it's the pattern after every one of their events.
Yet, for anyone who has watched this group for years, the double standard is glaring. When standard attendees cause minor disruptions outside the lot, it results in public callouts and calls for aggressive enforcement in the comments. When the organizers' friends pull similar stunts, it is met with silence.
- The Leaks : When Gatekeeping Reveals Its True Face
NOTE OF EVIDENCE: This post uses two kinds of screenshots. The first are public comments under Epicure Classics' own posts and reels after their events. The second are from a private WhatsApp group chat run by their organizers. I don't have the full chat history, I found these screenshots circulating in the community, shared by friends on their stories and forwarded to me.
What began as an issue of poor management and fake selective rules has now exposed something far darker.
-Leaked screenshots from the organizers' private group chat ["Epicure Classics" WhatsApp group chat] reveal that the gatekeeping was never just about vehicle aesthetics.
-Racial Profiling: In response to video clips of loud exhausts, messages in the group explicitly label the drivers by their ethnicity / race, even though the drivers weren’t even from those origins.
-Misogyny & Harassment: Group members shared photos directly taken from the Instagram profiles of female community members, making crude, sexualized comments about them.
-Malicious Gatekeeping: Chat logs show organizers actively coordinating to target female attendees by intentionally sending them to fake event locations to exclude them.
- Moving Beyond Fake Community
Car culture in Montreal has always been built on a shared passion for automobiles and a space where people of all backgrounds, ages, and walks of life come together over steel, aluminum, and gasoline. Not divided by race, origin, religion or social class.
When organizers use their platform to posture with elitist remarks, enforce arbitrary double standards at the gate, and foster private spaces filled with racism and harassment, they damage the entire scene.
The leaks prove that gatekeeping isn't about protecting car culture; it is about protecting an ego-driven, exclusionary club. It is time for Montreal enthusiasts to stop supporting events that hide prejudice behind a polished aesthetic and demand spaces that truly respect the community.
I didn't write this to start a drama, cancel anyone, or get likes. I wrote this because I care about this scene. I've spent years in the Montreal car scene (events, meets, shows, salons…) talking cars with strangers who became friends, no matter where they were from or what they drove. When I saw the comments under their posts turn into racial pile-ons, and then saw the private WhatsApp leaks with a girl being targeted and sent to fake locations, I couldn't stay silent. If we let this become normal, if we keep supporting meets where hate is tolerated in private and amplified in public, we lose what car culture is supposed to be. This is about accountability & ethics, not revenge.
Is this the community we want?
