Japshow Finale

[Lucky]

Welcome in, pull up a chair

A thousand apologies for the appalling delay getting this thread to you, I've been on a properly awful run of work the last two weeks and haven't had a chance to get on the puter (though I did manage to bring one of her majesty's finest railway lines to a grinding halt so badly the other day it was keeping a fire lit under Twitter for a while, so I suppose I've been an internet phenomenon at least in spirit this week lol). Apologies also for the slight FDUK/Exile boas in reportage, it's cos I shamelessly copied and pasted the thread across. Anyway, finally, here's my humble scribblings of a show report from the Finale for your delectation and delight. Feel free to jeer and throw things....


TBH, the Muse (they've still never done better than Showbusiness lol, first albums are always the best) wasn't upon me much on Sunday, maybe it's the cold weather. My brain's like the opposite of a superconductor, the colder it gets the less well it works. It was nice to be up at the Pod for a change, actually. I've made a conscious effort to do some different stuff this year cos I was starting to feel slightly out of love with Santa Pod and the worlds' most tedious, annoying drive there and back. So it was actually a bit of a change to be there and see the usual suspects again. It was nice.

Despite this being the first Japshow Finale I can remember when it didn't rain I still felt the numbers were down a bit. There didn't seem to be the buzz you'd expect from the last show of the year, and the same few cars were going around the RWYB again and again. Gone are the days when the queue overspilled past the cafe buildings I guess it's a sign of the times, no-one's got any money any more. With that said, the FDUK stand was, as always, a beacon of light and invention in a sea of dull identikit Scoobies and so-forth.



Given that the FDUK stand was boasting more like forty cars and people were clamouring for stand passes, it seemed my support wasn't needed this time out. Since I got bamboozled into organising the Exile Rotorsport massiiiive stand (cheers, guys lol) it would have been churlish not have put my own car there, so that's what I did. I was supposed to be taking the FB but a bumper that turned out to be 2 inches wider than the car meant it was still in the bodyshop, so it had to be the plastic car. However, I think we got seven cars at one point,which is pretty excellent for such a small club whos cars are more often in pieces than an actual running, driving vehicle So damned well done us!

Might as well start there, then...


Ooooh, all three generations of RX-7 on one stand, and not a yellow car in sight... Here's a pair of rear ends fifteen years apart but only separated by two letters of the alphabet


Marc's TWR-kitted and Celica-wheeled FB looks mighty fine


With attention to detail you'd expect from errrr... a detailer, even down to the RX-7 rotor valve caps. Celica wheels look nicer on an RX-7 than they did on a Toyota


Lachie's FD was pressed into service again as time "just" ran out getting the S2 running properly. It's the Exile way...


Dave's TWR FB put in an outstanding case for old skool roolz, happily keeping up with the bonkers antics once the convoy left Toddington without any stress. Becos red ones is faster, see?




In profile against Uncle Era's FD you can really see the RX-7 lineage clearly. Slightly fuzzy Exile hangovers included for scale purposes lol


Nothing's really changed on mine so I didn't bother taking many pics. Oh, except one of the new clocks wot matches my gauges much more betterer than the old ones did. This was when I got home after about 3.5 hours driving through indescribably bad traffic jams; amazing I was capable of still holding a camera, I was vibrating in time to the exhaust by now...


Oh, yeah, and I put a bomber-art slut decal on the rear screen. There you go. It's my thread, I can be as irrelevant as I like


Michael's kitted FB still looks good enough in primer that why not, lol. Apparently the kit's coming off becos it's stopping him getting the car low enuff. Hardcore


No plastic imitations here, this is a real handgrenade complete with cordite smell when you unscrew the fuse!


The new Shelby slotmags really suit the car well too


Dunno what the MOT man'll say about the inch of tread sticking out each side, but who cares when it looks this good?


Marcus' FC made up the generations for us, and I have to say it goes a long way to overcoming my previous shameful prejudices towards the lost RX-7 model


I always dismissed them as heavy and fat 944-alikes, but I'm starting to come around lol


There's lots to like about Mr Festa's car, plenty of chassis work you can't see immediately, which I always think is a sign of someone who knows what they're doing. Spending money on upgrading the chassis may not have the show-ground shock and awe of engine work and bling but says the owner knows about making a car properly fast. Mind you, plenty of engine stuff here, too...


Even losing the top-mount interheater on an FC is a start, of course, but this one has some nice bits from Jap tuner coolness shops as well


So that's the Exile stand in a nutshell then. Looks alright, dunnit


Just down the way a bit was some plastic rotaries cluttering the place up, some mob called FDUCK or something with their plastic rotaries *cough* ...


Dang, there were a few of 'em, innit! Excellent turnout from the chaps, one to be proud of. Especially for moments like our rather anarchic convoy blatting past a group of Skybusses all pottering along sedately 15mph under the speed limit in the slow lane of the M1 8)


I've got to confess, I took loads of pics and some of them I've no scooby who's car's who My fault for being out of circulation a bit lately. Plenty of times I talk to someone and then realise I've no idea what their real name, their username or their car is! So some of these next ones may be a bit vague on the old descriptive front, please forgive.

As to FDUK posterboi, it's a close one. I kinda like this one, and Razamuffin did offer to move the car closer into the water but I would have felt guilty if he'd ruined his trainers for the sake of one pic, so this was the best I could do...


I have quite a lot of love for this pic, too, and no-one could argue Syed's car isn't a hell of a thing. This looks like it's contempleting what flavour it's next murder victim ought to be...


But for sheer shock and awe, for incomparable levels of car prep, for representing on so many levels and for doing it all for the love and the craic, not for the money or the kudos, there's only really one choice from the day for me

[Lucky]

Right, I'll get on with embarassing myself failing to put the right name to the right car now, shall I? Errrm, reckon this 'un must be Dan, yeah?


Think this is Rob's brother Mart


The Veilside kits have always been matters of much debate, but this is inspired treatment of it. I love it, looks fantastic in a big ol' up yours, I won't do what you tell me sorta way


Loving the oldskool stylee Nurburgring decal, too


Speaking of old skool, proper mad tyte JDMy0 three-spoke Advan SAR33 goodness mmmmmmm


Nope, no bleeding clue, sorry fella. Who you, lol?


Nice attention to detail going on though


Errrrm, think this is TTurbo's purplish one?


Very mean and moody, very well presented


This would be the Custard Doughnut Monster. Top name!


I know whose this is I've talked to him loads of times. Just no idea what their name is, or even forum name. See, I'm rubbish, I am


Seem to have some kinda drag wheel strategy going on there




BGW Ftw lol


Ahhh, at last, something I recognise. The Epic Moderator bus of cool cool epic Phil-who-shall-be-called-Fil




and sticking with red ones, cos they're clearly better than all the other colours, I never tire of taking pics of Laeeq's


In fact, I lost track of the number of people after the convoy who commented on how well it sits on the road


ooooh, I might have missed a poster-boi contender shot here... this is my "if there was an RX-7 coffee-table book" shot




It's not the right red (Vintage Red NU FTW lol), but we'll forgive Liam's transgression because it is pretty damned fine nonetheless


I only twigged the lack of mirror glass after I'd taken this one, and I meant to go and take the same pic the other side, but I got chatting and distracted and forgot. Of course, if I'd kept my stupid mouth shut, no-one would have ever noticed. I could edit it but then this post would end up really short lol and I'd have nothing to say. Just think of it like Sliding Doors, in a parallel universe I never said anything in the first place and no-one's any the wiser


I took faarrrrrr too many of Lee's recently resurrected yellow beastie


but tbh I'm not gonna make any aoplogy for that, cos if a Kazama wide-arched T51-blown FD doesn't get you a bit moist you probably need to go and have a long, stern word with yourself anyway. Go on, off you pop while the rest of us check out these pics...




You back? That was quick. I'm still going, I'm afraid. Love this one of it drawing in the punters while what's presumably a mini-Lee gets out with unaffected insousiance


the heart of the matter


While we're on the subject of bodykits and suchlike, Rob (no, not that one, Merlin Rob) seems to have something horribly wrong with his arse


I think it's having an allergic reaction to something, it's gone all swollen and bloated hahaha. Only kidding, I'm sure with his usual excellent skillz he'll manage to make even the oddest product from the RE:Amemiya stable look triumphant eventually. Here's a nice one of the wheels to make up for my cheek


Mr Petesonfire's white Rex is still setting the standard for achingly crisp icy-cool looks, I see


soooooo incredibly clean it's just not even fair


Razamatazz has been pic-whored every way till Christmas of late, so I'll confine myself to just the one here lol. Looking fine, Raz


Nice to see the old married couple of Sam and Edd made it up without killing each other bickering lol. Locking them into the same car together is like cruelty to animals, but they do make me laugh, it's like a double-act


Sam seems to have cheered up a bit from his earlier gloom and despondency. Mind you, I guess when you're a student, like 5 a.m. is a time to be going to bed, not getting up for a 2.5 hour drive lol.


Anyhoo, the White Dragon (a bit like a Red Dragon but less likely to be either Welsh or murdering fat chicks.... oh no, that was the one in Silence of the Lambs, wasn't it? ooops) errr, where was I? Oh yeah, it looks excellent as always. Even with my donated bit of vital insulting tape keeping the fuel door shut


Great Scott's silver one manages to somehow overcome a Veilside-threespoke combo tagteam assault and still look cool afterwards


schmokin

[Lucky]

The only one I seem to have got of Stu's is of his bum. even more worrying than that, he offered his actual bum for a pic, too


Nice to Syed's car out and about despite being apparently unfinished. I suspect this is one of those cars that may never be finished


However, it looks pretty fine. Under the bonnet there's definitely some serious things happening! I'm lovin the plumbing-spec downpipe, Ninja-dude's head included for scale purposes


Bloody awesome thing (the downpipe, not the head lol), not sure having it resting on the brake servo is totally ideal, but hey brakes is overrated compared to powerrrrrrzz


Pretty


Tiny


Drag run


...which brings us neatly back round to the other silver FD that was rockin the strip.


Rob managed to put on quite a show despite coming over all Willday-like and beastlifying his HKS box the day before. The Garage Reg solution seemed to be to just build a pile of stock boxes and swap them if they broke.


Like, why would they? Is a stock FD gearbox not up to 800 bhp or something? I got a bit bored of editing pics at one point and started titting around, and since I had a lot of pics of Rob he became the victim of a few




No arguing with this, though. Don't need to retouch pics like this, they speak for themselves






I love this one, you can see where he backs the throttle after the burnout the turbo just flobs a load of excess water from the WI out through the bonnet vent


How nice was it being able to infiltrate the "VIP stand", btw? Although calling a bit of scaffolding and plywood VIP is a bit over-egging the pudding, mind. It's an excellent place to get all sorts of pics normally denied us mere mortals. admittedly, you can get some fairly weird ones, too... Ninjalunge anyone?


This one looks like it ought to have serial numbers underneath lol; the FDUK/Exile massive invade the VIP stand shock


...and here's a caption competition if ever I saw one. My immediate thought was "these aren't the droids you're looking for" but there's definitely a hint of "la Macarena" in there, too


Right, there was some other rotary presence, but I gave the MRC stand stand a miss for most of the day. When I drove in there were a few RX-8s sitting there and tbh they leave me stone cold so I didn't bother. While we were stood around chatting on the Exile stand though, this old boy rolled up in a pretty nice Series 2 RX-7 looking for the MRC stand. He was obviously bamboozled by the preponderance of Mazda's male menopause accountant's barge on the MRC stand too, lol, he thought we must be it cos we had proper rotaries. Well, it made me laugh anyway


The next time I saw it half an hour later it was parked up by the bogs, but he did eventually make it to the right place. Nice though, innit


Anyway, fortunately I did eventually make it onto the MRC stand, which is just as well cos otherwise I'd have missed the Haywards peripheral port 20B. Which was interesting to see for all kinds of reasons. It sat in a corner all day, never went near the track, though he did start it up at one point.... wooot


It's already got the drag wheels and tyres on it so it'll be interesting to see what this is actually capable of in "anger". I gather it's not actually finished yet ...


...probably why it looks like it was thrown together by the work experience boy in his lunchbreaks, then. Look beyond the shiny trumpets and it's a total lash-up. Not nice.


Right, that's pretty much it for rotary interest. I refused to take photos of any RX-8s this time precisely cos their owners are the sort of people who have sigs listing their oil filler caps and satnav upgrades (and how much cataclean they get through) in different coloured fonts, so I don't want to be associated with that sort of thing. Moving on to the other marques at the show... well. Much of it left me feeling slightly meh, to be honest. It's getting increasingly difficult to see something you've never seen before, the various Jap scenes all appear in need of some new blood and inspiration. Who seriously after all this time wants to drive a 555-liveried Scooby just like thousands of others? However, I managed to find a few things to point the lens at, so here they are, starting with some Datsuns.

I dunno if this is a good look or not. I tend to find drifting leaves me unmoved as a "sport", impresses me as a specatacle, and divides my opinion on the cars that compete. They tend to be sheds held together with cable ties in a slightly contrived way and I can't help but think of pikey banger racers with better paintjobs... or they're excellently constructed pieces of automotive genius, such as the 350Z with the rear-mounted cooling system, or Dragon's anarchic pink thing or the Sil-eighty hybrids and so on. Road cars in the vein.... hmmm. Jury's out. Especially with sideskirts that make it look like a hovercraft


I guess it's similar to the argument about rats should evolve into rats rather than be deliberately contrived. I like a good bit of patination as much as the next man but it's a fine line between "groovy" and "pseudy"


I like this orange S15 a lot though. It's too orangey for crows, it's just for me and my dawwg


I never felt huge lust for the 350Z cos it's a bit like an Audi TT in a fat suit, but the 370Z rocks rather better for me. A lot of the styling cues refer right back to the original 240Z-car and it just looks a lot sleeker, less bloated


Se what I mean, lol. I wish my wife's bum was this huge lol. Brown seems to be the new black


Mind you, that big brown Z did rock a seriously orgasmatron set of wheels, and in credit to the owner, he was running it up the strip once it had finished being displayed in the Show and Shine


There were quite a few 300ZXs around, which seem to have sprung up as a car to mod in recent times having been lost in the wilderness for years. Very capable car, I guess they're getting cheap enough for people to take the plunge modding them


Not sure why you'd replace the iconic rear light treatment with ones from a trailer though. Anyway, this one in the Show and Shine paddock had some bling going on


and a bootful of heavy bass in the form of four Audiobahn subs and numerous components. Not my sort of thing but undeniably impressive


Having slated 350Z I've now got to confess I actually think they're one sort of car that suits a VeilSide treatment, especially in 'vert form where they look slightly less bloated anyway




Obviously, sticking with the datsun theme, there were a few of the biggest bully boy of them all. This one was setting good times on the strip but I only took this one cos I still like the rear lights


It's older sisters can be made to look pretty nifty with the right stuff


Mmmm, shiny, red, turbo, right, that's all my criteria for a "like" covered then


This, in anyone's money, is cheating. First glance you think "oh, cool, screamer pipe through the bonnet", but then when you see it's got a spark plug wired in a few inches down you feel that they're missing the point... buy a rotary and get flameage for real

[Lucky]

Probably my favourite Datsun wasn't a Nissan at all but an actual, proper Datsun


made of, like metal and stuff. I guess like a lot of people I've always tended towards the idea the 280Z was a bit of a wrong move from the lighweight two-seat purity of the original 240 and even 260s, but seeing this gorgeous resto has gone quite a way towards persuading me otherwise. Mind, the inch-deep paint helps no end...


The guy had a folder of build pics in front, and jeez he's done a job, what a basket case this car was


Really top job of restoration




It's funny what constitutes an entrant into the Show n Shine, on the one hand are incredible restos like that 280Z where it's probably a better car than at any time before, including when it rolled off the production line... to this Mitsi Eclipse. A car I generally rather like, and not just cos I fancy Paul Walker lol. This, however, if it's what passes for style in Lithuania, well... errrr... kin hell


Hmmm. Tony's RX-8 is still doing the rounds, too. Bless him, lovely guy. Apparently this is now daily driven, he showed me at great length how he's plumbed in drains to the rain trays on the bonnet to divert water away from the engine. Errrr, fascinating


Whatever your feeling on the taste of it, you can't lack respect for daily driving something like that. Must take him hours polishing it every week. It's like Libarace's boudoir inside. If that's a good thing


For me, tooo much bling is ... well, it's too much and I almost always prefer a car where form has followed function, but I guess that's not exactly how Show n Shine works. Still, it was nice to see things like this tool of a Supra sat there...


It's subtle as a fist outside, but got some beauty hidden under the skin


rather in contrast to the other Supra next door, which was all bling shiny stuff. Plenty of gold and chrome


which I rather like, too, to be fair. I like the bonkers lol. Apparently this was a Banzai cover car. Can you spot the deliberate mistake though?


that's right, it's got a trans fluid dipstick. She's on a slushbox and therefore fails. At everything. Banzai, pah! lol


In actual fact one of my favourite cars in the Show n Shine came in from a slightly unexpected leftfield, and from a manufacturer you probably wouldn't immediately guess at. Want a clue? OK then


Partisan? Moi?
Yep, an MX-5. Not that one, though ^^. This one vv


hey, whoaaa, no need to be like that. Don't run away, I thought exactly the same, what the hell is the guy playing at, it's horrid. But as you get in closer and look around there are sooooooo many little touches on this car that I couldn't help but start to admire and eventually love it. For example, the windblocker and rear deck start the airbrush theme off...


..which continues onto the clocks and the doorcards, center console, etc...


....and no surprise that it goes round into the engine bay as well!


and by now you're noticing all the other touches done by someone with a vision on the whole car and how it should be, and more importantly, a sense of humour and some realisation of self-aware mockery


yeah, even the light-up LED rings in the wheel centres. The Mazda logo all be-devilled is obvious, and not exactly a new touch. But did you miss the HKS intakes that have been retouched so the cages look like they're filled with raw meat?


The catch tank that's apparently made from the lost crystal skull of the Incas? Must be Indy's car...


it's just everywhere, every part you see has been tweaked in some way


It's so over-the-top it ought to be ridiculous, but it made me laugh, and it's all quality work even if it's naff beyond compare, so for me, this wins big style


Oh, and it's a Mazda of course!




Not a phrase you often hear, but it was a pair of celicas that really rocked my world in the Show and Shine though.


This big blue one must've been gutted, on any other day he'd have it won as best old skool original. Except he chose to place his shiny wheels in the ring on a day when there was that red 280Z to contest


I love the period attention to detail, like the oldskool mobile phone on the dash. Blimey, this was space-shuttle stuff when I were... younger

[Lucky]

Boom!


Winner, lol


Everything about this restored Celica was spot-on, even down to the period lightning-conductor straps lol


The owner was a really nice guy, too and him and his wife seemed to have escaped the slightly obsessive, adenoidal and geeky demeanour that often accompanies show-car owners (you know who you are lol), they were really down-to-earth and humble about it. He must have spent a lifetime finding and restoring all the bits that make this awesome though. Like the bonkers headlight protector


Dates from a time the Jap factories were convinced there was no such thing as too much badging, lol. It's even got a badge to tell you how many gears it's got


Lovely, innit. Y'know, I may have been too hasty when I said Celica wheels look better on an FB RX-7 earlier on...


Wood. Not as out-of -date as you think


Keith seems lost for words, but even if he wasn't you wouldn't be able to tell. Cos this is a photograph, see?


as well as a folder of build pics (and this thing was rotten once) the owner had dressed it with period paraphenalia, such as a Mirror and packet of Enbassy No 6! Like, when did you last see a packet of No6!? Must be out of production for like 15 years. My overriding memory of No 6 was having to smoke them at Glastonbury in 1987 cos every single fag vendor in the place had run out of every acceptable type of ciggie by the third day and they were charging like two quid a packet cos we had no choice. Mind you, I was a bit worse for wear by then anyway, one thing and a another... Apparently he bid on them on eBay, which is even more odd, who the hell has a sealed packet of 15-year old fags to sell!?


There's not too many cars that I like the look of the old collapsed suspension thing, y'know, where it looks like it's been dropped from a crane and all the wheels have splayed out until the underseal's scraping daisies. But there seem to suddenly be a profusion of li'l MX5s running around with exactly that look, and I have to say it just works. For example;


so much the better if you can combine it with a bit of the ol' matt black


I'm guessing this is a new flavour of Rota cos a load of old school cars seem to be turning up with it suddenly. Oh well, I guess they look pretty neat


I like a lot this crisp white one with the banded steelies


And proving that flip paint is either not yet dead or has come back from the grave as zombies...


I'm never quite sure about these sorta Kanji script decals, it's OK if you're sure you know what you're doing, but if it were me doing them and I was sure the guy knew nothing about the language the temptation to have it read "Knob-jockey" or "I'm a chugnut" or even "western Gaijin round-eye barbarian with no understanding of who their ancestors were" would be overwhelming, I fear


And just to prove it's not all about the rideheight, here's a kitted one for a bit of variety. Not sure that there's not something missing from the splitter department though


It's nice to see a preponderance of MX-5s scurrying about the place (collective noun for MX-5s? A blowdry, perhaps?) cos they're a much underrated car that finally seems to be emerging from it's hairdreser cachet and holding its head up in public. There were a few other unexpected modded marques around, such as


quite an unexpectedly frisky blower for a luxobarge like a Soarer. I've been seeing a few of these pop up lately too. Vive le difference lol


and it wasn't the only unusual Toyota around, either, even outside the show n shine. This olive drab old Supra rocked




Was this still a Celica Supra? Or a Supra MkIII? Not sure exactly.


and further into the depths of Toyota oddities, we find this;


A supercharger-converted one. All done on the driveway to the owners daily driver car, as he rather intensely and slightly unnervingly told us. This is the only one in the world, he insisted, and we agreed cos we were scared


y'know, when you meet that sorta person who's just a little too kinda... keen about their work?

To be fair to the guy, his work seems pretty good and it's certainly innovative. He even took it quite well when I pointed out there was more vent than bonnet in his vented bonnet...


How about a change of pace? A litle scenic interlude? Why not...


That's better. Another cult that seems to be gathering strength is stickerbombing. It can be a great tool, in moderation. Just enough is easily made into toooooo much lol


This is a bit of a weird one. I'm not unaware that using components from a more upmarket car similar to yours is a perfectly acceptable way to upgrade. It's a bit alien to FDs I suppose because they were all top-of-the-range, but in other marques it can be a good way of getting OE quality and an instant upgrade all in one for cheaps. But I wasn't expecting when I paused to take a pic of this next car for the owner to pounce from the shadows and insist his car was a worthy recipient of this "upgrade". Lets see if you agree;


Now, maybe I'm judging too harshly, but some four-door bloody econobarge that I can't even identify (is it a Xedos? Or something equally wretched) is categorically NOT an acceptable place to find an FD efini logo! A unique marque identity celebrating the ingenuity, engineering excellence and downright superbness of the rotary engine should not be desecrated so, even on a car that the owner insisted had one of the best engines Mazda ever made. Yeah, the 2.5 V6 is lovely, mate, but like I had one in a goddamned Ford Probe FFS. Stop it! You're doing it wrong!

....Is it me?

[Lucky]

Hmmm, maybe just me then lol.

Moar tiltshifting? Just becos


It ws nice to see THE WORST CAR IN THE WORLD....EVARRR making another appearance. Surprised to see the lambo doors are still hanging on and haven't pulled half the bodywork off in their inevitable collapse, but there you go. Owner gave it plenty up the strip, to be fair, but then it's not like he's got anything to lose, is it? Probably the best he can hope for is to blow it up or stack it...


I always try to avoid taking pics of Hahhhndaaas in case I end up liking it or something, but just so I don't get accused of being partisan


Here's something. This, for the younger in the audience, is what cars looked like when I were a lad, only not rusty. lol


...only they've gone a buggered it up by putting one of those vulgar fuel-injected modern things in it! Fair enough, actually, looks like a good conversion and must be pretty lively. Not sure what's with the old coil pack still on the firewall though?


This thing shows a bit of potential, especially if it does hit the 2000+bhp target (and if Bradshaw buggers off and gives anyone else a chance) but somehow having to type the words "Chris Impey's new drag Supra" fill me with sadness


EP Racing were showing off some of their new products (and by the way, whavever happened to decent trade stalls at shows?). Some of them even seem half-decent, but then I've all the taste and discernment of a colour-blind magpie when it comes to shiny stuff




...but just as I was starting to think they might be getting the hang of stuff after that panel-gap-tastic awful FD they go and do this. *sigh* bodywork still best viewed from twenty paces, then...


Now, I like a nice pert anime slut as much as the next man, but I feel this MR2 might have been better off spending the money on a respray lol


the guy was like 15 years older than me, as well (yes, that is possible) which turns it from nearly cool to past sleazy a bit. Sorta like paedo bear but not funny or ironic. Actually, I'm not even convinced paedo bear is funny or ironic...
Even better was Chimpy being able to tell me which manga the sluts errr, I mean girls came from!


I think Sam and Steve might have a bit of competition in the who's got the biggest gayest wingiest wing evarr stakes...


...and slightly bizarrely, this is in anyone's language, a bastard of a hat!


Ooooh, more old Mazda lurrrrve!


Groovy 323, want his wheels!


Right, the end is nigh at last. Just a few from the strip to wade through and you can take the rest of the evening off

There was a surprising mix of stuff on the strip considering this was a Japshow after all. From the sublime


errr Caddy? to the ridiculous


errrr 205 GTi


to the even more ridiculous errrrrrrrr... I'm not even sure WTF this is, once it stopped being a Mini


Fortunately all the usual suspects were present as well


Have to say, it may have the driven wheels the wrong end and sound utterly horrible, but it's a quick little shopping trolley!


There were a few bikes playing out. This old boy on his oil-boiler GSX 1100EFE made me laugh, every time he was doing up the Hayabusa in the other lane every way to Christmas, the much more modern and powerful Busa only coming back at the last few feet before the line. That's the difference between balls and technology, I guess


The anarchic widowmaker Suzuki's TL thou seemed to be making a strong showing


Here's a gurl with one, even, lol.


This dude was a fduking animal! The bike's beam-framed so I guess it was a TL1000R-variant rather than the S before he streetfightered it. The R was supposed to favour top-end power and revs over the S's low-down grunt...


...not that you'd have known it judging by how far down the run he span it up for! Check out the length of the black line from the rear tyre! Madman


Leon Green's Supra was doing what it does best....going very very quickly...


...even at a standstill, lol...


....right up until it seemed to rather tragically break right at the end of the day and was towed off the line. Here's a slightly happier run


I suspect we've all got a sneaking respect for a giant yellow fast Datsun too, yeah? Better get a filter for that turbo, there were children and animals present!




Got squat! Aren't GTRs 4wd? How's that work, then?


As long as this damned silly thing's about, it would seem everyone else is holding on for second place


Bloody hell, it's impressive though, innit! Especially the way th'boy Bradshaw got a simply humongous tankslapper on at one point and in that balls-out mindset of a true drag racer, he just went for the "keep your foot in and it'll be fine" gung-ho approach... fortunately, it was. Massive bravery!


and that was that, the end of the day and the end of the show season for another year. Wending our way back to the stands, there were only two FDs left standing hardcore, the Sleathy One's and Epic Fil Cool Cool Phil's ....plus a fair chunk of Exile who were maybe still too hungover to risk driving home yet lol.


Nowhere as desolate as the Pod when all the toys have been packed back into their box. Ahead was a hateful three and a half hour drive in freezeframe DVT motorway jams. Bummer. The end


But I'm told you should always end on a high, or a song. But this is a pic thread so I'll spare you the song. Since this is the only time I've managed to get this thing in-shot, in motion and even almost in-focus, it seems like a good place to bow out


That's it, thanks for your company throughout, as always. Now go away

[ian65]

Bloody hell Nik, awesome post, that's got to be a candidate for thread of the year.
Gotta say, I don't feel any love whatsoever for modern Jap stuff..... skylines, scoobies, GTO's etc... all the usual crap just leave me cold. My interest ends with the FD's....... and skips past the FC's to them.
The old school stuff though is great..... Z cars and mainly pre 1986 cars...... I'd sell my soul for a Celica 1600ST like that... always wanted one, never got around to it....................... yet.

[spoddy]

great post mate, love the old skool stuff.
looked like a good show.

i'd love to see the first cosmo sport mazda made, in white if any are in the country.

man they look hot and had a 10a rotary engine i think?

[Lucky]

Yeah, I have to agree Ian, the modern plastic stuff leaves me increasingly unmoved. I think I'm getting to that funny time of life lol. The old skool stuff definitely gets me frothy nowadays, I think you reach that point in life where you just hanker after all the cars that you saw (and idolised) as a kid. Like I said earlier, the FC always left me rather cold too, looking just like a rather anonymous 944, but they're starting to persuade me around the edges too Christ, it must be the menopause

Just realised I missed copying a couple of other show reports over here, so if you can spare the bandwidth I'll pop them up? No rotaries but there may be something there to amuse and please the casual reader lol


Spoddy, like this?






Your wish is my command. Not sure if that one is still in the country, Garry from RotaryArt got it in for the Rotechnics re-opening day a few years back (along with things like a Wankelspider and all sorts of rare rotangs). Bloody lovely though, innit. Hayward's got a ropey old cut-about red one that deserves much better, don't know of any others in the UK. Eddy Doyle had one in Ireland (may even be this one) but I'm vaguely remembering hearing it got sold on somewhere...
Mazda had one on their show stand at Goodwood last year because it was the anniversary of the leMans win (normally they avoid mentioning rotaries like the plague, the fickle *expetive deleted*). That rocked my world!

[KiwiDave]

Nik, I've spent most of tonight reading thru your Car Show threads. Me thinks you should be nationally syndicated

And thanks for the great pics of TWiR. I mean, I have one or two obviously but I can't do photos like yours..........