Josh has owned his Pearl Grey MK2 for just over a year and in that time it has changed considerably. The paint was not great so it was treated to virtually a full respray carried out by a local company. The car already had a 2.0 16V conversion carried out by the previous owner which was a solid job so that was left untouched apart from a new stainless exhaust supplied by another friend.

 

 Most noticeable change since taking ownership of the car has to be the wheels, BBS RS’s, which adds to the overall presence of the car. Some say that the RS’s are played out but you can’t argue the fact these classic wheels suit the MK2 very well.

 

 Josh’s main aim was to create a clean, classic looking MK2 that he could be proud of. His main plans for 2012 are to replace most of the trims on the car and sound deaden the cabin along with lowering it a little more.

 

RM: What made you go for a MK2 Golf?
Josh:I have always been into VWs and after driving over to the 2010 MIVW event with Drew and seeing lots of other MK2s at the even made me want one. I also wanted something with a little bit more power and soul, it is true what they say, old cars to have more character.

RM: What’s it like using the MK2 as a daily driver?
Josh: I don’t mind it however it can get annoying at times especially when you get into a newer car with no rattles and noises! But a quick blast in the MK2 makes you forget about all of that.

RM: Did you do much of the work yourself on the car?
Josh: When I bought the car it was already a pretty tidy, solid base however I still had most of it painted by Retro Classica. Apart from that most things have been done by myself or friends.


Now taking a look at Drew’s Mk2 you can instantly see that he has taken his car down a different route. Coming up to 2 years of ownership this car has come a long way. It was featured in Performance VW magazine about 5 years ago with the previous owner.
  
Drew bought it as just a shell and set about swapping everything over from his previous MK2. Initially running a mildly tuned 16V built in his garage; Drew then had the urge for more power. A 20VT AUQ was sourced and he set about installing this over the 2010/2011 winter along with having all the holes filled and bay resprayed, the plan was to have the car ready to drive over to the 2011 MIVW event held in Holland.

 Going for more of a motorsport theme, this MK2 now sports a 6 point weld in cage along with a pair of fixed bucket seats and 4 point harnesses.

 
The cars sits so well over these Porsche wheels, Drew is considering buying them as they were only on loan from his brother for an event that he attended at Ace Café.
 

RM: What made you go for a MK2 Golf?
Drew: When I turned 21 I could finally insure a 16V GTI so I bought myself the best birthday present. It has kind of just escalated from there.

RM: What’s it like using the MK2 as a daily driver?
Drew: It is less practical these days with the seats and harnesses but with the 20V in it is so much fun!

RM: Did you do much of the work yourself on the car?
Drew: Yeah pretty much all build at home on my drive. GM bodycraft helped with welding the cage in and painting the bay. Mark Jarvis painted the car around about 5 years ago now as well.

RM: What’s your future plans?
Drew: Get the exterior painted and the bay tidied up further as well as some more chassis mods.
  

You will pretty much be guaranteed to see some high end exotica at the Players show.

 The bigger of the 2 hangers was filled with almost every brand of car you could imagine.

 With the show’s roots being VW, these guys were there in force as well.

The smaller of the 2 hangers was occupied mainly by some awesome air cooled metal along with a couple of Hondas and some of the Westside VW crew keeping them company.

The weather during the week on the run up to the show was pretty grim; however the sun did come out on the Sunday which made it an ever better show. This meant that the show and shine area outside the hangers were full of amazing cars.

 Check out this MK2, it was featured on the cover of Performance VW about 5 years ago. The current owner Andy Russel, bought the shell and has been building it back up to something a little different to when it was on the cover.

 A couple other MK2s that grabbed our attention was this grey one on some flocked Schmidts. Also not forgetting the one of my favourite cars that has been around many years which is Hiten’s 5door VR6.

  This year the guys from Honda Culture were asked to sponsor the show with a trophy, and also to spread the word and bring over some of the UKs best Hondas. Although Players was held on the same day as JapShow Finale many decided to make the trip to Players instead.

The HC guys chose their car of the show to be a pretty special MK1 Golf G60.

  (Photo courtesy of Adam Ivell)

 That pretty much wraps up our Players feature, have a look at the rest of the photos and the short film.

There was a lot of this...

The turnout was good, the weather held out for the most part with only one downfall on Saturday.

The show is a full weekender held on the 9th, 10th, 11th of September which gives you the opportunity to relax and check out all the cars on show.

The best bit of this show is the friendly nature of the event and having all the car clubs in one huge venue displaying the best examples from each of the Japaese manufacturers.

Check out this pristine classic Toyota Celica

Down at the trade area there were the usual suspects selling their wears. Sumo Power's S15 is simply stunning

Santapod raceway had sent along this drag spec R32

Whereas this was the Kleers take on the R32, it was spotless

Plenty of stickers for sale at the event

There was also a tonne of entertainment laid on by the event organisers which included:

• Tug Of War Battles
  

• Five-a-side football tournament
  

• Endurance competition
  

• Japanese Food and Drink eating competition
  

• Car Pull

• Bungee Challenge

• Inflatable Jousting

• Time Attack Go Karting

• JAE Relay Race (including free drinks!)

Club stands

Checkout the rear wheel steer on this old Prelude

There were even a couple of club members that had come all the way from europe for the event, this red hatch was one of my favorites.

Slammed Del Sol Turbo

DC5 on 18's

And this was the last show for Stoo's epic Supercharged DC5

And a little video of it in action

SUPERCHARGED - Honda Integra DC5 from David Crowe on Vimeo.

See you there next year

This year there seemed to be a really good mix of cars, everything from decked old skool Beetles to Nu Wave stuff like the Audis on air ride.

Plush Automotive in the last couple of years has had a hand in one way or another when it came to building some of the best cars in the UK. There speciality seems to be air ride and funky interiors.

As my current daily driver is a MK5 Golf, I was particularly interested in those that were at the show. Lots of inspiration. One that really appealed to me was Simon Sweetland’s stillstatic Edition30 tucking 20” Maybachs.

Greg Howel’s R32 is another that amazed, most probably due to the simple styling touches and the supercharger good for over 320 hp

You can’t have a VW event and not talk about the Players Crew. These guys never disappoint, and always think outside of the box when it comes to building their cars.

Where there is Players there will be Rotiform. This Scirocco owned by one of the Edition38 crew was a bit marmite with the colours, but worked well in my opinion.

Tucked bays, these guys have got them down to a tee.

Just like previous Edition38 shows, the European guys came out in force with some amazing cars. The vision and engineering that has gone into some of these cars is mind blowing. How often do you see a MK3 Golf with Gull Wing doors? The guys from DSP in France have mastered these.

Personally my car of the show had to be the MK2 Golf that had everything transferred over from a MK5 Golf Gti. This was an awesome car, so understated!

All I can say is if this is the standard in 2011, I cannot wait to see what 2012 brings. Roll on Edition38 2012

Video of the event:

Keep up to date with the progress & news on twitter.

Couple of pics from the event:

Here are some of the pics from the after-meet:

More to follow...

Sure enough I was not dissapointed, hundreds of honda's turned up to what is fast becoming, the most popular Honda meet in the UK.

We met up at Ace Cafe 1pm, then we all convoyed over to Mimms. I got some shots on the go and then the rest of the footage is from the event. By the time we got there it was already rammed and the cars just kept turning up.

Either way I still managed to get some photos so here they are...

Dav's sik EK has been off the scene for a while and its now back and better than ever with a new engine (we will do a propper feature on this in the next couple of months)

This was my favorite car of the show, I've always had a softspot for the 34:

Not just nice on the outside, the interior look pretty plush too:

Nice pipe too, shame I didn't hear it running or see it attacking the 1/4 mile

According to the owner there has been over £100K spent on the car in the 5 years he's owned it.

Looking around the show there were the usual crowd and Sumo power had brought their Nissan presence all in team colours

Including there quite frankly AWESOME! GTR

A couple of cars from the show

Then all the usual suspects from Honda Culture were there too

Sunny's new Type R

Some Honda bike goodness...

New Mugen CR-Z

And in the words of Loony Toons, that's all folks

Next up is South Mimms 2 - Let's hope the weather holds out 

Well it was an early start, bags packed the night before then up at 03:30.

Out the door by 4am and at Morrisons Carpark by 6am.

Honda Culture Stand

Honda Culture cars

S2000

Jordan Civic

Del Sol

Civic

Integra DC5

Accord

Integra DC2

Here's a video that AJ filmed of the Honda Culture Stand (the Guy in the Black DC5)

Honda Culture - 6TWO1.com @ Japfest 2011 from Adam ivell on Vimeo.

Once all the cars were all clean and in place on the stand it was time to look around the show.

Drift cars

Fastcar approached Sunny at Japfest last year and requested to do a feature on his car for their mag. The date was set in November'10 and as the date approached the details began to immerge. It was going to be a VIP themed shoot including a helicoper at Silverstone Race circuit. Honda Culture got in touch and asked if I would like to come along to film the shoot.

After the shoot it was a couple of months before Fastcar decided which issue the feature was going to be in so I went to visit Sunny and DN in Milton Keynes to interview him on camera about his car.

The mag went on sale early May so now we can release the video:

Sunny's Current Spec Sheet:

Engine:
Stock 2.0L SOHC Vtec
Japspeed 4-2-1 stainless steel manifold
De-cat with custom exhaust with tdi style tail pipes
Custom induction kit

Suspension:
Rayvern Hydraulics single pump kit 
modified for front to back and side to side

Brakes:
282mm 5 lug conversion
Uprated discs and pads
HEL lines

Wheels:
Rays 3pc split rims
17x8 with 195/40 Falken tyres front
17x9 with 205/40 Falken tyres rear

Exterior:
Type R front lip
De-badged
De-wipered
Arches rolled and pulled

Interior:
Full black leather trim
Biscuit alcantara door trim, gear surround
Black alcantara head lining, a, b and c pillars and rear shelf
Custom champagne and glass holder
White LED interior lighting

ICE:
Pioneer flip out dvd screen with iPod connection
6" monitors in rear headrests
Bose speakers front and rear
2x Precision Power PCX 2200 amplifiers
2x 12 Image Dynamics subs
Knukonceptz power, speaker and RCA cables
White LED lighting

Big update coming at JapFEST '11

WHAT IS THE HONDA VTEC CHALLENGE?The 2011 VTEC Challenge is a new and exciting Race series that will be running in conjunction with BARC - the British Automobile Racing Club and with support from Yokohama Tyres. The series aims to provide an ideal setting for the newcomer to racing to feel welcome, safe and to quickly learn the ropes and come up to speed alongside a mixture of novices and more experienced drivers. With full tyre sponsorship, on-site spares and service support and with a race car available from as little as £5000, the series aims to be a very financially viable series that caters for all Honda enthusiasts.

WHY A NEW SERIES?
Until now, there were only a handful of Hondas racing on the same grid in the UK, but the VTEC Challenge aims to change that with full grids, huge support from the Honda community and plenty of action at premier circuits across the UK. In addition to a group of people already racing Hondas in various race series already, a number of Honda owners had expressed an interest in taking the next step on from trackdays and sprints, and going racing. It was, however, important to keep the same core values that form the ethos behind the track day club, i.e. safety, sociability and value for money.