September 2011 - Japanese Auto Extravaganza

JAE is arguably the biggest Japanese car show in the UK calendar. It was held at Wicksteed park in Northampton for the third year running, access to the venue was easy from north and south with the speedbumps being the only downside on the way in!

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

Edition38 Show & Shine 2011

The Edition28 Show & Shine is probably the most eagerly anticipated show of the year for UK dubbers. It always promises to be a good weekend come rain or shine, and this year was no exception! The rain held out for most of the weekend however the heavens did open on Sunday morning. A little rain did not put anyone off though as the show field was filled to the brim.

As one of the main guys behind Honda Culture, most of my time in recent years has been spent in the Honda show scene. Although there are many nice Hondas, there are only a hand full that can come close to the extend some of these guys take their VAGs to. Totally complete cars, not one area left untouched from the bay to the interior, it’s all in the details

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