They Still Make ‘Em Like They Used To: The Classics Of Essen 2021 – Speedhunters
SHARE They Still Make ‘Em Like They Used To: The Classics Of Essen 2021
It’s no secret that the Essen Motor Show contains a massive variety of classics on display each year. In fact, I’d go as far as to say it’s one of the main factors for many visitors.
Yes, in more recent years we’ve seen an increase in those wide-arched, slammed and stanced builds, but Essen caters for all enthusiasts – from motorsport and racing through to the latest OEM models and everything modified. It’s a format that works very well, and that was certainly true of the recent 2021 event.
Spread across multiple halls at Messe Essen, there is a dedicated space for the bulk of the classics, but I’ll talk more about that shortly. Because in reality, these classics spill into the other halls as well – especially the motorsport displays. Classic racing is popular and it’s only getting bigger in Germany.
I found myself drawn to the ‘Kampf der Zwerge’ (or ‘Battle of the Dwarfs’ in English) booth. The name is a bit of a handful, and I don’t think it’s very well known on an international stage, but it absolutely should be. What it boils down to is a racing series for sub-1,300cc cars from the ’60s and ’70s. When they hit the track, you will see a whole bunch of Mini Coopers, NSU TTs, Fiat 128s and other tiny classic cars fighting it out.
Two of the standout cars for me were this blue Renault R8 Gordini and red NSU TT, the latter with a propped-open hood to cool its air-cooled engine out back. Both these cars look like a whole load of fun even when stationary.
But if you prefer your classic racing a little more serious, this is where we meet the ‘Tourenwagen Legenden’ – touring car legends, unsurprisingly. That means old DTM and STW cars aplenty, and some of the most iconic models in European motorsport history.
Various displays were scattered all over the show, but the main stand was situated in the classic hall comprising of a grid with all the cars set to compete in the series. This ranged from genuine STW and DTM cars to various replicas and cars built in the spirit of the touring cars of bygone eras.
My personal favourite? Ironically, a car that isn’t really a touring car at all, but I’ll put that down to the fact I drive a transaxle Porsche myself. To see a track-prepped 924 in the Tourenwagen Legenden display was a proper treat.
There’s just something oh so right about a 924 with a purposeful drop and sitting on wide, sticky slick tyres. Perfect.
Continuing with the classic racers, it seemed this year shifted the spotlight onto several classic Fords. Two immaculate racing Capris to be precise – one of them a more rounded, early version from 1971, and the other a bonkers box-flared beast in 1974 spec.
These are both absolute monsters that dominated race tracks all over Europe in the ’70s. Accompanying them was an equally immaculate Group 2 Escort.
Racing classics aside, the main display of classics at Essen came in the form of road-going versions. Once you entered the classic hall, you were immediately greeted by shining chrome and gleaming paint.
Most of these classics were for sale as well. This being Germany, the number of Porsches and Mercedes on display was insane – not that you could ever call that a bad thing.
Here’s where my obsession with transaxle Porsches struck again, because on one of the dealer booths I found a genuine 944 Turbo Cup car for sale. I spent a significant amount of time here, just looking at the car and imagining what it must feel like to beat it around a racetrack.
Another highlight for me was a dirty GC8 Subaru Impreza WRX which really stood out next to all the shiny, detailed cars. And the dirt is of course quite fitting for a car with such a rally heritage.
Muscle cars are always present at any given event in Germany thanks to the huge Americana scene in this country.
The two that stood out the most to me were a pair of C3 Corvettes – in red and green, respectively. I’m just a sucker for flip-up lights. I think I’d choose the green one.
More exotic classics were not far away either. Obviously you’ll find some sports cars like Ferraris and Jaguar E-Types, but how about a Bizzarrini GT 5300 Strada? It’s offered for a cool 1.5m Euros (approximately US1.7m), if you’re wondering.
Even some classic movie cars were on display – and for sale, for that matter. I had my fanboy moments first when I spotted the colourful Opel Manta from the German cult film Manta Manta. It’s one of the genuine cars from the movie, wearing a Mattig wide-body and Mattig Sportstahl wheels, and is even signed by the actors. The movie is a bit silly and a bit trashy, but it’s got a real following here in Germany and I grew up watching it probably a million times.
Another movie car that hit me right in the fanboy zone was the Mad Max Interceptor. I think this was the first time that I’ve seen one of these in person, as the Ford Falcon was never sold in Europe.
Outside their dedicated hall, I stumbled upon some more classics spread throughout the show.
Three more gems could be found at the Mercedes-Benz booth – a replica of the Mercedes 300 SEL AMG 6.8 ‘Rote Sau’, and a very well preserved W202 C43 AMG – as a wagon, which just cements its understatement factor.
How about those two in your garage – the C43 as your daily and the ‘Rote Sau’ for weekend fun, eh? The last of these three gems was the C140 S600 AMG Coupe fitted with a 7.2-liter V12. Only 10 of these were built.
The Essen Motor Show is much more than just modified cars and racing – it manages to be inclusive for all kinds of petrol heads. And even if you favour a particular style or genre, you’re almost guaranteed to see something new and exciting here.
Numbers may have been down this year due to Covid restrictions, but the spirit of Essen is still very much alive and well.
At any given event, you’ll always find a select few cars that stick in your mind long after you leave. The 2021 Essen Motor Show was no different.
With the overall level of cars so high this year, my job of finding a couple to spotlight wasn’t exactly made hard. But then comes the opposite problem – which one do you chose? The answer? All of them.
Let’s start this spotlight with a focus on a bunch of cars – namely, these from Levella.
If you don’t know Levella, they’re a German tuner that started out modding high-end sports cars but nowadays mainly focuses on modern-ish classics from the ’80s and ’90s, often referred to as ‘youngtimers’. Levella showcases a lot of their work on YouTube and have made a decent name for themselves both in Germany and Europe. This was the first time I was able to see these cars in person, and boy do they deliver. They also have their own wheel line-up and each of the cars here wore them like diamond jewellery.
This Mercedes-Benz E-Class W124 sported Levella’s Retro R2 wheels on one side and their Retro R4 wheels on the other, and they fill up the arches nicely when the car’s aired out. Speaking of the arches, they’ve been cut out and rebuilt, so while they appear stock, they are actually a lot wider. The metal work was carried out by Andy Megerle, who also runs a YouTube channel to showcase his talents.
This W124 is definitely not all show. It started out as a E400, but the original V8 was removed and replaced with a 6-liter unit from an E60 AMG.
This BMW E34 5-Series received similar treatment – air suspension, new and bigger wheel arches by Andy Megerle, and Levella Retro R1 and R5 wheels on each side. Engine-wise, it’s packing a turbo BMW M50.
The Mercedes-Benz SL320 is a bit more tame: air, some fender work – not quite as extensive as the previous two cars – and just a stock engine. But it still looks absolutely brilliant.
Next up, we have a turbocharged monster: the L8-Night Motorsport Audi RS3 LMS. Producing 1,300hp at 2.5bar of boost from a heavily modified R32 engine in a full carbon body, this thing is nuts. All-wheel drive and a DSG transmission help put the power to the wheels. It’s been clocked at 321km/h on the half mile, and that was at a slightly lower boost level.
Staying with wide Audis, next up this 80 Coupe featuring a Prior Design bodykit. The car was built by JP Performance, but I have to say I wasn’t all that convinced when I saw it on their YouTube channel a while back.
But seeing it in person, boy is it something else. It takes the classic and elegant lines of the Audi Coupe and transforms it into something that looks like a worthy descendant from the mighty Ur-Quattro. A natural evolution, you might say.
Here’s a blast from the past – a VW Corrado G60 proudly wearing a Rieger GTO bodykit.
This kit was all the rage in the early ’90s, and here we have it with a modern twist. That comes in the form of air suspension and some 18-inch BBS RS wheels with low-profile tyres instead of classic 15-inch RSs wrapped in huge rubber balloons like they did it back in the day.
Next up, we have something that I know will cause a bit of controversy simply due to the camber. I for one can appreciate it, and was pretty stoked to see a Miata with a style you’d more expect to find at some shakotan meeting in Japan than sitting smack in the middle of Germany’s premier tuning show.
The pastel pink is enough on its own to grab attention, but coupled with the bodykit, the crazy camber, the huge dish on the wheels and the unmissable exhaust, I think people will either absolutely love this thing or absolutely hate it. The wheels are a touch of European classic, though, as they are vintage Tramont TY2s, if I’m not mistaken.
Let’s finish with what has to be my personal favourite of the show. I’ve always been a sucker for classy sedans and have often imagined doing something cool with an older Jaguar. This gleaming wine red XJ40 looked like it drove right out of my dreams.
Obviously bagged on some absolutely beautiful BBS RS (I mean, name a car these wheels don’t look good on, I challenge you…) it was the perfect combination of class act and modified. Just look at it. If I could’ve taken home any car from the show, this would be it – no question.
Stayed tuned for one final look at the 2021 Essen Motor Show.
As the snow blizzard grew even more intense, I stood nestled against a sodden bank. Shivering, the flash of light along the treeline and rasp of an exhaust signalled another rally car passing by, but I didn’t look.
I was cold, miserable and tired, and a turn of the head only meant an absolute onslaught of hail to the face.
Rallying in Storm Arwen, an extratropical cyclone that lashed the United Kingdom with gale-force winds, driving rain and snow, teetered on dangerous.
But this was the Roger Albert Clark (RAC) Rally – one of true great rallying adventures left anywhere in the world, so everyone just got on with it (for as long as they possibly could) in an old school motorsport kind of way. And snow in late November was always inevitable, right?
In an age of compact itineraries, the 2021 RAC Rally route bucked the trend by stretching over five days, the competitive special stages alone amounting to 313 miles (504km). That made it 50% longer than Rally Portugal, the longest event on the 2021 World Rally Championship (WRC) calendar.
All in, this was the longest single UK rally event since 1991, and the Lombard RAC of old.
While the ‘original’ RAC has morphed into Rally GB and is a Welsh-based (and hopefully soon to be Northern Irish) round of the WRC, the Roger Albert Clark is a celebration of rallying’s bygone era. Limited in one part to ‘Historic’ cars, those over 35 years old, and 2WD vehicles in the ‘Open’ section, the marathon event is as big a throwback as it is an incredible test of team and machine.
Based in the city of Carlisle, the 2021 RAC would see action in Scotland, England and Wales, with some of the most legendary gravel stages – Kielder, Kershope, Ae, Dyfant and Walters Arena – amongst a 31-stage route plan.
Running since 2004, and a bi-annual affair since 2017, the Roger Albert Clark (itself a celebration of the legendary driver who claimed RAC success in 1972 and 1976) has grown into a monster event, with an oversubscribed entry filling within days of registration. Come the rally start, 139 cars lined up.
For me, the 2021 RAC began at 1.30am on Wednesday.
This event was on my radar for a long time, and with the nature of the current world and the constant swing from restriction to restriction, it was time to just say ‘yes’ when the opportunity arose. I’d sold my Hyundai i30N the previous week, so had some surplus funds to pay for the week-long rally adventure, but that now also meant doing it from behind the wheel of my Peugeot 106 Rallye. I’ll fill you in on that experience in another post.
It was a quiet drive from home to Belfast in the middle of the night. A ferry across to the UK, followed by a wet and wild blast south through Scotland had me arriving during the rally’s frantic scrutineering.
All around, crews were busy completing final checks. Door placards and windscreen banners were being applied and one by one each car was rolled through for inspection.
Behind barriers, the crowds built. Each bonnet popped grabbed attention, a sea of the finest BDAs, Pintos and more on display for the admiring public.
Under the fluorescent lights, everything seemed to look immaculate. Fresh rally car builds, yet to feel the trauma of gravel rash across their underbodies, sat gleaming.
Navigators ran around, some looking more frantic than others, with the required paperwork. There would be a lot of paperwork over the next few days.
Thursday
When Thursday rolled around, all eyes were focused on Kershope and the opening special stages. I arrived 90 minutes before the first car was due, and watched the final strains of daylight drain away over the rolling Cumbrian hills. By 4:00pm, it was near pitch black.
With the sky clear and an array of stars visible in a way not overly familiar to a city dweller like myself, the first exhaust note reverberated through the trees. Game time.
Into a slippy square left with standing water on the inside, drivers desperately needed to scrub off speed from the fast 200m uphill straight before turn in. Mid-corner, an assault of flashlights went off all round. This felt electric on the bank, never mind in the car.
Venturing deeper into the woods as the evening passed, it felt refreshing to be so far from home, making small talk to pass the time before another exhaust note pierced the silence. This was raw, gritty and ever-so-captivating for a rally nerd like myself.
It was 10:00pm in the middle of Kielder when a screaming BDA and the searching beams of four PIAA spots cast out above the trees. Does it really get any better than this?
Friday
After a late Thursday night – the special stages finishing up near 11:00pm – it was an early start on Friday morning. Today, the rally ventured into Scotland, with the crews heading northeast to Kielder, the legendary forests on the Anglo-Scots border.
Known as Killer Kielder, the thick banks and unforgiving lanes have claimed many rallying victims over the years. An onslaught of mud, ditches, ruts, trees and all manner of weather, the area holds almost mythical status in the rally world. In the mid-morning sunshine it seemed tame, although that wouldn’t last.
First on the road each day was the sub-1,600cc class, a real oddball mix of classics. Think everything from Peugeot 205s to Lancia Fulvias, an Opel Corsa S1600 to a Rover 400 BRM and pretty much everything in between.
Cutting a swift path uphill through two tree-lined banks, it felt serene from a distance, but Friday was a test in the truest sense of the word. Eight special stages covering 170.1km (105.7mi) – that’s almost the equivalent of three Irish forestry events, but in one single day.
Keeping cars running for such a long and challenging event is a huge logistical task. Like the old days, pop-up remote service parks were a daily occurrence, while the end of every stage was lined for miles by chase and management crews. Some opted for full service-like ground sheets, while others made do with grassy roadside banks.
As the daylight began to fade, I shot across to another stage. It was here, as I made the slow climb down a bumpy forest track to the parking area, that the first wistful snowflakes began to appear. The forecast did say snow at 4:00pm; they arrived at 3.57pm. Oh joy.
I’d only ever experienced a whiteout once before on a rally, but this was different. A cutting wind whipped the damp drifts of precipitation into a frenzy, falling more erratically than the picture-postcard style winter wonderland. It didn’t settle, and drivers became extra cautious, especially through the sections requiring more commitment.
It would be but a warning. Here, on the Chirdonhead special stage, I don’t think anyone knew what lay ahead.
SS12: Bewshaugh 2 is a special stage I will never forget. It was the same location as earlier, but with just a slight change in conditions.
As I mentioned at the beginning of this story, Storm Arwen absolutely battered the area. Amazingly though, the banks remained lined with spectators.
In a forest, at night, in blizzard conditions, we stood. Masochists maybe, but this felt authentic. This was proper RAC weather, like ’73, ’93 or ’96.
I must admit though, it was not a pleasant experience. The gloves I wore lost badly to the damp quite early on, and my camera began to act up after 25 minutes. I lasted about an hour, which was enough time to see the leading 10 cars. I still had to make it back to my hotel though, and the 65-minute B-road blast in the morning ended up being a near 2.5-hour nerve-racking return ordeal.
Gale-force winds whipped across the road from all directions and the lashing snow and rain reduced visibility almost down to zero. After negotiating mile after mile of standing water and avoiding fallen trees on the road, I was relieved to arrive back in Carlisle. Others weren’t so lucky.
In the woods, mobile phone signal is nonexistent, so most of the time I lived a life disconnected from the rest of the world (again in keeping with the original RAC fantasy). It wasn’t until the next morning that I began to learn of the ongoing situation. The special stage I had been on, Bewshaugh 2, was eventually cancelled. Safety was the priority and it was getting pretty clear things weren’t great. The teams still waiting on the start line – roughly 20 of them – thought the cancellation would be the end of their night, but it turned out to be the beginning of another challenge.
Completely blocked roads meant many teams, rally officials and spectators had resigned themselves to sleeping in their vehicles. A small reprieve came when a local pub opened its doors to provide shelter for some.
Saturday & Sunday
It was near midday on Saturday when some crews returned to Carlisle, but by then a call had been made to abandon the day’s rallying.
Disappointed to now be heading north to Ae, crews got to work fixing the Kielder damage before loading up for an earlier-than-expected trip down the M6 towards Wales. I went off on a day trip to the Lake District, before eventually packing up and heading south as well.
Next morning, with the sun shining, Welsh rally fans came out in numbers. Well-known terrain for many, the roadside car park at Dyfnant stretched for nearly 2.5 miles.
Bobble hats teetered happily in a breeze tinged with log-fire smoke and the rich aroma of fried sausages. Anyone who’s been to Wales Rally GB in recent years knows the scene, but there were no WRC monsters to be seen on this day.
The RAC is, to be truthful, an absolute festival of Ford Escorts. Of the 139 starters, 95 were either Mk1s or Mk2s. The leaderboard heading to Wales was chock-full of BDA-powered Fords, with Jason Pritchard and Phil Clark holding the start in their newly-built Scott Williams car.
Behind, the chasing pack was led by the hard-charging Osian Pryce and Noel O’Sullivan, themselves bouncing back from BRC heartbreak in their VW Polo R5 the week before, and the more experienced combination of Paul Barrett and Gordon Noble.
The crowds stretched two, sometimes three-deep for hundreds of metres out of the big junctions. The ground, frozen solid in places, proved to be a real challenge for some drivers.
Over time, the ideal driving line became clear: Scandinavian flick, run the rear end wide and put the power down in an attempt to get back into a straight line as quickly as possible. It’s just the most timeless and pure driving style on gravel, and save for the odd interloper, you’d be forgiven for thinking this was 1978. Oh, and the noise. Dear god, the noise.
Such is the layout in Dyfant, the roars of screaming BDA engines lingered for three, maybe even four minutes before the Escorts they powered emerged into sight, sideways of course.
With the massive crowds, it became clear that grabbing a second stage would be a challenge, so instead I took the chance to dive into Dolgellau to catch the ‘midday service’. That name was misleading given how dark it was by the time the lead cars arrived.
Quickly, the quiet, organised awnings became hives of activity. Fresh tyres, more fuel and a cleaning rag was standard, while other team mechanics wheeled out welders and big hammers to keep their machines going.
In the air, the mood was of disbelief – event leader Jason Pritchard had gone off, thrusting Paul Barrett into the lead. Osian Pryce was pulling time with every passing stage, but the real talk was the Porsche-shaped imposter now on the podium.
Ryan Champion and Craig Thorley had led a quiet life on the event, keeping out of the Escort battle at the front in their Tuthill-built Porsche 911. No mechanical issues, just all under control – it would prove a wise strategy later on.
Someone not having such an easy ride of things was Chris Harris. A true ‘one of us’ journalist (any man with a taste for French tat and German performance metal is proper hero status) and Top Gear presenter, his RAC had been eventful. Harris slid off the road and got stuck in a ditch on the opening night, and ended up as one of the Storm Arwen-stricken crews the next. By the time the event hit Wales, Chris had had quite a ride, but credit where it’s due because he got to the end. Not even a dashboard fire could stop him.
As the night dragged on and the leading cars headed off into the forests once more, I headed south. Four long days was starting to wear me down, but at least I had a warm room to look forward to. Many bedded down for the night in cars and vans parked up in woods and lay-bys, so it almost felt like I was cheating.
Monday
The bitterly cold final morning began in South Wales. Just outside Neath, Walters Arena is another name carved into rally lore, and I made it stage-side for sunrise. The arena has become a go-to location for rally car testing and off-road pursuits, so it was a perfect place to finish off my RAC experience. While the event would stretch into the dying light of the fifth day, I had to make do with a single stage before a brisk drive to the port.
Watching nature put on its stunning morning show gave me time to stop and think about the mammoth effort that goes into organising and running a rally like this. Any event is a huge task, but to do it on this scale is crazy. The team at DeLacy MC usually have two years to organise the RAC, but Covid gave them less than six months. It explains the frantic running needed at times.
Against the wide expanses of the rolling Welsh Hills, the forest tracks criss-crossed in and out of sight below my viewing spot. I had to be tactical; there were likely better spots to seek out, but I knew I had a ferry to catch at 1:00pm, so discipline and sticking to the plan were the order of the day. That still allowed a bit of moving around and shot variety, and the three images above were all captured within 100m of each other. The ice-hardened hairpin would prove deceptively tricky for some.
In rallying, you always have to expect the unexpected, and within a few miles, on the last day of the marathon, both the first and second-placed teams bowed out of contention. Paul Barrett sent his Escort into a ditch breaking the suspension, while further back in the stage, Osian Pryce suffered a stub axle failure.
That left Ryan Champion and Craig Thorley to cruise home to victory in their Porsche 911 and claim British rallying’s ultimate crown, in doing so breaking a 15-year Ford Escort stranglehold on the Roger Albert Clark Rally title. Not bad for a ‘steady, middle of the road’ drive, but such is the epic nature of the RAC that it proved fruitful.
After six days on the road and nearly 2,000km racked up, I made it to the ferry port with six minutes to spare. The few hours more on the far side felt the longest all week, but that was the post-rally comedown.
Following the RAC was a dream list item ticked off, and it most definitely did not disappoint. Now, about the 106…
Global Time Attack in the streets of Long Beach. To properly convey the experience of being trackside as some of my friends were competing, I need to back up for a minute.
Let’s go with football. It’s always more fun watching a game when your home team is playing. In fact, if they aren’t the ones playing, I generally have little interest in watching the game. Not a very profound statement, is it?
Unless you’re a student of a particular sport, have a fantasy roster with players from a wide range of teams, or you simply really, really love it, you probably aren’t watching every single game. The casual fan just doesn’t have the time or energy to take in all that information. But load that same casual fan up with a few beers with friends at their home stadium — or even on their living room couch — and you’re likely to see some real passion emerge when the game is on the line.
People who don’t even care for the sport will still go out to a bar for a couple games out of the season and lose their mind in the crowd a few friends and dozens of strangers. As humans, we have a lot of allegiances that don’t totally make sense. We’ll defy logic to argue that a certain call went our way, whether the evidence is in our favor or not. We’re human, and we like other humans. We like our city best, or our state. We want to be part of a tribe and we want our tribe to win.
To me, just seeing time attack in the Long Beach was a win-win situation, regardless of the actual results. I’ve followed a number of the cars and drivers over the years, and know a few of the competitors personally. And there they were, racing back to back with IMSA and IndyCar on closed public roads in my home state.
As awesome as the feeling was for me and others in my position attending the race, you can imagine along with me that it was exponentially more so for the drivers themselves.
My friend Amir of RS Future had a rough weekend race-wise, but he was still so enthusiastic about the experience afterwards. “It has been a dream to race there. I’ve attended the GP as a spectator for over a decade, so to be able to compete alongside IMSA and Indy was surreal.”
“Driving in an Acura at the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach was also a cool experience. I’m a huge fan of the brand, so that definitely added to some of the magic.” Amir goes on, “Not to mention, it was wild doing a track walk with some of the greatest drivers in the country.”
Ravi Dolwani of CSF Radiators had a similar sentiment: “My dad went to Long Beach State — he always used to tell me stories of watching the races from his friend’s apartments overlooking the track. It sounded so cool.”
Ravi started going to the races here himself around a decade ago, watching Pirelli World Challenge and Formula Drift tear up the streets of Long Beach.
It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to recognize how it must have felt for Ravi, Amir, and the rest of the teams who actually got to go out on such an iconic track themselves after watching along for so many years. Even shooting at the Long Beach Grand Prix was a special experience for me; something I would have thought was completely out of reach seven years ago when I picked up a camera for the first time.
The same is surely true of these teams and drivers when it came to dreaming of racing in Long Beach, and yet, there they were.
The Field
What I love most about time attack is its accessibility. I’ve been shooting for a newer track day organizer in California called Corsa Club, and they’re in works to introduce a time attack-style session to their events around the state, wherein built Miatas with good drivers have their chance to harass Corvettes and their owners. Anyone can get a taste of this motorsport.
Incidentally, speaking of Corvettes, it was Feras Qartoumy in the Qar Optics Z06 who took the top spot at Global Time Attack in Long Beach with a 1.19.571. For some perspective, that’s about half a second quicker than the fastest lap in the GTD class during the IMSA race, which was set by a Lamborghini Huracán GT3.
I certainly haven’t been the sport’s biggest fan or supporter, but as a more casual fan I’ve always enjoyed the format of time attack competition. More than that, I like the competitors and their cars. There’s a relatively low barrier to entry, as every entry is production-based and the rulebook isn’t super restrictive. Since you can go absolutely wild with aero and horsepower there’s a huge variety of interesting and unique solutions that emerge across the field.
As I was rounding the circuit, I loved seeing the fans interact with the cars on the Global Time Attack roster from the other side of the fence. A dad hoisted his kid up to get a better look at Will Drees’s Honda Prelude as it ripped by. “That was your mom’s first car,” he shouted to his incredulous child.
All of the cars are cool in their own right, and none of them are insanely out of reach as a starting point, either. They’re all interesting to me and each one would deserve its own feature here. The same is not really true of IMSA or IndyCar, where the technology becomes not only monotonous but increasingly incremental and secretive. In the Global Time Attack paddock, everything was on display and entirely accessible to fans.
Speaking of displays, CSF Race had a proper setup at the event, where I noticed their nitrous-ready B58 manifold sitting on the table. Of course, that wasn’t the only interesting thing sitting around…
It was my first time up close with the CSF Evo for a few years, so I wanted to take in every last detail while it was apart in the paddock. I hadn’t seen it since it was rebuilt from essentially a show car into a half-mile car, after which it was eventually converted into time attack spec. A fire ensued in their first outing a couple years back, but Ravi and the CSF team didn’t give up. Now, they’re racing in the streets of Long Beach with Randy Pobst behind the wheel.
Ravi shares he was “really nervous because, even after changing our power steering setup to a complete EPAS system, we were — and still are — having issues which we’re trying to sort out. It worked pretty well during our two test days before the Grand Prix and it just decided to die when we went out for the first practice session on Friday. With no power steering and no run-off area — just walls — I was really nervous about a potential crash. But Randy is such a professional, and did his best to drive through it.”
Ravi told me that even though the results were expected with the steering issues they suffered, it was ultimately disappointing. Regardless, he expressed that overall the experience was a very special one that not many get to experience, and he hopes to come back next season with the car fully sorted.
In The Moment
Racing always brings surprises, and the best-laid plans of mice and men often go awry.
The taste of surprise and disappoint were not unique to the CSF Race crew over the Grand Prix weekend.
As I mentioned, my friend Amir and his K24-swapped NSX didn’t have the smoothest of outings in Long Beach. His connecting rod also had an outing, you could say, although usually you want those to stay within the confines of your engine block. Being local, Amir and the RS Future team did their best to see if they could complete work in the shop overnight on a spare engine, but no dice.
They brought the car back to display in the paddock, where I asked Amir about the experience overall. “Being my first street circuit, I was a little nervous, but quickly forgot about the walls and really enjoyed the layout. I wouldn’t say I was surprised but the surface was really bumpy in some areas [and] changes in the surface over the course were an interesting challenge. However, we setup our KW Competitions to be pretty compliant, and they did great on the difficult surface.”
Amir continued, “It was an unfortunate result, but our team has done a great job of turning every failure into a victory one way or another. We’ve learned from what happened and made changes to our program to ensure that it doesn’t happen again. Hopefully we get a chance to go back for a shot at redemption.”
It also wasn’t a total loss for the RS Future team anyway, with eight out of the 20 competing cars running Amir’s RS Future aero over the weekend. Offering track support, full builds, aero packages, and more, you can find his shop in Southern California.
The Street Class victory ended up going to another friend of mine, Jackie Ding in his GR Supra. I’ve seen Jackie and this car come a long way, and he always seems hungry for more.
Steven Chan piloted his GT-R to first place in the Limited Class and, as I mentioned above, Feras Qartoumy’s Corvette was fastest overall in Unlimited.
This fourth story wraps up my coverage from Long Beach, but leaves me wanting more. More street circuits, more racing in California, and more time attack. Here’s to hoping that in one year from now I’m sitting on the curb on Shoreline Drive as my friends zip by in cars they built themselves, only for hundreds of millions of dollars to follow them shortly thereafter in the form of open-wheel racers.
One Moto Show: Just A Few Favorites – Speedhunters
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Just over a year ago, the One Moto Show in Portland was the last event Sara and I attended before varying degrees of lockdown settled in. Last weekend, both fresh out of the vaccination clinic, we were glad to see that One Moto was able to pull off a fantastic event in an open-air shipping yard of sorts, as my better half has already shown.
At a show of this caliber it’s easy to be overwhelmed. Everywhere you look there’s something to catch your eye, from the stunning towering venue, down to the thinnest of paint strokes on a pinstriped tank.
Personally, the show was made an extra bit special with the attendance of my uncle Erik who is, in his own words, “not much of a car guy” but definitely at least somewhat of a moto man. And potentially in the market for a bike as well, so it was fun to talk with Erik at the show to learn what might be to his taste.
He admitted before the show that his favorite style of bike doesn’t really align with the sportier feel he really craves, but I was convinced he’d find at least a few motorcycles out of the 200 or so on display that checked all of the boxes for him. Right away once inside the show, this Nardo Gray-esque Honda seemed to get pretty close to the perfect setup for him.
At the same time, it’d certainly be hard to say no to something like the Yamaha above, and as sweet as that Honda is aesthetically, this is probably more my wheelhouse.
Not being much of a rider anyway, I can’t speak with much authority on the full experience that either of these bikes would offer, but I know enough to understand the amazing variety of experiences that motorcycles do offer their owners. And I can appreciate tasteful and talented work when I see it, two wheels or four.
That’s what was so great about the One Moto Show; there’s something for everyone. While many bikes of the same style and influence are represented, no two are the same.
With so many carefully curated motorcycles parked up in the space, it pains me to realize that there’d have been many details I just plain missed.
It was impressive to see the high level to which each of these builds was executed. With a car, there’s a lot of stuff you just end up not seeing at all, and it’s acceptable to just let that be. No one is going to look under the back side of the dash, so whatever the factory did is fine – at least most of the time. Here, that’s not really the case, as everything is out in the open and thus everything is open to someone’s artistic interpretation. No stones are left unturned.
With this in mind, after a few passes through the show I went back through with a more discerning eye, ready to pick out just a few that stood out to me personally. Really, I nearly could have just closed my eyes and pointed at random to choose the bikes that I ended up getting a few extra shots of, such was the quality of everything there.
But in these photos below I really love how often less is more, and the creative ways that these bikes were reshaped by their owners. Good colors, or tasteful lack thereof, amazing hardline work, awesome fabrication, insane detail work, or some of each.
Hop on a desktop computer, engage Presentation Mode, AKA full screen, and let me know which is your favorite in the comments section.
I put together this GT-R-centric feature not only because there were some seriously cool big-power builds among the RB and VR-powered Nissans competing, but also to reflect on how the numbers of these cars in Japanese time attack have dwindled over the years.
Once upon a time, half the cars in the Tsukuba paddock would have been GT-Rs at a time attack event like this one. These days, however, there is certainly more variety. Thanks to more know-how and the growth of the industry to support it all, people are going fast with a wider range of platforms.
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If you need proof, here’s in-car video of the Mo-FAC Daihatsu Copen– as featured in my Attack kei car story – running back-to-back 59-second laps. That’s just nuts!
For me though, it’s still hard beat a high-power GT-R track build – they’re what got me into these cars in the first place. I have fond memories of visiting Tsukuba Circuit in the early 2000s and watching RB26-powered beasts shoot down the main straight, wastegates screaming and fireballs being shot out of their exhausts on downshifts.
It was all about brute power, mechanical grip and ballsy driving. It’s still very much like this too, albeit now with the addition of aero and other refinements born out of the last 20 years.
Back to the present day, let’s start with the Anshin Jidousha BNR32, which instantly stood out as it was running a pair of Trust TD06 top-mounted turbos – complete with vertical dump and exhaust pipes – rather than the more common big single.
While working on the engine in the pits, the mechanics added a nifty exhaust extension to divert the hot gasses away from their faces.
This is easily one of the busiest GT-R interiors I’ve ever seen.
A quick chat to one of the mechanics revealed that the dry-sumped and stroked RB delivers an almighty 1,100hp punch.
All that brute force quickly spelled trouble for the team when they had a major drive shaft issue early on in the day.
It was a real mess underneath, too. They spent the whole day getting it fixed, but by then it was too warm to try and attempt a fast lap time.
This could very well be the biggest wing ever fitted to a BNR32. What do you guys think?
When it comes to the R35 GT-R and time attack, there are two thoughts that always come to mind. One is just how fast these cars can be with some well thought out tuning. The Auto Gallery Yokohama-built Nismo version is a good example; it ran a solid 57.257-second lap.
Visually, how much better does the VR38 look with an aftermarket plenum?!
The second thought I have is about Fire Ando. He actually started an R35 time attack build before he commissioned Escort to build his Evo, and there are rumors that once he achieves the 49-second Tsukuba lap he’s gunning for in his Mitsubishi, development of the GT-R will resume.
I’d love to see how far the R35 chassis can be pushed when taken to the extreme, something I feel no one has done well yet. Incidentally, in the picture above you will see the Rush Factory GT-R, which managed a 59.394-second lap on the day.
The TF Blind R32 Skyline Type-M might not be an actual GT-R, but it’s more than halfway there.
Powered by an RB26 and running a generously-sized BorgWarner EFR turbo, it was just behind the R35 above with a 59.939-second lap. It sounded amazing out on track, too.
The fastest GT-R on the day was this wild build, a collaborative effort between Admix and Tanamans, and sponsored by Sunoco. With carbon fiber body panels and aero additions from Benetec (the company that makes carbon goodies for Mine’s) it has certainly evolved a lot from the first few Attack events we saw it at. Thanks to some awesome driving by its owner, the R35 managed a solid 55.200-second lap.
The R34 I opened this post with was another GT-R running a single turbo conversion, and fast enough for a solid 1-minute flat lap.
I didn’t even realize there was a second R34 at the event until this Midnight Purple III example on Enkei NT03RR wheels drove past, on its way to the paddock to enter the pit lane for one of its sessions.
The Autech Tsukada-tuned GT-R is no time attack monster, but rather a fast road car with upgraded turbos good for about 600hp. Its best lap was a 1’02″225.
Seeing GT-Rs at the track is always a pleasure, but just having the chance to get out and cover an event was so refreshing.
I’m back at Tsukuba this weekend for an idlers event, so more Japanese track content is on its way. We’re also teaming up with the guys from Hardcore and doing a small gathering in the back paddock. Hopefully there’ll be some awesome cars turning up for that, too.
It’s been a long time coming. After eight months of living in Japan, I finally managed to get to an event.
Yes, I know, it’s inexcusable, but I do have a few excuses. So, when I saw Kouichi Kakuma’s Instagram post (AKA 911omomuki, AKA that Studio Allica Porsche) touting a huge Porsche event in Yokohama, the tummy turbo began to spool. I cleared my calendar and cleaned my camera gear.
Sunday came around and I took the Blue Line Metro to Sakuragicho and walked over to the Yokohama Red Brick Warehouses, a favorite destination for romantic dates and fancy coffee. On this particular Sunday however, love birds had been frightened off by the rumble of angry Porsches and the smell of sausages and soy sauce.
For ‘Exciting Porsche’ the piazza was packed with hundreds of immaculate, beastly and very desirable machines.
Like a kid in a candy shop, I did a quick reconnaissance to see where the tastiest German delicacies where hiding and proceeded to work my way through as any gluttonous child would.
The first car that caught my eye was this super-clean RS 3.8 964.
A very nice silver RAUH-Welt Begriff creation needs no introduction.
Then there was this very cool 930 Slantnose 930 Turbo with Gemballa Avalanche-style exhaust tips.
This stripped-out 964 Carrera piqued my interest, not only because of the legendary Mid Night stickers, but on closer inspection the Makita battery attached to the cabin floor. The owner told me it was for powering his phone charger and other gadgets.
Honorable mention must go to the 930 built for the 1991 movie Wangan Midnight. Sincethen it’s been heavily modified and looks well used.
Moving along, there was this forest green 930 with a wide-body by Bodyworks DB.
Next to the Slantnose was Kakuma-san’s apocalyptic 911. As I was taking photos, I saw him nearby and asked if he could pop the boot to get an engine shot. He graciously obliged and then started telling me about all the carbon bits on the car. I listened with polite interest, but assured him that as a loyal Instagram follower I was pretty up to date with his build.
Knowing that I was a fan he swung open the passenger side scissor door and told me to get in. No, we weren’t off on a coffee run – he wanted to show me the new side camera wings built by Studio Allica. Pretty impressive stuff, with the cameras turning automatically depending on the direction of the car.
But the tastiest German sweetie had to be the 1973 3.8 RSR with custom wheels by Tokyo Billet, hand-built ‘Mary tail’, and wide-body also by Bodyworks DB.
It screamed ‘race car’ and the flecks of molten rubber along its flanks means it not only talks the talk but also walks the walk, briskly, kicked along by a six-throttle-body-equipped engine making a healthy 380hp. You can find a great write-up on this car by Blake – albeit when it looked a little different – here.
As the sun set, I circled back to get some hero shots of those two 993 GT2s, then walked over to the main road to get some photos of angry Porsches leaving. It took a while for them to hit the road though, and by then the light was well and truly gone.
As a photographer, I was a bit bummed not to get some sweet panning shots. But now in reflection I smile, because I know the owners were probably just taking their time to politely say their goodbyes to mates and wish each other safe journeys before belting their 911s home in time for dinner.
How To join the IATS program: We have always welcomed readers to contact us with examples of their work and believe that the best Speedhunter is always the person closest to the culture itself, right there on the street or local parking lot. If you think you have what it takes and would like to share your work with us then you should apply to become part of the IAMTHESPEEDHUNTER program. Read how to get involved here.
Riverside: Come For The Cars, Stay For The People – Speedhunters
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Not being able to attend events or social gatherings this year has been a real bummer, so when I heard that the Riverside Spring Meet 5 show had been rescheduled to the fall, I knew I had to make it out to Chattanooga, Tennessee.
This being one of my first officially sanctioned car events since COVID struck this year, I was on edge with a 2-stroke-like mixture of excitement and anxiousness, for obvious reasons. But thankfully, much of my anxiety was alleviated by the fact that the event organizers had followed the latest CDC guidelines along with all of the local health guidelines.
If you’re unfamiliar with Riverside events, let’s just say you’ve really been missing out. At this event – renamed the Riverside 5 Fall Meet – some of the best food trucks catered to a huge variety of people and cars in an amazing venue, with true southern hospitality.
One of my favourite times at a car show is the early morning roll-in. Not only do you get a preview of some of the best cars of the event, this time of the day tends to have some of the best natural light.
A quick cup of tea later (yes, with milk my British counterparts) and some really interesting machines had started to turn up.
As the morning rolled on and the show start time inched closer, the morning light only got better. Was it worth the lack of sleep and a Red Bull-fueled diet? Absolutely.
Like most shows, Riverside has both indoor and outdoor elements, but unlike most shows they don’t charge admission for spectators. Being completely open to the public, many people from all walks of life had a perfect introduction into our wild world of cars.
Every single car that registers for Riverside has to be approved, but the event organizers don’t play favourites. From the vibe of the show, it was extremely well curated.
While I had seen a few of my favourites during roll-in, there was a good dozen or more that I wanted to take a closer look at before the show became too packed.
This included one of the best Chevy Astro vans I have ever seen. This has definitely been added to the list of vehicles that I don’t need but most certainly want.
Next up was this phenomenal Mercedes-Benz 190E on two-piece BBS Motorsport wheels, in my all-time go-to colour combo – white on white.
Yes, I may be biased as I own a W201 and think that they’re one of the best-looking cars ever made, but so many details on this one were personalised. From the parking marker to the exhaust tips, each piece had its own flair and style.
Even in my semi-awake state at 6:00am during roll-in, it was impossible to ignore the sound of turbocharged LS idling. To find out that the sound was coming from a Mazda Miata was even more welcoming. I’m not a huge Miata guy, mostly for the fact that I don’t fit in them, but seeing this one set up as a drag car had me fizzing.
An LS with a turbo the size of my head along with an idle that rattled my teeth is an awesome upgrade from the stock 1.8L four-cylinder.
As this particular engine is capable of putting down anywhere from 800 to 1,100hp, a parachute has been fitted, along with some meaty tires to hook up the gobs of torque and keep the car somewhat straight.
Just as I found myself on the track of not wanting to buy anything else, and therefore not needing to deal with storing more cars in Los Angeles, I stumbled upon this FC3S Mazda RX-7 convertible on classic Panasport G7 wheels.
For a long time, I thought convertibles weren’t for me and were inferior to other cars. Then I relocated to the only place that has summer and sun all year round with crazy traffic, and I’ve slowly come around to the idea of being at the beach while sitting in traffic.
And looking mighty fine at the same time. Not only was the wheel fitment and colour the perfect choice, but this RX-7 also had a two-tone matching interior, which to me was the absolute cherry on top.
Maybe it was because I was in the South and folk are known to be more friendly around these parts, or maybe everyone was just happy to be out of the house and interacting with others, but I met so many good people at this event that it’s unreal to think about.
From the those putting on the event, to those with cars, and those and catering food for the masses, everyone was passionate about being there.
Riverside’s tagline reads “Come for the cars, stay for the people” and this year’s event lived up to that and more. BBQ, cars, good people, fantastic weather, and southern accents – maybe it’s time to move to Tennessee…
While I ponder that thought, make sure you check out all the gallery images below.
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It’s been over half a year since COVID-19 started really appearing and affecting our daily lives. In the time since, most major events have been cancelled and I’m pretty sure we’ve all suffered from cabin fever. Slowly it seems that things are returning back to some kind of semblance of normal, but it will still be quite some time until things are back as they used to be. Hence why I was pretty stoked that the 2020 Street Mag Show in Hannover even happened at all.
This annual event is actually one of the biggest American car meets in Germany, but to comply with the strict hygiene rules that now dictate our lives, the show had to be drastically decreased in size. The same area that held roughly 18,000 visitors and over 2,500 cars in 2019 was to limited to 1,000 people and just a few hundred cars this year.
I peeled myself out of bed at an ungodly hour on a Saturday morning, hopped in my car and drove an hour towards Dortmund. Here I met up with a friend and jumped into his ‘88 Chevrolet Caprice. Wow, what a difference. After coming from my Porsche 944, the Caprice felt like entering a different dimension. I quickly made myself comfortable on the front bench seat and just enjoyed the ride.
I have owned a few American vehicles myself, but nothing as old and plushy as this Caprice. The nearest thing I could equate it to would be my late grandfather’s favorite old armchair. Only with V8 noises instead of grandpa’s snoring.
With the Chevy being so comfy, the next two hours passed in a blur as we cruised towards Hannover. On the way it became apparent that not only would the event be limited in size due to the COVID rules, but the weather also was planning on ruining the day. There was occasional rain and the sky was looking very dreary and grey.
However, it seems that people were eager to take this chance to get out of the house, and while there weren’t all that many cars on site when we arrived, it quickly filled up. Mind you, with Hannover’s Schützenplatz being big enough to host last year’s meet of almost 20,000 visitors, it still looked very sparsely populated.
Germany is home to a large American car scene, and it shows. I expected there to be rows and rows of Mustangs, but the actual variety surprised me. The most common car at the show proved to be the modern Challenger, which is a given as it offers a lot of car for the money and is readily available through various import dealers.
Along with the regulars, I spotted some American models that I’d previously only ever seen in pictures, like this Jeep Honcho.
One of my personal favorites was a blue ‘73 Chevy Impala station wagon with a powered clamshell tailgate. The owner demonstrated it for me and it’s seriously the coolest thing ever! Sorry for getting a bit excited there, but I honestly really, really want one now. If you have no idea what it is, go look it up on YouTube. The rear glass moves up into the roof and the actual tailgate slides down into the floor of the car, leaving you with a gaping hole through which you can load up your groceries. Handy!
Another one I really loved was this orange-on-white Chevy Cheyenne, a ‘72 model, I think. I absolutely love classic American pickup trucks; they’re practical vehicles and ooze coolness. I had a quad-cab Ram truck for a few years as my daily, which stuck out like a sore thumb here in Germany, and I really wouldn’t mind another truck in my life. Preferably one just like this.
Or maybe a van to go off-the beaten-track exploring in? This 4×4 Ram looked to be the perfect adventuring-mobile, although I imagine it wouldn’t be too capable when going up inclines due to the long overhang in the rear. But no matter, it more than makes up for that in looks.
Or if that’s too small for you, I even saw a GMC Motorhome.
People lined up to drive onto the show stage where their cars would be judged to win a trophy while a moderator let fly with a lot of trivia and facts. When this Impala rolled up, I knew I had to take a closer look.
Sitting low on air ride and with some impressive engravings on the bright work, this Chevy was definitely one of the highlights of the show for me.
There was even a gasser-style drag car, called Nautilus, which put on quite a burnout show at noon.
The screaming V8, the squealing tires and the huge clouds of smoke made for an epic picture, accompanied by Arthur Brown’s ‘Fire’ blasting from the speakers. “I am the god of hellfire” indeed.
All in all, the show proved to be a nice day out – even if it was significantly smaller than last year. Attending a proper car show was definitely long overdue for me, and this at least sated my thirst for the time being. I’m taking it as a sign of things getting back to normal.
I hope next year’s show will be back to its old form and thriving with more visitors than ever. The only annoying thing is, I now find myself looking at V8 wagons and pickup trucks for sale! Sigh…
How To join the IATS program: We have always welcomed readers to contact us with examples of their work and believe that the best Speedhunter is always the person closest to the culture itself, right there on the street or local parking lot. If you think you have what it takes and would like to share your work with us then you should apply to become part of the IAMTHESPEEDHUNTER program. Read how to get involved here.
