I’ve neglected the blog a little lately but the show season is now underway. This weekend saw the first round of the Time Attack and European Drift championship, held at Oulton Park in deepest darkest Cheshire.

As usual I had the Swift on stand but this time with the guys from Tuner UK, so for part one i’ll bring you coverage from the pits and paddock mostly.

This was a welcome surprise one of my favourite Rx7′s still sporting Kazama aero

In a tense final Phil Morrison just edged out Alan Mccord  the growling V8 drowning out the 2JZ of the Driftworks S15.

Declan Hicks brought out the venerable Toyota Soarer

Definitely the car of the show for me the RA-R of Blackpool tuner Scoobyteknix

Sadly stiggys Lexus wasen’t quite ready, so out came the Starlet. Always a crowd pleaser, its starting to look a little tired. He still managed to finish 10th, hopefully round 2 will see the Lexus’s debut.

Spied the Envy 350z on the stand opposite one of my favourite UK cars

I swear the wing on the Mark Biggers skyline gets bigger and bigger

Great to see the old Sumopower Evo still in its trademark pink paintscheme and Do-Luck aero.

Touge Hero’s  brought out the bonkers Nissan Skyline with lary BN Sports aero

You’ll literally never be as epic as Bryn’s little finger, witness him in his natural habitat a Welsh retail park lunching a set of Yoko’s

Photo courtesty of Mason from http://jdm-rogues.com/

Saturday saw the Lancashire and District Subaru Owners club day held on Preston Flag Market as always in aid of charity, showing continuing support for Macmillan Cancer support a very worthy cause. A LADS display is always impressive and with multiple club stand wins at various event they never disapoint.

Its rare to see Ian with the bonnet down these days and I can’t say I blame him! a competition ran throughout the day to guess the BHP from a recent rolling road day, I never did have a bash at that, 1000hp?

Loved this Legacy B4 RSK haven’t seen one for ages

Ian’s WRX is flanked by Dave’s P1 and Kev’s black STI the bloke kept asking me questions that I couldn’t answer so I sent him towards Ian.

Pretty aggressive fitament for a Subaru Impreza loved the dish! rare to see this kind of offset on a UK Impreza.

Dave’s mint P1 took pride of place in front of the Harris Museum its increasingly rare to see P1′s in this condition the majority being slowly molested and poorly modified.

The Preston pigeons we’re out in force on the flag markets hallowed paving stones.

I have a fetish for the hardcore Subaru Forrester STI

Thats it thats all, I had the pleasure of redoing the LADS website recently so go check that out as well http://www.ladsoc.co.uk/

So finally onto the show I wasn’t expecting much so I didn’t end up disappointed ! could have been worse though. With the expansion of Donington Park for the F1 we ended up moved at the last minute.

Chris managed to blag the front spot on both days good to see him rocking the showplates I designed a few years back too!

Finally got to get some use from the custom showplate I made.

Chloe brought along the affectionately titled “Killer Bee” you can also spy Ricki in the background.

Fred Cosset was laying down some sweet wall-rides and trials riding on the Monster Energy ramps.

But not content he did a little impromptu trials riding around the show.

Roofracks covered in crap seem to be an emerging trend in the UK stolen from the VW scene its now migrated to Citroen C2′s? I can’t say I really get it but it didn’t look so bad.

I’ve never seen a red GTR in person but its definitely my favourite colour I loved the front bumper canards. With all the hype surrounding the R35 the R34 still takes the silverware for me.

It was a surprise to see Neil from Eclipse motorbodies with his 03 Impreza a Lancashire and District Subaru owners club member. This was once a fire damaged Impreza and has been built from the ground up its amazing to see how much care and detail went into this thing.

Thought this Civic looked pretty cool.

Another GTR lurks in the pits ready for the MLR trackday

By Sunday the campsite looked like Sarajevo many choosing simply to abandon their barbecues and tents. I loved the contrast of this clean DC2 Integra against the messy backdrop.

Overall all it was a pretty decent weekend ISTS isn’t a show you go to for the show rather the people, I struggled to find much that interested me carwise as usual it was overplayed or poorly done. Camping with a great bunch of mates old and new is what these events are about.

So I decided to make a proper trip report, we started the day at 8:30am with me not even being slightly ready for the journey. But eventually we arrived at the services to meet Dan naturally these days my car looks rather under spec-ed Chris is rocking a set of Lexus IS200 alloys and the optional Suzuki bodykit.

Naturally on your way to Donnington the Mcdonalds at Stoke is a port of call so naturally i’ve taken a photo of a Bacon sandwich masquerading as something all together more cosmopolitan.

I spied the Garage D Castrol Skyline after BDC Practice

Loved the stance on this AE86

With the Autoglym Starlet now replaced by something larger it was great to see this Toyota Starlet slewing sideways in BDC free practice, it must take a lot of skill to get angle in something with such a short wheelbase.

Great offset and a really great aero package BDC beat Prodrift hands down

Pink and loud!

Spent the day doing not very much, snapped this in the campsite just out of shot is a Skyline bouncing off the limiter and some lads in tracksuits in the back of a Renault Clio with knackered wheel bearings.

Good times

Check back for part two!

I’m still knackered about a three day campathon at the International styling and tuning show so i’ll leave you with this photo for now.

I really need some springs

For anyone who know’s me they’ll know I really hate cleaning cars I just dont have the patience for it. But with the International Styling & Tuning show at weekend and Rounds 1 of both Prodrift and the BDC I figured it was due.

Expect some major updates from this weekend onwards, its show season! although i’ve cut down on a fair few this year.

When your a world leader you’ve gotta roll deep right? with a 200 strong entourage President Barack Obama rocked up in London today for the G8 summit in this truck with a limo body. When your one of the most powerful guys on earth you’ve gotta look fly’ right?

Ironically climate change looks to be on the agenda for the G8 summit after this car was shipped from the states, here’s a video of a pretty convoluted three point turn outside Ten Downing street.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/politics/G20/article6014891.ece