Behind The Scenes>> Uk Auto Styles @ Wembley

I'm now back in Vancouver, having crossed the planet to be reunited with my lady and leather couch! Fantastic! It's been a heady few weeks with back to back trips to Utah, Nevada, London and soon California and Portugal… I think I'll need to sleep for several weeks once this round of travel is done.

So two days ago, I had dinner with a few people from Nissan Europe at a fancy restaurant in London. We got to discussing European drifting and how the community is rapidly evolving to a level on par with any scene around the planet.

So help them visualize this better, I pulled out my iPhone and showed the Nissan crew this very set of photos from JDM Allstars Wembley.

It allowed them to see the UK drift culture that exists around the S-Chassis…

And the whole UK cult of the GT-R…

… Which was out in force in the Wembley parking lot.

I found the car show quite interesting to check out.

There were many elements in common with the North American street drift scene.

I suppose this is the nature of the global world we live in. People from all corners of the globe are constantly influencing each other.

BTW Notice that a S14 is called a 200SX in this country.

The slogan on this S13's windshield is a perfect example of cross-culture influence.

It's been a couple years since I've been to a European drift event, and it appears like the scene has progressed quite a lot in this time.

Street drift style is coming on strong in the UK, with an increasing number of cars being built to good aesthetic standards.

Most of the competing cars are street legal to boot. It seems like a wildly modified machine is pretty easy to road register in the UK, unlike most other countries.

Let's take a look at a few more of the Skylines. This is a community which definitely does NOT exist in any comparable way on my side of the Atlantic. The UK Skyline scene is miles ahead.

This R33 was looking pretty mean. It was one of my fav machines in the parking lot.

I'm sure a few of you will have some commentary about the rims on this ER34…

But I was intrigued that the owner of the car had printed their own Speedhunters logos. Hey guys I can send you some REAL logos if you get in touch!

The flat black paint on this R32 was good enough to warrant a snap… but what really took my interest…

Was that the owner had gone to the trouble to import a Hellaflush license plate frame. It seems like the whole Fatlace/Hellaflush namesake has made a bit of an impression in the UK… I'll return to this theme in Part2 of this article.

These guys must have been wondering what I was shooting haha…

Their R32 was parked up next to this unfinished S14A. lt looks to have some potential.

It's funny… for me this S15 is exotic machinery as they are so unbelievably rare in North America.

It's a simple yet effective take on a S15.

Let's look at a few of the JDM Allstars drift cars.

This ER32 was sporting some nice dish and stance. I think Ross is going to try and shoot a feature or spotlight at the Trax show this weekend.

Rocket Bunny FTW! This car looks as amazing in the flesh as it does in photos.

It was sporting new SR20 power, but unfortunately it went up in smoke over the course of the weekend.

Ouch.

Matt Steele is also repping the Rocket Bunny style on his S14. There's just something so right about these body kits.

He's sliced the rear bumper, which reminds me a bit of Super GT race cars.

Stiggy!

This was definitely one of the coolest machines competing in Wembley. Too bad he went out of the event so early.

This is Christy Carpenter's 1JZ powered S15. I didn't tell the Nissan crew about the Frankenstein heart transplant though.

It was one of the nicer looking S chassis in the competition. Here's a quick action shot of it doing some three wheeled drifting.

The famous Driftworks S15 was no where to be seen at Wembley unfortunately. Engine gremlins kept it away.

But Phil Morrison was looking suitably gangster without it.

His rough-neck image was helped by this amazing lowrider Nissan President.

This is as cool as retro gets… Especially with the help of a full hydraulic system.

Let's look around the parking lot some more.

These older Evo models were never imported into my neck of the woods… So again, I had to stop to take a second look.

This Escort was unbelievably clean. You may have noticed that we uploaded a shot of it to our facebook page live from JDM Allstars last weekend.

I'll be back soon with another look around the spectator area and paddock from JDM Allstars Wembley, including a special look at the drift stickers at hand.

Talk soon.

:R

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1

man, if you did a feature on every single car in this article, my life would be complete

2

"This car looks as amazing in the flesh as it does in person." ...uh, yeah. It is a nice looking car. Get some rest holmes.

3

great photos. so many good looking cars.

4

Soooo Doope. Probably one of my favorite albums!



I'm really lovin the S Chassis collection here



nice work



5

If your reffering to the fact that the wheels are rotas.

Well its nothing special in these uk drift events , rota plays a major part in sponsership.

6

"Rocket Bunny FTW! This car looks as amazing in the flesh as it does in person."



what?

rb bodykit is foul too.

7

Would anyone happen to know what the car is in the first image, thats a very very sexy car.

8

holy shit. when did uk get such good taste... they are so calians now... but with gtrs

9

Hey rod...how can we some speedhunters stickers

10

man that matt black r32 is gorgeous.

why can't we get speedhunters stickers over here? :(

11

yes lets have some speedhunters stickers.. make it easy for us though.. the 200SX was always known as a nice budget car that can be modified on a shoe-string if need be.. plus in the UK we do have a a big slant towards making our cars look aesthetically pleasing.. buyt we do have the rat-look vibe too.. soem tough cars here too.. and on a side note a lot of these guys are university students who own these rides too.. there supposed to be skint aren't they?? LOL

12

It's not just the UK, but whole Europe I think. Sure, the UK is maybe a bit ahead, but you've posted some cars that aren't from the UK. For example the Falken S14 is from Holland. Mitto's rear bumper is sliced because he has one of those super cool GunSports diffusers, but I think he doesn't want to destroy it out on the track.

13

Yeah that Rocket Bunny S13 must be super wide in person.

14

what kit is that on the white garage-d s14??? i love that kit soo much!

16

what's now missing in the UK scene now is originality, it's own distinctive taste.

17

Wow some nice cars there, great to see the street scene catching on

18

yeah i caught that quote too lol

19

Can you post a desktop version of those purple, red and blue kouki s14 front ends? and possibly the one under it too? thanks in advance Rod. =]

20

awesome coverage , some really nice cars... loving rocket bunny!!



as a side note: s14s and s15s are called 200sx over here in Australia

21

''Would anyone happen to know what the car is in the first image, thats a very very sexy car''



its a JZX90 Toyota Cresta tourer V



nice article by the way, I dont normally read them I just scan and peruse the pics but read this all the way through.

22

The car in the first picture is my mates toyota cresta very sexy and very fast!

23

That white evo is gorgeous.

24

the first car is a jzx90 cresta isn't it? i may be wrong.

25

Nice to see a couple of our lots cars featured. To see what they get up to when we ain't hard parking at shows check the link.

26

Chong, leave the photography for people who know how to shoot.



Your post processing give people migranes from looking at your photos.

27

@ Levi, it's a Toyota Chaser.

28

by registering it as tuned you mean dont tell the insurance company what uv done get caught act like you baught it that way and was told its standard by the seller thats how its always been in the UK

29

''Would anyone happen to know what the car is in the first image, thats a very very sexy car''





its a JZX90 Toyota Cresta Tourer V





nice article !!!, I normally just scan the writting on these and just peruse the pics but i read this one all the way through.

30

I thought that Mitto chopped his boot floor out after his little crash at donny.



@ Levi i think that car is a Toyota Chaser Jzx100

31

:O missed the event :( awsome coverage aswell looking forward to part 2!!! any chance of have the 5th and 6th picture as a bigger res. i love group shots like that for some reason! oh and you guys should check out 'TRACKS' loads of pure JDM filth there!

32

sweet coverage.my car was the white s15, was quite chuffed that it got a lot of attention. wembley is definately the comp to go to in the uk.

33

cheers for takingsome pics of my satin black r32 ..... ady

34

these are some hella sick rides, but what is that first one?

35

Thats my matt black skyline....... :)

36

The white S15 was my favourite car there, I couldn't stop looking at it!

37

hey thats my darkside R33 , "doris!" nice to here that it was your fave in the parking lot !

38

Cheers for the U.K. coverage.

Good to catch up at last Rod

39
40

pffffttt... UK and rotas are like.. Shit and asshole...There inseparable, So fighting about it is pointless.. So lets continue the coverage aye...

41

Had the pleasure of sliding with Christy Carpenter at Matsuri 3weeks ago...... Nice guy and a Crazy Driver!!!!!

42

Rod, it's really great to read your take on our scene and also for putting drifting in front of Nissan, this helps me when Im trying to cover these events with Nissan cars! Some things i guess we take for granted in the UK. The UK don't have the coverage like the US and Japan have, so we are influenced by you guys.

43

Nice to see the picture of my Blitz ER34 as well as plenty of Garage-D cars,

Cool feature as always



Julian

44

Wow!



Good to see some mega awesome cars!



6666 Rocket Bunny is bad as!



All the S Chassis looks wicked and the few R32's = Win!

45

when are you coming to portugal. BTW nice works.

46

in pic number 7 its like watching some warriors preparing for battle! eye tiger! awesome s14 's

47

quality pics and wright ups mate,thanks for the fat shots of the 4 door.

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