Innehållsförteckning för Spring 2018 från Fast Car

The winners will be picked at random and notified in April. Good luck and godspeed! Great news! We’ve teamed up with the lovely people at Japfest to give 10 lucky Fast Car readers a pair of tickets to Europe’s Biggest Japanese Car Show! Each winner will also receive a free show guide and T-shirt. That’s 54 quids’ worth of stuff for simply hitting the link below and entering your details. We’re not even going to ask you a silly question. We’re just going to let fate do its thing. If you don’t want to leave your attendance to the best Japanese car show on the planet to chance, you can pre-order your tickets at: www.japfest.co.uk Enter here…  http://fastcar.msgfocus.com/k/Kelsey-Media/fast_car_japfest_2018_competition The Legal Bit… Entries close at midnight on Sunday 29 March 2018.…

“It’ll blow your f**king mind with regards to how wide and wild it is” Arriving into LAX at 9am on the Friday before the 2017 SEMA Show, despite 10 hours of turbulence on the flight, I was feeling energetic and enthusiastic. These are the events and occasions we live for. The jetlag and fatigue could be easily pushed aside for another few hours while I sought out my speed fix. While a day of chilling out in the hotel wouldn’t have been the worst thing, it’s not why I’d travelled this far. I was making enquiries, trying to find the last of the cars when Carl Taylor, of Players Show and Air Lift Performance, advised that one of the cars bound for the ALP stand at SEMA was going to…

Humans often have a funny way of dealing with change. Without it, the world would be duller than living in the Big Brother house for a decade, but this doesn’t stop us all from feeling a bit freaked out from time to time when something different springs up in our lives. After changing up his beloved stanced Polo GTI for this R32 Golf, Leeds-based Dub head Adam here was initially faced with a hefty dose of regret for taking the plunge, with the car throwing up problem after problem and making him wish he’d stayed put instead. But by keeping a level head and sticking to his plans, he’s now reaping the rewards with one of the finest examples of this V6-powered pocket rocket on the scene that’s finally a…

Judd Model 1, From £377 (each) This classic design adds yet another touch of class to the, already pretty bloody special, Judd line-up for 2018. Of course, you’re going to need some pretty serious arches to fill, because the new Model 1 only comes in a full-fat 20-inches. Still, when you look at the sort of motors that’ll actually swallow up a dub, there’s not many these wouldn’t suit… or fit PCD wise either. There’s also the opportunity to stagger these monsters with a nine on the front and a super-girthy 10.5 on the rear. www.juddwheels.com Sizes: 9.0x20, 10.5x20 PCDs: Any from 5x98 Finishes: Satin Black 2Forge ZF5, From £860 (set) The latest wheel in the top-quality 2Forge lineup, this flow-formed, 18-inch beauty is not only super-light compared to cast…

ValetPRO Exterior Car Care Set, £48 If your car is in need of a really good spring clean to remove all the winter contaminants then this kit could be for you, as it includes Advanced Poseidon Car Wash and the previously FC tested Dragon’s Breath wheel cleaner. ValetPRO are known in the industry for making some of the best no-nonsense car-care products and this selection certainly backs that up. www.valetpro.eu What’s Included: 1x 250ml Mad Wax • 1x 500ml Advanced Poseidon Car Wash • 1x 500ml Glass Cleaner • 1x 500ml Dragon’s Breath • 1x 500ml Bug Remover • 1x Black Sponge • 1x Multi Purpose Microfibre Cloth • 1x Small Dash Brush Kleen Freaks Large Case, £95 How’s this for a sweet kit from the guys at Kleen Freaks?…

We all know how expensive this modified car hobby is, and there’s just no escaping that, but it doesn’t mean you need to be rich to go fast. Just like everything in life, a bit of thought goes a long way to getting the most for your money. Let us show you some of the ways you can make big improvements to your car’s performance for surprisingly little money. Not only will this feature help you make your car faster, but it should hopefully get the cogs in your brain spinning and you’ll end up thinking of other clever ways to get maximum bang for your buck! TYRE PRESSURES APPROXIMATE COST: FROM 20P The difference in how your car handles and grips, simply by adjusting your tyre pressures, can be…

The RS4 has a lot to live up to as it’s one of those cars people class as a ‘real driver’s car’ and one you really need to drive, like the M3 or Nissan GT-R. I’ve owned my Avant for a while now and so far it’s more than lived up to expectations. However, I still haven’t quite had the confidence to really push it in the corners or when the road conditions are more testing. Why? Well, quite simply, the tyres it came with had seen better days. It’s not that they were bald, but they did have a few chunks missing out of the sidewalls. So this month I finally got round to replacing them for something capable of delivering the power from the 4.2-litre V8 to the…

DAN SMITH’S R32 SKYLINE GT-R FC says : You know what we like more than an R32 Skyline? An R32 Skyline with 586 horses running to all four wheels, that’s what! Dan’s purple stunner here features some neat touches applied by the proud owner from top to bottom, to keep it looking and driving seriously fresh even in 2018. That big-power engine, for example, has been re-built with stronger forged pistons, H-beam con rods and ACL race bearings to ensure it can handle the extra boost those uprated HKS turbochargers now kick out. It’s not just the engine that’s received a makeover, though. You’ve probably noticed the car’s bright purple now, and also boasting a painfully rare Do-Luck body kit shipped over from Japan. Setting it all off, the front…

Not all of today’s readers of Fast Car magazine will be familiar with the original Doorslammers event held in the 1970s and ’80s at Santa Pod. This gathering was extremely popular for the diehard door-bodied quarter-mile racers – hence the name. It was all about the fastest car and the winner-takes-all prize fund of £1,000. And the great news is that Santa Pod is bringing it back. Doorslammers will follow the same let the racing do the talking philosophy, but has been updated to fit with today’s drag and street racing cultures. Firstly, the prize money has increased to a whopping £75,000 – the largest prize fund ever paid out for this type of event in the UK. There are seven different classes (see opposite page for more details), so…

“People seem to really love it – I drive past and the local youth brap me!” There’s an inherent problem with owning an unusual car. It tends to get compared with every other example of that particular car. Let’s say you’re strolling through Mayfair, and a Rolls-Royce Wraith glides past. “Nice,” you think to yourself. And then a Mansory Wraith passes in the other direction, resplendent in aftermarket gold details and glued-on bling, and you think “Hmm… that other Wraith was nicer.” You see, there’s the issue – if you’d only seen the second car, in isolation, it would have spoken for itself. Owning an obscure car comes with all sorts of baggage. It’s not enough to be a good thing by its own merit, it has to be constantly…

Fast estate cars are brilliantly unnecessary. Which is just why we love them. Powerful versions of coupes, saloons or hatchbacks always make sense, convention dictates that this is the way things work. But estates? They’re sensible cars, for people who wear a lot of beige corduroy and watch Songs of Praise and make jam for the WI. Your dad’s straight-laced mate has one, because he’s got a couple of big dogs to ferry about the place and he finds it useful when he needs to take old furniture to the tip. He bundles the family in along with a bunch of camping gear and hauls them all over Europe. Why on Earth would you want to take that boxy, utilitarian machine and make it fast? What possible benefit could that…

Ring RSC706 Battery Charger, £65 We all know that the cold weather kills car batteries quicker than any monster audio install, so it makes sense that charger sales go absolutely batshit at this time of year! Still, this new smartcharger from Ring Automotive is one of the very few that does everything you could ever want, cramming an almost unbelievable amount of technology into one seriously tiny package. Now, not only will this six-amp job juice up any type of car battery (lead acid, gel, calcium, EFB, AGM or lithium) twice as fast as any other comparable unit, but it also carries out the complicated stuff automatically, going through an eight-stage smart-charging cycle to prolong battery life and improve performance. It’s also ideal for use as a trickle charger for…

Considering it’s where we actually spend most of our time, it’s pretty ironic that many of us neglect cleaning our cars interior far more than the exterior. In fact, even when we’re out there every weekend polishing and waxing, most of us are guilty of doing not much more than giving the inside a bit a hoover (if we can be bothered to drag it out) and slapping some dash shine over any grubby marks. Even the more dedicated detailing maestros out there will recognise the problem straight away. Half the battle is always finding the right product to use for each part. It’s not like washing and drying your paintwork. There’s all sorts of different trim and materials on the inside of every car, and umpteen different offerings on…

Although we’re the first to admit that fettling with cars is probably up there as one of life’s greatest pleasures, sadly there often comes a time in a person’s life where things need to change. Whether it’s budget restraints or family commitments, it’s occasions like trying to wedge your gran into the tight bucket seat of your race car to take her to the doctor’s that make you wonder whether people might take you a little more seriously if you invested in a more grown-up, comfortable machine instead. Middlesbrough-based Hoho Chan here succumbed to similar pressures that sadly almost spelled the end of his show car career for good. With a job threat forcing him to sell up his beloved Honda Accord – the latest in a long line of…

Nope, we’re not offering you half the trade price for your car like those websites. Instead, we want to give you the chance of being featured in the best modified car mag on the planet! So if you own a cool-as-a-cucumber car you think worthy of the pages of Fast Car, we’d love to see it. Just send some good quality images, and a spec list, to jules.truss@kelseymedia.co.uk with ‘Feature Car’ in the subject. If we like it, we’ll get back to you to arrange a photoshoot. Simples.…

As you may have noticed, I’ve been missing from these pages for the last couple of months. It’s not because I don’t want to start a new project. It’s because, at the moment, I can’t. You see, I need to sell my BMW 335i to fund my next venture. The E92 almost sold last year, but the guy interested turned out to be a complete time waster. You know the sort. They give it all the big one, but in reality don’t have the cash. Anyway, by the time I realised this was the case it was almost Christmas and there was no point in advertising it again then, or in January, when even Bill Gates is feeling the pinch. So the BM has basically sat on the drive for…

What’s the one show you absolutely must see once in your life? (Well, other than SEMA.) Put it this way: no event manages to leave you with such an overwhelming feeling of, ‘What the hell just happened!?’ as the Tokyo Auto Salon does. Put one foot into the Makuhari Messe exhibition centre and your life will change forever. It’s a place where you can meet your JDM heroes, fall in love with Kei cars transformed into 911 Porsches, and decide your next car will definitely have to be a bright orange VIP Toyota Crown on air suspension. Japan can play mind games with you. But thankfully we were there for the 2018 show in an attempt to make a little sense out of it all. Big cars of the show?…

Ford Mondeo ST220 On the face of it, a Mondeo estate is never going to be the last word in sporting prowess or handling precision. But don’t write the idea off just yet… the aftermarket is surprisingly keen on these cars. There’s plenty you can do to sharpen up the chassis and if you get yourself an ST220, you’ll find yourself enjoying a creamy 3.0-litre V6 with 224bhp, along with a highly-specced interior. Prices for these stealthy bruisers start at around £1,700, which is stonking good value for a 150mph car. Alfa Romeo 156 GTA Sportwagon The GTA badge on this car is a bit silly, as the A stands for Alleggerita, which means ‘lightened’ – whereas the GTA Sportwagon was actually a fair chunk heavier than a stock 156.…

JAPSPEED GT-R EXHAUST, £1,999 Just when you think the GT-R madness from Japspeed couldn’t get any more, er, mad (Nicely put as ever – Jules), they drop this mean-looking bastard for 2018. It may seem like a fair ol’ chunk of change for a three-inch system of course. But when you consider that, just like all the best artificial hips, aerospace parts, and God’s very own trouser potatoes, it’s constructed from nothing but the finest tig-welded titanium, that makes it something of a performance bargain. The price also includes all the necessary gaskets, clamps and bolts, along with next day delivery… although it only weighs a miniscule 12 kilos, so they’ve probably saved a few quid on the postage. www.japspeed.co.uk RAMAIR JETSTREAM FOCUS RS KIT, £295 Always the way, eh?…

Prowling through the streets like some malevolent fruit-hued Adonis, this angry little Civic displays that screw-you attitude worn proudly by all true cutthroat bon viveurs. It plays by its own rules, and it doesn’t care who it upsets. So what if you don’t like the camber, or you scoff at the auto ’box, or you prefer a little more go to back-up your show? Ask its owner Jorge Lupton how much he cares about that sort of negativity. Hell, he’s painted the damn thing in a shade of juicy peach just to ram it all right down your throat. It’s a Jordan Belfort of a car; hard-living, uncompromising, existing in the now. It makes no apology, because it doesn’t need to. For Jorge, this is very much a visual demonstration…

This month, I witnessed a man refer to someone else as ‘a f**king wand’. I’d never heard that expression before; I laughed for about three days. The reason I brought this up, apart from the fact that I think it’s the funniest thing I’ve heard for ages, is that I believe it perfectly describes whoever recently stuck their finger through the wrap on my TT. Still, apart from that, the vinyl has been on there for a good few seasons now, and, generally speaking, it has stood the test of time very well. My Audi is far from pampered considering it’s kept outside and used all year round, so inevitably there’s going to be few bits and pieces that need refreshing to get it back up to scratch… not least…

WHAT’S HOT  BE INSTA FAMOUS Forget the sea of hashtags you put after your Instagram posts in the hope of getting a couple more likes from strangers. The real way to cause a stir on social media is by doing something genuinely bonkers – as proven with this Miura! There are other ways to get attention, of course. How about spraying your car pink with rattle cans and driving it up a mountain (don’t do that)? Or more realistically, you could keep working hard at making it into a killer show car and watch the love naturally pour in from every corner of the cyberworld. The choice is yours… Japan as a society can be pretty tough. Imagine a place where standing out is looked down on, where attempting to…