Words & Photos by Henry Phull
Better late than never! We’re back with the final part of our Ultimate Stance coverage. In the first two parts we saw some incredible cars and this section gets even better, focusing on the final two halls of the show. First up, Wheel Whores were out in full force with an exclusive ‘Wheel Whores Show’, making its debut at Ultimate Stance. We were super excited for the swap meet they set up which allowed anyone to buy, sell or trade rare wheels right there at the show. Considering it was timed at the end of show season, this was the perfect opportunity for enthusiasts to buy and browse possible rims for winter projects. Plus they had the gorgeous Wheel Whores promo girls skating around the hall taking ‘Instagram selfies’ with show-goers. Adding live wheel building and refurbishing, tyre fitting tips and live pin striping, it was certainly the place to be.
Continuing along the infamous Wheel Whores pink carpet, we were taken in by Matt Glassup’s incredible Porsche 964 on a beautiful set of BBS RS wheels. This is an absolute dream 911.
Up at the front and representing the Wheel Whores show was Jayne Kay’s Pink Lady Racing fuel altered Model T drag car, along with Richie of Milestone71’s stunning Porsche 964.
We loved this cool addition to the show, the ‘Tikes and Trikes’ display and competition, some really outstanding kids toys that have been modified like nothing you’ve ever seen before!
Over on the Rothink stand was Andy Rudd’s insane T25 Transporter Pick Up, which completely blew us away – considering this is staticwith no air ride or hydraulics. Impressive!
Having snapped this a while back at Retro Rides Gathering, it was nice to see Shaun Mint’s Mk1 Nova saloon in attendance. It’s such a clean car after a long restoration and respray, and looks perfect on the G60 banded steels. No doubt, one of our favourite Vauxhalls of all time.
Huxley Motorsport were showing off their intense RA28 Celica drift car running an SR20 with around 300bhp and hoping for over 400 next season, definitely something to watch out for.
Alongside was Bryn Musselwhite’s Volvo 245 which recently had a new set of Volk Racing / Rays TE37 wheels, resulting in a hard as nails look.
Dan Taylor’s E46 M3 looked the business on Broadway Static custom coilovers and OZ Breyton splits.
Our friends from LikeHell were breaking necks as per usual with Jordan O’Sullivan’s Mini on Carline CM6 splits…
…And Josh Mussell’s static Nissan 350z on Work Meisters.
The last time we got up and close to this beauty was actually at Edition38 2013. Finally, we got to see it fully exposed thanks to Wheel Whores. Alex Wright’s Mk1 Golf has to be one of the countries best examples. Sitting on 8.5×15 BBS E30 splits, this Helios blue GTI is packing a 16v G60 motor and is not one to be missed.
Unsurprisingly, one of the most popular Mk2 Golf’s of the year is Simon Delahaye’s immaculate example on custom Pirelli P-Slot splits. Overall a car built to perfection.
Mixing things up quite a bit was Bobby from Milkandtwo with his DKW Schnellaster/F89, a super rare sight.
We adored Jack Hale’s Mercedes 280CE drag car running a small block Chevy V8. There’s something about building a drag car out of a luxury barge, so wrong, yet SO right. Clearly an incredible amount of work has taken place for this build and the result is outstanding.
The variation of vehicles has already been pretty awesome, and it continued with Ade Brannan’s Chrysler Horizon. A perfect example of bringing a retro car back to life with lows and wheels. It’s clean, too!
The same goes for Shaun Morris’ Mk1 Astra on polished Gotti splits, a credit to him in every way.
One vehicle that debuted at the start of show season was Jamie McToldridge’s Players’ Datsun pick up built by Balls’d. It’s crazy to think it’s done a whole season already, and we’re excited to see what’s in store for it next year.
The Kleen Freaks lineup is always on point and this show was no different, starting with Kats Gile’s bagged Mk5 on a gorgeous set of 3-piece Rotiform LHRs.
Not forgetting Rob and Harry’s Candy red Lupo GTI on CCW D11L 3-piece wheels along with Steve’s bagged Mk6 Golf.
With their amazing 0% Finance deals, Car Audio & Security always have a busy trade stand, in fact it was hard to take a shot due to the sheer amount of constant people gathering around the booth. Make sure you hit them up for your winter project needs.
BBS LM’s are not a wheel we often see anymore, but Neil Hargraves’ bagged Audi TT pulled them off really well with the gold centres and red caps to match the body colour.
CCW’s are always a stunning combination on Civics, especially like the polished examples shown below on Aaron Gemmell’s awesome EK.
Moving over to the Players & Dubkorps stand, we checked out Jay’s other car, a stunning Mk1 Golf which we’ve seen plenty of back from Players at North Weald a few months ago. Here it was sitting on a new set of wheels, some spectacular BBS E50 which really bring the car together.
We can’t forget the Players S14 either, built to be driven hard, on Air Lift Performance bags and Rotiform TMB’s.
Across the way, a lot of people including ourselves were talking about this R32 Skyline. If you think back to the old school Gran Turismo days, this is what you’ll remember. The car was absolutely immaculate, and looked like it had just driven out the showroom, all thanks to a squeaky clean colour change/respray. A show favourite, for sure.
Moving through the hallways we took a look at the PBMW and PVW magazine stands with some nice cars on display as usual.
…And into the final show hall, the more intimate carpeted room of them all, kicking off with Seb de Latour’s (editor of PBMW) E39 540i recently bagged by the guys at Studio Incar which sits very nicely especially at the rear, holy tuck!
Continuing with the theme of diversity.. what a pleasant surprise it was to see Retro Rides in attendance with their own stand. Retro Rides Gathering is one of our all time favourite shows so we loved that they had their own selection of cars at Ultimate Stance. Naturally, everything on display was something else! First up, Dean Meeson’s show-stopping Lotus Esprit, packing a 24v Alfa Romeo V6 engine, air ride and Compomotive CXN wheels. A sensational combination. What a car!
Another retro car with another engine swap… Dave Colledge’s Ford 2.3 Duratec powered Lada on banded steels, beautifully executed.
Aaron Harrison’s Volvo C30 was looking flawless on hydraulic suspension and finished off nicely with a set of RH ZW1 splits.
Tornado Red will always be one of the best colours on a Mk2, this example was simply stunning. A solid representation of how a classic Golf should look. Sitting low using Air Lift V2 suspension and 16″ BBS RS splits, this is one clean car. We loved the rear louvre too.
Going back even further in time was this mint Mk1 on Maserati/Campagnolo wheels, air ride and an AFH in the bay. Mk1 perfection?
On the other side of the hall Studio Incar had set up shop with a huge display, nice job Shakey! On show were some of the best car’s they’ve built over the past year.
Of course, Nick Sahota’s bagged E30 M3 with the S54 engine swap that debuted at the start of the season in the very same room at Ultimate Dubs. Nick and Studio Incar have done a tremendous job building a car with the intention of it going viral, and it certainly has. It’s probably one of the most talked about cars of 2014. Even the purists have grown to love it.
Their demo car, the Liberty Walk E92 M3 was recently given a fresh new style with a toned down wrap and black painted Rotiform TMB’s. It will be sad to see this car go soon.
Sam Beach’s murdered out E24 635CSI was looking menacing on a full Air Lift V2 custom suspension and Kerscher RX splits. Certainly an inspiration for our own 635 project!
Alongside was Joshua Hay’s E92, bagged with Air Lift bags/struts and controlled with AccuAir eLevel management. This thing sits SO well, check out the rear tuckage.
As if one wasn’t enough, let’s finish up back on the Retro Rides stand with another Lotus on air, Charlie Croker’s 1977 S1 Elite. Having read his build thread over at Retro Rides, it’s evident that Charlie has undertaken a massive project. Seeing what the car looked like when he picked it up and how gleaming it looks now is incredible.
And there we have it, our final show write up until next year. It has to be said, the organisers did extremely well with the first ever ‘Ultimate Stance’. We previously heard lots of people worrying about what the turnout would be like, given it being so late in the year with the Winter weather approaching and so on… Well, it was one of the best show’s we’ve attended, and it all comes down to the variation of cars, especially with these last two halls. Sure, we love Ultimate Dubs, but Ultimate Stance displayed cars from all walks of life in the car world, not just the usual specific show cars we have all become accustomed to (Of course, they still play a massive role in what we do). This time around, show goers were presented with vehicles which some would found difficult to work out what they even were. We feel a lot of eyes have been well and truly opened to what is possible if you look outside the box, this is a great thing and the right direction for the scene. Here’s to seeing more diversity next year… Thanks to the organisers for having us and see you all at Ultimate Dubs in 2015 for the season opener.