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Aug 04

USC 2008

Holy mother of all car shows – it’s Ultimate Street Car at Santa Pod Raceway.

USC is one of my favourite shows on the UK calendar, and by Friday night I was itching to get up there and get the show under-way.

However, my car had other ideas or at least my tyres did. Yes, another nail had found its way into my rubber and with a 205/45/16 tyre size seeming rarer than rocking horse poop, I had my work cut out to find one on a Saturday morning.

So instead I grabbed a lift with Carl from Motorworx in his awesome Nissan Pulsar – the weekend wasn’t lost. His car is now fitted with a front mounted exhaust that makes it louder than Chris Rock on a mega-megaphone. Imagine an hour long drive in that - my head was left rattled but I maintained a grin on my face as it popped, spat and rasped its way to Santa Pod.

Parking in the main carpark wasn’t an option. We wanted to be in the hub of the show, in amongst the crowds and the car fans. So, with a bit of silvertongued blagging, we landed a spot with the Britishmods who kindly allowed us a space on their 25 car club stand. They had a decent turn out of Euro-styled motors and it was Motoraddicts that gave the stand a Jap twist. All the club members were cool and made us feel really welcome on the day – thanks to you all.

As I have mentioned before, a static car show is dull. All too often the same cars are polished and parked-up. However, the drag strip at Santa Pod means whenever things get a bit dull, you can go and get a dose of the on-track action. No matter if it’s a car you have seen more often than the back of your hand, the racing adds a certain risk and it’s not long till someone fries it on the start line.

If straight line racing doesn’t hold you for too long, it’s only a short walk to the drift arena, where the sideways test pilots destroy tyres like they are going out of fashion and in more smoke than a Boyzone pop video. I couldn't help thinking I had a good home for one of those back on the MR2…

All in all this show had it all again. I loved it and will be back in my grandstand seat next year, sipping warm beer from a plastic cup and inhaling the intoxicating tyre smoke.