You may have read Ross’ recent coverage from the Drift Allstars finale at Wembley but you may not have been aware that Wembley on the same day also hosted the first ever Hellaflush event in the UK.
Running alongside the traditional static show that accompanies the Drift Allstars series, the inaugural Hellaflush UK event saw a relatively strong showing of cars.
The influence the Hellaflush movement has had on the global modified car scene cannot be denied, regardless if you like or dislike the style.
Europe does seem to have taken an ever so slightly different approach to the USA where the stance scene has been heavily influenced by the VAG community.
I personally thought that Hellaflush had become much quieter in recent times but this event combined with the Hellaflush Japan event has helped revive the brand.
I fear however that the biggest obstacle that Hellaflush now faces is educating people that Hellaflush is not about pointless and oni cambered style of cars, but rather that a stanced car cannot only look good but can also be practical and beneficial to performance.
I think that this is one thing the UK and Ireland scenes have down pretty well. Take this Mini for example – banded steel wheels and lowered on coilovers results a stanced car where the drivability hasn’t been affected.
The guys who use airbags get the best of both worlds – floor scrapingly low but at the push of the button can return to civlised duties on the road.
Stew Noble from OMGDrift has his Civic coupe looking absolutely spot on with SSR MKIs
An EK Civic showing that less is more.
You may remember this ‘bagged MKIV Golf from our Trax coverage …
… and this MKI Golf from Edition38. The Hellaflush show helped bring together a mixture of Euro and Japanese cars under the same banner.
I know the owner of this E90 is a regular reader, I just hope he got the stickers I left under his wiperblade. Another case in point of aggressive fitment without negatively affecting the handling of the car.
This S13 on Enkei RPF01s made me warm and fuzzy inside.
Kam’s Aristo was turning heads all day – It’s still probably the best VIP car in the UK in my opinion.
With Wembley being located in jolly old London, we were treated to regular reminders of the great British weather. Instead of getting wet I took refuge under the Touge Speed Shop tent.
This gave Gareth (aka Mr. Touge Automotive) the perfect opportunity to practice his sales pitch on me and show me some of Touge’s latest wears.
The wall of multi-coloured zip ties was particularly hypnotising.
Outside the Hellaflush show area, a gathering of GT-Rs attracted quite the amount of attention. Does it get better than a Bayside Blue R34 GT-R?
I never quite appreciated the R33 Skyline like I do the others but in GT-R guise, it’s still a special car.
Julian Smith from Garage D unveiled his recent sponsorship deal with Mac Tools on one of his ER34 Skylines. He told me to ‘watch this space’ in the near future for something special …
Japanese Performance Parts – sponsors of Walton Smith who drives an RB25 powered Impreza in the Drift Allstars Series – hosted a full audience all day and it’s no wonder with cars like this Work wheels wearing GT-R.
Although the weather did its best to spoil the event, you can always count on the Players’ Audi RS4 Avant to brighten up your day.
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Paddy McGrath