The Sun always seems to shine when it comes to a Modified Live event, pretty much every minute of every round has seen us basking in the warm sunshine, shorts on and suncream applied and our weekend at Cadwell Park for the Summer in the Park instalment of these awesome shows was no exception!
With so much action happening within the Time Attack paddock alone, it would be easy to miss out on some of the other parts that make these shows what they are, but fortunately for you we strive not to miss a thing, giving you a chance to relive the entire show should you feel you have missed something.
One of the biggest crowd pullers outside of the Time Attack, is the Pirelli European Drift Championship, now although the EDC doesn’t float our boat as a championship, one thing that can’t be denied is the talent and showmanship that is brought to each and every round and at Cadwell it just makes it that little bit more special.
The track the drifters use works its way through the Hall bends, one of the toughest sections to just drive through without the added element of ripping up the handbrake and sliding through sideways! Ok, so there were a few of the drivers getting it wrong and on occasions landing only centimetres away from me and Coop on the tyre wall, but it all adds to the attraction!
Eventual winner was Steve Wills in his pretty epic turbocharged E36 M3, but with strong competition from drivers synonymous with drifting such as Brett Castle, Paul Conlan, Andy Cooper and Vincent Noot, Steve had to raise the bar on his drifting right to the top level.
Another attraction that has crept in to Modified Live is the chance to get out on the circuit for yourself in the form of 20 minute public track time, it’s something that has gone down really well with the sessions quickly becoming full of revved up petrol heads hoping to emulate the stars of the Time Attack! It’s mega value and a real experience, and we should know as we sent one of our team; Coop, out to put his Yaris through its paces. (Once we’d taken the time to track prep it for him of course – Chris)
If all this action was too much for you then the show side was equally as busy, with a wide variety of traders selling parts from I.C.E through to microfibre cloths and some sexual carbon fibre goodies! There was also an abundance of clubs making the trip to Cadwell, including eventual inter-club Tug of War winners; Midnight Modified. It’s games and competitions like this that are missing from all the other shows, Modified Live really is trying to put an emphasis on a complete package and to us it’s working wonderfully!
Kleers, as always, were on hand to provide the main focus of the show area; the Show and Shine. Kleers are fast becoming known for their ever increasing range of quality detailing products and are more than happy to have a leisurely chat with you as to what each product can do and even have a go with them on your own car! Main man; Rob spent a good half an hour with me and my car trying some of his products on a particularly stubborn area until we got it right.
The quality on display was high as usual; winners included Ash Busby’s Honda Civic in the Best Euro Styled class, that car can’t seem to go anywhere without picking up some silverware at the moment! The JDM class award was taken by Adam Coult’s stunning R33 Nissan Skyline and the Modified Class was scooped by fellow Fast N Modded member Danny Clarke and his Clio. Retro Modified prize went to a sweet BBS rimmed Mk2 Golf with a 20v conversion and the Best in Scene saw Danny’s Clio take home its second prize of the day. The big news however, saw me, yes me, win the Performance Modified class with my 200SX, leaving me a very happy boy indeed!
Finally, if the day didn’t see enough action already, we were treated to a couple of thrilling races involving classic shaped Minis! The Mighty Minis and Super Mighty Minis did battle round the track, cocking wheels, pushing and shoving and providing thrilling entertainment to all those who had stayed to await the Time Attack finals! These things really are mental, the grip they have is unreal and the lap times mind-blowing considering their fairly feeble power output and it wouldn’t be Mini racing unless one ended up on its roof, which is exactly what happened and with the driver walking away unharmed it’s a testament to the safety that’s involved with the series!
A brilliant day out was had by all, and even the sunburnt necks couldn’t ruin our spirits! Without blowing our own trumpets too loud, I’m positive that NO other website in the country can give you the coverage we can, we’re reporting constantly on the main events, have pics to back it up, as a collective we experienced the track session and won a Show and Shine trophy, there really is no one more complete than the Garage Awesome team and the simple reason behind it all is because we do it because this is what we love doing, we’re not paid to do it, were not told to do it, we do it because we want to and Modified Live really is our favourite place to exercise this passion! See you all at Anglesey!
Words – Ollie // Pictures – Ollie, Rich, Aidan & Chris
