AusGarage Motor Show
AusGarage were lucky enough to have Lewis Vaughn ( Metal Made Beautiful ) up from Sydney for our first Motor Show in Brisbane. Below is his write up of the event, Lewis will be doing feature blogs for AusGarage in the future so you will be sure to see the name around in the coming weeks.
February 1st 2014 now marks the very first Ausgarage Motor Show, something I am happy I was able to witness firsthand. It was a fantastic event to say the least. Hundreds of people, ranging from enthusiasts to average families attended the event that is now known as one of the biggest up and coming events in the Australian car scene, which I will look forward to every year from now on. From an RC drifting track provided by Millenium Raceway to a crazy trials bike showcase from Flair Action Sports, there was something for everyone. Even a vintage Chevy Impala for my girlfriend to ogle. Although this was the first Ausgarage Motor Show and I think it’s safe to say that it went extremely well. Everyone was having a blast. I know I was enjoying the cars, having a chance to talk to various local business owners and especially the dyno competition.
One of my favourite things about the event was the amount and variety of cars that were on display. There was no shortage of sports, import, tuner, exotic and vintage cars. A stand out for me was the 71′ Skyline GTX (pictured above) which is one of my all time favourite cars that I never thought I’d be able to see, let alone say I’ve been inside one. Although now I can say and couldn’t be more happy about. Other standout cars at the show included a Lexus LFA, Ferrari F430, 1964 Ferrari 330GT, Mercedes 300SL, Roger Lago’s Lamborghini Gallardo GT3, Nissan GTR, Chevrolet Impala, Audi R8 V10, and a number of other cars that I will feature in the Ausgarage Motor Show Gallery.
Another great thing about an event like this is the amount of businesses that had set up trade stalls to visit. Mercury Motorsport, Drift Syndicate, 999 Automotive, Slide Industries, Koya Wheels, Grunt Files, Exclusive Wraps, East Coast Customs, Sideways Motorsport, Timeless Car Cleaning and Automotive + were all there and I was lucky enough to have a good chat to a few of them about what they do. It was great to see the other side of what makes this industry tick. I know a lot of people prefer to DIY when it comes to upgrading, painting, modding and all things cars, but these businesses are the life of our scene when you think about it. Without these businesses getting involved in events like this we wouldn’t have the strong scene that we have in Australia. All of the people I had time to speak to were really friendly and understanding considering I don’t know that much about how all these businesses work but I definitely see how lucky we are to have such friendly people running the automotive industry.
(Photo Care of Jack Duff Photography)
It wasn’t all waffling about performance tuning and drooling over cars though, there was plenty of entertainment with the Flair Action Sports trials bike display. I’m actually quite a fan of push bike trials riding and have always wanted to get into it myself but never had the guts, so this was pretty exciting for me to watch. Let me just say that they are some crazy and talented dudes, I just can’t get my head around some of the manoeuvres they pulled off seemingly without effort. They had a full course (if that’s what you’d call a 3m high shipping container with crazy ramps around it?) set up at the event which was pretty impressive. I’m glad the guys were there to break up the car eye candy. As much as I love talking for hours and hours about cars, it was quite nice to go sit down, take a break and watch some truly incredible stunts. You can check out the FLAIR TRIALS BIKE GALLERY HERE.
Another awesome feature of the show was the dyno competition, I probably would have called it a “let’s see if we can blow everyone’s ears competition” because the sheer level of noise that was coming from that display was insane! Seriously, I was at least 20m away with a bottle of water and one of the cars shook the bottle, it was like that scene from Jurassic Park with the cup of water but way more violent. Not to mention the ringing in my ears which is still pretty loud but it was all definitely worth it! The highlight for me was when one of Downshiftaus’ feature cars of the show, an R34 GTR Skyline with the number plate “GODZLR” (I love that ha ha!) nearly ran off the dyno rollers. Luckily the straps caught it and no one was hurt, nor was the car damaged beyond the bumper being pulled off. You can view the video below, the video doesn’t quite convey how scary that was but you get the idea. There was many entries in the dyno comp and all of the cars performed greatly, a real display of their owners dedication to making them the epic monsters that they are.
Video of GODZLR on dyno // Video
Here are the winners of the competition:
Category: 4 Cylinder
Winner: Glenn Ross’ MY06 Subaru WRX STI with 320AWHP
Category: 6 Cylinder
Winner: Mercury Motorsport’s R34 “NITTO” with 916RWHP
Category: 8 Cylinder
Winner: Craig Barrass’ VF GTS with 496RWHP
The overall winner was the yellow R34 GTR known as “NITTO” putting out 916RWHP at only 36PSI with wheel spin! (I’ve seen videos of it going over 1070AWHP) That is almost Bugatti Veyron territory! I was sitting very close to the car on its first run and managed to get a video, which you can view below. I had to turn the mic sensitivity on the camera right down to get it to even record the sound and I couldn’t stay for a second run cause I was legitimately worried I would explode.
*Disclaimer: You may want to turn your volume down before clicking the video below…
Nitto // Video
Ausgarage hit the nail on the head here and I am really excited to see how they step it up for the next show. Bringing businesses and fans together under the one roof is something you don’t see often but I think it’s a really good mix. Not only do you get to see all the amazing cars, you also get to have a good chat to the people behind it all which is something I have never really had a chance to do until this event.
Check out Ausgarage’s Website for more information about what they do, upcoming events and all the local businesses you may not know about!
Words //Lewis Vaughn