Quarter mile? 5.9 seconds. Japshow, July 2010

Yeah, that seems pretty awesome seen as the average car does it in 20+ but that's what I saw yesterday, now to be known as the best day of my life (in the immortal words of Homer Simpson, so far). We went to see Japshow which was possibly the best suggestion I ever made. It was like being on the film-set of Fast and Furious...gorgeous Japanese tuners as far as the eye could see, stalls selling everything from stickers and LEDs to turbos and bodykits. If only I had a car to put them on! Oh and the NOS, don't get me started, I wanted to buy that just to take with me wherever I went (but decided I'd better get a car first). And the carbon fibre, it was everywhere! Everywhere!

There was more than just looking at these beautiful tuners though, they had drifting (which was bloody good), stunt shows (most of which I missed), people having a go on the quarter mile drag strip (someone had a go in a Yaris, bless him), pros having a go on the drag strip (Jesus, they were fast for Civics, and the car that reared up, wow!) including bikes and proper drag bikes (fastest, 7 seconds) which I naively thought was loud. They were nothing, nothing compared to the jet car. That was the loudest, most terrifying, most awesome thing I've ever seen. It literally was just a jet engine on wheels with a cover over the top and a guy with balls of steel driving. You cannot believe the noise when you're about 10 metres from a jet without wings; it shakes your insides apart. But it was worth it to see something go a quarter of a mile in 5.9 seconds with a speed of 266mph. Twice actually.

There were so many wonderful cars there that I can't possibly mention them all. I will say that on that day, I saw up close and poked my first ever Mustang (which was actually a proper drag car) and I almost died; I'll remember that always. It's not Japanese but I'm glad it was there, I love them. I saw my first Noble, poked my first GTR (low 11 on the strip, stock), and of course, saw a myriad of Imprezas there. I almost passed out with the amount of them! All gorgeous and all unique. Some of the oddest cars there included a Toyota Aristo (rare in itself being a Jap only car) with curtains and an interior worthy of uptown Abu Dhabi, a black Evo with the most fluorescent green paint in existence on it, a car (no idea) with a grille like Hannibal Lecter and an old Supra with a KITT scanner! That was brilliant. I also saw a Scion xB for the first time and while I should hate them, it reminded me of DJ out of Cars so I found it awesome!

If you've made it this far, well done. Feel free to talk to me about it and if you were there (which I doubt but neh) tell me! I know I'm going to be a regular to this show in the future and probably to the Santa Pod Raceway in general. It was bloody brilliant, too much to explain in words. I'll probably be putting some photos of it on my page later so check them out!