Welcome to the UK’s biggest gathering of modified Japanese cars. Here’s our Japfest 2023 show report, live from Silverstone.
If you’re a fan of Japanese cars, or just modified cars in general, then Japfest is one of the UK’s biggest events of the year. The 2023 edition certainly hasn’t disappointed, but if you couldn’t be with us here today – don’t fret! We’ve got you covered with a run-down of all the major attractions, which we’ll continue to update throughout the day. Enjoy…
Fast Car Paddock – Pit Garage
Where else to start but with our own stand? As ever, the Fast Car paddock is a multi-faceted beast, spanning across pit garages and the great outdoors. Several top tuner cars like this gorgeous Nissan 370z, and an R32 Skyline featured in Fast X, inhabit our garage space. And, as you can see lurking in the background, our ever-popular retro SEGA Rally arcade games have made a return appearance too.
Fast Car Paddock – Outdoors
As you can hopefully tell from the title image we’ve used, the space outside our pit garage is rammed full of epic cars, and a sea of inquisitive crowds. Amongst the carefully-chosen cast of vehicles, you’ll find everything from a Super Touring replica Nissan Primera, to a twin-charged carbon Evo, and a pair of Civics modified by JDM tuning powerhouses, FEEL’s and J’s Racing.
Paul Swift Stunt Show
Renowned stunt driver Paul Swift – and his supporting cast of drivers and technicians – were on hand to wow audiences in our live action arena. His high-octane performances include spectacles such as head-to-head gymkhana battles and… oh, see that taxi in the corner of shot? Yeah, that thing’s a real wolf in sheep’s clothing. Spare a thought for the silver MR2 though – this slide was one of its last before the rear tires went *pop*.
Carly Workshop
German car diagnostics brand, Carly, were here in force, with some impressive cars, impressive guests – and most importantly, impressive tech. Amongst Carly’s collection of vehicles – which were housed right next door to our Fast Car paddock – there were plenty of stars, but perhaps none more so than an AWD-converted DC5 Integra Type R with sequential gearbox and 770hp under the hood! You might recognize it from the Officially Gassed YouTube channel. Speaking of YouTube, Alex Kersten – of Car Throttle and Auto Alex fame – was also hanging out with Carly, available to meet and greet fans. The main reason why Carly were here though, was to show off their latest diagnostic tech with a series of practical demonstrations using the Carly scanner, app, and FK8 Civic demo car.
Anniversary Displays
Plenty of important Japanese tuner cars came together to celebrate big recent anniversaries. The Nissan Skyline, Honda Civic, and Toyota AE86 are all celebrating the big 5-0 (the former very belatedly, we admit), while the Toyota Supra nears its 40th since splitting from the Celica range. As a result, some of the best examples of each lined up along Silverstone’s service roads. A true feast for the eyes for any Japanese car enthusiast.
Auto Finesse Detailing Academy
Car detailing afficionados Auto Finesse returned to Japfest once again this year, taking over Silverstone’s scrutineering bay with an armada of some of the finest modified cars you’ve ever seen. Auto Finesse’s own Pandem-kitted GR Yaris build was one of the headline attractions, as was a former TRAX Select-winning Toyota GR Supra.
Drift Kings
Here’s one for the thrill seekers. The Drift Kings provided an adrenaline-filled show around the Luffield segment of Silverstone circuit, as some of the UK & Europe’s top professional skidders battled it out for supremacy. To give you an idea of some of the monstrous cars that these drivers have been flinging at Silverstone’s unsuspecting apexes, check out this feature we shot of Axel Hildebrand’s 800bhp rotary-powered Kevlar Corvette.
Club Awards
Japfest would be nothing without all the car owners and fans that come to attend, so it’s only right that we shine the spotlight back on you guys and girls as a thank you. The way we do that every year is by handing out a number of club awards; namely, ‘best club’, ‘best regional club’, ‘best one-make club’ – and last but by no means least – the ‘club hero’ award. This year, the ‘best club’ honors went to Cult 86, while the regional award headed the way of Southern Sentai. Meanwhile, Battalion 30-five took the ‘best one-make club’ award.
2023’s Club Hero is Gareth Ashcroft from the Expression Culture group. Gareth’s nicknamed the Honda Guru, so no prizes for guessing where his specialties lie. Throughout the past year and beyond, Gareth has gained a reputation for inclusive leadership and a welcoming brand of knowledge sharing – making him exactly the sort of person that the car community needs more of.
That wraps up our Japfest 2023 show report, so have a scroll through the gallery below to check out some more of our favorite cars from the day. If you came along to visit, we hope you had just as much as fun as we did – see you all again next year!
