Huets Ice Nite FOUR
Two years back, I started an article about these guys like this:
‘As my career in mobile electronics moved into finally joining the Rayner Family Scam of selling words in a row or becoming a journalist, I became aware of the famous operations. Those shops that were head and shoulders above the rest. Those who entered sound off contests. Some even had their own teams.
One of the very best and consistently most successful was that of Huets of the South coast. Two shops in the Brighton area, run by two brothers Chris & Peter. Second generation and raised to the in-car craft by both parents, (like Mark Turner of Enjoy The Drive in Sunderland, who is also second generation and one of the top installers in the UK) I used to rep to the Huets shops when I was on the road for what was then called Electrosystems. But in my new task as a writer, it was clear that their standard of work, their level of expertise put them in an elite group of three along with Prestige and ABC at the time.
While other stars have come and gone to our industry (notably Phil Leach in Manchester) and both their former peers are no longer in in-car (sadly through the untimely loss of one of the industry’s greatest audiophiles Peter Prince) Huets remains as being one of the most recognised sources of top quality kit, advice and craftsmanship.’
And while they prefer the full name, ‘˜Huets The In Car Specialists’ these days, they remain as fervent if not more to the cause and still serve everyone from the regular folks and boomers to those with fleets of elegant Bentleys.
And again, as part of their active efforts to promote their business and garner some recognition for what they do as well as to further enthuse their loyal customer base, they held one of their popular Ice Nites at the Shoreham premises. It was a muggy night after a warm day and I committed a deeply unprofessional sin, not something I do much of. I tend to be early, so arriving late for pathetically under-estimating traffic and it being a big local derby match for the Seagulls versus Crystal Palace, it was in full swing when I got there.
A walk through the Ice Nite 4 Event:
There were deals going down in the shop as well as a contest on a video driving game to win Kenwood prizes. We had cars in the yard all pumping from Alpine, Vibe, Celsus, Pioneer, Kenwood and others including a new crop of VW vans. Turns out that the fabulous levels of craftsmanship and electronics skill required by Vee Dub owners for their van conversions is a perfect fit for the Huets skill set, so I gather they will be fitting some lovely vans out as well as doing all their core stuff in future.
The turnout was serious, one of the very best I have ever seen, since it was so well publicised. This included the Vibe Black Air demo car booming Madeira Drive for a bit, in Brighton nearby, complete with date-and-place-and-time graphics on its flank suggesting you could come and check it right out at the Ice Nite.
A couple of DJs had been brought in to play the Pioneer Brabus smart’s Pioneer CDJ system and although not as loud as some of the monster systems, it was still way beyond cool and the DJ Bass Maja loved it, saying, ‘It’s brilliant, you can drive around to your mates, go out, park up, play a bit of a session. It’s a cool car’
I set up my little PA and inveigled a few folks to get in and try the new DAB radio in the Kenwood smart car and to see how well the Celsus add-on DAB solution for OEM integration works in the company Range Rover, which were near the doorway.
We milled about, enjoyed tunes, scoffed bacon burgers (well, I had one) and there was some Shopping With Attitude carried out. I loved the guys who got the bargain on the Magnat 12×8 ovals!
A cool time was had by all and you can see the whole shoot on a slide show right here:
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Huets The In Car Specialists 01273 441 845
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