Modified Nationals 2008
Adam Rayner had such fun poncing around at the Modified Nationals that he suffered a bad case of comedown afterwards. Here’s why
Some years back a stalwart Doncastrian chap was working for a big promoters. The company that bought out the original Doncaster show in fact. Like so many who as they mature decide to take their own experience and create their own enterprise, the No Limits Events and Promotions outfit was set up to run a show of his own with his partner, based entirely upon car club culture and the whole Modified, Tuning and Ice scene, without the custom cars, skinhead scooters or plastic museum pieces with Rolls aero engines mounted in them. In fact the Donington Park show itself evolved in the same direction in time and the report Donny In the Snow, tells of the way the ‘ISTS’ show is now focussed in the same direction culturally as well.
Now in it’s sixth year, the Modified Nationals 2008 was a great fun event and despite it pouring down all through the second day (we had a month’s worth of rainfall in 48 hours) it was handled brilliantly. Lots of the clubs’ cars were moved into the East of England Showground’s cattle sheds! Meanwhile, as regular readers will know, there was a gorgeous and brand new exhibition hall freshly built on the site and whilst I tried my best to persuade the great and good of the 12 Volt trade to go show off their wares, we managed Kenwood and Four and Vibe (Kicker were outside but got rained to oblivion for their pains) and of course Fusion were there as show sponsors with their clever inflatable show facility.
The prize giving was moved indoors into said lovely new hall where Vibe had decided to site themselves and so as the heavens opened, there was a place to go. The best cars in the show had been invited indoors too, so there are some half decent shots of some mad installs to show you in the gallery below.
What was lovely was that despite all the fabulous bling of high end spray art on so many show cars both in and out, the winner of best interior was a Hyundai Coupé belonging to a customer of Paul Richardson at Car Audio Innovations.
If you check out ‘600 Carats of Diamonds’, you’ll learn about why Paul is such a star. Not just a well designed sound system with the top end kit approach nor merely brilliantly installed but done with a true sculptor’s artistry coupled with global-grade excellence as a fine art trim finisher. The guy who won last year’s best interior prize and was hoping to win again was also a CAI car. I guess he should have known that the only person who would be likely to beat him would be a later customer of the same star installer.
Paul’s audio installs are more like a complete integration and interior design job if you go the whole hog. Plus it is also a single-artisan project. All the others are ‘Finished! Let’s go hire a spray artist!’ They do get some sexy results but Paul’s work is simply up there with the finest.
Talk Audio invested in a seriously excellent set of exhibition durables and I phoned a bunch of our site associates up to ask them to send us brochures to give away from our natty media-rack-in-a-case. (Starts as an aluminium attaché case, opens up into a five foot high clear-shelved brochure rack.) Plus, I swagged the use of a superb high output Audemex power supply (125A continuous at the voltage you want) to attach to Iceman’s mad battery bank of stupendous Odysseys.
(www.audemex.co.uk ) Four PC2250 inside and four outside, meant it was not battery power that was running out, so much as Ian deciding the duration limit by his nose. As the sheer amount of power these incredibly complex Orion amplifiers can muster is so massive, it’s like a supercar. If it smells a bit over hot it’s time to stop and let it cool down a little. And at the power he was running his bass the voice coils could be smelt getting a bit exerted.
The level of sound was approaching a continuous explosion though and was making peoples’ clothes jump and start upon their bodies at range. I had to go off and do my compering bit on the live arena before Ian got properly started as this sort of thing has been a sideline for years for me and I’ve worked several of the Modified Nationals before. I had left via a ‘push bar to exit’ door which had shut behind me. As I walked alongside the building towards where I had to be this great throb emanated through the wall, through the solid concrete apron beneath my feet and as well as the steel cladding on the building going ‘Grrr! Grrr!’ the flatbed trailer beside me, which had a big heavy slab of steel on it, vibrated clangorously too. Even out frikkin’-SIDE I knew it was Iceman.
He literally shook the ground.
This of course was quite diverting and to give the show promoter his due respect it was thus one of the coolest shows ever held in the UK. Going to and fro all day as I had to I detected that said metal cladding was buzzing gently throughout so loud was the background hubbub and maybe it’s by design or maybe by accident but it seemed possible for lots of different cars to really drop their bass guts and yet for us all to have a cool time. The hall was only half filled and a great drape was across the entire width, which may well have tamed the acoustics but it is a seriously excellent venue for our purpose. I was expecting Iceman to wake up an Eigentone (those notes that resonate in your space sing ‘whoo’ noises in the bathroom at different pitches and you’ll find that which seems louder) but while we drew an audience at every growl dependent only upon how many were in the hall it didn’t stop others trading. Even Vibe’s truck ran and no one got narked!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jbWlkelSCX0
The stage outside was equipped with a fabulous new pram hood tent thing that even covered a sizeable but close up audience and of course I skated right up to the edge then along it upon my bollocks to run the Bikini Babes’ contest heats and finals. They do have an adult entertainment tent with full-on dance erotica such as one might see in places where they have dance poles installed (fondly referred to by some as the Grot tent despite their eager attendance of same) but the Bikini Babes is about the lass next door and the wannabe model types.
I made the poor loves dance, sashay, booty-shake and even both lap dance some lucky galoot called Patrick out of the audience and also use a sweet young militant lesbian (well she said she was ‘greedy’ in fact which I think meant she was versatile in her tastes) as a pole to dance around. In fact given the choice in the finals of dancing for some bloke or for this terribly sweet and obviously hugely appreciative young libertine, they all chose to dance for the lass who’s web name was simply ‘Nymph’ for obvious reasons. I thought she was a star and an utter sweetie. I didn’t think I’d been anything other than happily celebratory of these nubiles’ loveliness and would never actually ask them to do anything they were not happy with (one lass from Wales said she had a party trick instead of lappy-style and did the splits, ending up as one of the winners. So it didn’t affect judging either) but one bloke came up to me later and in a thickly drunken Scots accent said, ‘YOU, You are the Sleaziest Man Alive. May I shake your hand and can I have my picture taken with you?’ then it sort of descended into Glaswegian unintelligibility.
The babe stage was attended by the firemen (in their trucks) who had demonstrated what they have to do if you get too distracted by funky displays and crash on the motorway, cutting the roof clean off a small hatchback and removing the pretty young things who had volunteered to be the ‘vics’. It was impressive stuff along with the stuntmen in flames, mad-as-a-brush FMX big air freestyle bike lads and of course the sheer daftness of BigFoot #17 and his chums.
On day two the monster truck lads didn’t really get an audience but they went out and ripped the earth to shreds and did nutty doughnuts and even stacked into the barriers flinging a few about in the rain as there was nobody to worry about. It was brilliant. 1,750BHP Nitro fuelled 572cu in. And guess what batteries they use strapped in like hell? Yep same as Talk Audio and Iceman it’s Odyssey!
IASCA boss John Robinson was there in the foul weather when he had left sunshine back home and had a lower than hoped turnout from owners who had wussed out due to a weather forecast! There were some dB Draggers present as well although sadly I wasn’t able to catch up with them what with exhibiting as well as compering three shows a day. One set though I did see. Big old commercial van. In front the cabin with a rear wall covered in amplifiers. At the back, a wall of bass. In between a snug hugsy place with the cooker set up to cook the breakfast and make the big steaming mugs of tea they needed. It was wet but they had their sliding door open and were still warm and dry. Sorted.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tTAlj5RUDf4
Ian spent a large portion of his day allowing girls to experience the hair trick and we videoed a few. I reckon they are intense as any I’ve seen anywhere else. Check out me saying ‘No REALLY Put Your Fingers In Your Ears Girls!’ and they do a split instant before all hell breaks loose and their hair goes out two feet sideways and all over!
In the next hall we had the Max Power cars and DJ Richie Don of UK Pimp My Ride Fame. He checked out Ian and the van on the Talk Audio stand and said ‘It’s beyond crazy on so many levels. Ian, you are a legend!’
And Talk Audio helps carve it deeper
EXTRAS! If you liked the Hair Trick video above, there is an even better one of the same van at the same show here!
And here’s where to click to see a funky cool slideshow in the newly imported gallery system. We LOVE this!
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