Modified Live! Brands Hatch 2011

Modified Live shows are held at regional race circuit venues taking place around the UK which are run to gather and celebrate all things Modified. Designed entirely to breath new life into the aftermarket modifying scenes and to give a welcome home to the guys and girls that share the same underlying passion to stand out and be different.

My Day started early (especially for a Sunday) at 5:30 AM. Happily I had gone to the effort of preparing all the usual crap to take with me (food, map and camera) the night before. So it was alarm, smoke, wash, shave and out the door and I was on the road by 6. Brands Hatch race circuit is a reasonably short jaunt around the M25 about 75 miles each way, I wasn't expecting to see a lot of traffic at that time on a Sunday and I was the third in our group to turn up.

It is quite a big show, although in some respects not all that impressive by the volume of people there, although perhaps I am being influenced by shows like 'Japbash' which are huge. Additionally although there was a very good mix of cars there, a lot of them were nothing to write home about. I did get to find out more about the wider car modding community though and wasn't aware of how many non make specific groups existed. Some of these groups are the strangest of tribes, young, tough men with shirts off and girl 'groupies'. Hair bleached to within an inch of it's life and fat wobbly thighs fighting to escape too tight hot pants.  Judging by some of the tattoo's I can't help but wonder what they will be like when they are older.

The Skyline Owners Club Stand did some swift business with the general public and the cars received a lot of attention, although we did have a very good area to display in and were not (as in most cases) shoved into a corner. We were parked up opposite a bank of trees (alas not offering us shade) these were shedding fluff like snow, which was catching on the breeze and generally blowing about. Of course the high polish of the cars attracted this stuff and we soon had a display of ever so slightly furry Skylines.

The weather remained sweltering hot and it was difficult in the afternoon to go for a walk without feeling like you were crossing the desert. Although a few emergency ice creams helped keep me going (the ones with a bit of chocolate flake in!). I drank plenty of pop and found that surprisingly things do stay lovely and cool in the boot of the car!

I did watch a bit of drifting, although the track action isn't all that exciting as no one actually races each other and it is all based 'on the clock'. Drifting although fun to watch can also become tiresome after you have seen ten minutes of it.

I did make a short film of the stand which you can find here.

And took a fair few photos and if you can stand it, these can be viewed here