21st Feb '05 - Extreme Wheels Review

After a rather frantic day on Friday when nothing really went quite to plan and we ended up arriving at Alexandra Palace to set up at 10pm rather than the previously estimated 7:30, Saturday morning was actually quite a relaxed affair in comparison and we arrived at the Xtreme Wheels Show in plenty of time to meet our good friend Adonis Aristidou and his family, who had responded to our request for members to help at the show. We would like to take this opportunity to extend our sincere thanks to them for all their help and for feeding us on Saturday.

The two large exhibition halls contained some of the best looking hot rods, customs, VW's (both air-cooled and of the more modern variety), american cars and trucks, bikes, modifieds/hot hatches and drag racing machinery from the UK and Europe, in very well presented displays which afforded plenty of space for the visiting public. The main entrance to the show featured the Santa Pod Raceway Fuel Funny Car and the lobby had a fantastic display of Tot Rods which left us all wishing we were eight years old again.

We were at Xtreme Wheels in association with Santa Pod Raceway, whose stand was adjacent to the main stage where London R&B and Hip Hop station, Choice FM were entertaining the audience along with everyones favourite drag racing commentator John Price. We had managed to finish off the current phase of work on the fansfueler Top Fuel Simulator on Friday morning so it was still very much "fingers crossed". In the actual event it turned out to run fine and the only problems we had were the power source, but thanks to Paul Marston we were soon up and running again.

The simulator proved to be a big draw and saw the Santa Pod stand getting very busy when it was in action with the public queing to get into the hotseat. The simulator also had quite a number of celebrity drivers over the weekend with Richard Blackwood and his partner in crime Kat B of Choice FM both trying their hand at being a top fuel driver along with, from the world drag racing, Santa Pod commentator John Price, Nitro FM's Naughty Nigel and Anthony Cohen of American Car Imports Racing. John also returned to the fansfueler stand to commentate on the simulated match races between real life top fuel pilots Darryl Bradford and our own Barry Sheavills which had to be one of the highlights of the show for us. These were the results:

Barry making the quickest run of the weekend in his first round match but it wasn't quite enough to catch the very on-form Bradford who got the holeshot by just short of a tenth of a second. The second round match up was a great battle with Darryl away first again but Barry making up ground on him quickly until the car drifted out of the groove at 1000ft and hazed the tyres, whilst Darryl went straight down broadway dropping a couple of cylinders just before the finish line, but staying out infront for a 2:0 victory for the weekend.

Saturday night saw the fansfueler team accompanied by the victorious Darryl Bradford, head off to the Ace Cafe, along with many of the hot-rodders, racers, and bikers exhibiting at the show. It was great to see quite a few rods and yanks in the car park adding even more to the great atmosphere at the Ace as did the band "The Surfing Gorrillas", exponents of the long lost art of the instrumental surf sound. The Ace was really heaving but we still managed to find a seat and order some food and partake of a few beverages.

Sunday at the show was even busier with even greater visitor numbers than the previous day, but looking at the machinery on display there was no wonder. The stars of the show for us had to be Danny Cockerill's new '57 Chevy Blown Pro-Mod with its stunning Wacky Shack paint and "Hot Rod of the Year", Leif Tufvesson's Volvo based contempary hand built Coupe, but there were so many great looking vehicles the judges must have had a really hard time finding the right home for the trophys. Deserved winner of "Best in Show" was Nigel Lockley's 34 Ford "Zipper" a modern take on a traditional hot rod with full fenders and a modern bubble roof, the attention to detail was stunning.

Amongst the drag racers taking home awards were the aforementioned Danny Cockerill for his Tri-Chevy, Rob Smallworth for his earlier '55 Bel Air and "Crazy" Chris Hartnell and his partner Claire Meadows took home the Anya Yates "With You All the Way" award for their dedication to drag racing.

There was a large amount of interest in the fansfueler project over the weekend, with enquiries from potential members and sponsors and Barry also gave a number of press interviews. It was also great to see quite a number of our already pledged members who came along for a chat and to offer moral support.

All that is left to do is to thank Terry and Tina Gibbs and all at Xtreme Wheels for inviting the fansfueler project to be part of their show and to all at Santa Pod Raceway for their continued support and assistance.

A full gallery of pictures from Xtreme Wheels will be available soon...

We were very pleased to be able to present the prize to our winner in person, on stage at Alexandra Palace. Unfortunately in the rush to pack-up and leave the event we managed to misplace the winners details. But after a number of phone calls our good friend and ace commentator John Price passed on the information that the winner was Mr G Brown (fingers crossed!).

Fansfueler team principal Barry Sheavills presented the prize of a voucher worth up to £1000 towards wheels and tyres from our partners AEZ.

We will be posting a full report and pictures from the show on Wednesday.

Barry Sheavills and the fansfueler team will be at the Xtreme Wheels International Show at Londons' Alexandra Palace next weekend where we will be promoting fansfueler in association with Santa Pod Raceway. This really is the last chance to meet the team and become a fansfueler founder member.

From the conventional to the collectable, the weird to the wonderful, Xtreme Wheels International – taking place at Alexandra Palace on the 19th and 20th February 2005 – will ‘inspire and wow’ with its presentation of automotive power, bringing together under one roof the most exciting mix of extreme machinery imaginable.

From 10,000 horse-powered cars equipped with Strike Fighter jet engines to Top Fuel bikes that hit 100 mph in 1.1 seconds, the very best of European drag racing, hot and street rods, custom and performance cars will be represented alongside the UK’s top mods, imports, paint jobs and chrome.

The 2005 show promises two days of wall-to-wall motoring madness with live action, demos, trade stands and glamour!

XTREME WHEELS INTERNATIONAL IS A MUST FOR ALL MOTORING ENTHUSIASTS WITH AN EYE FOR THE UNUSUAL AND WHO BREATHE THE FUMES OF THE PIT LANE.

Once again, thanks to our good friends at AEZ/Wheelwright and generous fansfueler member Gary Simes we will be raffling a £1000 voucher towards wheels and tyres which can be purchased from any Motorworld store. Its a great prize, so be sure not to miss out on this great opportunity whilst helping the fansfueler project towards its target. We will announce the winner at the end of the day on Sunday at Alexandra Palace and here on the fansfueler website on Monday 21st Feb.

Also if there are enough hours in the day between now and Friday, we may have a sneek preview of the fansfueler Top-Fuel Simulator which we are hoping to have at events this summer. If its finished in time maybe we can persuade Barry and Andy Carter into an off season match race!

As always when we are promoting the fansfueler project at an event we would ask all fansfueler members if they would consider giving us that bit extra support by coming along and helping us with spreading the word. If you would like to join us for the weekend just drop us a quick email and we are sure we will be able to find you a job to do!