Auckland Auto Salon 2003
It was the third consecutive year that the show’s run in Auckland, and with new features and a high-profile Australian show car making the trip over the Tasman, it shaped up to be a good one!
There was a decent turn-out of local cars competing at the two-day show, with Auto Salon taking up three halls of the Greenlane Expo Centre.
Modified cars, car clubs, trade stands and an on-site 2WD rolling road dynamometer soaked up most of the space, with the main stage reserved for DJ demos, break dancing and the return of some lovely ladies for the ever-popular Miss Auto Salon and Teaze Bikini Babe model competitions.
An added extra this year was the Nitro Girls Dane troupe; these girls shook their booties in high-energy, choreographed dance routines to bass-ridden hip-hop beats. Damn! The star attraction, however, was Cyber2, the Australian-built machine brought in especially for this year’s show.
Widely regarded as the most modified Honda in Australia, the Prelude featured a wide-ass body kit, smooth paint, a crazy Lightning Audio stereo set-up, big rims and a race inspired interior. This car was a sight to behold at close hand, but plenty of Kiwi rides had risen to the challenge too, and the quality of the cars on display had feally stepped Up another notch from last year’s show.
A couple of new cars to the show circuit made their very first appearances, and perhaps give a little insight into what the future holds for the custom show car scene in New Zealand. Jetspeed’s JDM Honda Integra came to play with a turbo engine, retrimmed interior and airbrushed graphics, while Dr Bob’s latest creation – Simon’s Cyber-kitted Prelude with crazy green-to-gold flip paint – looks set to be one to beat when finally finished.
Torque Performance brought along its mobile 2WD rolling road dynamometer, which was continually used throughout the event before becoming centre-stage for the Dyno Zone Challenge. Power nut Joe Kyle took out the overall honours in the six-cylinder class, cranking a whooping 380kW at the rear rubber in his R32 Skyline GT-R, followed by Wicky Yeung in his hyperactive turbocharged Honda Civic; he netted no less than 270kW from the EK’s front feet in the four-cylinder assisted FWD class.
Francis Chan’s ASBEE puHed a respectable 240kW in the four-cylinder RWD category, while the ex-F1 ERCE Civic, now owned by Richard from Soundstream Car Audio, managed 129kW from its atmo 2.2-litre engine in the four-cylinder FWD N/A class. Boom fanatics weren’t forgotten either, and were treated to another good оf fashioned ear-bashing at this year’s Auto Salon.
Wiremu, from Big Noise Car Audio, brought his Db Drag Racing rig, and had the roof rumbling in Hall 3 for most of the weekend. Judging was carried out on Saturday evening after the crowds had left, with a good selection of entrants making the grade. Perhaps one of the most prestigious Auto Salon awards is the People’s Choice, a chance for the thousands of spectators who passed through the show over the weekend to cast their vote on the top piece of kit on display.
This year that award went to Michael Rust and his superb candy green R32 Skyline, complete with silky paint, full tan leather retrim, killer JVC in-car entertainment, and now a tuned and detailed engine with Perspex see-through bonnet. Some 70-odd trophies were handed out at this year’s event, but the big one was left to the very end.
The final four nominees battling for the coveted King of Auto Salon crown were Alteef Moses with his superb 2TMPTU Nissan Pulsar GTi-R (as featured a few months back), Advanced Import’s GRACiF? Nissan Skyline (a previous winner of the prestigious title), Jetspeed’s all-new FREAKU Honda Integra with airbrushed graphics and turbo engine, and Michael Rust’s aforementioned EVLR32 Nissan Skyline.
With the judging score tallied it was the green machine of Michael Rust that took out the top honour and no less than four other awards, along with the People’s Choice. A deserving winner, no less!
Source: Performance Car