The best modified street cars are inspired by racing cars. The Sparco seats you sit on, the big brakes that glint between the spokes of your alloy wheels, the carbon fiber, the wing, the asphalt-scraping air dam-they were all developed for competition cars way before anyone thought they'd look good on a street car. So, if you're hunting for the next wave of import car design developments, it's a good idea to go to a show in the center of the world's motorsport industry-Britain.
One look at Autosport's halls and you know it's hard-core. The place is packed with pure performance engineering. There are seven stands displaying just universal joints and track rod ends, a dozen manufacturers showing only radiators, and other companies that manufacture nothing but carbon-fiber fuel tanks. However, a car is more than a sum of its parts and some of the finest race cars and their road-based half-brothers were in attendance.
Rallying is huge in Europe and it influences the looks of a great number of modified street cars. At the Autosport show, there were established favorites like the WRC Focus and brand-new racers like the Opel Corsa kit car. The Corsa is made by GM. It's about the size of a Geo, but it has a mean streak the width of a football field. European modifiers go mad for the little Corsa and this look will undoubtedly be copied soon.
Track racers were also on the floor. The new touring cars that were unveiled were mind-blowing. Think wide arches, simple black OZ rims, and track-hugging body kits. What a joy. Watching these beauties beat the hell out of each other.
Ford had the biggest stand. The little Ka (which is about the size of a Mini) and curvy coupe Puma are models the American market doesn't get. Both were here in race-inspired street trim and looked good. Ford also showed its Focus RS, which goes on sale in the UK in the spring. The RS is powered by a turbocharged 2.0L Zetec engine. The guys at Ford claim a power figure around 200 hp and say it will be priced to compete with the Subaru Impreza (the equivalent of about $33,000 in the UK). Speaking of Subarus, the British love affair with the Scooby continues. Prodrive brought its P1-a 280hp road car and Jun shipped a modified 2001 WRX STi model over just for the show.
But the road car of the show was the Mitsubishi Lancer Evo VI RS450. The four-wheel-drive Evo already has a blown four-cylinder engine to die for. This one, modified in the UK by rally specialist Ralliart, has been extensively reworked and is more powerful than the WRC car it's based on. It produces 410 lb/ft of torque and, although the engineers were being very British and reserved about power figures, the 450 in the 'Bishi's name refers to the bhp this monster will potentially make. It's a conversion based on the Evo VI GS-R, and a car built to this spec will cost close to $100,000. That's a hell of a lot of cash, but this could easily be the ultimate road car.
From the very beginning, the Auto-sport show was originally aimed at race car builders, but the car-modifying public caught on fast. Now, the road cars steal a lot of the competition car's thunder.
This British event is a lot stuffier than a normal car show. There's no atmosphere and if most of the showgoers walked into a Hot Import Nights event, they'd have a heart attack. But the Autosport show is still perfect for getting that spark of inspiration that will make your car stand out on the street.