Xtreme Wheels - Alexandra Palace
12th - 15th February 2004

The Xtreme Wheels show had been built up with a hard-edged advertising campaign and a level of hype normally reserved for a Tyson fight, but did it live up to its heavyweight expectations? Read on.

It had been billed as the ultimate collection of extreme machines from Drag Racing, Hot Hatch, Imports, Street Rods and Bikes.

We, and the guys n girls from the NSRA, were asked to set up on the Thursday, we were given good size stands to display the cars on, and the guys from Ally Pally helped out whenever we asked.

The NASC stand had Keith Smith’s MK10 Jag, Julian Gardner’s ’69 Pro Street Camaro, Larry Ward’s El Camino, Gina (I’ve changed sides) Middleton’s Chevy pick up, Garry Layton’s Chevy Nova, Jim Mgee’s Pro Street Corvette and Roy Walker’s Mk1 Cortina, and I must say that all of them made a great effort in making the NASC stand look fantastic!!

The show used two of the halls, with a good mix of machinery, the main hall, where all the Dragsters and Hot Rods were, was as full as it could have been, but the second hall, with the Hot Hatches and Imports did look a bit sparse, the BHRA had their Scalextric Drag strip in there, which seemed to be pretty busy most of the time. The MMA had an impressive stand in there too, I must mention that the MMA pick of the show was a beautiful Nissan Import, built by Kream Developments, a bold choice from guys who obviously know what they’re talking about, well done

Saturday was very quiet, but Sunday made up for that, with people flooding in all day, and as at the NEC Classic Car Show it was great to see Mr Joe Public drooling over our type of cars. Prize giving was at 2.30 on Sunday afternoon, so all the public were able to watch.

WARNING!! At this point I am openly going to blow our own Trumpet (and I don’t care if that makes me look Shallow). Every one of the quality cars on the NASC stand won a Trophy (and yes I am including Roy’s Bling award - given by the NSRA, paid for by everyone else!!) So stand up and take a bow boys, on top of that the hard working Guys n Girls on the NASC stand deservedly won BEST CLUB DISPLAY!! (Put that in big letters so Dave can read it !!).

Thanks to Susie for helping on the stand on Press Day at short notice, and the new Miss NASC 2004, Lisa, who worked her perfectly formed butt off all weekend, for those unfortunates who missed her at Ally Pally, you’re gonna see more of her at NASC events throughout the year. That’s a promise!!
So, what did we learn at Xtreme Wheels, well…. The NSRA’s attempts at abducting an NASC person from a stage are appalling! And NEVER ask Gina to play the Piano.

Well done to Terry and all at Xtreme Wheels 2004 and let’s hope we see the same show in 2005.

Words and some pictures by Mark Ashman, and thanks to Neil Boyle of Braking Zone for the others. See [www.braking-zone.com] for more information