Gravity 2016
Published July 20th, 2016
With Sonny away on a charity adventure in Africa and Matt being busy on the day, it was down to just me and Will to attend SlammedUK’s first ever show. Usually we have Sonny to drive us to all the shows scattered around England; however this time round it had to be either me or Will. With my car having no 5th gear, we loaded up Will’s £100 Micra and set off on the 200+ mile round trip to Coventry. Being aware that Gravity was the first show from the guys over at SlammedUK we didn’t have our hopes set extremely high. First shows can be a hit or miss, so we were keen to see what would happen. We didn’t know much about the venue either, however we followed the road signs and had no problem on our journey. Upon arrival we were greeted by friendly security and a well organised car park.
Now I mentioned that Will and I didn’t have our expectations set too high. However on the way there I had a nice flick through all the social media platforms and from what I could find, the quality of cars seemed extremely high. It’s safe to when we entered the halls we were surrounded by some of the highest levels of car customisation the UK had to offer. There was no over-saturation of a certain brand or car group, the stands were balanced and the mix of styles on show was perfect. It was quite clear to see that SlammedUK put a lot of effort in selecting the cars they wanted to have at their show. It was definitely refreshing to see all the cars mixed together, without having the cars we’ve seen at previous shows getting the main spotlight again. As we’ve mentioned in previous articles, variation is very important in organising a successful show. I was more than happy to find that Gravity was one of those shows where you could find a Vectra on Alphards or a new Punto on air.
Before I continue, I’d highly recommend watching our aftermovie from the event. You can find it over on our YouTube channel by clicking here, or you can watch it below.
Right, so we’ll start off with the outside area first. The outside area was the smaller part of the venue, however the outside layout kept the same theme of well mixed vehicles as the inside halls did. Our car of the show was actually outside too, so we’ll start off with that. Gaz Smith’s E36 is in my eyes the perfect E36 saloon, everything from the colour to the subtle body extras like the Alpina front lip and small M3 details here and there made the car really stand out to me. It also looks perfect through the lense.
Looking back at my pictures it’s clear that I didn’t capture everything I wanted to from the outside show area. It didn’t help that by the time we got to covering the outside some cars were already heading home. We’ll remember to turn up an hour earlier next year. The sun was shining bright on the day, so we were happy that most of the show was held indoors. Inside the halls we were fortunate enough to finally meet Tom who owns the blue MK3 Golf. Tom ended up winning the free wrap competition organised by SlammedUK, so we are very keen to see what colour he goes for on the Golf. We also finally ended up chatting to Matt who owns the red Mini on our homepage. He came down in his daily Caddy after just returning from a trip to Le Mans in it. Hearing about his adventure made us keen to figure out our own road trip, and hearing his plans for the Mini makes us very keen to shoot it again.
Both of the cars were rocking our Original Candy window stickers which can be purchased from our store, or by clicking here.
One of the cars which really stood out to me and Will was Paul Burn’s E28. It’s agreed by many that the E28 is one of the best looking BMWs ever built, and being the first BMW chassis to wear the M5 badge gives the car a lot of history. Paul has done a wonderful job with this 520, and the car was getting a lot of attention throughout the day.
Another car which made Gravity something more than your average show was Danny’s Corsa B. This thing is in a league of its own and the work that has gone into it is on another level. With gold accents all over the engine bay and the boot build, people were always looking into the car to see what it was all about. The heavily widened arches definitely helped the car grab the attention in the first place too.
In all honesty Gravity was one of those shows where I could say something about every car on display. We were very impressed with the organisation of the whole show and the overall selection of cars on display. The venue was perfect for the event too, and was about a 15 minute drive from the city where we could grab lunch. The trip Will and I made down to KFC that day was one of the funniest lunches I’ve had in a while. Will’s Micra didn’t let us down one bit either. The whole day in general left Will and I in great moods, and we’re already waiting patiently for next year’s show.
As always thank you for reading and I’ll leave you guys with the rest of the photos I got from the day.
Words and photography: Michal Fidowicz
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