Ultimate Stance 2018
Published November 6th, 2018
Words and Photography: Michal Fidowicz
And just like that, the 2018 season has flown by. It’s funny how it happens to end in the same place it starts at, and of all places for it to be Telford. The great thing about Telford is that it has one pub and one club, which are both next door to each other. So when it comes to making a night out of the weekend, you’re bound to end up at the same place as all of your friends, and their friends, and so on.
There’s also a fairly sized shopping center 2 minute walk from the show ground too. This comes in handy on Sunday morning when the nearby road system goes into melt down from everyone trying to find a place to park as it’s a place to find a spot.
The show itself is a good recipe – has both an indoor and outdoor area, no restrictions on vehicles and is by now a well established to have a generally good quality of cars.
This year round there’s no difference. Let me show you some of the stuff that was outside first.
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One thing that has most definitely changed this time around though is my coverage. You’ve probably noticed by now that these photos are in portrait. I’ve never done portrait show coverage before, but it’s definitely something that I’ve enjoyed trying out. The world is now mobile, and making this article phone scroll-able friendly is important to me, and hopefully gives you a better viewing experience.
This, and the Instagram algorithm prefers it – I guess it’s definitely harder to innovate if the brief never changes, and this time round I understand why it has.
Back to the cars, one of my favourites from the outside has to be this subtle OEM+ E34 525i. Lovely spec, white exterior with black leather and the smooth 6 cylinder motor.
Definitely a satisfying car to look at.
There was definitely a nice amount of cars with Candy stickers hovering about… I’ll get into that later!
Loads of cool static motors about outside this year, I’m a sucker for anything on coilovers as not everyone has the minerals to commit to a constant set height. Take a look at these…
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Japanese Road Atlas just in-case you get lost.
All in all, I was quite impressed with the show and shine area. Definitely a lot of photogenic cars for me to glance over.
With this said, this yankie import Accord coupe is my favourite car from the outside. Absolutely lovely combination of paint and wheel choice, and goes to show once again that taking something absolutely unseen and tweaking it about will create something people want to gaze at. Whoever pulled this together, well done.
And just about here, it started to rain even more so I swiftly made my way inside. On the way in I was greeted by some nice machines.
As I entered the darker rooms of the Telford center I’ve started to notice that my camera gear is really getting dated. It’s tricky to make the photos look nice and bright without them being too grainy… perhaps something I can sort out for myself over the winter break.
Anyway, let me show you some of the stuff inside!
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That picture of West’s E30 might be one of my favourite pictures I’ve taken. With this being the last show of the year it’s fitting to look back at all the stuff Candy has been up to, along with everyone we know. West spent a good few years piecing this thing together and seeing it at the last show here on the Auto Finesse stand gives me a nice metaphor for how being patient and making the most of something you’re passionate about will give some great results. This is something I’ve seen from a lot of people this year, which already gets me excited to see how everything grows in 2019.
This year there was a cool collection of Imps all parked up together. Bizarre little motors, but I know there’s a massive community behind them that know these things in and out as if they were a Lego toy. I kind of want one, they look fun to drive.
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This brings me back to my original point of seeing the Candy products about more often. The amount of support I’ve been getting on these articles and over on our store is incredible, and there’s too many people to thank for all the help. It’s very humbling but equally exciting, and I’ve got more bits and bobs planned in the future and over winter. If you’re a customer or a visitor of our site this year, thank you – hopefully I’ll be in a position next year where the content will continue to grow in quality and quantity. I won’t give too much away for now though…
The audacity of the camber on this MK4… absolutely spot on car, love the little details on it too like the USDM bumpers and the white headlight trim. Top stuff.
Josh’s Tercel looking very… shiny? No clue why he’d polish it, I think the patina was a very valuable part of the build and gave it character – absolutely clueless move if you ask me.
I’ll wrap up this piece here, and I’ll leave you with 3 photos from the carpet hall – check out that bagged Volvo with the chrome tints – talk about baller spec! I found the lighting in there really did not like my camera, so I couldn’t do much.
Thank you for all your support this show season. While there are no more shows until 2019, there is definitely plenty more that we will be getting up to between now and Ultimate Dubs.
Next clothing drop is going to be for Christmas and will be dropped on the 1st of December. See you then!
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Click here to read our last coverage, Players 12.0
