Ace Cafe London Modified Car Meet
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Event Review
Sometimes I feel ashamed to admit it, but as a youngster I used to treat the monthly issue of Max Power magazine as the bible of modifying. Checking out the show cars, reading the reviews, finding out the answer to the eternal question Pink or Brown?
But, one day the magazine actually proved useful. I was scanning through what’s on this month and saw that there was a meet (Maxin Relaxin) at the Ace Café on London’s North Circular towards the end of the month. I’d read previous reviews of the meet, and was interested in going along and checking it out for myself.
The Ace started out as a Biker’s café in the 50’s and 60’s, and has managed to keep itself in that era with black and white photo’s of some seriously classic motorbikes on just about every bit of free wall space. It has become a Mecca for Bikers, and over recent years, Cars too. There is something on almost every night of the month. With live bands at the weekend and a mixture a cars and bikes throughout the week, it’s a place to suit everybody.
For me, it was straight down the M1 to the very end, turn right at the roundabout, two miles down the road and it’s on the right. . . . . Easy as you like!
I spoke to a couple of my mates about it, but they didn’t want to make the LONG journey to London on a Wednesday night. Me, being the care-free type decided to go along and check it out anyway, then at the last minute, a mate of mine rang me and said he’d join me. And I tell you what, he’s glad he did! We had an awesome night!
100 miles from Leicester down to the bottom of the M1, turn right, 2miles down the road and there it was, the Ace Café in all it’s glory. As we came up the slip road from the North Circular, we saw masses of cars and a sea of people crowding the streets. Down went the windows, up went the stereo, and on went the neon’s! We had to drive across the bridge, then along the front of the Ace, through the crowds of people to turn off up a side street and find a parking space.
Instantly you could feel the atmosphere. You could hear the engines and exhausts, smell the tyres and feel the bass. There was so much going on in the small car park area in front of the Café, my eyes were everywhere and my camera was snapping away. The car park was filled with some of the Max staff cars, some cover cars that I recognised, and some other local talent that had rang and pre-booked a spot on the busy plot. I spotted a Saxo on 19’s, some sleek Jap cars and smoooooth European motors. At one of the Ace Café events I have attended I even spotted R34 Jay, and x Kat x (both GnM members).
When we’d arrived at the Ace the sun was still out (just), and as the evening wore on, the atmosphere of the "cruise" began to kick in. The sun sat lower and lower in the sky, and the neon’s began to glow. Greens, blues, reds, it was a fantastic array of lights, some dancing to the beat of the music, others constant. it set a certain ambiance to the whole event.
After taking a stroll round the main car park, we headed to the road (yes, this is a public road, a main bus route, and a direct route for royal mail lorries to get to their depot just down from the Ace!). Crowds of people filled the pavements, overflowing onto the road, only shuffling back to make way as each car came down the strip at low speeds. There was even a group of people managing to squeeze onto the mini-roundabout at the end of the strip! After a while of people nearly getting dragged under cars, a team of marshals were set out on the road to keep the carriageway clear. This meant that people could start showing a little bit of speed with a short sprint down the strip, others showed off with a rolling burn out, and one fella, on a Yamaha R6 pulled off an awesome wheelie then returned, grabbed a handful of front brake for a stoppie and the submerged the crowds in some sweet smelling Bridgestone smoke with a burnout, leaving a perfect donut of rubber on the tarmac!
Gasping for breath, Rich and I returned to the car park where our attention was drawn to the back of a Toyota Hilux on jacked up suspension. Two ample bosomed women were dancing to the tunes being played from surrounding cars, then they began to kiss (Oh . . . . My . . . . Word)! This then turned into a bit of a dance-off with girls from the crowd getting involved in the action. After a while we turned our attentions to a Subaru Imprezza throwing out 8 foot flames (after all, there’s only so much girl-on-girl action you can deal with in one night)! We decided to return beck to the roadside when we saw a cloud of smoke rising from the roundabout area . . . . . . . Donuts, anyone? A Nissan 200SX was using the mini-roundabout like it’s own personal playground. All other traffic had to wait until this fella had finished his Yoko-burning performance. The control and style that this guy had was to say the least "Damn good". After he had smoked off about a hundred quid’s worth of rubber, the roadway was clear for traffic to move again, until a pair of Ford Sierra’s entered the Drift Arena. They began their drifts in a clockwise direction, it was almost like watching a ballet, the two cars dancing with one another and excellent synchronisation between the two drivers. Then the cars came to a standstill, with the rear wheels still kicking out the intoxicating fumes of Toyo and Michelin, the drivers then got the cars to start drifting again in an anticlockwise direction. Fantastic!
By this time, it had rolled on to around 11o’clock, and I still had a two hour drive back up the M1, and still be up for work at 7am! So we decided to make our way back to the car, once again, we dropped the windows, turned up the stereo, and rolled on through the crowds one last time before heading back home.
An awesome night, definitely an experience.
Over the next few days, I was still buzzing from the show, and was busy telling all my mates what they had missed out on. When I showed them the pics, and told them the stories, they became more and more interested, and asked when I was going down again.
Since that first night, I have been to numerous "Maxin Relaxin" nights, have spoken to some of the Max Power staff (friendly enough chaps), spotted people from GnM, I have even lead my own convoy of 7 cars all the way down from Leicester to go to the event! Unfortunately "Maxin Relaxin" is no longer a feature night at the Ace Café, but they do have something on just about every night of the month. The last event I went to was "Jap Night". But they have French Classic and Modified, German Classic and Modified, America Classics, Promotion Nights for movie releases . . . . They also hold a lot of Motorbike nights there, as they are the roots of the Ace.
Get yourself down there and check it out!
Show report and pictures by Jay (666Styling)
www.ace-cafe-london.com
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Index > Events > 2006 > Ace Cafe London Modified Car Meet
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© Since 2004, Girls N Motors
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