You may already be familiar with the successful Tuner Bash Spring Break events that have been happening for several years now. Well, somebody had the bright idea of expanding the concept to incorporate indoor shows as well, and Tuner Bash After Dark, presented by Toyo Tires, was born.
The three-show schedule for 2005 kicked off in May in Seattle, and it also includes Baltimore and Chicago. For more info, go to www.tunerbashevents.com, and make sure you visit at least one of the shows. We've done what we can to round up the best Euros in the area, and there's the promise of show prizes for the best VW and European cars, as well as the chance to scoop Best Crew, Luxury, Paint, Old School and ICE. All these categories receive prize money, including the eurotuner's Editor's Choice, which wins $500 and a photo shoot in the magazine.
With Euros making up almost 20% of the cars on display and being some of the slickest modified cars in the region, we were spoilt for choice when searching for our Editor's Choice. In the end it came down to a three-way decision between a 325i, a Jetta GLI and a Scirocco.
The '92 BMW belonged to Chris Bouchez and featured a custom widebody that was five months in the making. The body was stretched over 17x10" Brock B1 rear wheels, with 8.5s up front. It also featured a custom hood, an E46-style trunk with integrated spoiler and a molded Rieger roof spoiler. The engine had cams, intake, chip and painted covers.
The '90 GLI belonged to Howard Wolf and appeared in our 5/05 issue. The bodywork is pristine and boasts a carbon hood and 16" Abt rims. The interior has been trimmed in a black and white leather combination, but its strongest feature is the 300hp 16v turbo motor with SDS programmable injection and a Spearco charge cooler.
However, both were beaten to first place by Gene Bowling's '85 Scirocco. This car was crammed with excitement, including the Bahn Brenner Lysholm supercharger with Tec3 stand-alone management, dual brake cylinders for adjustable bias braking, five-lug 18" Boyd wheels, a glass-fiber dash from an S10 pickup, a stripped interior with a rear cage and a Rieger widebody kit finished in PPG Lemon Ice paint. The car was beautifully crafted and immaculately presented. In addition to Gene's cash prize, you'll soon be reading about his adventures in a future issue of eurotuner.
Other standout cars included Chelsea Koukol's '99 BMW M Roadster, only this one didn't have a puny 240hp motor. Instead, it packed a 321hp, 3.2 liter European M3 motor and six-speed 'box. Fitted with FK coilovers and 17" Kinesis wheels, Chelsea prefers to use this car on the track rather than at car shows.
At the other end of the spectrum was Caitie Giersdorf and her Louis Vuitton E46 325Ci. The interior had been retrimmed with LV panels, and the logo was cut into the plexiglass window over the amps in her trunk. The car also boasted 19" HREs, a Rieger M3 front bumper, skirts and a molded rear apron.
We liked Blake Stiller's '98 Golf 2.0. He runs Stillbuilt Motorsport and had transplanted a 1.8T with FMIC and 3" exhaust under the hood. It also had 15" Konigs under the fenders and a Mk4 Jetta dash inside.
The red '94 Jetta 2.0 of Jeb Burnett was definitely a show car, complete with Lambo doors and Rieger body kit (Seidl rear). It even had a smoothed trunk lid and shaved rear door handles. Performance was enhanced with a turbo conversion, FMIC and a nitrous system fed by two gas bottles in the trunk. Inside we found a color-matched dash, Sparco seats and a half cage in the rear.