X-Treme Car Show 2012 ... Report/Pictures

So this weekend I headed on a Norwegian Air flight to lovely Helsinki for the X-Treme Car Show 2012, in the Helsinki convention center. My rather wonderful PA(wife) booked me a room in the Holiday Inn right next to the venue, so even though I arrived at about 2pm on the Saturday I still had time to head into the first day of the show and have a look around.

The view from the stairs

IMG_7184 by RetroSceneMag, on Flickr


IMG_7183 by RetroSceneMag, on Flickr

It has been a long time since I've been to an indoor car show (other than Volksworld which has its own issues) so I was interested to see how it all worked and what was cool and what was not cool about it. First things first before looking at any more photos, not cool : photographing cars was hard, the light, the angles, the low barriers (they weren't as bad as the stand markings at Volksworld, but occasionally annoying for those important wheel shots), so my photographs are not the best you will ever see.

The show is divided into three halls, the first big hall in the pictures above houses the Custom, Hot Rod, Motorbike, American car and Truck (yes truck!) displays. The second hall houses the modern stuff, plus the youngtimer (retro to us) things. The third hall is a big stage area that had some live things on as well as their awards (and a fashion show of some sort!? It was in Finnish, I had no idea what was going on, so I went and looked at cars again).

Let me just pull out some of my favourites from hall 1, rods, customs etc.


IMG_7044 by RetroSceneMag, on Flickr


IMG_7076 by RetroSceneMag, on Flickr


IMG_7086 by RetroSceneMag, on Flickr


IMG_7093 by RetroSceneMag, on Flickr


IMG_7295 by RetroSceneMag, on Flickr

^^^^ Was on the back of this

IMG_7134 by RetroSceneMag, on Flickr

The quality of stuff being produced in the Nordic region is amazing, their Rods and Customs seem to be every bit as good at those being produced in the US, some really stellar works being done and some great ideas being applied.


Then it is time for the second hall... this was much more Max Power than Retro Cars it has to be said. Whilst their Rods and Customs are well on the cutting edge of quality and ideas their more modern stuff seemed to lag a few years behind what we're doing in the UK, Belgium and the Netherlands. The build quality was good, but the styling was... interesting. So I'll just pick out some highlights of the cooler stuff.


IMG_7264 by RetroSceneMag, on Flickr


IMG_7261 by RetroSceneMag, on Flickr

^^^ Pillarless fun (horrible lighting)

IMG_7049 by RetroSceneMag, on Flickr

Came over from Germany

IMG_7276 by RetroSceneMag, on Flickr

USDM

IMG_7273 by RetroSceneMag, on Flickr


IMG_7330 by RetroSceneMag, on Flickr


IMG_7118 by RetroSceneMag, on Flickr

I wondered which came first when I saw this :

IMG_7048 by RetroSceneMag, on Flickr


There was also a little display of cars under the seats of where the stage stuff was which included :

IMG_7066 by RetroSceneMag, on Flickr


IMG_7403 by RetroSceneMag, on Flickr

And this pair of lowriders which won prizes:

IMG_7405 by RetroSceneMag, on Flickr

In an awards ceremony that looked like this :

IMG_7344 by RetroSceneMag, on Flickr
Check out all those trophies!


Back in the Hot Rod area there were a few pin stripers doing their trade :

IMG_7211 by RetroSceneMag, on Flickr

This custom monkey bike seemed to get a lot of work done over the Sunday

IMG_7308 by RetroSceneMag, on Flickr

Ended up looking like this

IMG_7408 by RetroSceneMag, on Flickr


IMG_7409 by RetroSceneMag, on Flickr

^^^ That signature belonged to this chap :


IMG_7423 by RetroSceneMag, on Flickr
... yes the out of focus one (stupid depth of field)

That is John D'agostino from Kustom Kars California. He was part of the judging panel, as well as signing stuff and generally being a pretty cool guy. He also bought along a couple of rides with him :

IMG_7424 by RetroSceneMag, on Flickr

and


IMG_7243 by RetroSceneMag, on Flickr


I stayed around for most of the Sunday, just checking out details on cars and trying to get photographs that weren't rubbish (and failing). So here is a quick selection of my favourite cars (having seen them all multiple times!) :

Nothing says SERIOUS RACE CAR like being made entirely out of carbon fibre:

IMG_7121 by RetroSceneMag, on Flickr

Finally seen this in the flesh/metal

IMG_7094 by RetroSceneMag, on Flickr

Really pleased with this photo

IMG_7314 by RetroSceneMag, on Flickr

Devil/Detail

IMG_7421 by RetroSceneMag, on Flickr


IMG_7351 by RetroSceneMag, on Flickr


My car of the show was this :

IMG_7322 by RetroSceneMag, on Flickr


IMG_7156 by RetroSceneMag, on Flickr

I loved it very much indeed... I kept coming back to stare at it more and more through the weekend... brilliant. I wanted to take it home!

Talking of which,.. it soon came time for us all to file out as the stands started to get taken apart :

IMG_7426 by RetroSceneMag, on Flickr

... then I headed back up to my hotel, made a cup of tea (in the true British manner) and watched some of the exhibitors drive out the convention centre and down the road in front of the hotel.

Loads more photos here, including some choice stuff I've not included in the report :
www.flickr.com/photos/retroscenemag/sets/72157631399598132/with/7928420708/

Website for the show : www.x-treme.fi/tapahtuma/xcs2012

I'm giving serious consideration to returning to it next year, it was a lot of fun... and catching up with my Finnish friends is always good, even if it did play havoc with my sleeping plans!