Cars we have to drool over in the coming months!

"2004 Highlights from the last year."

Great cars and great modifications. 2004 is the year that modding cars got off the ground in good old blighty. The wildest mod of the moment is Lambo style doors now available for every car imaginable the most popular mod at the moment is Lexus style rear lights but we think that these will be rather passé next year and may see a smoked lens revival or the fitment of LCD black out shutters over the lights.
Let’s have a look at the cars we’ll all be modding over the next year with offerings from the plastic parts bin next year. It is the year of the insane – The Arial Atom one of the fastest most impractical every day drives around we can’t imagine any modification possible for this car as there is nowhere to fit them to for starters and the car doesn’t just turn heads – people stop dead in their tracks and stare as a car with no body shell zooms past to 60 in under 3 seconds!

Renault surprised everyone and actually made a very credible hot hatch the Clio 182 cup (6.7 secs in the 060 sprint) and VW finally deliver a GTi worthy of the badge ditching the dreadful suspension set up of the previous model - we are sure that a wide range of styling parts will be available for the new golf over the next year.

Vauxhall released the Monaro VXR – an Australian super car – rear wheel drive and a very capable muscle car – sadly I can’t find any styling parts specifically for it yet but that might change if enough of them are shifted. Mazda deliver the RX8 in numbers to our shores - a rotary engine super coupe with 1½ doors each side and already the parts shelves are full of tuning options and bodykits. The insanely fast Evo gets a power upgrade in the FQ400 to yes a 400 official bhp’s if you take your FQ320 back to the dealer and ask nicely and wave a wallet of folding stuff, you might be able to get an upgrade. What’s next? Perhaps the FQ500 – I think Mitusbishi's wheel and tyre technology will need to move on to make this practical. Audi’s RS6 Plus takes a supercar engine and chassis and plonks it into a daily hack/work car body to give one of the fastest practical cars you can buy 0-60 in 4.6 secs. The new mini just keeps getting better and better the Cooper S Works 210 sprints to 60 in 6.5 secs we can’t wait for the supercharger to be swapped for a turbo. There are loads of mini styling parts available now and most are reasonably tasteful.

The sport of drifting continues to take the UK by storm with a strong following. The realisation that a relatively cheap to run almost standard car can compete is filling the drift clubs with new recruits. We have an article on the drift scene coming soon.