Another year, another Ford Fair done, and this year’s show didn’t disappoint. The fantastic weather brought out some cars that are hidden away even if a slight risk of rain, and the organisation seemed to ease the queuing situation of previous years. It may have just been my luck, but I was able to roll up at around 10:15 and pretty much breeze straight in.

The usual process in the run up to the show is to frequently check the forecast, then hope and pray that it will fall on a dry day, or at least hold off on the rain until the afternoon.

With the UK experiencing a heatwave and one of the driest summers for quite some time there wasn’t even a threat of rain, just blue skies, light clouds and 28°c temps.

There’s always a few strange passengers dotted around and it looks like even staying in the shade wasn’t enough to save this chap.

The usual suspects plus a few new faces. The minty fresh white Fiesta RS Turbo belongs to ft’s own Clark (aka Knuckles), and was previously (in)famous as “The Recaro Fiesta”.

Now back to near standard and looking incredible. More pics later.

Often these old Sierras carry the scars of years of competition, battles won or lost against M3s, Skylines and Rover SD1s. This one was spotless though, with BBS E50s you could eat your dinner off.

This Ka runs in the Club 4wd in the UK Time Attack series. Long gone is the original pushrod and in its place is a 4G63 from a Mitsubishi Evo.

Back in the late 1990s these window vents appeared on the Mitsubishi Evo V WRC car, either as a pressure release device or for ventilation. I noticed a fair few cars at the show with them and for good reason - a neat bit of race car style that’s easy to fit, relatively inexpensive but great looking.

The latest version of the WRC Fiesta is a wild looking thing. from the pumped out arches to the array of dive planes and surf board like  splitters that project from the front.

Often, the general public is only presented with a mock-up, a modified road car with overly tinted windows is one trick, but this was the real deal.

Despite the name, the Popular has never been much of a choice for the modified Ford fan. Perhaps a little too old to be of interest, and too slow. Slow this one certainly isn’t, judging by the size of that turbo. More on this later.

As usual there were many stands at the show tempting you into an empty wallet. Impressive demo cars was the order of the day, serving as beacons to entice potential customers.

Plenty of stands offered wheels of every size and shape (although almost all round).

The cost of a bespoke tubular manifold like this may be expensive, but as a wise man once said, the quality will remain long after the price is forgotten.

The percentage of serious buyers on the Corbeau stand was probably less than a single percent, but when you offer both shade and somewhere to sit down in comfort, then you’re bound to be very popular.

Nick Moore’s car need no introduction. To me this represents the ideal direction to take an extreme Focus RS in. Mental power, stripped out with lightweight plastic windows, and some serious structural rigidity from that awesome cage.

Another famous Focus this time from Rich Fox. Similar ingredients but a whole load more thrown in too. There’s a lot of good elements gone into this, but to my eyes the whole thing is incohesive and doesn’t really know what’s it’s trying to do.

Headline sponsors and show regulars Mountune had an excellent selection of cars on display, my favourite being…

…this wide arch Mustang. The ‘stang is already a sizeable pony but this kit gives it some real presence. More photos below.

Nankang tyres had this Mad Max style Mustang Fastback. Certainly an alternative to what everyone else had, but aside from a few of the younger visitors I’m not sure the show goers were a target audience for this type of thing.

I’ve touched on what I like to call “Proximity invisibility” before - how a car that’s relatively rare and uniquely coloured car can stand out in daily life but become invisible at a show when surrounded by identical examples. 

In this case choosing to park with others offers both a feeling of kinship and belonging, but at the same time might erase all sense of individuality!