Japfest Silverstone 2024

Japfest Silverstone is easily one of the biggest UK events of the season. Dedicated to Japanese cars of every variety, and now in its 23rd year, this huge British car show is not only well established as one of the highlights of the year for the many car clubs in attendance, but there’s quite the selection of full-on show cars to ponder, too. And what’s more, many of them turn up specifically to display in our invite-only AF Paddock.

In other words, it’s a big deal for us, especially as we have quite a few Japanese monsters on the AF Project Fleet. One of the best things about Japfest though, is that you get to see the lot. From street weapons and showstoppers to classics and full-on racecars, this one really is a testament for the UK’s continuing love of all things Japanese car culture.

As you’ve probably guessed, we always make an extra special effort for Japfest, rolling up in force with our Airstream Mobile Store and quite a few van loads of the world’s best detailing products. For 2024 we even had our own coffee shop setup, and one or two of our drift cars out on the legendary circuit, too!

It’s an early start for sure, but after the team has got the cars in, and helped the owners prep them to perfection, we get all of about 30-seconds to relax before the crowds roll in and make a beeline for our stand to grab themselves some extra-special show offers. It has to be seen to be believed.

So, let’s take a little look at what’s always quite the crazy Sunday…

So, we know that Japfest is a big old show. What with all the special displays, the show and shine, and a mind boggling amount of club cars in attendance, there’s a huge the variety of cars that show up on the day, over 4000 in fact, taking over the whole of Silverstone.

As you can imagine there’s plenty we liked but we just can’t feature them all here, we just don’t have the room. Still, as if by magic, we had many of the very finest show cars of the whole event picked out for display in our huge paddock. Here’s just a few of our extra special favourites…

Japfest Silverstone isn’t just about the static show. As they happen to have quite the legendary circuit slap-bang in the middle, it’s an event where we get to see plenty of track action, too.

Aside from the public track time on offer - which is always something of a spectacle to say the least - there’s plenty of drifting going on throughout the course of the day. All this gives us the perfect opportunity to get Archie Sugar-Harmer, our official AF Drift Champion, out to tear up the tarmac in a couple of our most extreme drift builds. First the Crazy Drift Kid started by wowing the crowds in our old-skool Datsun, and then (after driving our old skool Japanese weapon almost to destruction) he took on another few rubber destroying sessions in the newest addition to the circuit munching fleet – our E36 BMW.

Don’t worry about us hitting the track at Japfest in a Beemer though – there’s a fully-built Toyota 1JZ under the bonnet of this one, so it more than qualifies.

Almost as far back as we can remember we’ve been the sponsors of the official Japfest show and shine competition – for 2024 it was called the Street Elite.

It works like this: the organisers narrow down hundreds of online entries to their top 50, leaving us to pick an overall winner and give away a Deluxe Holdall packed to the gills with top detailing products. Oh, and not forgetting the all-important AF Street Elite trophy of course.

As with every event judging is pretty difficult, but we have to say that we’re suckers for a proper comeback story. After all we’re pro detailers, so we’re very much in the business of checking out the best full-on restorations. So, while it was already love at first sight with this little K-swapped EK Civic, we were even more impressed that Beth Hepworth, the owner of this particular beast, saved it from the scrappy with a full-on build. And what’s more, the whole project was completed with the help of here partner, Miles, in just 18-months. Top work indeed!

Thanks to each and every one of you who supported us on our huge stand, all the perfectly-buffed show cars, everyone who entered the Street Elite Competition and, of course, all you who came by the stand to pick up a top detailing product or two.

We'll see you at the next Japfest event, we almost can't wait, so you can keep an eye on the Japfest Official for updates and announcements. Why not come along and pick up some top detailing products yourself? In the meantime too, check out more top show coverage in the Behind The Scenes section of our blog.