see also:
Turbo Kit and
Supercharger Manufacturers
Tuners - European/US Cars
Tuners - Japanese Cars
Nissan Tuners
Mazda
Tuners
Ford
Tuners
Performance Chips/3D ECUs
Performance Engine/Transmission Parts
First impressions of the show were good, the advertising is done professionally and the site where the show is held looks impressive as well as being well organised. The old airport must be one of the most famous sites in Athens making it easy to find, the parking was plentiful and buying the tickets was straight forward.
Although the parking is area is large the indoor and outdoor exhibition areas of the show are small and even these areas were not filled to capacity. We went around the entire show, which included taking photos, chatting to the exhibitors and watching the outdoor action arena in about 3 hours, which was considerably less than what we were expecting given the marketing that the show is given. We felt a little short changed in all honesty especially given the distance we traveled to get there.
Athens Tuning Show '06 - Companies
Given that Greece is perhaps one of the best
covered countries in the world for performance parts (there are
appointed importers for most major brands) the number of the companies
in attendance was poor. Names like HKS, Pipercross, K&N, TEIN were all
noticeable by their absence. Given that all these companies have
representation in Greece it was surprising that they did not have a
dedicated stand at the show. However the brands that were represented
such as Toyo, GReddy and Milltek Sport all had impressive stands with
cars displaying their products. Given that some of the biggest
manufacturers had no presence at the show it was pleasing to see some of
the smaller tuners in Greece having stands in the main area of the show,
this gave the show, at least to us, a bit of a disjointed feel, with
large impressive stands from large manufacturers and small stands from
individual tuners with nothing in between.
Outdoor
Club Area
Athens Tuning Show '06 - Outdoor Show Area
The outdoor display of the show was impressive. Both by the number of clubs in attendance and the quality of the cars on display. There seems to be a fundamental difference between tuning in the UK and Greece. Whereas the British are more style orientated with only the minority really taking the engine tuning seriously, the opposite seems to be true in Greece.
Athens Tuning Show '06 - Outdoor Action Arena
There were four man attractions in the outdoor arena, these being Terry Grant, Steer form the Rear, a group of stunt motorcyclists from the Benelux and a Renault Twingo Jet Car.
Although the vehicles in the show were clearly prepped to high quality the same can not be said for the display themselves. Starting off with the best.
Terry Grant must be the hardest working stunt driver in the business. His stunts were inventive, skillful and energetic with his car being a one of a kind. Basically he makes the show and carried everyone else.
Terry Grant
Video
The Renault Twingo Jet Car display, while the crew didn't do much, the noise and the sense of danger if something went wrong with the jet, (which clearly had enough power to launch the car into space) made for an enthralling 15mins.
The stunt motorcyclists offered nothing new.
Steer from the Rear came across as a group of lads having a jolly without doing anything constructive. The entertainment from this crew came solely from the cars, with the drivers not appearing to have any meaningful planned in advance. Given how well prepared the cars appeared to be, this seemed almost criminal. Perhaps if they were appearing without Terry Grant then their show would have been acceptable, but given the practice, thought and energy Terry puts into his act the Steer from the Rear "display" was bordering on the unacceptable. A demonstration drift competition would have been perfect for this crowd. With a little for thought and planning they could have quite easily laid out a course in the display area where the could have displayed their clearly excellent car control in manner which would have been entertaining and enthralling. A little bit of competition always gets the blood flowing.
Athens Tuning Show '06 - Summary
As you can probably gather from our review up to this point we were not particularly impressed with this show, but that's not to say it hasn't got potential. Given the marketing might that is clearly behind this show it could clearly turn into one of the premier shows in Europe, given the number of manufacturers represented in Greece and the enthusiasm and skill of the enthusiasts and tuning companies. Looking through Greek tuning magazines such as Power Techniques, Burn Out, Furious Tuning and Max Power there are clearly a lot of big power motors in Greece and also a lot of enthusiasm for the car tuning lifestyle, all that's needed is for the Athens Tuning Show to do the Greek tuning industry justice because there is clearly the demand and know how for Greece to be some of the worlds leaders.
Fensport
Celica
J'S
J's Racing S2000
Lancia
Club