Exactly two weeks ago some of us were overseas to the north. On our way to Jämijärvi Airfield to attend the annual meeting of stance, low and simply car enthusiasts – NPS Big Meet ’14. The event is held by No Pokemon Shit, Finland’s biggest stance community. Their motto is “Clean rides – good times” and as Big Meet proved they can do both very well.
But let’s start from the beginning… The view of Olari under his light blue Volvo was present at almost every stop we made. And there were many of these, since it’s about 600 km from Elva (in Southern-Estonia) to Jämijärvi. When going in detail about this we could easily write another blog post, but to sum it all up – going to the Big Meet was a testdrive for his car with a new engine and self-made custom coilovers. He had problems starting from leaks to the breakage of brake lines, but the old Volvo was unstoppable. Especially when we had so many helping hands like Toivo who took the tool for making new ends for the brake line, Siim who had successfully passed an exam for these things at school and the offroad-guy Eiko, who did all the actual work.
Everything fixed, cars and ourselves refueled – it was time to enjoy the nice weather and great Finnish roads. Everyone’s favourite was probably a smooth twisty road with fast corners we found in Harjavalta… perfect for our cars with quite stiff suspensions. And yet some Finns could think of us being crazy with all these “non-drivable” low cars without air suspension. It really pays off to ride static for that kind of roads regardless of the bad situation we have with most of the streets and roads in Estonia.
First thing Olari did when we arrived to Jämijärvi in Friday evening was to jack up his car, remove the wheel and get comfortable in the wheel arch. To fix something. Again. At least it was an enough stylish entry to the event area so a bunch of people gathered around to see what’s up. After that it was time to make our cars all shiny again and line them up for show.
Lowlifer was represented by Olari (Volvo 244), Ruwe (Volkswagen Corrado), Kermo (Mazda MX-5), Kaspar (Renault Clio), Juhan (Honda Civic), Toivo (BMW 750ila), Ronald (Subaru Impreza WRX STi Type-RA V-Limited), Hendrik (BMW 328i Cabrio), Meinhard (BMW 318i Touring) and Mattias (Audi A6). And yes, we had to pronounce the full name of Ronald’s car at least once. Siim started to introduce it but eventually Ronald still had to help him out. Unfortunately all of our cars are not on the photos in one nice line but it was more of a social event than a car show anyways. So when you take less photos you can have more fun. And also Mattias had to leave us early so he’s not on the photos much. But overall we were always very pleased with the representation of the Lowlifer club at the event.
As you can see, the typical modest Estonians pulled themselves together and did some courageous things. Like Olari who opened the hood of his car although “it’s ugly and not finished” as he says. And Ruwe who let us see under the trunk lid of his Corrado where’s “nothing special to see” as he usually says. It has been around for a while now, but many people even in Lowlifer haven’t probably still seen it. I think we have to take away both of their cars for a decent photoshoot for our blog and to share these beauties to you.
But enough of our cars. Let’s see some northern awesomeness…
There were a lot of participants and a lot to see. It was quite simple to know which of the cars were bagged and which static.
But this Honda Accord (nicely finished with Acura front grille and the badge in the back) arrived with a good suprise as it didn’t “air out” when parked. It was my favourite of the show from when I first saw it and stayed that way till the end. The judges also liked it – they awarded it with “Best Static”.
Although newer German cars were dominating there were also some older cars, some japanese cars and the combination of both. Also some other interesting things like an old Fiat with custom wheels, of which we don’t have a photo unfortunately.
Or this bagged Chevy C10 Fleetside from the sixties, being the only representative of good ol’ ‘Merica. Since it had a large bed with wooden floor it quickly became a stage for the event organisers when it was the time to announce the winners.
When it comes to wheels, there was a lot of shine and really nice choices. Most (if not all) of the multi-piece wheels were originals, not replicas. So it’s a common thing in Estonia and Finland to want the authentic thing (in Lithuania we saw the opposite… many nice wheels were actually fake splits).
In addition to custom wheels under the old Fiat, one Mercedes had custom made multi-piece wheels with hidden hardware. Sadly the fitment was like this only when parking or slowly cruising because the car was on air.
There were a lot of cars, even more people and six awards. The categories were best new and old school, people’s choice, judge’s choice, best static and best bagged.
We took one of these prizes home with us – the Judge’s Choice – for all of our nice cars we had with us. Thanks again to NPS judges! We really appreciate it! But as it always is…everything comes to an end and we headed home on Sunday. Big Meet ’14 was an awesome get-together. When we arrived in Estonia in addition to the potholes in the pavement it was a dark and cloudy night and it amplified the greatness of the weekend’s event even more. But it was just for a moment and with all the motivation we got from there, we are ready to make more good things happen here too.