Custom car fest attracts thousands

The inaugural Middle Eastern custom car festival Barbican Turbo was a huge success, attracting thousand of visitors over the weekend.

The event saw some of the most famous, finest and fastest custom specialists attending from around the world.

Local customisations were celebrated in the Wheels Top 100 competition and the Sound-Off competition run by the Society of Auto Owners and Filipino Expats (Safe).

World champion drifting team from Japan, Team Orange made its Middle East debut in the show.

The festival offered visitors the chance to see the latest tuning and styling products, as well as the latest project cars as profiled by local companies such as Liberty Motor Sports and Chrome & Carbon.

Stealing the show was a matte silver Porsche Cayenne on which all the modifications were designed and built locally by Chrome & Carbon.

Participated in the event also a kitted out sunset orange Cadillac Escalade, complete with 26-inch rims, a reworked exhaust system, air suspension and crocodile leather interior from Liberty Motorsports, which won the 'Professional Car of the Festival'.

It was not just the professionals showing off their customised creations, visitors were invited to bring down their own modified rides and enter them into the Wheels Top 100 and the Safe Sound Off competitions.

A total of 140 cars took part in the competitions and the 'Car of the Festival' was awarded to Ahmed Zayed for his Ford Mustang.

In the Sound Off, the Best Installation title went to Derrick Aranas for his Toyota Fortuner and the Loudest/Sound Pressure trophy (recorded at 135.1) was received by Kamil Hanini for the explosive In-Car Entertainment System packed into his Nissan Patrol.

Also adding to the success of the festival was the presence of Team Orange who put on a series of full throttle displays.

Thousands of visitors lined up along the safety barriers to watch the stars of 'The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift' screeching their way around the track.

"One of the Wheels Top 100 participants approached me and said: 'this has been the best car event I have ever visited', while another said 'I have been waiting for an event like this all of my life'. This kind of response is truly astounding," said Bryan Espie, Marketing Manager, Barbican Turbo.

"We would like to thank everyone involved in making the festival an incredible success including the headline sponsor Barbican and exhibitors but especially those individuals and car clubs who loaned their cars to the festival so they could take part in the Wheels Top 100 competition and the Safe Sound Off competition," he said adding "without them it would not have been possible." Running alongside Barbican Turbo was Adrenaline Sports Live, the Middle East's first action packed adrenaline sports festival.

The Barbican Turbo festival ran from November 13-15 at the Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Centre and was open to public.