ACE Cafe 2004
The First big gathering of 2004 at the
ACE Cafe London as the
Esprit mix it up with the MAX POWER boys!
25th February 2004
Due to a failing clutch, LEW's Esprit was withdrawn from the first big gathering of the year. But luckily I was able to get a lift to the ACE Cafe in Derrick Oliver's Silver S4s. Going to the preorganised meeting at South Mims service station, we were greeted by around 15 other Esprits who'd braved the cold weather on a Wednesday night be meet up.
As you can see from the pictures, lighting was a big of a problem! A good selection of Esprit turned out for the event, including a Giugiaro Turbo, plenty of Steven's turbos, SE's, S4's, S4s', GT3's and V8's.
Parking up altogether, everybody mingled and the Esprit talk began. Some had travelled for over 3 hours to get to the meeting, which was impressive on a very cold night. Quite a few regulars where on show and a few new faces had turned up to join the fun.
Karl's GT3 was getting some interest. With new 19" Alloys fitted only a few weeks back, a brand new quad pipe exhaust fitted at Blue Flame only last week and a Nitrous Oxide kit giving him 120bhp extra, most people wanted a look. And that's after the DVD player and the Neon under lighting!!!!!!
It was then time to make our way to the ACE CAFE LONDON to meet up with a few more owners who had gone straight there. With around 15 Esprit trying to get through London traffic on the North Circular, we were never going to stay together, but all managed to get there in the end! Wednesday night is MAX POWER night, with supe'd up motors everywhere. After all managing to find somewhere to park the organisers cleared the road so we could all park in a long line outside the cafe. Unfortunately my pictures where struggling for light, so only two where of any use and really don't show the spectacle of 21+ Esprits lined up.
The rest of the evening was spent talking to everyone and checking out the 'other' cars. One guy in a modded Volvo 440 was pouring some sort of 'fuel' over the back of his exhaust, then revving up until the exhaust caught light, blowing flames out the rear! There was plenty of modded Corsa's, BMW's, Ford's and the usual array of Jap Crap. As usual (or unusual depending on how you look at it!) the Esprit's out numbered everything and stole the show a little off the MAX POWER boys.
A few of us then move on to TGI's on the A1 to get warm and get some food. More Esprit chat followed with the last few of us not leaving until midnight. Thanks goes out to Robin & Adam who'd organised the gathering (which was supposed to be last month, but was cancelled due to snow!). Derrick for going out of his way to get me there. Dermot for providing more technical info than I can take in. Karl for bringing along his 'MAX POWER' Esprit, Steve Wright for bring along his camera for the banner picture and everyone else for making the effort on a cold night to get together. Roll on the summer!
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