The second running of the Eurofest show at the Birdwood Mill took place last Sunday 2nd December. A fresh idea from the BMW Driver’s Club of SA, Eurofest aims to bring together as many European cars as possible in one place.

Whilst the aim of the show is to encompass all European cars, at this stage early in its life Eurofest still has a very heavy German influence. There were examples from Fiat, Ferrari, Alfa Romeo, Maserati, Renault, Vauxhall and Ford, but BMW and Mercedes Benz definitely made up the bulk of the show.

The other cool thing about Eurofest is that it’s predominantly a ‘young’ show, put on and organised by younger people. I don’t mean to comment on age, but just to say that a persons age has a lot to do with the way they modify their cars, and there was a lot of stuff at happening at Eurofest that you wouldn’t otherwise see – proper stance, airbags, big power upgrades  and insane levels of detailing.

You’d never see something like a ‘bagged E28 at an event like Climb to the Eagle. Not better or worse, just different. Variety is the spice of life, right? We’re lucky that we can see this diversity at the different events we have.

Having said that, the car of show was awarded to this pristine 1953 Mercedes Benz 300S.

One of only 200 hand built cars, this 300S was delivered new to Buenos Aires, Argentina, in 1953. Mechanically it is largely similar under the skin to the 300SL Gullwing – that car obviously shaved almost a ton of weight off with its lightweight space frame chassis and aerodynamic body. Funny too, because this car looks quite antiquated whereas the 300SL looks quite modern.

At the complete opposite end of the spectrum is Alex’s E46 320i wagon, riding on airbags. I typically don’t like airbags because I don’t really see them as a performance modification, and have always kind of thought that you could go almost as low with coilovers whilst improving the performance of the car, so why not do that? But talking to Alex, I’ve got a bit of a different picture of them now. He reckons the car rides and handles better than the factory suspension, and at the end of the day it’s not a racecar anyway. It’s built for cruising, and it does that just fine.

And just take a look at that fitment – it’s undeniably cool.

Alex even went to the trouble of building a 3 piece OZ Racing space saver spare!

People wearing boat shoes were taking photos of it all day.

Anastase was pretty heavily involved in organising the show, and turned up in his super clean E34. He’s gone a different route, and achieved the drop with springs alone.

One of the highlights was a lineup of almost every BMW M car – only missing was an E28 M5 and an M1. Here an an M635csi and E34 M5…

… E30 M3…

… (not pictured, E36 M3), E46 M3 CSL, E92 M3 and F10 M5…

… 1M…

… E39 M5…

… E60 M5…

… and the M Coupe.

The silver 3.0 CSL on the right was fresh out of restoration…

… and was running this trick triple Weber setup…

… and had a sneaky set of Wilwood’s hiding behind the Alpina wheels.

The interior was clean without being over restored, and was still showing a little patina – just the way it should be.

This 2002 almost had a Magnus Walker Outlaw style about it, and I kinda dug it.

The Mexican blanket on the seat is a definite nod to hot rodding heritage; the vintage suitcase oh so rockabilly.

The Moon logo on the BMW roundel. Who does that? I like it.

In my opinion the B7 RS4 is my favourite modern Audi RS car, and this B7 RS4 Avant was perfectly executed. The wail from the naturally aspirated 4.2 FSI V8 in these is something to savour.

The factory Recaro seats are nothing short of a work of art.

Given the proliferation of Volkswagen culture, it was surprising to see only two vee-dub’s at the show. James, Dylan and Ryan rolled over from Melbourne in this Bora, and from the way they talk both the stance and VW scenes are quite a bit bigger in Melbourne.

But no matter what the brand, and no matter what the style, everyone was united by their passion. It was good to see.

This is posted because, well, it’s an E46 M3 on well chosen and perfectly fitted BBS. Do we need another reason?

Our story doesn’t quite end here – you’ll have to look out for part 2, coming soon. The only hint you’ll receive is this photo – yes, that is Daniel behind the wheel of a super rare M3 CSL. Stay tuned!

Words and photos by Andrew Coles