THE LAST TIME I visited the Ace must have been four or five years ago. It was a Vauxhall themed night and I was driving a 2-litre XE powered MkI Cavalier. This time the theme couldn’t have been more different – Retro Toyotas – and my ride a MkI AW11 MR2, but the atmosphere was the same as ever.
Like an old school disco, the retro J-tin (yes Dep-O is down with the kids) on display was split into three distinct camps. Closest to the Ace itself were a number of stunningly modified AE86 Corollas, including an immaculate Corolla Levin fitted with a screaming Honda S2000 motor on throttle bodies, several highly tuned 4A-GEs and one home-built 4A-GE turbo.
Parked opposite, next to the old North Circular Road, were a collection of glorious AW11 MkI MR2s (if I do say so myself) including a slammed white-over-black two-tone car, an early B-reg MkIa fitted with a 2-litre turbo from a MkII MR2, a Camry V6 powered car, my MkIa and a brace of ultra-rare fixed-roof MR2 Superchargers, one of which had only 30,000 miles on the clock…
By the exit were a few more MR2s – one of which is a popular Retro Rides car with banded steels – a lovely B-reg MA61 Celica Supra, a BL-esque brown Mitsubishi Colt Sapporo and a very tidy Nissan Sunny Coupe.
All in all, it was a damn good morning out and well worth the 200-mile round trip. The Ace’s famous sausages weren’t too bad either.
