Phew. It’s been a week since Ultrace Düsseldorf concluded, and we’re still in shock, to be honest. Larry, Louis, and I attended, wandering the halls and taking in the sights, sounds, and smells of some of the most outrageous metal ever to grace a single venue. We have several features to share, starting with my report here, followed shortly by Larry’s personal thoughts on the event. – Mario
There’s a word that comes to mind above all others when I look through my gallery and think back to Ultrace Düsseldorf. That word is ‘confidence.’
Not ‘vibe,’ not ‘stance,’ not ‘holy-hell-that’s-a-Mercedes-Benz-C112.’ No, my 72 hours in Germany, gallivanting around the halls of Areal Böhler, were a lesson, a reminder that confidence in your decisions can lead to great things. It’s safe to say Ultrace was a resounding success.
Halls full of happy show-goers weren’t a given, though. Over the past 16 years, Ultrace has left Poland precisely…zero times. The fan-favourite Tarczynski Stadium in Wrocław became a staple venue for one of the most recognisable car shows.
The stadium made sense for the recipe which Adrian Kapica and his team – including Michał Rabczuk, Kacper Chmielowski, and Łukasz Dawczyk – had created. Car show plus drifting equals a good time; however, as much as it pains me to say this, 2025 felt like a step back compared to previous years. I won’t open old wounds, but it’s safe to say there needed to be a change.
Was a venue change necessary? Maybe. A change in country? Well, that surprised everybody, especially given there would be no drifting or other live-action in the new arena. There was a lot of chatter online leading up to the event, with plenty of doubt filling group chats and Instagram feeds.
Yet it was the team’s self-assured confidence that shone brightest, putting on an entirely different event than what anyone was expecting, and raising the bar to never-before-seen heights in the process.
Stance builds are Ultrace’s bread and butter, and I’ll say it – nobody does it better than the Europeans. Those in the back, stop yelling about Japan, because this is a hill I’ll die on. From Porsches to Nissan Skylines, Volkswagens and more, there were a lot of tilty cars running air suspension or static setups – sitting pretty on the semi-shiny terra firma.
These were parked in the ‘Present’ hall, which was the first part of the venue I stumbled into on setup day. For all of the varied metal on display, there were a few that gained my attention the most.
A C5 Chevrolet Corvette, decked on BBS LM split rims and posted up next to an E24 BMW 6 Series, again on BBS wheels, but in OEM RC090 flavour, stepped up to 19 inches. These are two of my favourite silhouettes: the Beemer for its sharknose and the Chevy for its hot Kamm-tail.
Down the hall was Benny Heeg’s Liberty Walk-kitted R35 Nissan GT-R, again on air suspension and sporting a vibrant tri-tone wrap. I’m a subtlety-first kinda guy, but with Benny’s larger-than-life personality, this car suits its owner perfectly.
It was also perfectly placed as a backdrop for an outrageous queue, waiting for people’s champ Sung Kang to sign T-shirts promoting his new movie, Drifter. Benny actually arranged the red Toyota AE86s for the stand, and the owners received a golden signature on their dashboards as a thank you.
My personal highlight of the ‘Present’ hall was a monster of a car: a 9FF GTurbo R. This beast is based on a 997 Porsche 911 GT3, turbocharged and capable of 1,200hp, draped in 9FF aero and aramid fibre accents. Rowdy, rare, and I want it – very badly.
Speaking of aerodynamic addenda, parked across from the 9FF was one of two cars wearing ADRO Inc. bodywork. First up was AutoID’s 992 Porsche 911 GT3 wearing a prototype set of ADRO’s latest performance-enhancing kit.
The second ADRO car was in the ‘Future’ hall, parked in a ring of white cars. This Polish A90 Toyota Supra featured a full widebody kit, a carbon fibre swan-neck wing, and a full-on targa conversion as a homage to the JZA80-generation car.
Before delving into the ‘Future’ display, there’s the small matter of not one, but two OEM-sponsored areas, courtesy of German powerhouses BMW M and Mercedes-Benz. Both of these halls were a treasure trove of some of the rarest, baddest machinery ever to leave Munich and Stuttgart.
I’m guilty of being a BMW fiend, and the Bavarian hall didn’t disappoint with an all-star line-up. From the back of the room to the front: an E30 M3 Sport Evo 3, an E36 M3 Compact prototype, an E46 M3 Touring prototype, a skunkworks E92 M3 ute, and at the front, a live art display.
Imran Arshad and his team are no strangers to bold projects. In this case, that meant partnering with Rae Roberts and BMW M to turn the Evolve G8X M2 into a canvas, painted by hand before and during the show. Covering an event is effort enough, let alone painting in front of an audience, so credit where credit’s due, here.
Mercedes, meanwhile, took a minimalist approach. A selection of historic race cars – and the prototype C112 supercar – were draped in blankets of light from the ceiling and strobing LED boards rather than paint. The difference between the brands’ displays was stark, reflecting their individual characters down to a tee.
BMW M? Loud and boisterous, while Mercedes-AMG is a more subtle, menacing affair.
Back to the ‘Future’ hall (sorry) was the piéce de resistance of the whole event. The car selection here was absurd, and certainly a surprise for anyone who came to Ultrace Germany expecting nothing more than a stance event.
The roster of metal on display read more like a championship in Forza Motorsport than it did a modified car event. I would list them all out, but you’d be better off researching Le Mans entrants between 1970 and 1999.
For reference, a Nissan R390 GT1 was parked across from a Mercedes-Benz CLR and CLK LM combo. The Porsche 993 GT1, resplendent in Marlboro livery, stole my heart. Say what you want, but round headlights are better than fried eggs.
There were more modified cars in the mix, but the very peak of the weekend was the orchestral performances; V8, V10, and V12 symphonies performed live by cars that would otherwise be relegated to storage chambers.
The Jochen Mass-driven Mercedes C11 put on a mighty show, as did the prototype BMW E60 M5 CSL, but it was the BMW X5 V12 Le Mans that drew the biggest crowd – and the biggest applause. It was simply deafening, with a soundtrack ripped from the Mulsanne Straight, blown out of an unrestricted exhaust system in a car designed for light off-roading and heavy on-roading. I was in awe, and the camaraderie between the two brands’ mechanics was heartwarming.
But the highlight of the whole show was after hours, in the evening, between, up to, and including the night experience. Larry, Louis, and I made our way up to the catwalks running above the show – with some approval, of course – to witness the spectacular mix of cars from above.
With the natural light fading into a warm glow and the rigged-up LEDs taking over, the cars resembled art installations more than they did forms of transportation – and I’m not even talking about the actual sculpture made up of motorcycles and a BMW E30 M3 shell.
‘Confidence,’ again, is the word that comes to mind when I think about Ultrace. It’s an event run by a crew that truly believes in its own vision of what a car show should be, and as a result, it’s an automotive celebration like no other. Good job, team.
