Japfest 2023

Japfest Silverstone, it has to be said, is one of our favourite UK events … and it's not just because we happen to have quite the selection of Japanese cars in our own stable of AF Project Cars, either. Nope, what we love most about this massive extravaganza of all things Japanese car culture, is that it brings with it just about every type of vehicle you can imagine. From racers and drifters to street cars and showstoppers, there's literally thousands of them on display.

Of course, it almost goes without saying that it also gives the Japanese car fans a chance to grab some of our top detailing products with a whole load of special show offers, too. In fact, we'd say that the art of proper detailing is becoming more and more popular in the Japanese car world every single year. It's certainly not like the old days.

The other thing is that Japfest is a real family affair for us. This particular event gives the crew the chance to head up to Silverstone early on the Saturday afternoon and set up our stand at more of a leisurely pace than is usual for such a big event. And then of course, we can get ourselves to the hotel for a spot of social time and team bonding… at the bar, naturally.

This year, as one of the headline sponsors, we were planning on putting on quite the huge display of epic metal on our stand. We'd also be bringing along our own R32 GT-R, and the Pandem Yaris GR on its very first Japfest outing. So, first thing's first, it was just a question of getting those prepped and loaded at the Auto Finesse Detailing Academy and rolling out…

It's an early start for sure, definitely not your average Sunday morning for TeamAF, but it's more than worth it because there's nothing quite like seeing all of our display and sponsor cars rolling in. Once again, this year we laid on a huge display of friends, sponsor cars and TeamAF members because, as has become something of a Japfest tradition, we had the whole of the scrutineering area at our disposal. After weeks of selecting a whole variety of top Japanese vehicles for our stand there was certainly plenty to ponder, too.

With the cars parked up, the last bit is where our team are always to happy to help out - the important task of getting them perfected before the gates open…

What with all the display cars, club cars and tons other stuff going on, there's no denying that Japfest is absolutely massive. In fact, what with the whole of Silverstone thoroughly packed out, it took use a good few hours to get round and see everything… and there's still plenty we probably missed. So, while there were many, many cars that we loved, we simply can't fit all 4000 of them here in this blog. There's just not enough space on the internet.

That said, we still have quite the selection for you to enjoy. So, have a little swipe through our galleries below to see a whole load of our favourite cars and plenty of other highlights from this very special Sunday at Silverstone…

Something else that has become something of a tradition at Silverstone is Auto Finesse sponsoring the Japfest Select competition. This extra-special show and shine selection consists of around 50 invited guests that the organisers have whittled down from hundreds of entries. All that's left after that of course, is for us to pick our winners.

As with every year the judging bit was difficult to say the least, but it simply had to be endured because we had our rather sought-after custom trophies and ram-packed detailing kits to give away. In the end we - or more specifically James, the boss of all things AF - picked Dez's awesome blue Scooby as the overall winner, with special runner up prizes going to Alex's GR Supra and Kyle's bagged Mk1 MX-5. All amazing cars, and all worthy winners.

And that's it - another successful Japfest in the bag!

Thanks to everyone who popped by our stand, and an extra special thanks to all of our display cars and those who entered the Japfest Select comp.

We'll see you all again next year, so keep an eye on theJ apfest website for updates and announcements, and be sure to check out the shows section of our blog for more huge event reports.