EDC Rd 5 Santa pod: The good, the bad and some more bad.

I got a shout last Friday asking if I was going to Santa Pod for the fifth round of EDC as the Driftworks crew were there in force as Bonbon was doing the round as a one off. I'll be honest, I don't really keep up-to-date with EDC so I didn't even realise it was on! The event was mixed in with Rotorstock, the UK's biggest Mazda show, so I thought, why not! and headed down early sat morning in the FC. After meeting up with the DW crew and Gunni there was time for a walk around the show and to get a seat ready for the main event.

There were only 21 cars at the event sadly so all were put through to the twin battle, except one driver when had to borrow an AE86 for the weekend as he'd blown his 12th engine in his drift spec R32 GTR. He couldn't get to grips with the 86 so pulled out.

In practice both DW cars, frenchy in the Touge Heroes/Dragon FD, Pete Barber in his FD and Brett Castle in his S14 were doing five car trains. It was awesome to watch as they were just messing around and having fun, how it should be!

The Touge Heroes/Dragon FD has a new paint and graphics scheme which was chosen from a design comp held on Driftworks which anyone could enter. Luke, writer of the excellent blog Running Life put forward the winning design.

I really like the look of the car and it gets driven really hard. Although not sure on the rear hatch cover.

Polo, who I'm sure has been at every event on the mainland so far this year, was showing off his mega steering lock mods.

I really wasnt impressed with EDC. There weren't enough cars and apart from the top few cars, the driving standard wasn't really good enough. It seems alot of EDC licences have been given out because of a lack of cars in the event rather than keeping standards up, either that or I missed the promotion on Coco pops when they came free with every box. The track was also really poor. It had a fast sweeping corner which lead to a couple of really tight corners, which everyone was calling "technical". I really don't like it when really slow corners get labled as "technical." They aren't. They are just slow and boring and dont allow the cars much room to move or keep an advantage gained else where on the track. The track layout could have been so much better and normally is at the DWYB practice days held at Pod. The driver intro went on for a life time too.

There was some awesome battles between the top drivers and Royal was doing some great entrys in practice, using baller flick to enter the first corner!

With BDC getting better and better with each round and Prodrift being head and shoulders above everything, I think EDC really needs to step up its game or its not going to be around for much longer because overall the EDC event was a massive disappointment. I'd really advise people to go to a Prodrift or BDC round if they can as its so much better. Prodrift 1st, BDC 2nd, JDM allstars always and EDC if you can get in for free.. and its not to far from your house.. and you've got nothing better to do.

The highlight of the show for me, and alot of others, was this drag toyota hilux! It's been fitted with a V8, drag wheels, fuel cell and a ford 9inch axle.

There were a couple of really nice Cosmos at the show. I'd love one of these for a daily driver.

Topi was at there in his Nissan President lowrider, pimpest car ever? I recon!

A day of highs and lows, great to catch up with alot of people but I'm not sure I'll be at another EDC event anytime soon.