Streetkarnage Road Trips to Sydney Lowdown Style!

Last week, The-Lowdown.com’s first proper event ‘Showcased’ was held in Sydney. The online hype surrounding the event created much anticipation, and so I took the 2000km journey down from Goldy with the Streetkarnage crew to see what all the fuss was about. In this first post I will be taking you behind the scenes of our 13 hour roller coaster trip down, with many highs and lows along the way.

Coomera BP on the Gold Coast was chosen as the meeting point, giving everyone a chance to eat and of course, stock up on Red Bulls before setting foot. I was very much looking forward to my office for the next 48 hours, which in this case was Zak Denman’s 7 Series E38 BMW.

Next on the list was Alex Huston and his bagged MK5 Golf (top image), followed by Cobey and his wickedly fitted G35.

… and last but not least, Charlie Hadfields time attack NA6.

Roughly two hours into our road-trip we came across some pretty uneven surfaces in Grafton. Zak firstly dodged a pot hole, only to send the 7 series over two larger lumps of concrete that were poking out, hardly visible whilst driving. Just as we thought we had avoided any repercussions from our concrete excursion, we were greeted by an overwhelming smell of fuel and a high beaming Hyundai behind, piloted by Andrew and Matyas. After pulling over, we discovered that something was very wrong…

By the time the Beema was jacked up, the patch of fuel continued to spread across the road, at about the same rate which the 9 degree morning claimed the feeling in our fingers… We quickly realized that bubble gum and spare rags were not going to hold the fuel, and so made the decision to drive to the closet petrol station, which luckily happened to be only 1km away.

Zak is known for his low and static his 7 series; roughly sitting about 40mm off the tarmac. This also lends itself to throwing a few decent sparks out the back, which in our case could have ended in disaster. Thanks to a random 24hr convenience store, we stopped the leak by Nick’s genius idea to rub bars of soap into the cracks of the fuel tank.

Once the leaked was blocked, Zak lifted the stock hydraulic suspension for peace of mind and we were back on the road, looking to make up lost time.

Before we knew it the sun was creeping slowly over the horizon, and the opportunity to get the first rolling shot of the trip was looking too good to turn down.

Driving side by side, Zak and Cobey started to get closer and closer and all of a sudden reached out and grabbed each other’s hand as we were cruising down the highway. By the smile on their  faces, it sure looked like they wore having a bunch of fun pulling this daring move.

Most of us had  little or no sleep at all thanks to the emergency fuel tank repair episode, but fortunately, the sound of Charlie’s new exhaust from Fabulous Fabrications made it easy for us all to stay awake.

Alternatively, if you ever had trouble staying awake on a highway, stick your head out the window. I found that by sticking my head out into 100km freezing winds and taking photos of Alex’s tucking golf, my eyes were kept wide open.

After much hustle the night before, we found a self-car wash, and so decided to treat the girls to a well and truly deserved bath.

One by one the cars were all washed; and the fact we were running extremely behind schedule was temporarily forgotten. Back to reality, in the middle of Newcastle traffic chaos, we decided to follow Charlie and his trusted GPS.

Troubles washed away, everything seemed to be back on track and the road trip spirit charged on, turning everyone’s frowns upside down.

13 hours and 1000kms later, we reached our final destination of the Rooftop at the Entertainment Quarter in Sydney. The Streetkarnage crew were feeling pumped to know that the stress of making the deadline was now over, and it was finally time to kick back, grab something to eat and enjoy Sydney’s best showcasing of cars.

Keep an eye out for our next post where we’ll be taking a closer look at all the hottest cars from The-Lowdown.com’s first big event on the rooftop.

- Josh