Japfest Silverstone 2026 Report
23 years in the making and stronger than ever, Japfest Silverstone 2026 saw record breaking crowds, plenty of all-new features and more than a few surprises along the way. Welcome to Europe’s biggest celebration of all things Japanese car culture…
With over 20,000 guests and more than 3,500 cars on display, it’s safe to say that Japfest Silverstone is always one of the biggest and best car shows on the UK calendar. Established in 2003 and now in its 23rd year, it’s an absolute must-see car show for all fans of Japanese cars and Japanese car culture. Whether it’s drifting and high-performance cars, or fresh show cars, custom builds, Kei cars and those all-important Japanese classics, you’ll easily find something for everyone when this mighty car show kicks off on the hallowed ground of Silverstone Circuit.
And kick off it did. Let’s just say that Japfest 2026 was no exception and, with the sun shining down on the UK’s premier track this year too, it was one of the best UK car shows yet. But don’t just take our word for it—let’s check out the highlights in our bumper Japfest 2026 show report.
Car Clubs
Japfest Silverstone, it has been said, is all about the clubs, so we’ll start right here…Once again, the support from the best Japanese car clubs descending on Silverstone from all over Europe was astronomical. But there’s no surprises there, we suppose—Japfest Silverstone has always been a premium event geared around all car clubs, large or small.
There’s just one problem with judging the best of the best, though. With over 3,000 club cars in attendance, just getting around them all can be quite the task for the Japfest Team. Luckily, the guys at Gravity Performance made our job a little easier with their Japfest Bullet Train running around the venue all day. Hop on, hop off, check out 3,000 cars all around the club display areas, sorted.
More Japfest Club Awards than ever were given out this year, with Satire-Yoko picking up the Best Overall Club Award, simply for their weird and wonderful selection of crazy modified examples covering everything from drift and race weapons to wacky streetcar builds like an EK Civic on hydraulics — who would have thought that would work, eh? But it does.
Elsewhere, the Best Small Club Award was lifted by Sakura Performance for their fine selection of street performance cars. The Best Big Club Award went to SSUK for their simply massive display of UK-based modified Suzuki Swifts, and the Best Retro Club to Kult K11, a huge Japanese car club dedicated to the old skool K11 Nissan Micra. There’s not too many left nowadays, of course, but it seems like each and every one of them was right here on the Silverstone outfield.
Other club awards included the Best Single Make Club, which went to Cult 86; Best Regional Club, which was awarded to CTR-Crew SW; and the Best Presented Club Award, which went to the thoroughly crazy Japanesium for their display, which featured some of the most unusual offerings of the whole event—Bulldog Honda City Turbo II, anyone? Or how about an Autozam AZ-1?
Finally, Battalion30Five won the Best Modern Club with over 100 modified Nissan GT-Rs on display—a supercar sight to behold, and no mistake.
The Grid by Chemical Guys
When it comes to serious car builds, there’s simply no place like Japfest. This year saw plenty of jaw-droppers all around the pit lane, not least in The Grid, the extra special show-and-shine competition laid on by the detailing product masters at Chemical Guys. With not only super-rare Japanese classics but plenty of heavily modified examples on display, all detailed to perfection, it can’t have been an easy one for them to judge their car of the show. But, in the end, the Chemical Guys Grid Trophy was lifted by Gary Gill and his stunning R33 GT-R, closely followed by Runner-ups Muhammad Arsalan’s GT86 and Affy Hussain’s two-tone R34 GT-R. The standard was phenomenal!
The Great Unveilings
Japfest 2026 also saw The Great Unveilings, an all-new lineup of crazy builds that were unveiled right here. A few of our favourites included a first glimpse at the world’s first 4WD, VTEC turbo Honda CRX, a genuine BTCC Primera that has been lovingly restored to perfection.
We also got to check out a duo of carbon Kevlar drift cars: one 2JZ-powered M2 Eurofighter owned by professional drifter George Barkley, and an A90 Supra piloted by Ashley Goodlad, both resplendent in their all-new Motegi livery.
Mike Fisher’s crazy R34 Nissan Skyline GTT—which was also our Japfest Silverstone 2026 Car of the Show, was another highlight unveiled right here. What we love about this is that it’s not only a proper Japanese performance monster, but it’s all done the old skool way by Mike himself, tinkering away in the garage. What a car that one is, eh?
Japfest Silverstone Awards
Along with Mike’s R34 Skyline, our other Japfest Silverstone 2026 awards included the Best Engine Bay, won by Chris John’s super-clean Corolla AE86. The Best Interior Award was awarded to the stunning DC Customs R33 Skyline.
The Best Home Build Award went to a 600bhp, turbo’d Honda Civic EG, one of the best Japanese streetcars of the whole event. And finally, the Motegi Best Wheels Award was won by Abigail Dighton’s GT86 on Alfa Romeo wheels that had been machined and reworked into a set of rather epic custom three-piece rims. You’ve got to respect that kind of imagination, right?
Track Action
The Drift Matsuri Drift Kings is something of a staple here at Japfest Silverstone. In fact, tyre-destroying action comes as standard here, and over the years it’s become more competitive than ever. To say the three full-on drift sessions are a crowd-pleaser is something of an understatement, but aside from wowing the Japfest spectators, let’s not forget that it’s actually a competition. In the end, the pro drift judges awarded the crown to Harry Love and his S14. Well deserved.
Aside from the almighty Drift Matsuri Drift Kings Competition, the public track sessions are always a huge part of the event. In fact, that’s a whole day’s worth of entertainment all on its own. And that’s not to mention the Drift Taxis, which were out all-day giving passengers the ride of their lives!
One of the biggest highlights for Japfest 2026 was the Half Time Hall of Famers Demo, a relentless display of skill and rubber-destroying antics laid on by a whole load of special guests and their crazy motorsport weapons. These included pro drifter Luke Woodham in his jumping Prolite truck and Baggsy hitting the circuit in his 2JZ, 1000bhp GT86 with a bunch of his best mates. There was also a display of wheelie-popping, Jap-powred Autograss cars!
Japfest Stand
As always, the Japfest Silverstone display stand was packed with some of the very best cars of the whole event, a hand-picked selection of Japanese classics and modified automotive oddities put together to not only amaze but to inspire.
Let’s just say that all the cars were amazing, but one of our favourites was easily one of the top cars of the whole show… and not just in name! Lewis Petrie’s Top Secret R35 came all the way from Scotland and hasn’t been seen on the Japfest show scene in over a decade. This monster was previously Smoky Nagata’s personal car and a genuine Top Secret development R35 capable of 237mph.
There was loads of merch on offer too, from stickers to hoodies, exclusive skate decks to magazine subscriptions. If you missed out on the new merch, you can still grab yours here.
Trade Village
Elsewhere in the mighty Japfest Silverstone Trade Village, our guests could lay their hands on everything from T-shirts and hoodies to modified car parts and services from many of the biggest aftermarket brands in the industry. You name it, we had it, from premium car parts on the mighty Febi Bilstein stand to everything a mechanic could ever need from Neo Tools… and everything in between.
The Trade Village also saw some of the best display cars of the show. All of the top brands and traders made a huge effort to bring along something extra special, and with so many, it’s kind of difficult to pick our favourites. But twist our arm, we’d have to say that two of the very finest were the Spoon Sports Honda S2000 endurance race car that had been shipped in from Japan. President of Spoon Sports Takuya Kai, also made the journey from the far east to be at the event and meet thousands of fans. The guys at Liqui Moly brought along Ric Woods Motorsport replica HKS Group A Skyline.
Go next year…
And that’s just the highlights! So, if you’d like to be in attendance for Japfest Silverstone 2027 and witness the spectacle for yourself, make sure you book your tickets early because Japfest Silverstone 2026 was not only epic but a sell-out! But if you can’t wait until then, we’ll be back at Silverstone for TRAX and Japfest returns to Goodwood on the 3rd of October.
