American muscle meets import. The guys are either strong and full of tattoos or lean and smart. The girls always look good and usually wear hot-pants and bikinis. The cars are fast and furious. Of course, the sun is always shining and back home the barbecue is waiting. You can always get a beer, as long as it is Corona. You know what I am talking about? Well, I kind a thought time to mix reality and fiction a little bit.

I am organizing an annual cruise event for ap-Sportfahrwerke since two years now and it got really popular in the meantime. Asphalthelden meets ap-Sportfahrwerke! Obviously a good connection and so it was time for the next level. How about something completely else? Let`s say a grill-out event for a very small but exclusive group of car-people. Just the best cars, beautiful girls and cool guys. Ok? Let`s go!

The casting
The casting was already quiet an experience. I was pretty sure that we would have a maximum of 30 seats at the barbecue. Thinking about the photographers, the team and myself I thought it shouldn’t be more than 20 cars, maybe less. Because in addition to that, we needed at least one hand full of models who are really into stuff like this. But at the end, many many more people did apply for the few places wie had and I have to say I felt very honored about that. Unfortunately we did not get a „classical charger“ but other than that it was so many great cars that I had a very hard time to decide. That was the point when I asked some of the other team-members to send me top-10 lists with their favorites. Keeping those in mind, at the very end we had invited 19 cars and 6 models. And exactly at this point – surprise surprise, the guys from ap-Sportfahrwerke also wanted to stop by to see what we were doing in their name for quiet some time now. Now it was up to 40 people and panic was right around the corner.

The meeting
The team and the photographers arrived at our meeting spot two hours early. So, we could talk over all the details before we had to head of to the first shooting location. A friend of mine gave us the allowance to shoot on his business area which was great, because he is the owner of a big construction company. The day was supposed to be very hot (around 34 degrees centigrade) and it was all blue sky, so everything was like in the movies. But I did wonder: Do the people in those movies also sweat that bad? I don`t know but I do know that I needed 3 different shirts at the day. At least, now I understand why Vin Diesel is just wearing tank-tops in his movies. Well, back to the story. Some time later everybody showed up and we made it to arrange the cars perfectly. That was the time to tell everybody on set what to do and how to behave, especially the models and the photographers: Have fun! Be natural, but sexy and cool! Just imagine you would be in a movie and not at a photoshoot. Well, we need people in the background over there, we need a car right here! Listen to the music and dance! I tell you, all that was not easy to handle but after some time the fun started and party and work get mixed in a perfect way.

The cars
How to find the right cars for such kind of event? Going with the facts? Just take what you think looks good? And than I have to think that we are in Germany and not in the USA, that means there will be some more cars from the domestic market besides all the muscle and JDM cars. Well, however – the only thing which is for sure is that all cars needs to be absolutely showstoppers. So lets start: We got all 3 different models from the Mustang 5 series. The first one comes from Felix, the second one is the violent force police car owned by Kiyana and the last one is my own ride. Having those in mind, we need some Japanese domestic market style. There was – of course – a Nissan Skyline, in our case Michaels R32 GTR, Rays Nissan Silvia S15 and Armins Honda Civic with 330 hp.

We also got some really cool BMW`s: There was Michaels 530 Diesel transformation into a 540i, Thomas and his E61 „black an yellow“, Andreas with his E46 330i compressor, and there would have been Steffens M3 but he had a little accident with a roadkill (dove in the headlights) in the morning, so he quickly changed cars and still showed up. That`s exactly the kind of people we are looking for, they say that they will show up and the show up whatever happens. Like that! The next big part of the event was – being in Germany – Volkswagen of course: We got Tobis Golf 6 which was already an ap show-car some month before, two well known classics from Matthias and Dominic, the Rockstar Golf from Dom and Swear Customz as well as the unbelievable great „Hulk“ T5 Bus from Markus with one mighty stereo system which literally blew me away. All that was completed with Basti`s 2004 Opel Astra, Martins Audi S3 with the 80/90 old school music on board (which – at least I really enjoyed), Gerrits Porsche 911 Carrera S and Daves Audi R8.

Party, Shooting and a lot of sweat
The mixture of car-meeting, shooting and party at our first location lasted round about two hours, Our female models Nicole, Peggy, Kiyana, Kyra, Sarah-Kim and Franzi gave their best at the hottest day of the year and the photographers did climb pallets and crawled around the floor. Our stock on cool drinks did vanish really quick but all this couldn’t stop the good mood of the guys and girls. Meanwhile, Daves drone did circle around the area. But finally it was time for a change of location. Driving in a long convoy we were heading back to the house where the barbecue should start and I also showed everybody a little abandoned circuit, where they could drive to do some rolling shots and to show their cars to the other drivers.

Cool-down and grill-out
After parking the cars in a circle in front of the house it was time to relax. Most guys put out their camping chairs and their water-pipes while we served cool drinks. Some of the models asked for some water out of the garden-hose and well, I am glad to help! In the meantime our team with Daniel, Fabian and Irina did prepare the barbecue and the grills were ready. One more time a lot of things to do for the crew to feed 40 people but after that – slowly but for sure – it was time to sit back and relax and watch the sunset of a great summer day.

Feedback and aftermath
I have to admit, after having created a very successful event with the annual ap-cruise I was a bit scared how the grill-out would work. But the day has surpassed all my expectations. Of course it was a lot of work and a lot of things to organize but it was worth it. All the participants have been very nice, relaxed and disciplined. Everybody was very happy and the feedback in the following days was more than great. So, I just can say – thank you – to everybody.

Text: Andreas Leffler
Pictures: STH-Car-Photography, Unlimited-Customs, YP Photography, Stefan Hoiß, Matthias Pister, Yannic Penzkofer, Irina Rosag, David Ziller und Andreas Leffler