newsletter signup

designed and hosted by

Gallery - please click on the photos to enlarge

Litchfield were lucky enough to be invited to the Spa 24hr race to support a friend’s Mosler and see the Nissan GTR GT1 in action, what a weekend! Iain got to speak to the Nissan drivers on the grid and have lunch with F1 World Champion Jacques Villeneuve who was racing in the Mosler team.

The trip out to Europe was just eventful as it involved driving a 605bhp Porsche Carrera GT to its new owner in Luxembourg. Once safely delivered it was a quick blast over to Belgium for the race build up. The support vehicle of choice for the trip was the Subaru Forester STI. Even in standard 300bhp form the Forester made the perfect high speed motorway cruiser, carried all our bangs, tools (just encase) and tent . When we arrived it made light work of the rain and mud soaked campsite where others we getting stuck. The perfect road trip car?

Litchfield were proud to support the Colin McRae Subaru Gathering on the 31st of August. Despite the terrible weather the turn out of every type of Subaru was simply incredible to see and a pleasure to be part of. The online magazine Drivers-Republic came along in one of our 2008 JDM STIs and did a feature on the event for their website. Jethro has written a fitting tribute to this amazing sportsman and they have also set up a mini McRae forum group “to celebrate McRae the man and to salute the recent McRae Gathering”.

Professional photographer Nigel Harniman (www.harniman.com) contacted Iain Litchfield about using his Nissan GTR in a photo shoot he was planning. Nigel is regularly commissioned by large manufacturers to produce images for them. We knew Nigel was good but we had no idea just how amazing the photos would come out. The photo session lasted from 10am to 12:30am the following day but the wait was more than worth it. Here are the images Nigel produced along with some behind the scenes images of the photos session equipment.

Early November saw us attend the RMA's 2 day Nurburgring track day in our Honda Civic Type-R demonstrator. The trip was both for fun and to continue testing on the our new AST suspension set up for the FD2 Civic Type-R with Curtis Woodman from AST UK.

Litchfield Imports imported one of the first Ford GT's into the UK. This car was almost certainly the first with the revised suspension arms. Carefully packed into a container this car took less than 14 days to leave the US Ford dealer before being unloaded with us in the UK. A car that drives even better than it looks.

Ever wondered how some of these cars arrive from around the world? These pictures show the first MY06 Subaru Impreza to arrive into the UK. This was our Magazine featured Black demonstrator which we sent by container to save a few days at sea. The first batch of MY06 Impreza's and Forester STI's arrived by Autorack which allows cars to be placed on the faster container boats.

Not only are we one of the UK's leading Import specialists but we also have real enthusiasm for these cars. Throughout the year we try and attend as many track days and shows that time allows. Here we get a real understanding of what these amazing cars perform like at the limits. Whether it is a Mustang, 911, Spec C or Type-25 we've spun them all.

Autocar tested and loved the Spec C in early 2003 and offered us a wild card entry into their Driver Car of the year event being held at Rockingham race circuit. 2 days of fantastic track action ensued. Despite over 25 of the years best cars attending the Spec C made it into the final six having won over everyone that drove it. The highlight of the event was being a passenger of both the Spec C and new 911 GT3 while F1 drivers Justin Wilson and Takuma Sato raced each other.

2003 saw a scorching hot summer trip with Evo magazine. Litchfield Imports were invited along with the new Spec C Limited to the launch of the then new BMW CSL and Porsche GT3 (V.2). The journey started early and ended in some beautiful German mountain roads. The Spec C more than held its own and the review can be found on our press page. Evo magazine enjoyed the car so much that they invited us on their Car Of The Year event later in the year, a huge feature that the Spec C went on to win.

After winning the first round (Sub £50,000 price cars) of the 2003 Car of the Year event Evo magazine took us to Italy to take on the years best Supercars. With the likes of the latest Porsche GT3, Lamborghini Gallado and Ferrari 360 Stradale it was truly a unique experience. Curtis from Powerstation shared the road trip down to the mountain roads of Italy. A Journey which passed quickly when driving most of the way flat-out in a VX220 Turbo, it did however take two days for our backs and ears to recover. Even the local Police joined in the fun with passenger rides in the F360 Stradale. A short video will be uploaded soon.

During the heat wave in the Summer 2004 we were invited to take the Type-25 to Autocar's Prestigious Driver's car of the year held at Brands Hatch Grand Prix circuit. After proclaiming the Type-25 “The best Impreza on planet earth” we had high hopes. We were not disappointed, the Type-25 came second overall behind the awesome Noble M400 supercar beating in the process Porsche's new GT3 RS, the Lamborghini Gallardo and many more big name sports cars. The Type-25 also went to set some astonishingly quick laps around the famous brands hatch circuit (see in the press section for more).

JK and his stunning Enzo also came along to join in. All-in-all a perfect 2 days.

After our success the year before and the rave reviews the Type-25 had generated Evo magazine invited us back to their Car Of The Year event in 2004. This saw the Type-25 up against some serious mainstream opposition and once again it did extremely well. A video of the event will be uploaded soon.

December 2004 saw both Powerstation and Litchfield Imports move into our new premises, only they were not so new. Months of painstaking work and large investment has eventually turned this charming Victorian railway building into a modern motoring mecca. August 2005 saw our grand opening. Work continues to make it even better..

The 2005 Tuner GP was a massive event held at Donnington Park Grand Prix circuit during September, not only did we win our class and have the fastest Japanese car but we also had a really good time. Our hospitality trailer was always full with past customers and suppliers. Our partners watched, drinking wine, whilst their men busily chased victory - it was a tough day for some!

Our stand was also shared with Evo magazine's impressive M3 Race car and also Nissan UK's stunning 350Z S-Tune. The M3 chassis and suspension was developed with Powerstation and it too won its class.

October 2005 once again saw us invited by Evo Magazine to attend their Car of the year event. Not this time with a hot Impreza but with the more practical, and in many ways more interesting, Subaru Forester STI. Testing took place over 4 days in wet but beautiful Scottish mountains and the famous Knock Hill race circuit. The Forester STI did extremely well finishing 6th overall. Star of the week was a real surprise. The Hyundai Terracan support vehicle provided many adrenalin packed moments with it's death defying vertical descents and sideways circuit action. “It's every car you ever need!”
A video of the trip will be uploaded soon.

November 2005 saw Iain and Jon (our website designer) get invited to the huge SEMA show in Las Vegas to meet suppliers. We took the opportunity to make a trip out of it by flying to LA where we collected our convertible Audi S4. It is no wonder the show is the biggest of its kind with dozens of massive halls filled inside and out with the best the worlds tuning markets has to offer.

Importing new cars into the UK has become increasingly difficult and we now invest a lot of time and money into making sure our key products conform to strict EU emission and noise test regulations. We are the only company to have passed the Subaru Impreza STI, Spec C and Forester STI through the tough EUROIII approval. We now have passed EUROIV and been contacted by a number of other large companies to help with type approval testing.