A Dream Coming True aka How I Went to Ultrace
Heh, I’m not even sure how to start this story now. Being behind the scenes, directing others and shaping their stories into posts somehow feels easier, but here we are. Anyway… Hello everyone, my name is Martin, and I went to Ultrace.
Backstory
Some stories begin with a plan, others begin with a car. Mine started nearly 18 years ago, when I bought my first car – a 1991 MK2 Golf. At the time, there was no grand vision, no end goal, no thought that this car might one day make it to Ultrace. It was just a Golf – a project that developed slowly, piece by piece, stage by stage.
Over the years, the car went through many different phases. Styles changed, taste evolved, and as with long-term projects, progress often came in bursts, followed by longer pauses. It was very clearly a “here and there, slowly” kind of build, influenced by life just as much as by conscious decisions.
This approach changed around 2018. By then, I had reached a point where small fixes and upgrades no longer provided satisfaction. The body was starting to show signs of fatigue, there were too many compromises, and the car no longer represented what I truly wanted to do. A decision had to be made – one that many project car owners eventually face – to stop patching things up and truly start over: a full rebuild.
I knew very well what that meant: years of work, setbacks, long nights, and moments when giving up seems tempting. At the same time, I set myself a clear goal – one day, this Golf would make it either to Wörthersee or to Ultrace.
First Time at Ultrace
Let’s jump to 2023, when I visited Ultrace for the first time, not as a participant but as a passenger and spectator. That year, we attended the event with Silver’s static A4 B5, aka “Fakestatic” Audi, and for me it was an eye-opening experience.
Ultrace wasn’t just another car show. The scale, the atmosphere, the level of the builds, and the diversity of styles clearly showed that this is where European car culture comes together. It gave me my first real overview of the event and, at the same time, additional motivation to keep working toward the goal I had set earlier. 2024. By 2024, after five to six years of consistent work, the Golf had reached a state where it could already be called a show car. It could be seen at several events in Estonia, as well as at FittedFest in Finland. Due to my work schedule, I knew that attending events would be limited that year, so I postponed participating in Ultrace to 2025. In the meantime, the build continued, because like the city of Tallinn, project cars are never truly finished.
Registration and Waiting
Ultrace 2025 registration opened in December 2024. I submitted my application at the first possible opportunity. I knew that a negative response was also possible, as the level of the event and the number of applicants grows every year. For that reason, I spent the next roughly three months in a 50–50 mindset, until finally the email arrived: “Approved!”. The feeling was powerful and instantly put all the previous years into a new light. The build, the setbacks, the countless hours of work – all the effort of recent years immediately felt worth it!
Registration and Waiting
Ultrace 2025 registration opened in December 2024. I submitted my application at the first possible opportunity. I knew that a negative response was also possible, as the level of the event and the number of applicants grows every year. For that reason, I spent the next roughly three months in a 50–50 mindset, until finally the email arrived: “Approved!”. The feeling was powerful and instantly put all the previous years into a new light. The build, the setbacks, the countless hours of work – all the effort of recent years immediately felt worth it!
The Journey to Ultrace
Now it was time to start planning the trip. Two years earlier, when we went to Ultrace with Silver, we drove there by car, but with my own Golf I didn’t want to attempt such a long drive. So a trailer came into play, along with all the related nuances. I don’t have a trailer license myself, so I needed to find a driver with a suitable vehicle. Fortunately, Margus was immediately willing to help – he saw it as a varied holiday trip in between his summer duties at Jõujaam. Next, we needed to figure out where to leave the trailer during the event. I asked the Ultrace team about this well in advance, but never received an answer. From a participant’s perspective, I would have expected slightly better communication and planning on this topic, but at the same time, with an event of this scale, it’s understandable that not all questions get resolved. In any case, the location of the parking lot where others stored their vans and trailers was known indirectly, and we put all our bets on a “first come, first served” strategy. Other options didn’t really exist anyway, as accessing a city-center hotel with a trailer wouldn’t have been possible.
With the plan in place, we waited for departure day, when two days before leaving I received news that the enclosed trailer we had agreed on long ago had developed brake issues, and the owner felt it wouldn’t survive such a long trip. At the same time, problems arose with the tow vehicle that had been planned. We had to start replanning the entire transport solution, and here big thanks go to Jorgen, who lent us an open but practically new trailer, and to Rainer, who lent us a Hilux that had been sitting for a year but was technically roadworthy. However, the day before departure it turned out that the Hilux had a rusty rear brake line, which started leaking after its first encounter with a wire brush. This was followed by a few very intense hours solving the problem, but all’s well that ends well, and the Hilux passed inspection. We finished everything only on Wednesday evening, just before midnight, when the Golf was loaded onto the trailer in front of Mergos Detailing Studio and the Hilux was hitched up.
Keeping our previously planned parking strategy in mind, we set off on Thursday morning at 08:00. About 1,200 km, or roughly 13 hours of driving, lay ahead. Crossing the Baltics was, as usual, demanding, but after that everything went smoothly. We arrived at the stadium parking area the same evening around 9–10 pm. From a distance, we could already see that a local “Thursday night meet” was taking place, meaning the parking lot was completely full. Maneuvering with a trailer was a challenge in itself, and finding a spot seemed hopeless – until a thunderstorm arrived. Let’s just say the rain washed the parking lot clean – lucky us! We chose a suitable spot for the trailer, unloaded the Golf, left everything parked there, and headed to the city center by Bolt.
Approaching the city of Wrocław, you could already feel that something big was happening. Everywhere you looked, there was something incredibly cool – either on trailers or in convoys heading toward the city. Once in town, you didn’t even know where to look; there were bangs and acceleration sounds everywhere. It promised to be a perfect weekend.
Ultrace 2025
On Friday morning, we headed back to the parking lot and began preparing the Golf for moving it into the exhibition area. Fortunately, the entire drive from Pärnu to the stadium had been dry, and the car had remained clean on the trailer. There weren’t even any bugs on the front – the Hilux bed had protected the car nicely. The only rain we got was during unloading and a brief shower on Friday. So we got lucky and didn’t need to use the car wash located slightly away from the stadium; a quick detailer was enough. Before entering the exhibition area, we also removed the Golf’s hood, which fit perfectly behind the Hilux’s rear seat once the seat base was folded up.
Each participant is assigned a specific time and gate for entry. Even if you arrive earlier and the gate is empty, you won’t be let in – those are the rules. My entry time was 7:00 pm through Gate B, which led to the ramp next to the stadium. This is not the main exhibition area, and in hindsight, it’s fair to say that more than half of the spectators never made it there. From the car owner’s and photographer’s perspective, this was positive – it was calmer and there wasn’t constant squeezing around the cars. At the same time, it was clear that many spectators were confused about how to even get to that ramp. Several staircases were closed, and the layout was confusing. In any case, by Friday evening we had the car inside and parked, and then enjoyed Friday night together with our third travel companion, Ramon, aka Outraw Automotive. Since Friday was the calmer day meant for participants and their companions, we were able to explore the area during golden hour without crowds. We grabbed cold beers and started shooting photos. More than once, we completely lost track of time while wandering around with the camera – there was so much to see. It’s worth mentioning that the Outraw Automotive gallery also decorates this blog post.
On Saturday morning, we arrived two hours before the official opening to capture a few more photos without spectators. Initially, the atmosphere was even calmer than the previous evening, but the light wasn’t as good. Those two hours were relentless – every minute the light became harsher for photography, and suddenly the gates were open. After that, it was no longer possible to shoot between the crowds, and we mostly just hung around.
The crowd grew massive, and it was clear both to see and hear that proper chaos had formed. The queues were insanely long, and spectators had to wait for hours to get in. Allegedly, many people inside couldn’t even get water, and the food lines were also extremely long. The situation wasn’t helped by the heatwave that has become something of an Ultrace tradition, lasting the entire weekend. As a participant, I fortunately didn’t experience the ticket queues and was also able to get food and water within a reasonable time. So I, as a participant, didn’t feel the negative side of the event as strongly, but unfortunately many people did. Now, however, it’s time to hand things over to Ramon and read how Ultrace 2025 looked from his perspective.
15 Years – From Walking Together to the School Cafeteria to Seeing Shared Dreams Come True at Ultrace
Hello from me as well! My name is Ramon, and I also went to Ultrace. To understand how I ended up there, I need to rewind time a bit – straight back to highschool days. The whole story actually began when the cafeteria of our beloved Pärnu Hansagümnaasium went into renovation around 2008. This meant we had to make a daily ten-minute walk to the city government building, where student catering had temporarily moved. And every single day, as we trudged along with classmates, a low green Volkswagen Golf 2 with tinted windows cruised past us.
The sight was unforgettable: the car packed full of people, windows down, a low-rumbling exhaust, and a license plate frame vibrating along with the bassline – something that could probably be heard from far away at the city government building. As a car enthusiast, it was impossible not to notice this spectacle. The crew always seemed to be having fun, and of course, behind the wheel of that Golf was the protagonist of this story, Martin, heading to lunch with his classmates. This is my very first memory of Martin – from a time when we hadn’t yet exchanged a single word.
From Forum to Garage, From Garage to Friendship
About a year later, when I had finally come of age, freshly licensed and sitting in my first car – an MK2 Jetta – the VW club forum brought Martin and me together again. We had long been just anonymous schoolmates, sharing the same walk to the cafeteria, but a shared interest in old Volkswagens made us acquainted.
I’ve followed the build of Martin’s Golf almost from the very beginning and have occasionally contributed my own modest input to the car’s progress. Time spent together in the garage forged a friendship out of a forum contact – one that could easily be the subject of a completely separate blog post. But for now, let’s fast-forward to April 18 of last year, when our story’s protagonist, Martin, reappeared in Messenger.
From Forum to Garage, From Garage to Friendship
About a year later, when I had finally come of age, freshly licensed and sitting in my first car – an MK2 Jetta – the VW club forum brought Martin and me together again. We had long been just anonymous schoolmates, sharing the same walk to the cafeteria, but a shared interest in old Volkswagens made us acquainted.
I’ve followed the build of Martin’s Golf almost from the very beginning and have occasionally contributed my own modest input to the car’s progress. Time spent together in the garage forged a friendship out of a forum contact – one that could easily be the subject of a completely separate blog post. But for now, let’s fast-forward to April 18 of last year, when our story’s protagonist, Martin, reappeared in Messenger.
Sin, Pilgrimage, and the Mecca of Petrolheads
I’ve been dreaming for years of visiting either Wörthersee, Ultrace, or Gatebil, so I didn’t need much convincing when Martin made an offer that would have been pure sin to refuse. It was a great honor to be involved in bringing this carefully built project to its international debut in Wrocław – something that could also be called a pilgrimage. Not in a religious sense, but praying that the Hilux, with its brake line replaced the night before, would get us there without issues. Knowing Martin’s thoroughness and the number of hours invested in this car, I was certain that the “Approved” stamp wasn’t a coincidence, but an honorably earned ticket to the elite league.
The event itself, for me as a first-time visitor, was simply… insane..
Already on Thursday and Friday, before the official start, there was serious action in the parking lot behind the stadium. People and cars flowed back and forth, and something was happening somewhere all the time. In one corner of the lot, a retro Seat with ITBs was being unloaded from a trailer, puffing at idle; in another, a Toyota Chaser’s 1JZ launch control was being tuned. In the evenings, while walking around the city, some of the show cars were parked directly on the cobblestone streets of Wrocław’s old town. And all of this was just a small teaser of what was to come in the following days. I had previously seen photos and aftermovies from the event, but they don’t even come close to conveying what you can experience in person. Rare classics, tasteful VIP-style Japanese cars, criminally insane engine swaps, colorful liveries, completely unique wheel setups… and one drifting yellow Ferrari 360 Modena straight from Japan – because why not? Even after two days of walking around the mecca of petrolheads, we were still finding new corners of the stadium where some new, previously unseen gem was hidden.
And Ultrace didn’t end with the gates closing. In the evenings, the local elite of car culture gathered around the city, and the show for the people continued on the old town’s cobblestone streets at a whole new level. After the event, it took some time to recover and return to reality, but the emotions are powerful and unforgettable. I am sincerely grateful that I was able to be part of this project’s journey and indirectly contribute to the fulfillment of Martin’s dream.
Thank you, my friend, for simultaneously fulfilling one of my dreams as well!
Final Words
So – overall, it can be said that all’s well that ends well, and since participating in Ultrace with my own car was also one of my goals, I look back on this adventure with a positive outlook and feel that it was all worth it.
Hopefully, Ultrace’s negative aspects will find solutions this year, as the event is split into two parts. In both cases, there will also be new locations – we’ll see how the plans play out. Due to my work schedule, I unfortunately won’t make it to Gdańsk, but we will head to Germany together with Outraw Automotive to check things out, this time as spectators.
Huge thanks to everyone involved, and until the next adventures!
EDIT
PHOTOGRAPHER
GOLF MK2 OWNER
EDIT
PHOTOGRAPHER
GOLF MK2 OWNER
