AF Chevy Wins European Tuning Showdown at Bodensee

Europe’s biggest tuning show – Tuning World Bodensee – is one of our favourite events of the whole year. Taking place at the enormous Messe Friedrichshafen in Germany, it sees over 1500 of the world’s best tuner car builds all under one roof. It’s certainly an event that’s not to be missed here in Europe.

Once again, this year we attended the show exhibiting with nearly 900 others in the massive trade area, but we also decided to enter our Chevy Truck into the exclusive European Tuning Showdown, a prestigious competition where only the very best builds in Europe go head-to-head for one of the world’s most coveted show trophies. And what’s more – our Chevy won, taking the ETS top spot for 2024!

Originally our 1954 Chevy Pickup - otherwise known as Project Stepside - was built in 2019 to celebrate 20 years of Auto Finesse. After visiting many events around the UK Europe until 2022 it was more recently brought back in its second guise after a 2-year nut and bolt rebuild, new paintwork and more custom details than ever before. See the video below for the full story on the second incarnation of this awesome project…

Our Chevy not only features a brand-new supercharged 6.2 litre V8 and a one off, custom-built chassis, but also air ride, custom wheels and a custom interior… and that’s just the big stuff! You’ll also find a whole lot of other smaller details and finishing touches because, you know, the finer details matter. This has been one full-on evolution from start to finish, but it’s also been nothing but a labour of love for TeamAF and everyone involved.

This season Project Stepside made its European show debut as a special guest at XS CarNight in Umag, Croatia, before being shipped to Bodensee for the very next weekend, where it scooped the biggest prize of them all.

What a result! Suffice to say that we’re extremely proud of the win at Bodensee this weekend and we’re currently busy clearing a nice space for the enormous trophy at AF HQ. As for the prize money and sponsorships that come with winning the European Tuner Showdown? Well, it’s all about the build for us, so we’ve decided to give those away to a children’s charity of the organiser’s choice.

See the full report from Tuning World Bodensee, along with a whole load of other events, and everything else going here at Auto Finesse in the Behind The Scenes Section Of Our Blog.