Moving an event as established as Ultrace is always a gamble. After years in Wrocław, Europe’s premier modified car gathering found a new home in Gdańsk. Changing venues is easy on paper, but recreating the atmosphere that made people travel across the World is something else entirely. I arrived wondering whether Ultrace would still feel like Ultrace.

It didn’t take long to find the answer.

One of the biggest perks of having a media pass is experiencing the show before anyone else. Before the gates open, Ultrace feels almost like an art gallery. The venue is quiet, ambient music drifts around the stadium and every car sits exactly where it belongs, waiting for the crowds to arrive. It’s a rare opportunity to slow down and absorb the details.

Walking between familiar hero cars, greeting Adrian and the organising team, I realised that despite the new city, nothing important had changed. It still felt unmistakably like Ultrace.

A few hours later, the silence was gone.

Thousands of enthusiasts poured through the gates. The event had come alive. Watching that transformation is one of my favourite parts of covering Ultrace. The cars may be the centrepiece, but it’s the people who give the event its heartbeat.

The move to Gdańsk turned out to be a great decision. Polsat Plus Arena offers a different perspective to previous editions. The two-level layout means you’re no longer experiencing everything from ground level. Instead, you can look down over a sea of carefully selected cars and appreciate the scale of the event in a way that simply wasn’t possible before. The larger, more visible drift arena also became part of the overall spectacle, constantly drawing your attention with tyre smoke and engine noise before your eyes returned to the static displays.

If there was one thing nobody could escape, it was the weather.

Poland was in the middle of a heat wave. Water bottles emptied almost as quickly as memory cards filled up, sunscreen became essential equipment and every patch of shade turned into valuable real estate. Yet somehow the relentless sunshine became part of the identity of Ultrace 2026. Freshly polished paint reflected the sun, and some body panels genuinely looked too hot to touch. Looking back, I can’t imagine this edition without remembering the heat.

Of course, the real reason everyone comes to Ultrace is the cars, and once again the organisers delivered a selection that few events in the world could match.

The curation is what makes Ultrace. This has never been about finding the most expensive project or the highest horsepower figure. Instead, it’s about bringing together cars with genuine character, influence and style.

A world-famous Porsche can stand next to a perfectly executed Volkswagen from Poland or another Eastern European country, and neither feels out of place. They’re judged by the same unwritten standard: authenticity, craftsmanship and, perhaps, coolness.

That philosophy creates combinations that range from understated OEM+ projects to wildly engineered tube-chassis creations. Seeing both the Lotec C1000 and Sirius in one place felt almost surreal. Every aisle rewarded curiosity. The longer you looked, the more details revealed themselves.

Some cars carry a reputation that precedes them. Mike Burroughs’ legendary ‘Rusty’ BMW E28 is one of those projects that almost every enthusiast has seen online. After years of admiring it through the screen, I wondered whether seeing it in person could still have the same impact.

It absolutely did.

Then there were the unexpected moments.

Hidden away from the main spotlight sat an AGTZ Twin Tail by La Squadra and Zagato, finished in a Deus Ex Machina livery. Based on the Alpine A110 and costing at least 700 000 euro, it’s one of those rare machines that makes you stop in disbelief. Yet because of where it was displayed, many visitors seemed to walk straight past it.

I couldn’t help thinking that if it had been placed on one of the main podiums, it would have become one of the most photographed cars of the weekend.

That sense of connection extends beyond the cars themselves.

One of the things I love most about Ultrace is how naturally conversations begin. Two strangers stop to admire the same wheel choice, fabrication, fitment or engine bay, and within seconds they’re chatting like old friends. It doesn’t matter where you’ve travelled from. Everyone speaks the same language when the cars are this good.

As photographers, we’re fortunate to see the event from another perspective. Ultrace’s media team constantly pushes each other to experiment, to look beyond the obvious shots and find new ways to tell the story every year. It’s inspiring, but it also leaves me asking the same question after every edition: did I capture the atmosphere, or did I only capture the cars?

If someone asked me to recommend just one modified car event in Europe, my answer would be simple: go to Ultrace!

Not because it has the rarest cars. Not because it has the biggest names. But because nowhere else combines world-class builds, thoughtful curation and a welcoming community quite like this. The venue may have changed, but the soul of Ultrace remains exactly where it has always been.