GERMAN SUPRA MKIV GROUP goes Supra MKIV Team Poland Meeting

So here we are again, witnessing the same choreography we have seen so many times before: Cars parked parallel or in an angle? Colors aligned or mixed? The side view mirrors need to be on the exact same position. After the last car has shut down its engine, it’s the same sight we have encountered so many times, but every time different: A whole bunch of Supras parked next to each other, creating feelings I only remember from being a child, playing with Matchbox cars.

I attended dozens of Supra meets, I have seen hundreds of Supras in my life, but every lineup is something truly unique,  exciting again, renewing my love for this one special car model.
This time, we, Arne and myself, drove a 1.000 kms each just to enjoy this choregraphy: German Supra MKIV Group teaming up with the Polish Supra MKIV Team.

So what’s the story? As you may know, Arne is the owner of a very special Supra, one of only 3 Supra SE known to us in Europe (Read the full story here). The two other SEs are located in Poland, with one being in extraordinary good condition and still baring its original SE pin-stripes, unloved by so many Supra SE owners. With driving a unicorn like his pearl-white Supra SE, Arne always wanted to team up with the other SE owners. I myself am speaking somewhat decent Polish, eliminating the language barriers we would have to conquer otherwise. The idea of going to Poland and attending the Polish MKIV meeting quickly arose, and with “maintaining friendship between the nations” being part of our club statute, to me it was somewhat of a question of honor to visit our Polish Supra breathren.

But wait, not only did we have the idea to cross the border, our friends from Poland were faster than us and visited our German meeting this year, even before we could visit their meeting.

This way we met Andrzej and Marcin, the two guys organizing the Polish meeting at our meeting. Marcin was somewhat on a good bye tour, as he already sold his Supra. It was an honor that he chose our meeting for his final last roadtrip with his beloved Supra. We became friends with these two great guys and they invited us to the Polish meeting, which took place only two weeks later.

Fast forward by two weeks, somewhere in between the towns on Wielun and Belchatow, headed for Lodz. The picturesque Polish landscape welcomed us with its beauty: A long straight stretch of road with little to no traffic, endless pine forests, alternating with fields to the horizon. A landscape I have never witnessed so far.

Upon the arrival in Spala, a spa town in the middle of Poland, the first surprise: There was a GERMAN SUPRA MKIV GROUP eV banner hanging at the balcony of the Karczma Spalska hotel next to the SUPRA MKIV TEAM POLAND banner. As we found out soon, Andrzej this crazy dude organized a welcome present for us 🙂

As soon as we arrived in the parking area we could already organize a twin-sister meeting: Arne’s Supra SE lined up next to Andrzej’s SE, and my 2000 Supra RZ in Quicksilver FX parked next to Domenika’s and Sebastian’s 2001 Supra RZ in Quicksilver FX.

We quickliy detailed our cars and soon some other people like Stosek arrived. But the actual meeting didn’t start until the next day, which was a great occasion to meet the core of the organizaton team in a very small group.

The next day was stroking: We were 18 Supras from all over Poland incl. 2 from Germany. There were so many people to become friends with and only so little time. What I enjoyed the most is the idea of the meeting being an “integrational meeting”, with the main event being the evening, where everyone is sitting together, having a few drinks, discussing everything car-related and non car-related. I really hope I could talk at least a few words to every single Supra owner 🙂

So what is the Polish Supra Scene like? The first thing that caught my eye: Every second car is LHD-converted, which is really a specialty. The reason to this is special and worth mentioning: Until 2015 it was illegal to register a RHD car in Poland. I guess the reason to this is the lack of highways in Poland back in the day and overtaking with a RHD car on a country road is always a risky endeavour. This way the only way to register a RHD car in Poland was to convert it to LHD. Back in 2015 a Polish court decided that every European-registered car has to be eligible for import to Poland, no matter where the steering wheel is located. But even today, you may only register RHD cars that were formally registered in another European country, registering a RHD car from Japan for instance is still virtually impossible.

(Video by Domenika)

So what did I expect? A lot of cheap-ass glass fiber LHD dashboards? Nope! You’re wrong. The attention to detail put into these LHD conversions is overwhelming. Every single dashboard is a brand new OEM Toyota part, some owners did also buy all of the LHD dash pieces brand new. You know how much a set costs these days, right?

The second thing: Polish Supra meets can make of a great Skittles advertisement, they’re colorful 😉

If anyone ever should ask me the question, where do you see yourself in two years? My answer will definitely be “In Poland, on a Supra meeting”. It was great meeting so many new friends and seeing again, how the same passion, the same love for a 25+ year old Toyota brings people together from all over the world. We are lucky we are living in a Europe with open borders, where encounters like these are possible, bringing nations closer to each other.
On a trip to the US Supra meet I once was named a “Supra embassador”, and this is really how it feels 🙂

I am really hoping we will see our new friends again soon, maybe in Germany, maybe in Poland, maybe on a Supra meeting, maybe just for the sake of it.

I can just emphasize, in the name of Arne and myself and the whole German Supra community, thanks for the awesome hospitality Poland, thanks for being so friendly and open-minded and thanks for being the same type of crazy car people we are! It felt like a real holiday!

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