There are times in my life when I feel that I’m not quite dedicated enough to the computing cause, and this weekend was one of those times. I found myself in a field around five miles away from Sleaford in Lincolnshire, and it’s fair to say my fellow field dwellers outgeeked me – because they’d all taken the time and effort to fit PCs into their cars.

The event was the annual Digital Car show, organised by a dedicated forum called www.digital-car.co.uk (I believe it took them some time to think of the URL) and sponsored by specialist retailer LinITX.com. For a list of winners, see here.

I joined them around halfway through judging on the Saturday afternoon, and – despite the faintly bewildered look on my face – couldn’t have been made to feel more welcome. There were around 20 cars up for awards, and though I didn’t see them all I was fortunate enough to interview five system builders.

Although that underplays what these people do. They essentially rip out huge chunks of their car, rewire it and – often – fabricate their own customised dashboards. The results are frequently nothing short of astonishing.

For instance, Kevin Salt – who’d driven over from The Hague – had rebuilt the dash of his BMW, somehow managing to keep the walnut finish. Ed Cornish had driven his Land Rover all the way to Africa and back, helping to map the region while he was at it. Steve Wagg had actually programmed the Flash front-end that many people were using in their cars.

There were lots of things that struck me on the day, but chief among them was the fact people were never quite satisfied with their CarPC. They were always on the look-out for the next upgrade, whether that be the 8in transreflective screen due to arrive with LinITX.com in two weeks’ time, or a faster processor or just – I say just, but this is the toughest part – to update the dash to make it look more “stock”. That is, as the manufacturer would make it.

I was also amazed to see that it was Windows XP that powered these systems. I fully expected Linux to be the OS of choice, but apparently its handling of GPS just isn’t up to scratch.

But perhaps the biggest thing that struck me was how very similar the status of today’s CarPC enthusiasts is to that of PC enthusiasts back in the 70s and early 80s. Sure, on the surface, these PCs are tools. But despite the number of beers being thrown back on Saturday evening, much of the talk was of coding, of building tips and how much CarPC building would take off in the future.

Microsoft has now backed off about making the PC the hub of a home, but could the PC soon become the hub of the car? I wouldn’t bet my house on it, but maybe, just maybe, my Zafira.