Event: Bavaria in the City
I almost forgot these pictures were on the harddrive… I was asked to come shoot a video for the Bavaria in the city, so it would have been a shame not to bring the picture camera also to get some snaps. The day itself had massive potential, its just this Quality Irish summer which made it somewhat of a misery. Julian Smiths Mac tools 34 was over for the weekend for a drift display which was going to be happening on the streets of Dublin, a very rare opportunity for the Prodrift guys.
Garage Life: The send off
It’s no secret that Irelands economy is down the tube, day in day out we hear a new story of something bad, someone losing a job someone forced to sell a car. The truth is, the “glory days” of what will be remembered as that chapter in the Irish car world where the port of Dublin was flooded with a car culture from the other side of the planet. All these “JDM” cars started pouring onto Irish soil, snatched up from the auctions in Japan and shipped the emerald isle. This happened for a good solid 8 years, there had always been the odd few Japanese cars which made it over before, but the major car rush which was witnessed by everyone was truly something special. Ireland immersed itself in the culture, rims, bodykits, seats, drifting, all these goodies which suddenly ended up being everywhere, suddenly Japanese cars were everywhere, it’s the biggest part of the car world in Ireland and has been since they started coming across the seas in the masses back at the turn of the millennium.
Feature: That Works 9 s14
Sometimes it’s a little overwhelming when you think back at all the cars that were bought through auction from one small enough country and sent to another little country. The fact that Japan still has enough of its own cars to enjoy and smash makes you wonder just how many cars they really have. From roughly around the start of the millennium right up until about two years ago the Japanese import business was booming in Ireland. So many snippets of Japanese culture flooded the docks of Dublin. Pieces of someone else life their history, something they had worked hard on and shared memories in right across the other side of the world. So much of what came into Ireland was shrouded with mystery, where I would often finding myself sitting with friends and someone will say ” you would really wonder what happened in this car back in Japan, where it went, what it done” its a piece of conversation that comes up at least once a month.
Event: Heatwave 2011 PT1
So it has to be said Heatwave 2011 actually turned out a lot better then we had expected. Its no secret that Ireland is filled with nice cars. Properly built clean cars exist and many times over the years going to shows these cars would never be on show, in fact most of the time it would be the exact opposite, with only a handful of cars on display which would make you look twice. Not taking away from the work of some people but the car scene has definitely changed and it was only a matter of time until the shoes would reflect this. It was certainly a different line up of cars compared to lets say 2005!
What the Fuck Wednesday: The JZX100 Taxi
Everyone knows just how boring motorways can be when your trying to get from A to B, its the same thing over and over with no real entertainment. This JZX100 taxi yeah that’s right, a Toyota Chaser JZX100 was cruising just up ahead but something looked a small bit out of place so we decided to catch up and really couldn’t believe what we were seeing!
Event: Mondello Drift Day
So since there is a nice gap in between the next Prodrift event, Mondello had another track day for drift practice, owners could pay 140 euros to drive on the track all day in pretty much whatever they choose. These days are just as if not more interesting then some of the professional events down to the fact that the track is a mix of Decent and learner driver’s so things can be very unpredictable. Most cars come home with at least one love tap or maybe two…
Meet: Port Tunnel Run
The most interesting thing about the Irish car scene is the little niches that lurk in every corner of the country, friends and family which are all tied together by a model of a car or a manufacturer. Many people religiously stick to a company with the same type of passion a person would have for a hurling or football team. One of those people is a friend called Rob, he builds but mostly breaks Mitsubishi’s. He has always been telling me that there isn’t enough Mitsubishi’s on Juicebox.
Feature: The J’s Racing CRX
Most people in the Honda scene all over the world know this car, its just one of those cars that has been passed around and talked about for years on forum’s and such via photos. After a long and healthy career tearing up race circuits in Japan, this car is now fortunate enough to reside in the extremely capable hands of the Tuning Factory. And where better to shoot this N/A monster than in the workshop that famously maintains it. This car has the most amazing history of a track car hailing all the way from the land of the rising sun and now the people of Ireland get to witness this amazing spectacle as it sets record times on our home soil.
Drift: D-Mac car unveiling/ NFS launch
Today was the launch of D-Mac’s ae86 and the new NFS shift. The car definitely didn’t disappoint when it rolled in after finally being completed just the night before!
Meet: Dundrum Honda Meet 2010
This definitely was one of the better meets we’ve been to, it was a bit of a trip up from Waterford but we decided it would be worth it as word was quite a few people would show up and the fact that the new motorway makes it a simple drive.
Prodrift Round 3: Citywest 2010 Pt 2
Another round of Prodrift, and another Irish car show where mother nature was good to us. I have to give a big shout to Simon Connaughton for hooking me up with images of the final 16. We ended up getting in a crash the night before Prodrift and decided to be cool and stay up buzzing from what happened and drove to Dublin. What a bad choice, as soon as the ” adrenaline” and monster (thank fuck for that but only sometimes because you will piss green) we collapsed and the stiffness settled in. All good fun.. Sort of.
Prodrift Round 3: Citywest 2010 Pt 1
A lot of people seemed to enjoy the amount of coverage from the last event picture wise so we decided to go for it again. Many sites and stuff regulate the amount of pictures that go up, fuck it were going to stick up as much that was good about something as possible. There is always stuff going on off the track that’s always worth the coverage also. Either way here is what we got from the Sunday. There was a show of cars inside this crazy arena style shed which looked like something made for the x-games. Anyways on with the pics.
