You just can’t get enough of a good looking 180sx. I don’t care what anyone says but when there is a perfectly styled example in front of your eyes it brings the same amount of excitement as anything else. Over the years Ireland has robbed its fair share of these from Japan, many have been drifted, and others have been butchered, others have been stored away and others have been done like this. The ones which have been styled this good are always a treat.
The JZX100, a car that has always been at the top of the list of four doors to own… for some reason the idea of owning any of the Chaser, Cresta, or Mk2’s line has always appealed more than owning a Mercedes or BMW FR platform. The fact that Japan even created the cars and built each of the three with the same chassis but top half for a different reason is too awesome. They are just bad ass… simple as, in any colour or form. This example ticks all the right boxes…
Ah yes, the Rps13….. a chassis know to pretty much any person who has an interest in Japanese cars, otherwise referred to as the 180sx or the 200sx/240 depending on where you are reading this from. This chassis was made for ten years and has dominated the drift scene for pretty much the same amount of time. I have no doubts that the RPs13 will have as much of a cult following for the next thirty years as the AE86 following has shaped into at the minute, both cars are perfect mascots for the activity we love so much…. The s13 chassis is easily one of the best FR platforms to ever come out of Japan.
It’s obvious to many just how strong the AE86 following is here in Ireland, there was such a ridiculous amount of these cars brought into our little country over the last ten years. Nicky’s 86 was one of these cars; it came in as a slag from Japan, with a collection of desirable goodies. Somehow he managed to build on what many would have called an already awesome car. I have to admit, like many who have seen this car in the flesh, it just makes you smile, it could easily be one of the best looking Trueno’s this little green isle has ever seen.
I’m certain quite a lot of people know this car by now, maybe in its former blue attire, or maybe from a recent video which we put together for Juicebox called “The Night Life”, either way this is the first time we have done a re feature of a car. We decided that the car deserved a second chance to be talked about on the website, and at this time probably wont understand.
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.
Finding an s13 like this in Ireland has started to get rare. Years ago the streets were flooded with s-bodies; everyone and their friend drove a Silvia or a 180sx. The recession kicked in and many who drove these cars were out of work and out of money. This led to a sudden change in the value of these cars, which inevitably led to them, being butchered. Ask yourself, how many nice s13’s are on the road today? On top of that how many of these cars are still daily driven?