In part two of our trip to Paul Keenan and friends, Paul took us to the family house. The first thing we were greeted to as we drove down the lane was his Yellow Evo 9, which he told us was the one and only yellow Evo 9 ever sold in Ireland through their family dealership back in 2006. How good is the license plate, I love the story that this was the very car he sat in as a kid and managed to find it many years later and buy it back.
We head back to our friend Dan’s back garden, where we initially found the AE86. We check out his collection of forgotten Japanese cars to hear his plans, reminisce about old stories and collect a sensor for my 4A-GE engine.
Some of the best cars in Ireland are tucked away in the most unassuming sheds. We take a trip to two very unassuming locations to shed light on some AE86s, DC2 Integras, Civics and some starlets .
Ok so this is the very final drive for the AE86 before it gets pulled apart but just before the big tear down we take two cars from the sheds out a photo shoot….
This has been a fast year. It seems not so long ago when we covered the Annual Toyota meet in Cork last year. I really enjoyed this meet because you never know what comes out of the wood work. Even the machine we came down in is worthy of a picture, (TRD Camry which you see here). You can also see Flip using his best shammy cloth to clean the flies.
A few months back, Dan a good friend of some of the OG Waterford guys called down to Waterford for a visit. After a few conversations, I told him I was after buying an AE86 shell and was looking to go down the path of misery chasing parts and doing a restore.
It absolutely astounds me just how much of a following there is for Toyota here in Ireland, go anywhere, literally anywhere, in a city or especially in the country side and smaller town and the Toyota has ruled the roads for over 30 years. What better way to greater awareness for Suicide in Ireland amongst car enthusiasts than with an event like this. Held this year in the Cork marts in Fermoy the show really dragged some gems out of the woodwork.
Intended for nothing more than commuting, the “boxy” starlet as its known here in Ireland was a cheap and cheerful run around from Toyota. Up until a few years ago, these were actually quite a common sight Irish roads, putting up a tough fight with newer cars until the scrappage scheme and insurance companies started to clamp down on the resilient old starlet.
Entering Mongolia during the Mongol Rally was an exciting moment for us all. We had survived police corruption in Kazakhstan..
So you are thundering across the desert in a 27 year old 1 litre Starlet you bought for a couple of hundred euro should you be worried? Of course not!
Ah, the Toyota starlet. Every single person into cars in Ireland is well aware of the starlet. I’m sure many others from around the world know all about these quirky little machines also. For many it was a first car, a gateway into something fast and fun. For others, the starlet was a car many people aspired to have at one point or another. The stigma that came with these is often negative. But lets be honest, the fact that Japan decided to make such an angry, interesting version of a pretty mediocre little Toyota is what makes us love the place so much. There is almost no reason for it to exist, but we are glad it does.
I’m pretty excited that some how I can finally write about a public event we put together. Juicebox has been going for about four years now and well it has been an absolute pleasure being able to capture the car scene and chuck it up here on the website. We had toyed with the idea of putting together something like this for a long time, possibly holding a show, or doing another BBQ, the main fear was that no one would turn up, or if something did it would be a disaster.
The EP91 certainly flooded our shores over the last ten years, such a love/hate car with many people. Its difficult enough to come across one that is is truly outstanding, as most of them are usually bone stock or have more stickers than modifications.
Sadly in the middle of a cold winters night shooting this car, after trying to track it down for a shoot for a year or so, my batteries died and these are the only two shots I walked away with. In a country where the car scene is so unpredictable and cars change hands like the weather, hopefully we will have a full feature of this little chunk of awesome over the coming months. Until then ill leave you with two pictures I didn’t want to vanish on my hard drive forever.
Like we were saying in part 1 it really seemed like the standard has suddenly rose for the quality of cars in the country at shows. Looking around you had a good variety of super clean interesting builds like this IS bagged on SSR Vienna’s. What an amazing car, its nice to see people go down the VIP route, something that hasn’t been explored to much yet in Ireland.
