We love a good back-story to a car. I had the privilege of bumping into Adrian and his UKITR a few months ago and it was such a treat to hear about this DC2 and the story behind it.
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.
So with an unpredictable Irish summer that we have already been pissed off with, we were very sceptical if it was a good choice to make it out to the V.A.G. meet in Fermoy Co Cork, I’m glad we made a positive choice… If you don’t know this already, or aren’t from this country, in Ireland, the scene is heavily split into a few groups, but it was nice to see the Volkswagen/Audi scene going showcasing some of the best examples this country had to offer all packed inside Cork Marts Car Park, something we just had to cover….
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This car was something of a rumour, not a whole lot spoken about it amongst the forums or between people, the owner Jason wanted to unveil the car at the right time when he felt it was ready. The car is just another one of these reasons why Ireland can be awesome, sure it rains quite a lot and everyone is miserable, but aside from all this Jason went and built one of the coolest two door KE70’s I’ve ever come across on both the internet and in the real world. I took a trip with a friend to see this car, we drove for miles along tiny little back roads and I wasn’t really expecting anything, which was a good thing. In Ireland you never really know what to expect when someone tells you about a car, as we rolled up to Jason’s house which is pretty much on the side of a mountain, my jaw dropped, I was truly speechless, I hope you can share the same feeling by checking out this feature on one of the coolest well executed Corolla builds this country has ever seen.
The phrase “from rags to riches” was the last thing I wanted to call this feature, but the more Peter told me the story I couldn’t believe how the car had turned out. Eventually I realised after trying to come up with something a little bit more imaginative, this car truly earned the title. The common build we see in the United States of a bog standard civic being converted into a flawless masterpiece in both the exterior and interior is really something that has only started to come around over here in Ireland over the last few years.
So it has to be openly said this was one of the best events the country had seen in a long time. The most important part was the amount of effort people put in the make it to the show.The recession was winning the battle and probably still is in many minds when it comes to cars. Things were looking very gloomy but I have to admit, heatwave and then Japfest brought a very positive vibe back into the scene.
The phrase “built not bought” is a common collection of words thrown around in today’s car scene. Many cars proudly wear the sticker and it’s become almost a trend in itself to say your car was built not bought. This car is the true definition of that phrase. The owner of this car Neil wanted to go his own route, always being interested in the JDM/US hatch scene he decided to make his purchase. A 01 Mitsubishi Colt would become his canvas. Ireland has a great deal of love for the Honda and the Toyota, and it’s no lie that these dominate the hatch scene here whilst Honda dominates the Hatch scene in the US. I’ve always wondered what it would be like if an American Honda owner got his hands on a Colt/Mirage and built one with the same love and enthusiasm they seem to have for the Civic, carefully selecting a mixture of performance and OEM parts to build a flawless clean hatch.
I found these on my old pc thought they were gone. These i think were supposed to go in MIJ but never happened and i had stored them away. Here they are well the best ones. I was surprised to see that there was so many decent cars at that meet. Really, people had stepped it up and it seems the scene of buddy club and wings west body kitted smooth mobiles like these warriors with the delicious wolfrace katanas and the colour coded interior with them lovely f.u.k badges is becoming more of a rarity day by day.
