Ah, where to begin…. if you didn’t know this by know, Ireland has a very very impressive AE86 following, when the flood gates from Japan opened back around 00, we pretty much imported any type of AE86 we could get our hands on and this continued for about eight years, right up until the country’s economy shat itself. Any proper day like the one that is somewhat annually held at Mondello brings some of the most awesome pieces of Japanese steel from around the country and this was as good as it gets.
Just before round three of Prodrift this year I got a phone call, now if you are from Ireland you know the deal with the weather, It has been easily the worst summer in History, you can probably count the summer days we have had on one hand, on the other end of the phone was Dean Kearney, he had been asked to do a Demo down in the south of Portagul at one of their biggest car events. This was not the first time the Irish had gone down to do this type of demo, it had been on going year after year but this time around I was asked to document it. A small look out the window and I was already convinced to pack my bags and get in the van.
We decided to take a trip down to the annual ford mmet in Bolands New Ross, being from Ireland the if you dont know already, the ford scene has always been around and pretty much always huge due to the massive rally following that exists. Sometimes we take some of these very impressive cars for granted so with that in mind we headed down to check it out, and obviously the line up didnt dissapoint, like this mint 96 Escort RS Cosworth.
It’s always impressive to see Volkswagens in the south of Ireland which push the scene forward, one of the biggest things we tried to do since the site was created was to showcase cars which hopefully are a sort of a milestone or marker for others to follow or be influenced by. Tommy’s wagon is certainly one of these cars, the first wagon he built which we featured a few months back was his first test, having somewhat of a soft spot for the wagon he managed to make the perfect blend of clean and simple.
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 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.
There is a new breed of car enthusiasts, some of you may be reading this and laughing while others might agree, as Ireland experiences some sort of melt down, which we won’t go on about, a new collection of enthusiasts who are armed with the websites, blogs, and forums are starting to come up through the ranks pretty quickly. The Polo has always been a car which has mostly taken a back seat to the rest of the Volkswagen family, most of the time when these were “modified”… well you can probably picture what it would have looked like…..
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