Love RS
If there is one thing I have learned over the years is that Ireland has such a deep rooted car following. In your family or group of friends someone has an interest in cars whether it be an uncle brother or friend, who has either had something over the years or still has a piece of metal with four wheels they hold close to their hearts. The thing about the Irish car scene is most of the time it is hidden, any car action you come across is usually surface level car enthusiasts who drive the streets at night and park up at McDonalds, do a couple of laps of the city and head home.
I always enjoy being able to scratch under the surface, it’s a hard thing to do as many car enthusiasts don’t share their cars with others, don’t do laps of the streets at night or post them on the internet that often. They are regular Fathers and Uncles or Brothers who keep to themselves but have such a ridiculous love for anything on four wheels.
I had heard about Kevin’s insanely immaculate 1990 spec RS, this is ridiculously clean; it looked like we took it for a test drive from the dealership just to do the shoot. I’ve always found it hard to tap into these stories with Juicebox and any chance I get I try and take it. Kevin’s car is a prime example of someone who just loves cars, and puts everything into achieving a final result.
He bought the car in November 2008 after parting ways with a phase one Renault 5 GT Turbo, flew from Waterford airport to London Luton with a serious bag of cash accompanied by a friend. The guys met up with the owner who had the car in a shuttle freshly waxed and the car only had 8,200 miles on the clock!
The owner was devastated that the guys were going to drive the car back to Ireland, and was almost reluctant to sell as they guys were planning a nice trip around London for the night, getting up to all kinds of trouble almost being arrested outside Buckingham palace after an unofficial photoshoot!
The interior in this car is not only immaculate but the Recaro package that came in these cars is amazing.
Kevin has managed to get it out to a few shows over the years. The car has one best in class more than four times with a couple of other awards to add to the collection also. Being such a popular car in the 90’s before the Japanese car culture explosion, finding such an unmolested example like this would be quite a challenge.
Under the bonnet I couldn’t understand how it is kept so clean, especially here in Ireland. The car is treated like a baby but still gets used and enjoyed. Who wouldn’t want to enjoy the 1598cc cvh engine and Garrett t3 turbo out of the box, accompanied by a standard LSD. These were such a great little car back in the day.
The car underwent another final restoration in 2011, any imperfections on the paintjob and inside and outside the car were given the once over again. With the help of perfectionist Davy Pickard they guys returned the outside of the car to immaculate show room condition. Most of you will know just how hard it is to keep black clean… Up close this car has not a single imperfection on the black finish, it’s actually better than factory.
A couple of months after the car was safe back in Ireland, Kevin got a call saying he had missed a court date for speeding in a Built up area at 114mph… Since owning it Kevin has racked up a very enjoyable 6800 miles with good memories. The car is very rarely driven in the last year or so because of the final restoration and to over salting of our roads and all the other horror that comes with maintaining black paint. Ireland is filled with stories like Kevin’s, very enjoyable stories of true car enthusiasts that are not as easy to spot as that guy with a Nürburgring sticker on his Audi.