We have seen quite a change in the car scene over the last four to five years in Ireland, the growth of a more European influence on what would have been a heavily saturated market of Japanese imports. Quite a large part of this was down to fuel prices, with this wave of Diesel machines brought a new collection of the good, the bad and well some pretty terribly ugly creations The Volkswagen scene itself is quite reserved, it’s a different take on cars and has to be appreciated when done right like this 2.0 TDI B6 Passat.
I got a chance to tag along with the Low Brain Drifters and Luke Fink as they headed to the Alps to take on the French 1500 metres above sea level inside the clouds. A pretty unique event.
Another absolute beauty of a car, tucked away alongside the Cruise AE111 we featured last week is this Kazama Auto RPS13. I love these stories, this car has been in hiding for quite some time, bought in the boom for over fifteen grand and then hidden away as the owner was forced to head to the upside down land of work outside of our failing country. This car is pretty amazing in the flesh, and in the right hands, an immaculate white time capsule of Japanese built goodness, unmolested by the usual unaware Irish man.
Sometimes you never know what you are going to get in an email. A couple of months back we received an email from a young fan of the site telling us about how his father owns not one but two Nissan GTR’s. In Ireland the GTR is not exactly a common site to begin with so after a quick exchange of details we decided to pack the car and head to Cashel to check this out for ourselves. I really couldn’t believe what I was seeing; this was a pretty awesome sight to behold.
A couple of months ago this little Vitz popped up for sale here in Ireland, at a first glance you could see the little cage peeking out through the back windows so we clicked on the ad to take a look. You just have to love the mystery surrounding many of the cars which made their way out of Japan. This is a classic example of that mystery, this quirkly little white Vitz, or Yaris as they are known here, generally seen outside of Japan as a proper commuting A to B machine has a much cooler story than meets the eye.
A few months ago a few mates had come across the Ocean from France to pick up this beauty. I decided to grab a few snaps before she made her way back. I’ve always enjoyed this car. It wears the Garage Masa have the M kit which adds the strawberry face to the s14. Sometimes 15 front on a 14 doesn’t work too good as a conversion as the strawberry front is a little sharper towards the more relaxed lines of the s14, but Ive always like the Masa kit conversion, its a pretty beefy aero kit which doesn’t look out of place.
I got a phone call from a friend, I was finally getting the chance to see this AE111. For those of you who dont know this car, this is the Cruise Power Levin. Cruise are notorious for covering cars in their signature pink and well, building insane power cars. This is just one of the many cars that was snatched up at auction and made its way to our damp little isle.