Dave has had this car for almost ten or more years. In this world we never really own our cars, if the car is maintained well it will eventually pass hands when we are gone. This car has always been special to me because it gave me such inspiration over the years, back when the car scene was infected with filler and ICE installs, this Corolla had come in from Japan land stripped out with Advan A3A’s at the back and Longchapms at the front. Straight away it looked cool, a little track slut with odd shoes, something I had never seen before. It was silver low and ignorant looking, the complete opposite to every Max Power machine around at the time.
It’s always nice to receive emails about potential car features, with the whole Juicebox deal there has been quite a lot over the last few years. Every now and again you will come across something that is totally unique. Take this black AE111, first of you are thinking this is not that unique at all, we have hundreds of them floating around the country waiting to be stripped of its heart and the engine used for an AE86.
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.
A Couple of months ago leaving a car park I snapped this simple clean timeless RPs13 directly in front of a Mazda 323, both cars from the same era and similar manufacturers. Its always amusing how some cars are so well designed, live on as classics and are more popular than the day they rolled out of the factory. This picture will always stay with me just because the 323 will never have the presence of the 180, and was growing moss in the corner, whilst this 180 will possibly stay this good for a few years to come.
Now we all know that Mazda has made some amazing cars but you cant help but get a kick out out of the A to B cars which come and go from companies, stick around for a period and tehn completely vanish, then we have the cars which may have had the same faith but gain a cult following. Its fascinating how the brain can get excited and affectionate over a chunk of metal which has been crafted and pressed into different shapes and completely disregard another….
Dave’s car is well known amongst the 86 community in Ireland. Being one of the founding members of Garage Hachi, quite a hot blog up until a year ago, the guys have always had a serious eye for the right parts and have a true love for the 86 chassis.
The FTO has always been a strange one. I’ve always been on the fence about them in the looks department, especially after the wall of max power terror of the late 90’s early millennium with these cars. They just looked even more awkward with a Veilside replica kit or any of them misery kits.
This car was bought as a run around, the owner of this pretty immaculate looking mk3 Vento had family in mind. Owning a MK2 Rallye, the Vento would become the more practical day to day car. As most of you out there will agree, nothing ever stays standard for too long and before Noel knew it he was in talks of getting some rust removed from the car….
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.
So it’s the third birthday of Juicebox… a website we created back around three years ago with a mission to showcase the Irish car scene to the rest of the world, to show them all the good things that are hidden away down country back roads in sheds and barns and other places you would never expect to find rare metal on four wheels.
One of the sheds residents, the KE55 came out for some air today. You sometimes forget its beauty, living mostly for the cold months under covers.
It’s always nice to get emails about possible features, especially something along the lines of this Subtle Eunos Roadster and other less played with chassis in this country. Once I had seen a few pictures of this coming together over at Team Chihuahua I knew we needed to organise a shoot.