Out of the Darkness : Japfest 2016 PT2
As most of us tend to stay in our circles amongst the scene, a lot of cars never really come out of hiding for us to be exposed to here at Juicebox. This little B series is stunning.
The rain was a little bit of a dampener and cleared quite a bit of the crowd, Im just using that as an excuse because we decided to show up late.
It would be great to see more of a classic side of the Japanese car scene creep into the country. Its the one thing that never happened during the boom years. There are still quite a few iconic cars which have yet to make it here from older Japan.
Regardless, its repeated more than enough on Juicebox but we really dont pat ourselves enough on the back for having such a strong car scene.
Ive always loved any four door variant of the skyline, its great that companies like Nissan even bothered doing this, just stretching the original design and adding more doors. Its just a very cool concept and I think it peaked with the 34.
Saying that its hard to get past a good 32 four door also.
A car I wish we had a closer look at was this S2K. 
Because Ireland has such a strong rally following, its rare to see a street style version of an Impreza, any chance is a bit treat. 
Hmm?
The AE92 supercharged Trueno is such a cool car. The last hurrah from an eighties pop up era filled with two tone and scoops.
Someone needs to put some eighties Japanese wheels on an AW11. Anytime we come across one in Ireland we’ve yet to see one with a set of proper Japanese eighties matching wheels. imagine this on some SSR meshes. Regardless a clean example is always nice on the eyes.
Some un expected little gems were cars like this Corolla on MK1’s.
The 110, this really is where everything stopped for Toyota. No more roaring six cylinders fitted to oversized four door tanks.
Shane Mooneys example is by far the craziest this country has ever seen.
The 90 has always had a hard life, they are less desirable to the 81 or the 100 in peoples eyes and sort of sat in the middle as a wrecker. Power vehicles have said this is the strongest chassis of all for taking punishment as missiles and clean ones have already started to sky rocket in Japan due to them becoming extinct.
Another beast from Toyota was the Crown wagon, turning one of their biggest machines into an even bigger slab. We cant get enough of an odd variation.
The KE wagon is the polar opposite of the Crown, a completely simplistic stripped out little wagon these are as equally appealing.
It would have been foolish to think there was none of these Be-1’s in the country. This super immaculate example was a bit of a surprise, what a cool little daily this would be, I wouldn’t change a thing.
Four doors into infinity.
Talk about Polar opposites. Which would you choose?
Sometimes the strawberry face is hard to execute on the 180sx but this is a prime example of how to get it right.
The beast that got us up and back to the event. Reubens C33 Laurel is such a great car for many reasons.
A front end shot of this Monster, R32 styling does not get much better. 
This guy! This Alto was one of our favourite cars of the show. The CR01s under those little arches. A quality little surprise on the day.
The west coast representing, its hard to improve on 15″ equips and OEM body styling.
Mark 14 looking good in the sun. Get that front end back down!
A timeless combination, this look could never go out of style.
Did we mention how impressed we were with the Hondas?
Speechless…
Jackie was holding it down at our stand in his incredibly enjoyable DC2, I just cant get enough of that peeping blue Cusco cage. I forgot to get a pic of David Murphys EF, sorry man!
Stephen and Jackie drove up from Kilkenny early sunday morning to represent.
Another show stopper was this T111 build which was hiding down the back.
There used to be a genuine yellow one of these around with white wheels, I’m curious if all these parts came from that car or it came in like this? It would be interesting to find out. Regardless, such a great build and I’m glad someone sees the beauty in this kit and rear spoiler also. Good work.
Great to see such a solid presence of GTR Skylines this year.
Each one of them holding it down on a worldwide scale like these two wearing Chunky offset GTC wheels, basically made for these cars.
Speaking of real wheels, Distro pushing that good stuff on people.
Everything about this right down to those deep Focus racings…. What a good car.
This was hitting the spot.
It wouldn’t be Japfest without a few gems like this.
Asides from a few questionable machines, this was the best car event I have attended since pre recession times.
As the car scene contracts, it has become more genuine. There is a lot more die hard people around that are willing to spend the cash on the right parts.
The summer floaters have moved on, and yes there is less and less stuff on the roads but what we have noticed is a lot of the stuff thats still in existence is high quality.
The CF48’s look at home on this CRX. Its great seeing such good examples of these preserved as I cant imagine we really have too many left.
IDC has enough of its own coverage and it was fantastic to see just how many people were down to support the drifting at the event also. We did another quick stroll around before everyone slowly started to head home and it really has hit home just how thriving the scene is once again.
Its not as obvious as the celtic tiger tradesman surplus cash spending spree we used to see back around 05/06, but being away from Ireland for almost three years and coming back to something like Japfest really hit home just how resilient we are regardless of circumstances.
Somehow the scene survived the dark ages it appears we have a solid group of people moving forward with it. Sadly the realisation that a Civic or Skyline in Japan is more expensive than Ireland didn’t come as quick as we had hoped, its going to be the same for many other cars down the line, a 34 GTR is fetching astronomical prices along with its brothers
. Less and less stuff is being stripped which is great to see. On a much more positive note, we should give ourselves a little more credit for having such a good car scene.
Time and time again we should realise just how lucky we are to have such a genuine rich and diverse scene in Ireland, and how resilient it is to the Government and economic situations. We do get some shitty laws and taxes which dampen a persons interest in cars but by no means does it stop us. Many countries in the world could only dream of having what we have had.
Being Irish we tend to focus on the misery more so the positive even when the storm has passed. Being at Japfest clearly shows the Irish car scene is out of the Dark ages and once again flourishing and we should be a little more proud of it. After almost six years of following this stuff I know we are.
On another note, those fucking buns at the hotdog stand were some of the driest most chaotic chunks of bread anyone has ever encountered ever.
Till next time.