Lost photos: Japfest 2017 PT1 - Juiceboxforyou

This article was lost when the website went under. I managed to recover most of it and felt it was right to get these photos up here from what was easily one of the best Irish car shows to date. This will be coming in two parts as there is a huge photo dump with this feature. I’ve left the original writing intact so it might sound a little weird as those were supposed to be posted back in 2017.

So, its been a pretty fast year, it only feels like a month or so ago since we wrote the last article on Japfest 2016. This year I was pretty excited as it would be my first time bringing my own machine to a show I had been attending for over 10 years or more.

We put together a Juicebox stand with a varied mix of good looking machinery. Amanda’s newly put together T50 machine was centre stage deserving every bit of attention, she had been building this for over two years.

It’s great to see this car finally finished, Amanda did a smashing job retaining the cars original style but adding her own flare to the build. Its very hard to rework a car which already has its own personality and many people mess this part up so a massive kudos to her for restoring this Trueno in the best way possible.

I must admit, it was pretty hard to get away from my own car and do the usual photo snapping as there were quite a few people wanting to know about my 86 build and chat about the progress we had made so far. Regardless, I pulled myself away and went for a quick look around.

It was nice to see this thing in real life after slowly watching the build come together online. The car was swamped with people and it was great to see it finally getting the attention it deserves. Brendan Gordons has been around the scene longer than most and his Rabid bunny RX7 is a wild build.

Brendan’s wheels on the RX7 are insane, 18x15J – 7!!!

It was hard to grab a proper shot of the car throughout the day with the crowds, possibly something with these down the line would be cool!

Alongside the RX7 he has been building this, AN SRx8. Both this and the RX7 were complete show stoppers on the day and the crowds were eager to get a look in. He managed to grab a few trophies for the efforts. Both cars definitely push the envelope when it comes to wild builds for this country. Also big ups for repping the Juicebox logos on both cars!

I wish I had more time to look at this EVO IV, this wide arch beauty has always been a favourite of mine and it was great to see it out in full force on these meaty NT03’s.

Not far from Brendan’s Rocket bunny kitted RX7 this Red Bunny wearing seven has a very unassuming heart pulled from an S2000, I’m pretty sure its turbo too. Those TF1’s are amazing, I must admit I’m a sucker for genuine wheels and it’s great to see the Irish car community as a whole really tune in to genuine wheels this year.

There were a few wild 33’s down from the north or over from the UK. This Panasport wearing 33 GTR looked good in all white.

Check this new age Caldina, I’ve only encountered another one of these on Irish roads, a very distinguished looking machine.

Hard to beat a two-tone PS13…

This was a wild looking bay, many of the GTRs attending the show were sporting a very eye-catching engine displays.

It doesn’t get much better than this.

Great to see this R34 GTR on Irish plates. Many of them had been snatched up and exported during the recession, shame it didn’t have the front splitter on it.

This colour was wild in the sun, it’s nice to see a clean PS13 in Origin attire. This chassis always looks good with a funky paint job.

Another car that does well in the sun is this JZX110 in finished in a distinguishable baby blue.

I have to admit, I miss the old days of the drag racing and open track at Japfest, I guess the show has been growing every year so its understandable but I miss the days of watching stuff blast down the straight in between the drifting.

I’m always happy to see was this JZX81 from Kilkenny, this car doesn’t come out too often so any sighting is a good one.

A car we featured not so long ago was Quentin’s S2000, hands down the best looking example in Ireland, glad to hear he won an award on the day.

It’s hard to beat the simplistic look with these.

I had heard about this GT86, someone had brought it home with from Australia, most of the ones that will eventually end up here will be imports as this car was 42K tob buy new here.

This Levin is one of my all-time favourite AE86’s. Its the somewhat Iconic RYO AE86 that we featured a few months back on the website. Check the featured section for more.

It’s hard to beat a midnight purple R33 GTR, especially one with mega-sized Panasports like this. 10/10 Looks like it rolled out of an old Option video.

In the middle of the madness, this immaculate looking silver KE70 four door stood out amongst the sea of modified cars.

I’m seeing this Vitz a lot lately and it never disappoints, sporting some small chrome Work CRK AI’s this combo is killer.

This car reminded me of the Team mouse cars, love the colour combination. I have to admit I was fond of the Noby Booth rear spoiler but either way, it’s a great looking Levin.

Hard to beat this combo, Carbon splitter, TE37’s and a Y56 paint job.

I loved the look of this 2 door Type R, the Speedlines give it a very rally orientated look whilst still retaining that street vibe.

This was nice on the eyes also, something about the burning black on the VSKF and that Zenki front end and grille combo. Definitely a very nice looking s14.

This Portuguese Datsun 620 was very random.

Another flawless looking AE86 sitting pretty on MKII’s in the right sizes and a Goodline front end done in two-tone, and those mirrors and no grille, this thing is perfection.

I was also loving this beauty, reminded me of an old car that used to be around Waterford back in the day.

I’m glad the owner of this is still rocking those Veilside Andrews, such an underrated badass looking wheel.

This was an incredibly random machine, I would have never imagined in a million years that this would be a good combo but somehow it works. This was such a strange combination of the old Bozo style with the steelies and overfenders but done in a sort of VIP way. My brain started coming up with all sorts of cool engine swaps. Id love if the owner put the NA 2JZ (if it’s not an Aristo) on throttle bodies just to be a total oddball, either way, this was a very cool take on the chassis.

It’s always a pleasure to see a clean SXE10, it’s hard to know if it’s an Altezza these days or what since many of them have been long murdered and the parts swapped over to IS200’s.

Mitch the Random Aussie guy has been working his way around Ireland all summer getting a taste of the Irish car culture. He was busy getting people to sign his steering wheel for most of the day.

Reuben and I made the trip in his Advan Laurel, this was the cleanest it had been since before Gatebil, we lost fourth gear on the way up the road but you will see more of that in one of our upcoming blogs.

Dave Lee was also on our Juicebox stand, he brought his newly acquired Vertex Ridge s15, one of the best Irish s15 builds it was nice to see it back on Irish shores.

There was a collection of Altezzas/IS200s all parked together just up from where we had our stand. First off it completely baffles me how this sort of look on these cars has only caught on in recent times. I had been saying for years that someone should slap a BN kit on one of these things and some nice wheels, it’s a fantastic combo. This car gets the gold star in my book. In a sea of shite standard wheeled SXE10’s with mudflaps built for the slab, this CST wearing blue beauty made me very happy. 10/10 to the owner for realizing this car visual potential.

The BN kit is awesome on these and that blue + gold combo with the Ganadors, I couldn’t get enough of this thing.

Next to it was another SXE10 but I’m pretty sure this was a Lexus due to the engine under the hood. It’s great to see people finally step outside the box with such a great looking chassis and have a little bit of creativity. These have become the next UK spec AE86 here in Ireland and 90% of them look the same.

 

Same here, good stuff chaps. Well done.

Ah, Eamons old wheels, this combo is perfect, the owner is very aware of it and has built something special to put them on.

Darrens Mugen saturated EM1 was awesome, he’s got a strong fetish for anything Mugen related.

Another car we seen at the BBQ and would love to do a proper shoot on some day is this big bus C35 on chrome XD9’s.

They look great with that Car Modify Wonder kit.

This EK was hitting the spot on some Wedsport SA90’s such a simple effective formula.

Great to see this Z20 soarer back in full form, always had a thing for this car and the Koenigs look fantastic under it, we actually did a video on this car many moons ago that’s lurking somewhere on our website.

Another car that looks great is this Zenki 86 which has been showing up quite a lot in recent times. Love the colour combinations on this.

This is one of the wildest looking JX100s in Ireland, the colour looked great in the sun.

Another SXe10 sitting on the ever so timeless R33 GTR wheels.

Great to see this BN Blister kitted beast again, I’ve got a serious love for this kit, part of me would love to see this car with Chrome classic BN tribal or flames up the side, I think it would really set this bold looking machine off.

Another wild machine is this beefy kitted SXe10, pushing the limits trying to tuck those Mega Weds Kranze in the rear.

Loved this timeless combo with the TE37’s against that white.

I wonder how many of these will be rebuilt and restored over the next twenty years, This era of Corolla is by far the most bulletproof machine to ever come out of the factory. Don’t believe me? Pay attention to how many E100 rollies are still on the road today.

Great to see such a diverse collection of Japanese metal at Japfest, you never really know what to expect.

Another impeccably cool MZ20 soarer.

This TE72 was rocking beams.

Loved the front end on this.

Nice to see an Evo with a proper seat of meaty genuine wheels on it, far too many end up with the same tired old set combination of Rota GTR’s or similar.

You do not see that many foresters on the road anymore.

I always love seeing this AE101, can’t be too many of these left on Irish roads and this one is by far the most interesting.

There’s not much to be said about this stunner, hands down one the best Aristo’s this side of the Globe. You could plonk this car into any scene anywhere and it would come out on top. Hats off to Ryan for giving this beauty a refresh.

That’s enough photos for today, check back for part two over the next few days.

Cheers.