A Visit to J's Racing & Real Factory M - Juiceboxforyou

After the buzz of Car Factory Ai, We decided to chance J’s Racing. J’s is one of the largest Honda shops globally and a household name in the tuning world for years; I’m sure they see a heap of foreigners, so I didn’t expect them to be as welcoming.

It was raining, and we had nothing else to do this day except check out as many of these shops as we can. We had made a loose list in the hotel and figured we would get to five or six of these throughout the day.

The front window is packed with cool parts. That iconic Valve cover got me pretty excited. Imagine getting a buzz off of a valve cover!

Inside J’s the place is packed with magazines, trophies, all sorts of cool Honda related items.

At first, the guys were a bit standoffish, which I expected due to how popular this place has been over the years. After a couple of minutes, the owner was friendly enough to let us walk in around the back area, see the race cars, and, more importantly, the J’s togue/time attack Maou S2000. My camera was dead; I shot the footage on my phone.

Suddenly I was staring at yet another car I’ve spent years watching on the Gunsai Togue, and here it was right in front of me. It’s tough to process this stuff. Thankfully we shot these photos. Otherwise, it would have all felt like a dream.

Flip was in meltdown mode beside me as this was another dream machine both of us wanted to look at for a very long time. , another car ticked off the bucket list. Speechless. One of the biggest brands opening the doors to us, this car had such a presence in real life.

The rest of the service area was overwhelming. The best looking DC5’s S2000’s and more.

What a beauty!

How good is this J’s Fit?

J’s have always been a massive brand with Irish Honda owners; the J’s CRX ended up over here, and with Ireland having such a big Honda scene, the J’s parts have been obsessed over for many years. Seeing all this in real life was a dream come true. Their liveries are something else.

Outside was like Tetris. There was way too much to take in. We took a few quick the rain was coming down and didn’t hold the workers up for much longer. J’s was closed that day but they were nice enough to let us have a look around.

New age stuff getting the J’s treatment.

The J’s Honda S660. Minature madness. I love the shopping list on the Fits door.

We spotted a few random shops on our travels and chanced walking in to say hello; The employees usually met us with a bit of confusion followed by dodgy google translate and nice apologies for disturbing them on working days. Most of the time, this worked in our favour.

This shop was called Real Factory M and specialised in Nissans. There was a sizable amount of various GTR’s buried in the workshop.

Along with this Z up on the lift.

A pair of dusty 32’s under the mezzanine.

Another traditional looking Japanese shop, every inch of floor space is used up!

This white 34 was something else, you don’t see them much in Ireland anymore, this trip really reminded us just how good they look. Are they worth the insane price tag these days? I’m not too sure on that one.

Reuben and the owner’s wife trying to chat on google translate.

There was stuff to look at everywhere like we found in all of these shops. I would always try to ask for permission first before busting out the cameras.

I bet this Z has some stories. Along with the one buried underneath it.

A 180sx in for a tuneup. You do not see the Zenki tails as much anymore.

Outside Real Factory M was a collection of stock in various states.

This 34 was one of the best examples we came across on our journey. I’m pretty sure it’s a non-GTR model too. The lady explained to us that she designed the fenders, as we were leaving she chased us down the street, we thought something had gone horribly wrong but she just wanted to offer us some umbrellas. That sort of hospitality was something we weren’t used to. Real Factory M was a great little surprise on our car shop tour.

On our way back to the van we spotted this lifted Jimny. There was always something to photograph in Japan.