This car is near and dear to the heart of its owner, Reuben. The last time we saw the Reuben mobile in this guise, he had just returned from a track day and, unfortunately, cracked a piston. But that didn’t stop him from bringing it out for a sun-kissed photoshoot. We shot these photos towards the tail end of our extended summer in Ireland, which stretched to late September. We took advantage of the evening and did our “final shoot” of the car in this livery and look.
Check out this photo set from our recent video featuring a rare AE70 Sprinter, a variation of the popular Corolla chassis commonly referred to as the ke70 in most parts of the world. This car is so rare that the owner wasn’t even aware of its uniqueness, with its redesigned B and C pillar, different rear end, and different front end.
On a lovely, rare sunny evening, we met up with Liam after work to get a closer look at this car, which Liam had just finished. The modifications made to this rare example of the E70 platform are spot-on. The simple SSR MK 2 wheels require no arch flair, and the tire and ride height combination is perfect. The interior has been left mostly stock, with a few choice modifications such as a steering wheel, an Omori rev gauge, and a shift knob. The Sprinter blue with optional mats are fantastic, and the eighties interior is in excellent condition, especially considering this car has less than 70k on the clock, which is remarkable for a car from 1982.
Sadly, we won’t have Josh’s E30 around anymore. I did love the look of this car. At first, the square front end wasn’t doing it for me, but I trusted his judgement, and the final product was incredible. It was inevitable, hanging around with a collection of Japanese car enthusiasts, the parts and style choices would rub off on him sooner or later.
People can take so many different parts and routes in Japanese car culture; it’s a never-ending sea of inspiration. Josh decided to take a more Japanese-inspired route with this build. Steering away from the usual Irish look for these cars, he sources some Equip 40s and work Meisters. The idea was to build an E30 you would come across in an old Battle Magazine or Drift Tengoku. An E30 style like an AE86 or something from that era, Bride seats, a cage, Nardi wheel, Greddy gauges, stripped rear end, and Japanese wheels. I loved this thing, but Josh had enough of it, eventually selling it to fund an S15. He had finally crossed over to the dark side. Im glad he built this car. It shows how good these cars can look on smaller Japanese wheels with a drift-inspired look. Anyway, ‘s ill let these photos do the rest of the talking. Enjoy
Here is a rather sizable photo dump from AE86 fest back in 2021. This event is one of the best days out in Ireland and attracts much more than the 86 chassis. Every year it grows a little further thanks to the organisers and the overall love for this car in Ireland and beyond, with people making the trip from all over the world as in the last few years. You’ll see what I mean when you scroll through the images.
Another shot of the car with panels on. This was a weekend where we had a BBQ at the shed, and with the setting, I drove the windowless machine out into the yard to photograph its various twenty shades of pain.
What more can be said about this absolute work of art? This was the longest Rob ever kept a car. The day after I posted the video, he sold it. He had it for six years, and I love how carried away he got with the build. I thought this would have been a lifer machine for Rob, but he wanted something different.
I plan to make much more trips like this in the future. Ireland is filled with pockets of families and friends who have their stuff going on with car builds. These two brothers live and breathe 86s, and it was a pleasure to showcase a slice of their life on the channel. They have great taste in cars, and between the both of them, they’ve had more 86s than anyone I know.
A few shots of the Bride AE86 Ressurection. I shot these photos shortly after our BBq last year to tie into the story from the rebuild . Like all of the photos the last while on the site, I feel like we talked enough in the videos, so thimagesos are for old-school lads who still enjoy a bit of photography, digesting the cars at a much slower pace. (I’m still one of those people, and I adore shooting cars whenever we get the chance) I hope these photos are an excellent addition to our coveron this build I could write forever here about how good this thing is, and just how incredible this story is, but ill let the photos do most of the talking.
It was an honour to be part of Paddy’s mission to rebuild the Yuasa AE86 and bring it to his wedding; the determination amongst a group of friends to achieve the dream was utterly infectious. Here are a few behind-the-scenes photos from the few months leading up to the wedding, both at the lad’s workshop and on the big day; as always with these, ill let the photos do most of the talking.
A couple of shots with the Accord Type R, quite possibly the best bargain we ever got! This car, unfortunately, has been sitting in the corner of Flip’s shed for over a year. As I write this, Im drowning in AE86 progress, which is a good thing. Hopefully, we can get it on track this year, as I bet this would be heaps of fun, it needs some small bits like suspension and a clutch, and we managed to get some nice wheels to suit matched with decent tyres.
A few photos from our little night drive in the summer of 2021; right after all the misery of covid had lifted, we decided to get together for a meet-up and appreciate the joy these rusty Japanese cars bring. A route was mapped to drive for some spirited driving, but we got some food beforehand. Far too many of our vehicles are sitting in sheds these days, never getting the use they deserve, so it was great to get them out for a blast. Finally, everyone went home smiling, reminding us why we got into these things in the first place. In Ireland, as the years progress, you tend to see fewer and fewer of these cars on the road; they live their lives in the shed as our climate isn’t the best for cheap steel Japanese machines.
Sometimes you have to drop everything when an invitation comes along. I got a message from Conor Browne a few months back, and he asked if I wanted to tour his stash of Toyotas and beyond. I had heard about the collection for years, but he was looking to downsize the load and asked if we could showcase the cars to shed some light on the stuff he had for sale. This worked perfectly for me as I wanted to see this stuff in person, showcase the unexpected treasure hiding in the unassuming Irish countryside and get some excellent content out of it all.
I’ll keep the writing brief here, as I did quite a lot of talking in the video on my USA trip recap. Here is a photo dump from the time we visited Jimmy and the lads in Connecticut.
The trip to Adam’s house was wild, from hanging out with Mike and the crew to driving LZ’s Porsche through the streets at night. I’ll let the photos do the talking here, as I said enough in the recap video. let’s just say, Adam is living everyone’s dream to pretty much complete Gran Turismo in real life.
I need to catch up on the updates. I took a stack of photos from our first day at the Freedom Factory with Dave from Driftgames. I’m sure you have seen the video, so ill keep the words to a minimum. This event was epic. I was impressed by the excellent weather in the middle of October, to be honest. Regardless I hope you enjoy this photo dump from that event.