An Irish car show, especially when it’s not raining, is always a good time. Here are some photos from Japfest, a year ago, where a wide variety of the finest cars in Ireland made an appearance. These events bring a lot of cool machines out of the woodwork, from classic to modern, and it’s a gentle reminder as to just how much interesting stuff exists in this tiny country. Enjoy this little photoset from that event.
I’m writing this just after we had one of the biggest washouts at Japfest 2019. These photos are from 2018 as you might have guessed if you attended the event. We were fresh back from Japan this year and didn’t have the time to organise a stand and to be honest because of how bad the weather was, I’m glad we didn’t. Last year we were graced with the greatest summer Ireland had seen since the early nineties. It was also a rare occasion where a bunch of us had cars on the road and were willing to drive them to an event.
Let’s get stuck right back into our walk around Japfest 2017. I can’t stress how good this event was, it’s a clear indication that we are out of the dark times. The car scene is booming once again.
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.
We take the AE86 out onto public roads to grab some food in its current condition, later that weekend we take the Trueno to Japfest, Irelands biggest annual Japanese car show and we explode fifth gear along the way. A little treat for Christmas Day.
Time has become quiet precious over the last few years, coming home from nine to ten hours a day of commuting and work and then finding the enthusiasm for sitting down to edit photographs and articles for this site has certainly been a challenge, I have to sacrifice a few things, but I really believe its worthwhile.
Being away for a few years I really didn’t know what top expect at Japfest this year, if you were following the nonsense on the Instagram story, we went a little over board but it was with no regrets. Japfest an end of year calendar for most of the stuff we are into and most of the cars either come off of the road or go into hibernation for the winter.
Another year another Japfest, the time when anything can come out of the woodwork to say hello.
Back at Japfest last year I had the chance to shoot probably the only Heavily Modified GT86 that will ever be on Irish soild (hopefully not)… Somehow I managed to loose these shots but magically uncovered them in the last few days and decided to throw them up on the site… It wasnt exactly an Irish car, but we couldnt help but take pictures! We intend to get more well build drift and track cars up on the site… something that will happen this year for sure…
Ah good old Japfest… where to begin, this is the third year we have covered this event on Juicebox. It’s sort of the be all end the entire car scene as a whole at the end of every year. Everything and anything can come out of the woodwork and be on display, many a time I’ve been shocked, left scratching my head wondering where the fuck that did car come from. That feeling is one that I’ve always loved about the Irish car scene, we as a tiny little country was saturated with awesome cars from Japan that you never actually know what’s hiding down a dodgy little back lane, or hiding in some farm somewhere in Kerry…. With the “road car” scene falling down around us… it’s ironic that the drift scene is flourishing, we are spitting out some of the best drivers ever… going up against some of the world’s best.
Its hard to think that another year of Prodrift has passed us so quickly. To be fair we were off to a fantastic start with Ennis weather wise. The typical Irish early good weather which results in a summer of rain as punishment, this didnt stop competition and even though Juicebox didnt make it to two of the events the finale in Mondello more than made up for it.
What I love about Japfest is the amount of racing and activities that are on throughout the day as well as the show thats inside the paddock. It can be a somewhat overhwleming task to cover everything as you have time attack, Prodrift, drag racing and track time on all at the same time. There’s something for everyone.
So it has to be openly said this was one of the best events the country had seen in a long time. The most important part was the amount of effort people put in the make it to the show.The recession was winning the battle and probably still is in many minds when it comes to cars. Things were looking very gloomy but I have to admit, heatwave and then Japfest brought a very positive vibe back into the scene.
It has to be said that Japfest 2011 was such a good day, not because team need for speed came to town… which don’t get me wrong was a good part of it too, the amount of people and cars that showed up was really something. It just goes to show that the scene is still holding it down regardless of this economic bullshit. Everyone should give themselves a pat on the back for effort. The car park usually has just as much interesting machines as the show your attending, that’s why here at Juicebox we love lurking the car park to see what the people are driving.
The weather had managed to hold off, all it needed to do now was stay dry for just another couple of hours and everything would work for the better. The clouds were getting darker and it looked like mother nature was going against everyone but then Aaron came out blasting the Foo fighters and everything seemed to be just fine!
