After drooling at Endless, we made our way to Impulse. These shops are in the Hyogo area and about a twenty-minute drive from each other.
As we mentioned in the video, taking the back roads is the most fun. You never know what’s hiding down a side street. This AE86 pair was a pleasant surprise; both looked like they hadn’t moved in quite some time, and it stopped us in our tracks. I guess this stuff is still out there to find!
The next day, we were flung straight into the deep end. We hit up an Autobacs, which was just down the street from our hotel room, for a quick look; the car park at any Auto parts shop always has a few gems. Our aircon was broken, which resulted in an incredibly humid night’s sleep, but that didn’t dampen our spirits.
So we were keen to get back to Japan. Our first taste of it was a plan that fell apart back in 2016. We wanted to get back out there and give ourselves plenty of time to try and do whatever we could. We had a very loose plan, go to 86 fest in Okayama on the third day, meet some Honda guys, collect some 86 parts and catch up with the CSS crew; we would make the rest up as we go along.
In 2019 we went back to Japan. Hungry for more after “Japan Without a Plan”, we aimed to seek out AE86’s, Street drifting, Kanjo culture, tuning shops and much more.
In this eleven-part special, we buy another van and travel up the east coast, documenting as much as we could, getting ourselves into some hilarious situations.
Enjoy our journey through Japanese car culture over the next few weeks. This one has been a long time coming.
Another show we made our way to in 2019, just before we left for Japan, was DB on the quay.
What I liked about this event was the dockside location and the varied mix of cars. Usually, our BBQ is primarily bringing Japanese machinery through the friends we have met over the years. I’ve always wanted to include more variety, but we seem to have a nack in creating bonds with people with the same interest, more specifically Japanese cars.
Ireland has a very diverse car culture, and sometimes it’s hard to bring a mixed bag of enthusiasts together as they tend to stay in their groups. We have a show called Japfest which promotes Japanese cars, and we have VW and old Ford events with a similar style, again usually bringing people from the same crowds together.
Ireland has a very diverse car culture; in this episode, we head to two shows back to back featuring Escort Cosworths, MK2 escorts, Golf GTI’s and much more. These two shows give a glimpse into the incredible stuff dotted around the Emerald Isle.
This episode is packed with unique cars, a wild Japanese Altezza Demo car survivor, a timeless Evo III and the Perfect 500bhp FD RX7. Enjoy a little slice of the madness hidden away in the rural Irish countryside.
Josh gets his S50 M3 powered E30 up and running, and we take it for a quick lap. Also, some bonus street action accompanied by shenanigans in Fast Barrys shed. Good times.
We uncover where my AE86 lived in Japan with the help of David from Japan car history check. We even discover an old for sale advert in Ireland and more photos which help piece together its past. Enjoy this 100th episode history special.
Remember our EK4 Civic? We give it a quick makeover and take it to an epic Honda only day at Mondello Circuit.
D-Mac reminisces about building his AE86 to compete in D1 during the golden years of drifting, we get a tour of the shop and encounter the strongest Irish accent.
I don’t need to get into too much detail about the back story to shooting these cars; it’s the very same as the Cut Loose guys. The Reckless tribe crew were chatting to us on social media and decided to meet up with the Cut Loose boys and road trip their way to the Juicebox BBQ.
Gaz reached out to me after he took a photo of a Juicebox sticker he stuck on his S15. I’m flattered that many people reach out to us to show where they have placed their purchases and Gaz’s car was just one of those situations where you had to take a second look. His car was absolutely stunning. I was flattered that he wanted to throw our stickers on his build, and I was shocked that I hadn’t seen this car before.
After endless days of metalwork on the shell, it sat as bare in ten different shades of shit for almost two years. It started as four days worth of metal work but slowly turned into a very in-depth restoration project.
I learned a lot about what could be hiding under the paint, in between panels and what it takes to get the shell to the right shape. It has been an enormous learning curve; I often wonder if I would have pulled it out of Dan’s garden, knowing what I know now. Maybe so, it’s hard to tell. Sometimes it feels like we are going nowhere but it takes looking back at these images to realise how far we have come.
The progress was moving very quickly for the first six months, but it started to slow down as I quickly realised I had bitten off more than I could chew. These photos were from September 2018 when we rubbed the shell down, getting it ready for paint. Every one of us have a life outside the shed; Barry has a full-time job, I could only get to the project on the weekends, this all aided in the project going on for much longer than I had anticipated. Nevertheless, we kept inching forward. Unfortunately, we found another batch of rust which ill cover in a future post and vlog episode, but we are getting there.
I guess its all part of the fun. I’ve wanted one of these cars for over fifteen years; I watched all of my friends go through the misery, go through the motions with their projects while I was on the sidelines documenting their stories.
Its like life was waiting to drop a mega project on me to make up for all the years I avoided the hardship! Either way, I cant wait for the day this is a proper 86 again.
I have endless respect for the people who have gone down this road with a restoration project and I’m forever grateful for everyone who has helped me get this far already.
Three years and counting. Always looking forward to that first start.
At this point, we thought the rust chasing was coming to an end, oh how we were wrong! Barry had worked his way up to the front end of the car, cutting out the last few bits around the shock tower, making his way to the front end.