It’s no secret that Irelands economy is down the tube, day in day out we hear a new story of something bad, someone losing a job someone forced to sell a car. The truth is, the “glory days” of what will be remembered as that chapter in the Irish car world where the port of Dublin was flooded with a car culture from the other side of the planet. All these “JDM” cars started pouring onto Irish soil, snatched up from the auctions in Japan and shipped the emerald isle. This happened for a good solid 8 years, there had always been the odd few Japanese cars which made it over before, but the major car rush which was witnessed by everyone was truly something special. Ireland immersed itself in the culture, rims, bodykits, seats, drifting, all these goodies which suddenly ended up being everywhere, suddenly Japanese cars were everywhere, it’s the biggest part of the car world in Ireland and has been since they started coming across the seas in the masses back at the turn of the millennium.
I’m certain quite a lot of people know this car by now, maybe in its former blue attire, or maybe from a recent video which we put together for Juicebox called “The Night Life”, either way this is the first time we have done a re feature of a car. We decided that the car deserved a second chance to be talked about on the website, and at this time probably wont understand.
I unfortunately never had the opportunity of Meeting Casey Furlong myself, but from what I have been told from close friends he was the center of attention, a person who brought drifting and fun to a farm yard just outside of Tullow in County Carlow. This was the second memorial day held for him, the yard itself runs a drag and drift day almost every second week for people to let loose on each other or themselves with whatever type of car they feel. What I love about this place is the freedom, its almost like the last little slice of chaos this country has to to offer without things being too out of hand. Every decent day that is held in the yard has never dissapointed and this second year event to remember a close friend of the organisers went down a treat.
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.
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.
Its hard I know but whats not to Enjoy this about this lady in rouge. Parked all alone but sitting right on an unusually awesome set of Rays Aurthur Exchange LK VIP wheels.
Some footage from the drift day which was held in Mondello the last weekend of July.
Why pull in and fix your bonnet when you can just keep going? This is nuts!
The magical drift trains and more from Prodrift Round 2 in Fermoy Co Cork 2011
The weather looked gloomy all day, and many feared rain. Somehow or another nature decided not to be horrible as usual leave drifting alone for the day in Fermoy. The gloom and dull weather didn’t stop some epic battles taking place which in turn made the crowd forget about the dullness and greyness. Instead drifting put a smile on peoples faces and that’s what its all about.
This year the weather was looking super dodgy, we didn’t get a chance to make it down on Saturday but on Sunday morning as we hit the road it was already looking to be a shit day. Somehow the rain staid in the clouds and it turned out to be another awesome day in Cork. The Drift Ireland guys basically had the entire “show and shine” type of area from last year to themselves apart from one accord. Nickys Trueno is out of this world sexy and was hidden in between Pete’s GS pimp wagon and that beautiful 180 we should do a feature on.
With every decent car Event Ireland, it usually means a somewhat decent selection of cars that have been driven to the event by you, the car enthusiast. This time we went lurking the car at Prodrift Fermoy to see what you guys showed up in, its a g glimpse into what the scene is like at the minute and most of the time we find some good and some bad gems lurking amongst the crowd.
Finding an s13 like this in Ireland has started to get rare. Years ago the streets were flooded with s-bodies; everyone and their friend drove a Silvia or a 180sx. The recession kicked in and many who drove these cars were out of work and out of money. This led to a sudden change in the value of these cars, which inevitably led to them, being butchered. Ask yourself, how many nice s13’s are on the road today? On top of that how many of these cars are still daily driven?