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.
Like we were saying in part 1 it really seemed like the standard has suddenly rose for the quality of cars in the country at shows. Looking around you had a good variety of super clean interesting builds like this IS bagged on SSR Vienna’s. What an amazing car, its nice to see people go down the VIP route, something that hasn’t been explored to much yet in Ireland.
The Mk2 Golf has always been a true favourite amongst car lovers, in the last few years they have become quite scarce site and even quite a few that are left are either a mint GTI something in between or a standard clean example. Rob decided to build this MK2 on a budget, attending college and trying to build any sort of car is definitely not an easy task. Truth being his budget was pretty limited but that didn’t stop him from using his head and turning out an awesome result.
Eddy’s MK4 is the perfect example of a clean daily driver done right. Using a formula which has been tried and tested in the US and Europe it pretty much works like a charm when executed correctly. Like we have mentioned here before Juicebox the Mk4 Golf is in plentiful supply throughout Ireland, finding one that makes you look twice in the south is another challenge. Take a look at the MK4 pictured here. Holding it down for MK4’s in the south east of Ireland Eddy’s Golf turns heads, and for the right reasons.
We decided to take a trip to Portlaoise, its usually the best place for everyone to meet as its a pretty central part of Ireland to get people to show up. The biggest problem it seems these days when it comes to car meet’s is a decent turn up. What was good about this meet was even though there wasnt a crazy turnout the quality of some of the cars that showed up was awesome.
These days its all about having the lowest car, or having something insanley slammed and almost rubbing the ground, but I have to admit the Woodruff special takes the trophy.
Check this Skunk 2 video on EK owner Loreto Garcia. This is such a good example of a function meets fashion EK. The car has all the shiny parts to look good and still manages to have enough go to put down an 11 second quarter mile. From the wire tuck to the immaculate TE37’s in smoked chrome. It even sitting perfect… Damn you America and your amazing Honda’s.
This DA6 needs no introduction. I’m sure most people throughout the Irish car scene know this car. When Darren was building this car he aimed beyond the standard many people set for themselves here in Ireland, there was no limits or false ceiling.
Some of you may have seen this photo before of this rear end tucked 32 drifting at Hiroshima At least once a week because I’m a sad individual I find myself going back and staring at this picture, I really just love how nuts this 32 looks with the drag wing, VIP wheels with white centers and the drag wing and for some strange reason the GT bonnet seems to add to the look!
One of the best parts of taking photos for a website like this is the variety of cars that you to feature. I remember seeing this Golf Variant at the Portlaoise meet at the start of 2011, amongst many of the cars that attended the meet this white wagon stuck out like a sore thumb. The owner of this car decided after having one of the nicest mk5’s in the country to go ahead and try something different. His canvas of choice was a 1.9 diesel MK4 Golf variant estate.
It was that time of year again to head from the very south of Ireland up to the north. Straight liners was about to begin again and we expected another turbo journey to lay ahead of us. Surprising enough this time around all the new motorways had been fully open and we actually made it from Waterford to Enniskillen in about 3 hours abiding by the speed limit. This is one of the most exciting drag racing events in Ireland, well to be honest there isn’t too many. The best thing about Straighliners is the fact that you just don’t know whats going to show up.