It’s always nice to receive emails about potential car features, with the whole Juicebox deal there has been quite a lot over the last few years. Every now and again you will come across something that is totally unique. Take this black AE111, first of you are thinking this is not that unique at all, we have hundreds of them floating around the country waiting to be stripped of its heart and the engine used for an AE86.
The EP91 certainly flooded our shores over the last ten years, such a love/hate car with many people. Its difficult enough to come across one that is is truly outstanding, as most of them are usually bone stock or have more stickers than modifications.
Sadly in the middle of a cold winters night shooting this car, after trying to track it down for a shoot for a year or so, my batteries died and these are the only two shots I walked away with. In a country where the car scene is so unpredictable and cars change hands like the weather, hopefully we will have a full feature of this little chunk of awesome over the coming months. Until then ill leave you with two pictures I didn’t want to vanish on my hard drive forever.
Dave’s car is well known amongst the 86 community in Ireland. Being one of the founding members of Garage Hachi, quite a hot blog up until a year ago, the guys have always had a serious eye for the right parts and have a true love for the 86 chassis.
So it’s the third birthday of Juicebox… a website we created back around three years ago with a mission to showcase the Irish car scene to the rest of the world, to show them all the good things that are hidden away down country back roads in sheds and barns and other places you would never expect to find rare metal on four wheels.
One of the sheds residents, the KE55 came out for some air today. You sometimes forget its beauty, living mostly for the cold months under covers.
We decided to try and make it to the first event on the car calendar this year… round one of the IDC and Modified Live… Mondello’s own idea of a car show that to say the least looked like a bare version of Japfest… Even saying that a few unusual beasts made an appearance that more or less made the trip worth it.
I honestly didn’t know what to expect when approaching this car.. Pictures do not do it justice. In Ireland, we don’t exactly have much of a VIP scene… there may be about two to three proper VIP styled cars amongst a sea of everything else. Even though I tried to take decent pictures I couldn’t help but think about just how impressive this v300 was in real life.
The JZX100, a car that has always been at the top of the list of four doors to own… for some reason the idea of owning any of the Chaser, Cresta, or Mk2’s line has always appealed more than owning a Mercedes or BMW FR platform. The fact that Japan even created the cars and built each of the three with the same chassis but top half for a different reason is too awesome. They are just bad ass… simple as, in any colour or form. This example ticks all the right boxes…
Stephens Turbo work in Progress Pride and Joy…. watch this space, this car is only going to get better….
Its amazing just how good the older generation of Toyota’s have aged, with everything being so mass produced these days and designed by a team or panel, the older more humble econo cars of the eighties with their simplistic designs for some reason get better with age. Who would have thought a Corolla wagon would have this much of a presence thirty two years later with the addition of a few bits and pieces?
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A couple of weeks back Paddy and I got a chance to shoot and play with the GT86, I have to admit, the car has grown on me in a massive way over the last couple of months, with the amount that are being modified in Japan and the USA, and getting a chance to see Freddy Asabo’s example at Japfest, the cars have a truck load of potential waiting to be unlocked.
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.
The second round of Prodrift took place at Punchestown. This year all of the elements were very un-Irish. The track was long and fast as hell, and the heat was definitely borrowed from Spain or somewhere warm for the weekend. Getting scorched in the unfamiliar sun was something you couldn’t really complain about as cars did one or two laps of a set of tires. It was a nice sight to behold indeed.
Spotted this beast awhile back outside an off license in Naas, rocking some Rays TRD sports T3’s and a nice kit. Awesome!