AE86 festival Ireland, arguably the largest collection of AE86’s outside of Japan. Last year we hit Mondello for one of the biggest gatherings of square old Toyotas RWD Toyotas.
I had been meaning to shoot these cars for quite some time now. During the week when I’m working up in JDMDistro, I’ve been trying to make my way out to certain cars or groups of mates with interesting sheds. These lads are all local to where I’m living midweek so we managed to lock in a date after work last year and head for the hills.
I love Ireland’s hidden car culture. I always found myself abroad telling people about all these cool Japanese cars that end up in the rural countryside of Ireland and its always met with confusion or disbelief. The car pictured above is an A60 series Carina which used to roll around the streets of Japan. This Carina more than likely spent its time revving and hanging out with people who would consider themselves to be part of Shakotan/Bosozoku culture. Now the car resides down a back road in rural Wexford.
We check out five of Irelands finest AE86’s and uncover some old photos of my Trueno.
The A31 Cefiro is somewhat lost in the noise when it comes to RWD Japanese four-door sedans. It was released at a time when Toyota had a fully stacked roster of cars, the Chaser, Cresta and Mark two, these were their flagship mid-sized Sedans. Nissan was feeling a little threatened by Toyota and decided to do something about it.
Shed distractions, rings, A31 Cefiro’s and old stories with very strong Irish accents.