Ah yes, the Rps13….. a chassis know to pretty much any person who has an interest in Japanese cars, otherwise referred to as the 180sx or the 200sx/240 depending on where you are reading this from. This chassis was made for ten years and has dominated the drift scene for pretty much the same amount of time. I have no doubts that the RPs13 will have as much of a cult following for the next thirty years as the AE86 following has shaped into at the minute, both cars are perfect mascots for the activity we love so much…. The s13 chassis is easily one of the best FR platforms to ever come out of Japan.
Always been a massive fan of these cars, at the Rally of the lakes earlier in the year, at a look out over some of the best scenery in Ireland we spotted this freshly coated white example and decided to take a few snaps…..
Nothing better than being reminded your in Ireland…. an old woman washing her car out of a sewer on the side of the main road!
It was just another rainy miserable day in the so called sunny south east of Ireland. I get a phone call to meet up in the usual spot where people have congregated for over a decade at certain times to chat about cars and perform a spot of mental cleansing…. Roughly this time last year we put this video up on the site, being generally stoked about the drivers situation and skill level, we didn’t really give much of an explanation as to what was going on and many viewers took this up the wrong way.
Through all the years of being interested in cars, I’ve come across some pretty interesting characters. For some reason, in Ireland as similar to Japan, you stumble upon many different types of personalities, walks of life all bonded through the interest of something with four wheels. Clancy is pretty insane when it comes to being behind the wheels of a car, anyone who knows him will tell you that.
Some of the stuff over the last two decades to come out of Japan has left far more of an impact than others. For instance the s13 itself has had such a powerful following pretty much anywhere around the globe that people could get their hands on one. I’ve always been a massive fan of the late 90’s early 00’s drift style, personally I felt that drift car style peaked around this era.. big wheels, over fenders and the perfect stance, if you don’t believe me Google the BN s13 or the 326 power FC that Haraguchi drove or even the works 9 auto salon 13, or even take a look at any of the old D1 option videos on you tube from the turn of the millennium The BN Defend kit was one of those ideas that to quite a few, didn’t sound good on paper, but somehow it ended up being easily one of the best wide body kits for any of the Drift super star cars we know today.
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.