This car is near and dear to the heart of its owner, Reuben. The last time we saw the Reuben mobile in this guise, he had just returned from a track day and, unfortunately, cracked a piston. But that didn’t stop him from bringing it out for a sun-kissed photoshoot. We shot these photos towards the tail end of our extended summer in Ireland, which stretched to late September. We took advantage of the evening and did our “final shoot” of the car in this livery and look.
Let’s get stuck right back into our walk around Japfest 2017. I can’t stress how good this event was, it’s a clear indication that we are out of the dark times. The car scene is booming once again.
We take the AE86 out onto public roads to grab some food in its current condition, later that weekend we take the Trueno to Japfest, Irelands biggest annual Japanese car show and we explode fifth gear along the way. A little treat for Christmas Day.
So these snaps are a little later than I expected, I’ve been swamped the last month juggling stuff for the site, life and the new child aka the JB vlogs. Between doing those and trying to find time after working a nine to five and still have somewhat of a life has proven to be quite the task.
This weekend Reuben gets to live out a dream. A couple of months ago he toyed with the idea of turning his already superb C33 into a fully fledged drift machine to drive at Gatebil. He bought this C33 on a whim last year, a car he was curious about that came up for cheap, this was right before Americans could get their hands these which tripled the prices overnight.
As most of us tend to stay in our circles amongst the scene, a lot of cars never really come out of hiding for us to be exposed to here at Juicebox. This little B series is stunning.
A lot of people made it down regardless of situations that sprang up which either on the day or close to it. Somehow the weather was on our sides which enticed people to make the journey down. I genuinely would not have held the event if there was a monsoon of Irish rain.
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.
The phrase “from rags to riches” was the last thing I wanted to call this feature, but the more Peter told me the story I couldn’t believe how the car had turned out. Eventually I realised after trying to come up with something a little bit more imaginative, this car truly earned the title. The common build we see in the United States of a bog standard civic being converted into a flawless masterpiece in both the exterior and interior is really something that has only started to come around over here in Ireland over the last few years.
If your pondering the internet bored this evening you should sit down grab some food and enjoy this classic snippet of early Japanese street racing. Megalopolis Expressway Trial or Shuto Kousoku is a series of films about illegal street racing on the Shuto Expressway in Japan released between 1988 and 1996.
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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.
I see this Altezza quite a lot and this time had the camera to take a snap. There’s just something so right about it being yellow and having those Advan Model 5’s poke out like that on the rear.
Waking up early Sunday morning and looking out the window to see another day of glorious weather was a rare feeling. Just as things got underway the track claimed another car as we saw a collision between Damien Short’s Corolla and Nick Quealy and his R32. Sadly for Damien the 86 would not make it back onto track for the rest of the event.
A new year, a new round of Prodrift and another Look through the car park to see what you drove to the event!
