So on Sunday just gone seen the rise of a brand new show to Ireland called xPosed, run by the guys over at Raceism United. Personally I think it was more than a welcome to the automotive scene here in Ireland as we have been lacking a show like this but we will get back to that point later.
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.
After a somewhat silent winter it was nice to see the crowds and drivers arrive at Ennis. We all know what the recession is doing to the car scene, every Evo, skybus and Silvia has been replaced by TDI power, which in ways has brought some interesting stuff as people explore new car platforms but the fuel prices and Tax has and loss of jobs has crippled pretty much a mega chunk of the Irish scene. This is why I have to give the utmost respect to any driver competing this year….
So we decided to get a bunch of friends together and have a Juicebox BBQ, a sort of thank you to everyone who has been down for the website and what we are doing over the last year or so. Things have been growing strongly with the site and its scary to think of just many people are down with the Box. The weather was on our side in what has to have been the worst summer in a very long time but we managed to get a good cross section of cars which that pretty much represented what the website is all about. As someone stated in the comments from the heatwave coverage, here at Juicebox were all about Photoshopped wheels on second hand cars from a dealership. Take a look and you will see what we mean.
So since there is a nice gap in between the next Prodrift event, Mondello had another track day for drift practice, owners could pay 140 euros to drive on the track all day in pretty much whatever they choose. These days are just as if not more interesting then some of the professional events down to the fact that the track is a mix of Decent and learner driver’s so things can be very unpredictable. Most cars come home with at least one love tap or maybe two…
The weather looked gloomy all day, and many feared rain. Somehow or another nature decided not to be horrible as usual leave drifting alone for the day in Fermoy. The gloom and dull weather didn’t stop some epic battles taking place which in turn made the crowd forget about the dullness and greyness. Instead drifting put a smile on peoples faces and that’s what its all about.
This year the weather was looking super dodgy, we didn’t get a chance to make it down on Saturday but on Sunday morning as we hit the road it was already looking to be a shit day. Somehow the rain staid in the clouds and it turned out to be another awesome day in Cork. The Drift Ireland guys basically had the entire “show and shine” type of area from last year to themselves apart from one accord. Nickys Trueno is out of this world sexy and was hidden in between Pete’s GS pimp wagon and that beautiful 180 we should do a feature on.
As we arrived down at 9 the fog was not moving . Behind the mist we could see the faint sun . The drivers were called up to the briefing and as they were finished the sun had brunt all the fog away . There are not many days were you can say you have worn a t-shirt in Mondello , as some say its one of the coldest places in Ireland but today was going to be a hot one.The day was as the title suggests about practice and anyone can do it . More>>>
Gearoid sent me on some of his snaps from the Modball 2010. Looked like a proper good time. The 2010 route saw 74 cars travel from London to the continent and back to London via Le Mans, San Sebastian, Madrid, Barcelona, Monaco and Geneva, partying at every stop. It definietly sounds like alot of fun.
A lot of people seemed to enjoy the amount of coverage from the last event picture wise so we decided to go for it again. Many sites and stuff regulate the amount of pictures that go up, fuck it were going to stick up as much that was good about something as possible. There is always stuff going on off the track that’s always worth the coverage also. Either way here is what we got from the Sunday. There was a show of cars inside this crazy arena style shed which looked like something made for the x-games. Anyways on with the pics.