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 We all know what the recession is doing to the car scene, every Evo, skybus and Silvia has been replaced by TDI power, which in ways has brought some interesting stuff as people explore new car platforms but the fuel prices and Tax has and loss of jobs has crippled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….
The dates have been announced and its shaping up to be another enjoyable year for Irish drifting with the usual favourite places and a date announced in the north! Roll on the good times!
Sunday the 15th of January saw another drift practise day at Mondello park. The best thing about these drift days is pretty much any type of contraption can be seen on the track along with skill level.Pretty much anyone with a rear wheel drive car can enjoy an open pit all day and a tyre changing service. With the rising cost of tax, petrol and pretty much everything else in Ireland, we are seeing more and more cars hitting the track never to return to the road again.
So its a new year, and weve taken a little sort of break from the website, mainly because life got a little hectic. What better way to start the new year with a bit of drift action. We trucked down towards Watergrass hill for the driftfest which has been gaining some serious steam each time this event. It makes for an exciting watch as pretty much any type of rear wheel drive car can be seen tearing it up with a driver of any skill level.
I unfortunately never had the opportunity of Meeting Casey Furlong myself, but from what I have been told from close friends he was the center of attention, a person who brought drifting and fun to a farm yard just outside of Tullow in County Carlow. This was the second memorial day held for him, the yard itself runs a drag and drift day almost every second week for people to let loose on each other or themselves with whatever type of car they feel. What I love about this place is the freedom, its almost like the last little slice of chaos this country has to to offer without things being too out of hand. Every decent day that is held in the yard has never dissapointed and this second year event to remember a close friend of the organisers went down a treat.
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.
Some footage from the drift day which was held in Mondello the last weekend of July.
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 R32 is by far one of the most popular cars to come out of Japan. The BNR32GTR is by far one of the best cars ever made; it was almost unbeaten in the N1 category in Japan during its reign of terror. The car really pushed what was possible handling and electronics wise at that time. What is so good about this R32 Skyline is that it started life as an a lower base model, the GTS-T sporting an RB20DET and a Rear wheel drive setup. The lower model R32’s always lived in the shadow of the higher spec GTR model amongst hardcore Skyline Fans, but that didn’t stop anyone’s visions of creating the perfect R32 without having a GTR. This GTS-T was torn down and rebuilt from the ground up.
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.
The crowd continued to grow throughout the day. It was so nice to be able to enjoy the racing without usual Irish weather pouring down on everything. Its not actually that bad of a country once the sun come out! More>>>
Its hard to beat the looks of “Team A Bo Moon” and their four door hcr32’s. A video that never gets old from Drift Tengoku volume 15
Apparently this was the original car from fast and the furious 2, but it magically disappeared on the set so they had to get an R34.