We head to Irelands largest gathering of Japanese cars. An annual event held at Mondello Raceway, Japfest is the largest gathering of Japanese cars in Ireland and usually brings out some unexpected treats.
In this episode, we fall down the rabbit hole, trying to find out how many AE86’s Toyota produced worldwide. This episode started because two of our Truenos were 40 cars between each other on the assembly line in 1987 and now they live in the same shed. We also uncover some rare photos and interviews with the head designers and engineers on the AE86 chassis.
You’ve more than likely seen the recent vlog episode about Sean and Barry, two brothers with an undeniable love for old Japanese cars, preferably old Toyotas. I’ve known the lads a very long time, and I’ve always admired Sean persistence with his builds.
Two brothers with a long love for all things AE86 and Toyota, open the doors to their garage and let us have a look around.
This time two years ago, we had just ripped the Trueno apart to send the shell down for sandblasting. The 86 was being brought down to Ace Motor Factors in Newbawn co Wexford. We brought it down on a Saturday’s it was going to get blasted on a Tuesday morning. I ensured to get that day off of work to document the entire process; this was something I didn’t want to miss.
With so much going on with the vlogs, I sometimes forget to take bust out the camera and try to document whats going on.
I must admit it was such a nice feeling being handed the keys to a freshly imported ae86. The fact I was going to have this car for the next four days was exciting. Up until this weekend, I had never actually driven an 86 for longer than a couple of hours. As you might have remembered from the last vlog, Dave threw me the keys while he stood there in full Nicholas cage attire.
The Trueno sees some progress as Barry calls down to hack out some of the final rust. We also check in on Flips RX7 which has a fresh coat of paint.
It almost seems like I never owned the Trueno, we got it in July 2017 and the car was actually in one piece until October of that year. We brought it to AE86 festival, Japfest and then stripped it down for blasting. Its been a shell longer than a car at this point and as of writing this, it’s a year and five months of metalwork with Barry.
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.
We check out five of Irelands finest AE86’s and uncover some old photos of my Trueno.
Shed distractions, rings, A31 Cefiro’s and old stories with very strong Irish accents.
With the freshly painted Calsonic March, a few AE86’s, a couple of Nissans and a pair of starlets, we hit the road for the Irish Motor festival. This episode was supposed to be uploaded last week but Japanese Jet lag won the battle.
The Trueno gets neglected as we give the k11 March its final form. Rob has a Mitsubishi BBQ and we go off-roading.
The Trueno enjoys a little progress until we are distracted and rip apart the daily driver K11 March to unleash its final form!