Juicebox BBQ

Two days after 86fest I took the corolla on a road trip south to Waterford for the Juicebox BBQ. The night before I investigated a starter issue that had shown up at the end of the day at Mondello, I hoped it was something simple like a loose connection, but after a few checks with the multimeter, the starter had to come out. While not overly complicated it can be a bit awkward.

When I tested it on the bench I got absolutely nothing. Not ideal. I had an old starter that was literally on its last legs when I pulled it out, which I thought would get me going provided it, and the engine weren't too hot. Not exactly confidence inspiring with an older car, but if it came to it I knew a push start would do. All of this as usual took much longer than it should. Which meant I was a little later getting under way the following day than I would have liked.

The drive down was thankfully uneventful albeit not very comfortable. With a 4.7 final drive in my car my tachometer will sit at 4000rpm in 5th gear at a meagre 100km/h. At that speed the noise in the car could only be described as a dull roar. I was pretty grateful for some headphones and a couple of decent podcasts. 

On entry I was greeted by a good chunk of the coolest cars this country has to offer. This is for sure one of my favourite ae86 in Ireland. So simple, so clean, so good.

My journey had nothing on that of this pair, which both made the trip over from Scotland together. The FC and S15 were both super aggressive and looked amazing.

Eamonn's R32 sedan looking somehow even tougher after a recent refresh.

Flip put in a pretty serious shift to get this ready for the day, safe to say it was well worth it. Hard to do justice to how good this car looks in the flesh. That intangible 'something' that really cool cars have, this has in abundance.

This super clean Trueno hatch on (very) wide watts, sounds amazing thanks to a built 16v on ITBs. Zenki Lip was not fitted but just use your imagination.

Perfect execution of a big body Toyota. I'd love to own something like this at some stage, hard to imagine a cooler daily.

Great to see such well executed builds from this generation of Toyota getting the attention they deserve. With the prices of older rear wheel drive Toyotas has skyrocketed over the last few years this development might be expected. While there is a lower cost entry point associated with these cars, ep82 and ep91 are an exceptionally rare sight on the roads these days. With the amount of ae101/111 that have been scrapped for heart donations to their older siblings, it's not hard to imagine a future where these are pretty pricey.

Verossa's seem to divide opinion. I can't get enough of this,  and to see this get drifted regularly makes it even cooler.

Overfenders from two entirely different era and purpose. I know which I prefer, N2 <3.

I can only imagine how much fun this would be to drive. Screaming VTEC in a super lightweight and well balanced chassis, this is another itch that is going to have to be scratched at some stage.

Quite the handsome couple.

Black cars matter.

The recipe is simple, but it still rules.

The ex R.Y.O demo car with 3sge conversion is a treat, perfect example of how the full kit look can work with the ae86. It's also another car that was screaming around Mondello just two days prior.

I guess if you absolute have to take the 4age out of an ae86 in order to remain competitive you may as well make it as aggressive as possible. Although theres not a lot left from it's days as a shino kouba grip car, seeing it sans sponsors stickers reminded me of how it used to look. It's almost like you haven't seen it in a while and in the mean time it's been on a diet of pure testosterone for 8 years.

Another pair of intrepid explorers who decided to cross the Irish sea in search of car culture. This sort of 'Hyper Style' is not something thats really done on road cars over here. It was really cool to get the have a look around the cutloose S15 and R33.

This super simple Evo IV is understated and lovely.

Impossible not to love this march. Stripped out, bucket seat, stiff shocks and springs, I can't say I'd love to drive it everyday, massive credit to Neil for doing just that, and also creating something so cool.

This eg6 race car ticked all the boxes. It's owner and driver works in my local motor factors, I was surprised to see him and even more so when he showed me his car. The idemitsu livery has such an aura. The car is currently raced in a future classics series.

The combination of my late arrival and not getting the camera out till a good chunk of cars had already left meant I only managed to capture such a small percentage of the amazing machinery on show. This is truly a unique event, and testament to the passion of the owners for such a small country to produce so many jaw dropping cars.