To pick just a handful of cars from the Juicebox BBQ is probably a bit unfair to the other 100+ in attendance. To then only gloss over them as part of one spotlight-o-rama doesn’t do these individual cars justice, either. So, I’m not going to do that.

Instead, consider this an introduction to six cars, some of which I’m going to try and hunt down for more in-depth features in the coming weeks and months. You know, proper Speedhunting. These are cars which I think that despite all being pretty different, are all confident in knowing what they are trying to be. They all have purpose.

Take for instance Josh Greene’s BMW. Despite having seen countless iterations of the E30 over the years, I can’t really recall seeing anything as subtle, but significantly different, than Josh’s track and street drift car.

The Japanese influence is clear from the 15×9-inch Work Equip 40s all around and the Bride seat, but the Taifun front end is a proper throwback to a very different era of car culture, and the S50B30 swap with open trumpets is pretty timeless. There’s more of course, but we’ll get to that another time. It’s just simple, and not trying to be something it isn’t.

This is the epitome of what I think a non-GT-R Skyline should and could be. RB26s scare the bejesus out of me, but I do have a soft spot for a nicely tuned RB25 example.

With a Garrett GT3076R turbocharger bolted to the side of it, the RB produces a healthy 420whp at 1.2bar (17.6psi) with a Turbosmart 50mm external wastegate, Sinco exhaust manifold, Speedtek intake manifold, Q45 90mm throttle body, Speed Factory intercooler, Injector Dynamics 1,050cc injectors, and an NZ Wiring cam trigger kit.

Sat on RAYS Gram Light 57Fs, and using an S13 rear subframe with AMR engineering shocks, it’s a potent (and fast) street car.

I had to defer to Juicebox’s Neil Sheehan for this one, as it’s not a model I’ve ever seen in person before. As it turns out, it’s not a KE Corolla as I (wrongly) first thought, but an A40 series quad-headlamp Toyota Carina.

With a recent Yamaha 3S-GE Beams swap just completed, Work Equip 01s and neat bodywork and interior, there’s a wee bit of a MotorFix vibe going on. It also demonstrates what I wrote previously about people trying to find something a little under the radar from Japan.

What’s most impressive about this AE86, is the fact that it was built around 10 (or even more) years ago. Hell, it first featured on Speedhunters back in 2011 in a guest post, but has spent the time since locked away as its owner had emigrated to Canada. As far as I know, this was the car’s first time out since going into storage.

To consider that this boosted ’86 was built so long ago, and how much has changed in car culture since, for it still to be at the sharpest end of AE86 builds is hugely impressive. Rather than rehash the spec list, I’ll link you to the original Juicebox feature on the car.

I’ve always had a Honda-shaped soft spot, and feel like we can never bring enough of them to Speedhunters. But with this is one I’m being extra vague on as it really warrants a proper inspection with camera and notebook in hand.

K20-powered EG Civics aren’t a new thing, but they’re still a great thing. This fresh track car build might be one of the cleanest and best in Ireland, so it’s imperative that I catch up with its owner as soon as I can.

You must remember RX-Hate. Well, this is version 2.0, and there have been a lot of changes since our 2017 feature.

It’s a completely new shell for starters, with the same diesel Cummins 6BT (albeit with some new upgrades) now sitting 15-inches further back and six-inches lower, resulting in a 56/44 weight distribution. It has shed a few pounds, and is now ‘nearly’ the same weight as a stock RX-8. The 18-inch Wedsport SA55Ms are new, too, as are the custom spec BC coilovers. “The whole idea this time round was to get the car more planted, driveable and have enough seats to bring all of my mates for a spin,” Comghan told me.

As I said above, they’re all very different cars, representing different styles of Irish car culture, but are all worth of further investigation and representation. There are others too, which I’ve noted from your comments, but in the meantime only one question remains: which one do you want to see first?

Paddy McGrath
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paddy@speedhunters.com