Just had my first UK cover feature published in this month’s Japanese Performance. The feature of the Need for Speed D-Mac AE86 has been a particularly sweet moment for me as I was fortunate enough to document the build of this incredible machine. Check out the full feature on this rotary powered beast, on news stands now !

More images after the break …

for Speedhunters.com by Paddy McGrath

To celebrate the global AE86 day on August 6th, I met up with Prodrift competitor Dennis Healy who famously piloted the Nexen Tires SR86 with great success. He’s now built this Trueno street car from the track car which had an unfortunate meeting with a tire wall last year. This car has all the right ingredients to make the perfect ’86 : horsepower and simplicity. More images after the jump …

for Speedhunters.com by Paddy McGrath

Or the 8/6 as our friends in the US and Japan would say.

Happy AE86 Day folks, be sure to keep an eye on Speedhunters for the full feature above along with a host of other AE86 stories !

When Rod asked the staff to come up with an ’86 related feature for 86 Day, I admit I did have to spend some time considering what to shoot. Ireland has quite an illustrious past with the wee hachi-roku, most commonly refered to as a ‘twin-cam’ or ‘cam’ in these parts. My first plan was to roll back the years on some of the most famous ’86s that have emerged from this small island. DMac’s infamous Falken car and Eric O’Sullivans F20C Rockstar car would obviously be the most recognisable but there have been some other gems that you may never heard of. This car above is one of them.

The car in question is the WKD Imports car of Prodrift competitor Alan Sinnott.

Within the ’86 camp there appears to be two beliefs. One belief is that the original car can never be improved upon and must stay Toyota throughout. Alan is from the other school of thought, with the belief that you can always make a good thing better.

The twisted, scarred rear bumper with scorch marks above the exhaust is an indication of how hard this ’86 is driven. The car features an underbody rear diffuser and an Origin GT wing to help keep the rear of the car stuck to the tar. Check out the mark on the right side of the TRD lipped spoiler !

The Work Equips are surely one of the best suited wheels to the AE86, be it standard trim or a widebody like this car. Like a lot of Irish drifters, Alan runs the Toyo R888 up front for maximum front end grip,

I love all these rub marks and scuffs on a car. You just know everyone of them has an awesome story behind it. Some of you will no doubtedly complain about the rear ride, but remember that this is a competition car, where form follows function.

The interior is suitable minimal, Bride seats and four point harnesses keep your body in constant communication with car, feeding you back every movement and bump.

Alans Office.

Some of you will of noticed the front mount intercooler in the first shots, others will have just read the story title. At top level drifting, you can never be expected to be competitive at the top with the standard 4-AGE. Even Ueo himself ran a Formula Atlantic engine, which doesn’t come cheap. The SR20 conversion is a popular one because it makes the most amount of sense. The engines are relatively cheap, create reliable power and parts are plentiful. Alans car is currently running 450 horsepower at 1.5 bar of boost.

This car is definitely my favourite ’86 of the moment and a definite contender in my books for best Irish ’86 of all time. Lets hope Alan can find the same success as Darren & Eric and someday grace the Formula D scene, so more people can feast their eyes on this awesome example.

Expect to see more action shots of Alans car from future Prodrift Series rounds !

- Paddy M

2008 saw me acquire my first rig. It’s served me well but It’s limitations are starting to get on my nerves. Since I’m about to retire it, I thought I’d show some of the best shots it created …

This was a tricky one. The rear window of a GT3 RS is mae of lexan plastic so the suction mounts needed to be attached to the absolute edges to ensure it didn’t pull the window out. Not what you want to happen on a rather expensive new Porsche ..

This is one of the first shot it helped create. The barrel distortion was just too strong for this to be used for anything except the web. Look how large the headlight is compared to the rear of the car.

This was one of my favourites. Although the back of the car is a wee bit soft, I just liked how the building became a focal point and how it’s just a little bit more than a standard rig shot.

This shot is my favourite and it currently features as the header image of Formula D competitor Eric O’Sullivans blog. Here are the shots that made this one up …

Hope to get the new one together soon and get some proper shots together for you all !

Since the site has been inactive for so many months, I thought I’d fill you in on my 2009 so far. It all started with an AE86 owners day at Mondello Park …

The track day was organised by the staff & members of www.ae86irl.com, an Irish based owners club of all things Toyota which primarily concerns itself with the AE86. The above Kp61 is owned by Mark Walsh, a Dublin guy with a lust for retro Toyota. The car has been rebuilt with a TRD speclist as long as my arm.

Prodrift regular Dennis Healy was on hand to thrash the life out of his BEAMs engined coupe.

Current Formula Drift championship leader Darren McNamara debuted his spectacular carbon clad Trueno.

This red Levin is a daily driver and is currently apart being rebuilt with a 20v 4-AGE by D.K. Developments.

The ’86 day was followed by an epic road trip across to the U.K. for the first round of the 2009 JDM Allstars series with Martin Ffrench from Wexican Motorsport.

We sailed into Fishguard before driving south to Devon, to collect the infamous Dragon Performance RX7. Then it was northbound to Newcastle.

The Dragon and Wexican crew taking a well earned rest stop en route to the event.

The Angel of the North let us know that our destination wasn’t too far away.

Ffrench was on fire all weekend, despatching the opposition seemingly at ease. It wasn’t until his Top 4 battle against Driftworks driver Dan Chapman where the car ran out of fuel that he would be stopped.

The first round of JDM also allowed me to shoot my first ever FMX shots. The riders looked awesome against the blue sky.

Newcastle City as a backdrop was simply spectacular. Perhaps the best backdrop I’ve seen for a drift event.



In Part II, I’ll show you through another epic roadtrip and the wettest event I’ve ever covered. For anyone interested in more on the above, I covered them for Speedhunters, here are the links !

AE86 Ireland Trackday Here

The Road To Newcastle, JDM Allstars Part I, Part II & Part III