Hardcore Irish drift elite, first time drifters and everyone in between have at one stage in their careers graced Mondello tarmac with their tyres. It’s a monthly ritual for veterans and “noobs” to test out new setups or thrash a battered old banger of the walls of Mondello for the day.

As times have turned tough, attendance numbers have dramatically dipped in previous months due to likes of DriftFest and SuperDrift running similar days on new tracks for competitive pricing. However, for some, it’s a Sunday on a calendar month that cannot be forgotten. The chance to “hoon” around Ireland’s premier motor park is second to none.

Standing on Mondello’s pit lane wall is where I have learned and honed every one of my photography skills (well , that and Google of course). Numerous days involving -2°c temperatures, blistering winds and buckets full of rain, all just to capture someone’s road going pride and joy skid past me at 60mph.

First car out on track to greet me was Prodrift Semi Pro, Gary Dunne. Gary is a Mondello drift day veteran at this stage and it showed with his consistency and speed throughout the day. Although Prodrift run their events in the opposite direction for the Championship, practice makes perfect for the drivers.

Mondello’s long sweeping corners and high speeds can be a bit daunting for underpowered cars, but it wasn’t stopping this Haichi. One over the counter brave pill, serious amounts of angle and boot loads of right footed action were the recipe for success on the day.

Across every county in Ireland, rallying is the premium motorsport backed by sponsored and crowds. With many Prodrift drivers coming from such a background in their earlier careers and 50% of rallying is spent completely sideways anyway, it felt right seeing an old KP60 Toyota Starlet and Mk1 Ford Escort blasting around for the circuit for the morning.

One discernibly noticeable difference about the rally cars out on track was their speed. Coming from a background of time trial style racing, speed is king. This aspect was easily transferable to the track and to the drift, with the Mk1 Escort being one of the fastest cars pinned sideways all day.

“Consistency is the most important thing in business” – Enzo Ferrari

In the case of this BMW driver, he must be the greatest driver alive at the moment, if this quote is true. Lap after lap, the BMW cut wide onto the outside bank of the last turn, sweeping back across, to kiss the bumper of Mondello’s solid pitlane wall with ease. Growing numbers of spectators decorated the wall in anticipation of his arrival, and they were not disappointed.

With only a half day scheduled for the session due to low numbers and an early setting sun, drivers were eager to get as much time out on track. Pushing their cars to the limit and beyond will always result in errors of a human or mechanical nature. Multiple red flags provided drivers with some down time to recuperate themselves in pit lane.

Over the past year and half that I have been attending Mondello drift days, I have become acquainted with the red PS13 of James McGovern. James, to the best of my knowledge, does not compete in any drift series in Ireland, but judging by the standard of his driving, he could well and truly put many to shame if he was to compete.

It never ceases to amaze me what cars I find in the parking lot of events I cover. Making a trip back to my car to warm up and refuel on sambo’s and coke, I was pleasantly surprised to be greeted by this E46 3 Series Coupe on BBS LM Wheels.
FreshFix is always available for FreshFeatures and QuickFix’s, so if you want your pride and joy in the spotlight, let us know.

With the day coming to an end, the light began to fade on dull winters evening, the drifting slowly stopped, the track settled, and once again, everyone packed up their cars dreading the thought of a Monday morning that was imminently approaching.

Mondello trackdays will always be a release for petrolheads. It’s a place to get away from the weekly stress of the 9-5 and the approaching Christmas madness. If you haven’t tried it yet, I strongly advise you do. For the same price as a speeding ticket, you can as fast as you like all day long without the stress of speed cameras, plus you can do it all with the car completely sideways.

For more upcoming features and regular updates, make sure to be connected to FreshFix on Facebook.

Thanks for reading.

Adam O’Connor

Rory recently caught up with this VW Passat. Rather then using bag’s Stephen has installed Hydraulics to bring the Passat closer to the ground. We didn’t have enough for a full feature so enjoy this and the Gallery for your viewing pleasure.

On this night we took a drive in Johns 320d. He has done very simple and tasteful modifications. He has opted to not put on German style plates and kept them standard, he only dropped the car with 40mm lowering springs instead of the normal coilover to keep some comfort in his daily diesel.

A set of staggered BBS LM Reps in gunmetal grey is very pleasing to the eye with H & R spacers to add to the stance of the car. I believe all this car needs is a front lip to finish the outside and let the full leather interior with its heated seats do its job over the cold winter. Another example of a clean simple daily.

It was extremely hot out, and I only had a few minutes to chat to Mike about his car. He has owned this car for the last nine years, but has only been modifying it for the last five.
There’s about $70k dropped into this beast, and estimated resale value for this car is about $85k+.

The engine bay is so clean, you could eat your dinner off the engine.

This car does not get trailered around. In fact, Mike is heading off to New York in a few days for another car show, and he is driving it down! It may look super low here, but it’s
riding on air suspension, so obviously, it will not be driven around as you see it here.

Under those arches are 15″ Billet Specialties “Fast Lane” wheels, custom made to fit this car. I think they really look the part.

Inside you’ll find custom made interior as well. Cream leather with green stitching to match the exterior. Mike says the colour is actually from a Ford. It really pops in the sun, for sure!

WE WRITE THE STREETS PART II TRAILER from FORMAT67.NET on Vimeo.

WE WRITE THE STREETS // TRAILER 1 from FORMAT67.NET on Vimeo.

With so many of our on imports making there way across to the likes of France and Germany, this documentary is something I would love to get my hands on. Has anyone seen this before?

I came across this on facebook. Good to see that not all Honda drivers are so serious and that they can take the piss out of themselves.

When I knew I was coming to Chicago for the summer I was really hoping that I could find the car culture easy. Unfortunately it is pretty hard to come across a decent looking car that hasn’t been destroyed by rust or destroyed by 22 inch spinners.

It surprises me because of all the amazing American content that I see online. My girlfriend was given a car to drive for her job, on the way home one day she told me to grabbed the camera because she noticed these two s2k’s ripping down the motorway. This was the best shot I before the two car’s took the next exit……..

First thing that drew me to the car was the distinction between the black and green. It’s a style that has been done before but for me it doesn’t get old with the right set up.

I posted up a teaser photo of this a while ago on our facebook page, while some argued that he painted a set of Schmidt TH Lines green but it was a wise choice. Apart from being green they are man size wheels with the rears being 10×15 with 3.5 inch with radinox lips which can guarantee some arch rolling.

And the fronts 7.5×15 front with 2inch radinox lips. Along with the Vr6 lip the front wings have had a stroke of the U.S with the side repeater’s being flushed out.

This is Maritn’s run around which he acquired from a Friend so there is nothing startling under the bonnet or in the interior. It was the outside that was the aspiration on hand here. The old rear tub was replaced with the U.S tub to gain some kudos.

All that’s needed is a radio and your music and you a very funky run-around. I have toyed with the Idea of getting something cheap and adding my own touch but for now I will keep my options open

I recently caught up with Nicky to take a few shots of his Honda Civic. He’s doing a great job turning it into a mental little hatchback.

Handling has definitely been a major focus for this machine. Fully kitted out with yellow Speed Racing coilovers and reinforced rigidity throughout, it has front and rear strut braces, a rear lower tie bar, and a shiny new Miracle X-Brace just fitted a month ago.

The carbon fibre hood and the removal of the rear seats also helps to keep the weight down, making the VTTR grooved brake disk’s job that little bit easier.

The air intake in the front bumper is a good warning that this thing means business, and in terms of engine performance it has received plenty of attention. The bumper vent feeds air directly into a carbon J’s Racing “Whales Willy” intake and through a Spoon 70mm throttle body. Upgraded ITR DC2 cams and valve springs also help to squeeze out that extra bit of poke when it’s needed.

There’s no point in having all of that intake taken care of unless exhaust can get out the other end as quickly as possible, and that’s where the ceramic DC Sports 4-2-1 exhaust manifold, de-cat, and Top Fuel Power cat-back joins the party. This Civic sounds unreal, keep an eye and an ear out for it!

I’ll leave you with a few more shots. Thanks for reading.

An update is well overdue by this stage. Conor (who we haven’t introduced yet) is coming on board to help out for 2012. I was having a look on Conor’s page when I noticed this Rx3. I requested these photos straight away so I could share them with you. These photos were taken at a SXOC meet that Conor was at a while ago.

After a quick Google I found some information that the owner had posted on a website. “I brought the car in 2001 in Taupo, New Zealand. I drove it for a year or two then put it in storage and moved to Ireland”.

“Four years later I shipped it to Ireland. Thats when the rebuild began, It took me two years to build myself.The motor was built buy Mark from Rotary Engine Specialists in Manukau City”.

A lot of people would have seen this car at shows in the past few years and if you come across it again. Be sure you look at it in great detail, let’s be honest there are not a lot of cars like this left on Irish shores.