Padre Pio, Bob Ross & Other Petrol Station Ramblings

How many times have I started one of these posts with 'There are few greater things than spewing nonsense in a petrol station late at night' ?! Odds are, its more than a handful due to the fact that it is arguably the true definition of automotive happiness for me.

I can paint a loose picture if you want? I'd give you the verbal diarrhea but my English teacher wasn't ever a fan of my overuse of adjectives.

Its a late Autumn Friday night somewhere on the south coast of Ireland. Also known as 'hoody season'. The dark evenings are looming and its been raining lightly for most of the day. You get a text 'Few of the lads are coming over, call on if ya want'. The prospect of a salty bag of chips and a can of redbull are too much. You grab the keys, don your favourite bobblehat and set sail into the darkness.

I should use this opportunity to apologize to the lads for never turning up in anything interesting. I've always just shown up in my daily or a borrowed car and not the S13 that was road legal and begging me to drive it more. As it approaches its 30th birthday and qualifies for that glorious cheap road tax, I'll be making a stronger effort to drive the car on those more impromptu occasions.

That initial text had been a more pre-empted invite as a few a while back, Tadhg had mentioned that he was working with someone to have his car featured in a physical magazine and had asked me to shoot some images that best described the vibe this car gives off. Its arguably as close to those 90s/00s option videos as we'll ever get this many years on. The specs on this machine have been well documented both here and elsewhere so lets let the photos do the talking.

These are my versions of the photos you may or not see in a physical magazine at some point? To be honest its hard to make this car look bad, you just point the camera at it from any angle and make sure the settings aren't a complete shitshow.

Well Bob Ross boi.

You can see the lads tucked neatly into the back of some of these images trying not to get in the shots but the fact you can make them out gives this moment some atmosphere, its not that someone just gave me their car and let me do what I want. Those moments are amazing and I truly do appreciate the amount of people who willingly just hand me the keys and let me work with the car as I see fit but this is just a get together of some friends who want to chat, smoke cigarettes and consume energy drinks that will most likely lead us to an early grave.

Its worth mentioning this scene here, holy shit this petrol station lighting! Clean, crisp, white light is hard to come by around here, shouts to all our European counterparts with your abundantly delicious forecourt lighting.

I love the trinkets that have been added to the car over time as well, its what separates it from the competition. Beacon light, driving gloves, Bob Ross drink can. All of these things set a fun tone, which is what this little sport-box is all about.

I've shot some images of this car over the last few years and this might be the best so far(although those first golden hour shots were perfection!).

I don't have much more to say other than, if you have these sorts of moments with people to just soak it all in because this is the stuff you'll really remember.

It also worth mentioning that I fired off some shots on my film camera this same night and they came out absolutely insane so as soon as I can find those images on my slue of hard drives I'll be sure to add them on here. That very familiar White 180sx is also due a few words too I guess....