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There was two or three supposed Mid Night drivers there this day - which as you can probably guess, is more about oji-san look-at-me needs these days than Wangan speed runs.
What a great blog Kuro. My favourite on here for sure. What a beautiful country Japan is. You really give us a glimpse of something most of us would never see.
What a great blog Kuro. My favourite on here for sure. What a beautiful country Japan is. You really give us a glimpse of something most of us would never see.
By the way. Did you live in Australia before?
Japan is such a contradiction, as most visitors only see the same cliche, and never what is real - kinda like everyone going to Disneyland, and thinking that represents an accurate view of the US.
Whereas, everyone knows Joe Exotic is the real US.
Thanks, and yes we used to live in Aus.
Originally Posted by porscheflatsix
Just adding on to @adam_987.2
I am also curious, where are you originally from Neko? How did you end up with this life in Japan?
Via Melbourne, Lancaster (Lancs) and Columbus and San Diego and Los Angeles and Toronto and Singapore and Hong Kong too.
Just hunted down for work, and lucky enough to have a family willing and encouraging to follow.
Working from home these days:
Wear those masks, and stay safe (this isn't a 'hoax').
Neko
We're not out and about of course, other than runs for essentials, but I've got an archive of Porsche stuff I can trawl through, and hopefully post stuff not seen before.
Here, the C4 featured in a few shots above and my old S800 out for a run around Izu and Ashinoko touge.
Random Martini 911 in Kichijoji.
Continuing the Martini theme, the Integrale is very popular in Japan, with many being sold here new.
Most non-EU cars globally these days all seem to have come from here...
This picture and car speaks to my soul. So damn good!
Neat!
Let me see if I can tempt with some exotica too then...
The Pantera might get all the love, but for me there is only one De Tomaso - the Mangusta!
Evil handling it may be, and getting the seat far enough back against the firewall is difficult for my long legs, but at least those truck tires for the rears are not that expensive.
Neither of course is engine work, with that big push-rod Ford lump smooshed up behind you, though getting good access to some bits is a bit hard, with the rear spine needed to support those clamshell hoods.
None of this matters though when you look at, plus there's a supposed fix for the rear chassis flex steer...
The Espada too is nice, and the Lamborghini V12 sounds good at any speed.
It's let down perhaps, only by it's four-seat profile, but everything else is pretty neat.
The Jarama does a better job as a plus-two perhaps, but lacks an overall Lamborghini-ness.
Quad-cam, flat-plane, V8? Yes please!
Small capacity perhaps, but the Montreal sounds damn nice too, and its show car looks carried nearly verbatim over to the street version still make it special!
Toyota's 2000GT, has a more cohesive design, and although it has a reasonably sophisticated twin-cam, it lacks drama.
It was however fun chasing this one up and down some touge a few years ago, hanging out the side of a chase car, smoking its brakes.
I spent another session with a local dealer, and one of their customer 2000GTs.
Saying thanks out the front of the Toyota dealer for the grateful access they had given me, we both stood there as a white 2000GT casually drove past...
Japan's like that sometimes.
They need to repeal all pedestrian safety laws so cars can look this good again
Like these knee-breakers too!
In typ order...
The 904 was tracked by a friend's father-in-law, and fitted with a later model six (not a Fuhrmann four-cam), he drove it well - chasing down numerous bigger machines around Fuji Speedway.
I did miss the sound of those bevel-gear driven cams of the Fuhrmann.
Also at Fuji Speedway a few years later, we took a 906, driven by the famed Ikuzawa Tetsu, reuniting him with both a Skyline GT-A/B and a 906 from his successive Japanese Grands Prix machines.
Neither were his original rides, and though we had access to the cash to track down his original 906, we could not find it.
Interestingly though, the Skyline (like his original) is a GT-A built to competition spec (/B), and wearing the actual chassis plate from the original Nr. 41*.
The 907 belongs to a discrete owner, who though has been known to drive his 250LM for groceries, usually keeps a low profile. We started one night as the sun was going down, and took the 907 out and about in Tokyo, including some nice laps of the Shuto-ko expressway until the early hours of the morning.
This was my first flat-eight experience, and the noise was very unique and like nothing I've heard before - curiously, it sounded quite refined, perhaps like a bigger 2.0S, and with none of the drama and terror of a 917 flat-12 (which I had kind of hoped for).
I was piloting the chase motorcycle, with the cameraman on the back and when we'd finished the shoot I was exhausted but totally thrilled, grinning from ear-to-ear...
See ya!
Neko
* Side Bar: the blue Skyline GT-B pictured above somewhere in this thread wears the number plate '39' representing Ikuzawa's team mate Sunako Yoshikazu, who we've also been privileged to met and interview.
Getting ready for the high speed shoot.
There's a story about the symmetrical 8 - about it being made from two smaller 0s, as an 8 wasn't available.
Period Pepsi ad, with the 906.
More from Ikuzawa's personal photo collection if you've got time to waste, and a like of period racing.
He was also the first Japanese driver to compete at Le Mans
1973 in a Mazda.
He also drove a Honda S800 in 1967 to a class win in the Nurburgring 500km.
Denny Hulme, in partnership with Jack Brabham, had won the same class in a S600 in 1964.
My S800 though, was confined to grocery runs in Shibuya, driving to work, and the occasional touge.
Though, it did get to share Motegi with other S cars for Honda's 50th anniversary.
Twin-cam, solid con rods, modular, roller-bearing crank, it would easy rev to 10,000 rpm and tunnels were of course very enjoyable.
Even after many year of driving to work past the shinkansen tracks at Ginza, I still enjoy their silent power as they whoosh overhead at the start of their journey South.
The view from my old office in Roppongi, with Fuji-san in the background on a cold winter day.
More though on Ikuzawa-san and his Porsche here.
He has a taste for Rubystone Red, so is obviously a man of style, still...
Continuing the race theme, two Bathurst campaigners of some note.
The GT-B was purchased new from Nissan / Prince to run the 1966 Bathurst 500.
However, due to rule changes from the previous year - where categories were allocated due to cost to market in Australia - the previous year's success of the Skyline was nixed, and this car with its factory velocity stacks, LSD, and 99L tank never ran.
Lumpy race cam wrapped in paper in the trunk, it was instead re-imported home a few years ago.
The Sierra Cosworth RS500 was similarly campaigned at Bathurst, though 20 years later.
This Figaro was snapped on a half-frame camera on old film, and I liked the tint.
I did not check, but quite possible this is a real IROC 911?
This minka is much like ours, and snow aside, a Honda Beat parked outside would make a nice grocery-getter.
Like the original Countach, I prefer the original 928.
Even one without the side moldings.
A beautifully pure design that still looks good.
The car that made me realize I liked cars.
I'll see what else I can find of vague interest...
Despite Western media portrayals, decatora (decorative truck) are relatively rare in Japan.
They are however about in varying degrees, and often presented in a wide range of elaborateness...
This decatora had the full front-bumper extension, totally chromed cab, and a rather tasteful rear door mural - we thought so anyway.
Cayman content lower left corner...
Continuing the race theme, two Bathurst campaigners of some note.
The GT-B was purchased new from Nissan / Prince to run the 1966 Bathurst 500.
However, due to rule changes from the previous year - where categories were allocated due to cost to market in Australia - the previous year's success of the Skyline was nixed, and this car with its factory velocity stacks, LSD, and 99L tank never ran.
Lumpy race cam wrapped in paper in the trunk, it was instead re-imported home a few years ago.
The Sierra Cosworth RS500 was similarly campaigned at Bathurst, though 20 years later.
This Figaro was snapped on a half-frame camera on old film, and I liked the tint.
I did not check, but quite possible this is a real IROC 911?
This minka is much like ours, and snow aside, a Honda Beat parked outside would make a nice grocery-getter.
Like the original Countach, I prefer the original 928.
Even one without the side moldings.
A beautifully pure design that still looks good.
The car that made me realize I liked cars.
I'll see what else I can find of vague interest...
See ya!
Neko
I like that last one. I may be ignorant, but it looks like a Karman to me. My first car was a blue ‘65 Karman Ghia
04-07-2020, 09:28 PM
