I literally couldn’t wipe that smile off my face all day long. Also, obviously not being more than a just-for-fun photographer I have new found respect for the lads that are doing this for a living as everything did in fact hurt the next day from moving around so much.
Anyway, this is the JCCA Fuji Jamboree, an event for the Japanese Classic Car Association club members to race in different classes and regulations. The great thing is that the paddock is open for visitors, which has the positive side effect that a ton of oldskool Japanese cars turn up in the parking lot!
As we drove slowly through the gates to the left we had that LFA and on the right we were overtaken by a c130 Laurel. My mind was already blown. It was really cool that there were also some modern cars but the Kyusha stereotype of overfenders, 14 inch wheels and semi slicks in the back gets me every time.
I ran through every single row of the parking lot. Took me a good 3 hours because I had to stop so many times collecting myself and processing what I’ve just seen.
Everyone knows these cars from pictures, but when you finally stand right in front of them they just seem a million times more awesome.
After having gone through a few rows this Hakosuka rolled in. I quickly ran back where it was parking to find out it was a team mate of the guy with the Laurel, they call their team Black Emperor.
I think I’ve never seen this many side exit exhausts in one place in my life. Further down you get to find out how one of these sound!
Another Hako came in with a man taking his two boys for a day out at the racetrack! Best dad ever?
Another crowd pleaser was this 610 Bluebird. I had a real hard time getting a few shots in without people standing around it!
At the sideline of the parking lot there was a small lineup of hardcore shakotans, really cool to see in person and the owners were incredibly friendly!
The paddock area was packed with race prepped cars and you could hear all day long the sound of cars warming up for their race. I quickly grabbed my phone and snappend this video of a Hakosuka warming up.
It was so loud it was vibrating through my body. Genuinely life changing experience, I need one of these.
The really fascinating thing was though: they all have cracks and bends, but especially those parts are polished and proudly presented both in the paddock and the parking lot.
That’s the difference between them and the western world, here they will remind you right away if there is a nearly invisible dent or your paint is not perfect somewhere.
Best example is the stance scene in the western world as it swarmed by nay-sayers and is regularly overshadowed by negative and borderline offensive comments and discussions.
That doesn’t happen in Japan. Over there everything is about courtesy – that’s how they are raised and it’s reflected in their mentality, even the language is composed to express different levels of politeness.
The people have respect for one another and if they don’t have anything positive to say they will keep it to themselves.
I’m convinced that’s how so many styles could develop in Japan, and Kyusha is certainly one of ’em.
The difference to the western world is clearly noticeable and it had a very positive feel for me being there. I’m convinced this positiveness is what makes Japan give us the best looking cars out there.
I definitely will go back!
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[…] a huge Kyusha fanboy as you may have noticed from my recent JCCA Fuji Jamboree coverage which truly blew me away. Those kind of cars were my inspiration for putting the BBS RS in […]