Our thanks to HS30-H for some sweet pictures from the Nismo festival in Japan.

You can check out the pictures by clicking here.

There are some pretty sweet replicas in that gallery!

There's only one thing that could possibly top the pics Alan, and that would be a video so we could hear them as well as see them.....

Wow, a sudden flood of responses..........

Fred - I'm not sure what you mean by "wild" shots. You KNOW I'm really conservative and would not dream of posting anything too avant garde, don't you? The Sunday was REALLY wet - so I kept the camera out of the rain and did not shoot much in the car parks and club displays this year.

Cuong - thanks for the nice comments. You know its people like you that I was aiming at when I put the pictures up in the first place. By the way, "luck" has nothing to do with it. To a certain degree, you make your own luck in this world. When you yourself go to Japan in January you will find that one of the main things you need is to be tenacious and try to meet the right people. Its not what you know, but WHO you know. And you need some cash in your pocket too.

Zedrally - yes, there is interest in the Works rally cars amongst early Z owners and enthusiasts in Japan. The trouble is, Nissan keep their ( three ) remaining / surviving Works rally cars under wraps in the Nissan Memorial Sports Hall ( basically, a shed full of old racers and production cars near the factory ). Hardly anybody gets to see them - so its a bit like trying to spot a unicorn. I hit the jackpot last year, as they had two of the cars on display at Nismo's Omori ( Tokyo ) HQ - and I was able to crawl all over them to my heart's desire. Since then they have been tucked away again. They did not bring the cars to the Nismo Festival for the last two years. If you want to see some photos, tell me what part you are interested in.

Halz - that was a 432-R ( not "just" your standard cooking 432 ) and is one of about 20 that were road-registered in Japan. I was too busy sticking my nose in all its interesting places to pop off too many shots. I think I took some of the engine bay, but I cannot find them ( ! ). However, if you are interested in seeing photos of a 432-R engine bay I have some others somewhere here at home. That particular car was slightly tuned, with Webers ( instead of the standard Mikunis ) and a nice bunch-of-bananas exhaust manifold. The owner would not admit it, but my friends told me it was bored and stroked to about 2.2 and was pretty hot. Tuned S20 engines scream. I wish you could experience one on full song. Let me know if you would be happy with photos of a different car's engine bay - rather than this particular car?

2Many - I'm too poor to buy a digital video camera ( that's how I saved money for the air fares.... ) but I did experiment with a little mpeg movie ( in very low res ) from my digital still camera. Its got sound on it too, but its not very dramatic. As its an mpeg movie I would need advice on how to change format / alter it so that I can put it up here. Anyone know anything about this? Some people might be disappointed by it - so don't expect too much!

The "Best Motoring" / "Hot Version" video / DVD crew were at the event again this year - so a very professional Japanese video / DVD of the event will probably be available in due course ( although I would recommend the 2001 event version, as it was dry and sunny ).

Regards,

Alan T.

Wild, well nothing too crazy just some inspiring angles :

Again well done, bravo and I can't agree more, luck as nothing to do with it...

Fred

Hi All,

I think my words were misunderstood. I meant "lucky bugger" in the widest possible sense! I didn't mean it in such a literal sense.

Alan, I know you are very determined and committed to the S30 cars, and this is how you have all the knowledge and resources that you currently have. I don't doubt that you have put your fair share of active searching and lots of money and time too.

Again, very well done and many thanks to Alan to all the stupendous pictures!

Ouuaaahhh!!! super les photos Fred!

Merci!

-e

No worries Cuong - no offence taken. What I meant was that you have to go searching this stuff out and not rely on luck to roll your way. From the very beginning of my interest in these cars, I realised that the story I was being presented with ( in English-language books and mag articles ) could not possibly be the whole truth. These cars were made in Japan - so the "truth" had to be in Japan and in Japanese...............

Fred - you must have a super-wide lens on your camera! I was travelling light and just had my little Sony P1 and Ricoh GR1V - so no chance to shoot any shots like yours really. You get the top prize for artistic interpretation though...........

Mind you, I'm suprised the shot of the Shooper Shamuri ( hic!) didn't crack your lens. That is one humungously Seventies-tastic front spoiler ( oh boy did it spoil it ) - and I sold that guy ONE headlamp cover ( he was too tight to buy two, as he had one already................ ). I'm a BIG Samuri fan ( not ).............

Alan T.

( still waiting for the debut of the "irony" smilie........... ).

Guys,

I should have mentioned this earlier but I know where you can find some pretty good video footage!!!!!!!!!!!!

The files are quicktime but download as a .exe self-extracting file - so you'll need a PC - not a Mac like me.... Anyways they are from the Nostalgic (Hero) show in Nagoya and show racing ZGs, racing and street KPGC10 Skyline GT-Rs, even a Lambo Miura doing demo runs for the crowd of onlookers.... the sound is pretty darn good.... I'll say. Oh and if you surf around in the Photo section of the website you'll find some real nice pics too!!!

So where is it then?

here you go:

http://www.nostalgic.co.jp/framepagetop.htm

Need I state the obvious that you should click on the photo/movie tab at the top of the page?

Thanks Eric, that may have answered my next question I was going to ask Alan.

I was wondering if they ran these cars in a Historic or Nostalgic racing series and if there may have been a web-site somewhere dedicated to the series or club. I kinda figured there would be something somewhere, hard to imagine anyone having cars the caliber of these only to run them for very special factory sponsored occasions.

Even though historic races are more "gentlemanly" than the pro races (or even club races) we see here in the US, it's still great to get up close to older racing machinery and here them at full song!

Now that I figured out my scanner problem, I'll post some pics I took at the Vintage races at Summit Point last summer, no Z's but there were a few very interesting cars there..

Good link there Eric. That red and white 240ZR replica on the clip belongs to Shun Koike, and was at the 2000 and 2001 Nismo Festival events. He's a big part of a small scene of Z enthusiasts in Japan who are building and running really nostalgic-looking cars.

2Many - yes, they do run some of those cars in a "Historic" race series in Japan. Its not a very big series, and there are not that many races. As far as I know, they do not have a website with any info on it - but I will have to ask about that to make sure.

There are usually different classes running in each race, and ( as ever ) the 510's seem to be pretty fast and quite often beat cars in classes that ought to be superior.

My friends were complaining about the regulations being unfavourable to the Z, and the fact that they were not allowed to run with a lot of the Group 4 body parts that you could see them wearing at the Nismo Festival.

I'm all in favour of this kind of race series being more of a "gentlemany" pursuit, as you say. Its really nice to see, hear and smell the cars being driven in anger, but I'm not a big fan of the contact sport that modern racing seems to have become. Even some of the so-called "Historic" race series in the UK have morphed into a win-at-all-costs destruction derby.

Regards,

Alan T.

Several months ago I embarked on a mission to get some audio/video footage of a S20. My first success was on the Nissan corporate site, where they performed a photoshoot for an album that was sold with every 'R34 GT-R Nur' (the final edition). There were 4 flash animations that had some engine samples in them. Then I stumbled on the nostaglic web site - but they need more content!!!!!

The short videos of the Z432's & KPGC10 GT-R's are not enough to satisfy my hunger:love:

I guess I'll just have to listen to my FJ20 & pretend that it's a 6-cyl:ermm:

At least it's chain-driven.

PS top shots Alan :classic;

PPS if anyone whayt's to see some more S30 race cars (among other exotic machinery), I've got many MB's of images from the Classic Adelaide Rally on my site.

2001 images available from the homepage www.versadev.com/ben

2002 images available only via direct access (at this time):

http://www.versadev.com/ben/classic%20adelaide%202002/friday/index_friday.html

http://www.versadev.com/ben/classic%20adelaide%202002/saturday/index_saturday.html

http://www.versadev.com/ben/classic%20adelaide%202002/sunday/index_sunday.html

http://www.versadev.com/ben/classic%20adelaide%202002/movies/

Ben:

You certainly weren't kidding about "many Megs" of pictures. Very nice presentation, and lots of nice cars at the rallys. Thanks for sharing them with us!

Great links Ben. Its good to see the rally cars in action.

I have some old "video magazines" from Japan that were made in the early nineties, and they have some features on a 432-R and C10-series Skyline GT-R that last longer than 30 minutes each. There's a lot of S20 engines in those, with plenty of glorious soundtrack and arty visuals. Unfortunately, I don't think they are available any more, and they are in NTSC ( what system do you use in Australia? ). I should try to figure out a way to copy them for you.

Failing that, the "Best Motoring" crew did a Skyline special last year which has a fairly good chunk of race-prepped KPGC10 GT-R driven in anger around Sugo by Motoharu Kurosawa. The Best Motoring series ( and all their other offshoots ) are REALLY excellent videos and DVDs - with lots of split-screen, in-car shots and great visuals and sound. They do it with feeling. If you don't mind the S20 engine being in a GT-R instead of a Z, then I recommend volume 54 to you ( especially for Keiichi Tsuchiya in the STP Taisan Group A R32 race car - which is awesome ). They have an English language section and you can order from outside Japan. Give it a look. There's a short mpeg "sample" here:

www.bestmotoringvideo.com/movie/sp/54.rm

By the way Ben, you'll love the Gr.5 Super Silhouette DR30 Skyline "deppa" on the video too - judging by your garage contents list.

Good luck,

Alan T.