National championship races for the Nissan March along with a tuner car race were also crowd pleasers. The tuner race was filled with 16 cars, from full-interior GT-Rs to 700-hp, full-on GT-Rs and a handful of beautiful, giant-killing S15 Silvias. A couple of the faster S15s even knocked the GT-Rs down a place or two.
The next event was the JGTC cars and Super-Taikyu cars "mock" race. While no real points were awarded for this event, it's a fact that when you put racers into racecars, there will be a race. No wonder the JGTC cars series is the most popular series in Japan.
Other activities included two Tamiya R/C car tracks and rental cars for kids of all ages, a championship round for the Touring Car Class, discounts on NISMO goods, used racecar parts, a pit stop event, new and old Nissans, race queens, a swap meet, complete with toy models and enough tuner parts to empty anyone's wallet.
Not enough? How about the latest Gran Turismo Concept 2001 Tokyo game running on more than 10 Sony PlayStation 2 game consoles, each with a Sparco bucket seat, steering wheel, paddle shifters, pedals and three flat plasma screens enveloping the driver?
With the short winter day, the event was over much too soon. As the crowd thinned, the group C cars took one final formation lap with all the NISMO racecars. The shriek of an unmuffled LeMans racecar bouncing off its rev limiter signaled the end of the NISMO Festival. As it should be.
Riding Shotgun In A Full Race Skyline GT-R
The Super-Taikyu series is a multiple-race endurance series. The Skyline is in the top class, racing against Lancer EVOs, Supras and Subaru STis. The cars are limited to certain modifications: full-on roll cages tabbed to the body, racing suspension with pillow balls and coil-overs, about 464-hp engines, racing rubber and a very tight cockpit.
After getting cinched in with my knees on the dashboard, we head out on the track. Full-throttle upshifts shove you back against the seat. Three gears go by in no time at all. A moment later, instant slowdown and a sharp right into corner one. The Brembos are up to temperature and really working.
Entering the next corner at a fairly decent speed, the corner looks deceptively easy, until you start feeling the Gs. A short blast through the gears and hard-braking into a tight left-hander followed by a tight sweeping right.
I start feeling woozy.
Then a super-tight left-hander followed by an unbelievable launch forward into a high-speed right sweeper. Nissan's AWD system really works; almost no wasted energy. Just straight-up acceleration.
Just when your mind starts catching up, you get slammed against the harness when entering the chicane-quick right, left and then right. Then another dose of sudden acceleration through the right-hand sweeper onto the main straight.
After a couple more laps of blinding acceleration, blackout-inducing cornering and bruising braking, my few moment of bliss were over. It was only a few laps, but the cool thing is anybody attending the event can experience the same thing.
By Ken Nord
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