Nismo Festival - Fuji Speedway, Japan

For this classic car parade, 93 restored Datsuns and Nissans stormed the circuit, including one of Japan's most memorable classics: Nissan Motorsport's 1983 Group B WRC race car. This bright red, white and blue 1983 200SX-based rally car was restored to competition condition, complete with rally suspension, fog lights and engine modifications.

Time for the faster stuff. Nissan brought out four early entries in the Nippon Grand Prix for high-speed demonstration laps. The oldest was the R380-II. Raced in the 1967 Nippon Grand Prix, the R380-II evolved from the 1965 R380-I. The R380's engine is a naturally aspirated, 220bhp, 1996cc in-line six. If an output of 220bhp from two liters back in 1967 doesn't impress, then how about this: the car weighs only 1430 pounds. It's no wonder that in its day, the R380 owned seven different records in Japan.

Following this record breaker was the 1968 NGP entry, the R381. At the time, the race engineers were so busy with the completely new chassis, they were unable to finish the powerplant. So the R381 is propelled by, believe it or not, a 450bhp Chevrolet overhead cam V8. For this model, Nissan also introduced a completely new aero stabilizer package that included huge left and right adjustable rear wings. This look earned it the nickname kai cho (monster bird). But despite the advances, the R381 was not able to secure victory in 1968.

This failure led to several notable advances in the next car, the 1969 R382. The biggest advance being the addition of Nissan's newly completed masterpiece-the GRX-3 engine. This 5954cc naturally aspirated V12 made a blistering 600bhp and was dropped into a R382 chassis that was shorter in length and height and lighter by 99 pounds than the R381. More power and less weight proved to be an unbeatable formula as Nissan took the NGP title that year, beating out hometown heavyweight Toyota and even some international competition from Porsche.

Motivated by the win, plus the challenge of repeating it in 1970, Nissan pushed even harder in development of the R383. Yet despite a refined GRX-3 V12 that produced 700bhp and new chassis that was shorter, wider and taller, yet 110 pounds lighter than the R382, the winning streak never happened. The 1970 Nippon Grand Prix was cancelled before the car was even complete, its potential never explored. As if to resolve this unfinished business, Nismo undertook a comprehensive restoration of this mythical racer, all the way down to the crash helmet paint scheme, and ran it with its predecessors.

That Nissan would go to the expense of bringing such historic vehicles to the track for one rainy day is noteworthy in itself, but to let them run at high speed, on slicks, in the cold and wet, shows a deep commitment to Nismo fans. At one point, three of the four cars ran bunched together before someone wisely decided to space them out. This proved a smart move. On the last lap, the R381 spun, coming to rest just few feet from the barrier, sending fans and probably several Nissan suits into a frenzy. In the end, all four made it back to the garage unharmed.

And yet all this excitement was only the warm-up for the main event, an exhibition race for Nissan's legendary GT and endurance race cars. With no other events scheduled at the other venues, the 10th Lap race was the highlight of the day.

Like most GT races, the 10th Lap began with a grid walk. Roughly 1000 of the hardest core fans paid an additional $10 to participate and get a closer look at the race cars, queens and drivers. Autograph lines formed around drivers past and present, with current stars like Satoshi Motoyama and Richard Lyons drawing admirers. The biggest line was for the legendary Kazuyoshi Hoshino, the man behind the successful GT500 Calsonic R32 Group A Skyline race team and innovative line of aftermarket parts.

A bit of comic relief came from one of the front-running GT500 cars that came out late. With no horn, the driver had to repeatedly rev his engine to get by oblivious fans. You really don't get a sense of how cool these engines sound when they're racing in a pack, but hearing the crisp and responsive revs up close is impressive.

With the grid cleared of fans, 20 Nissans were poised for the green, including race cars from the GT1 class of the 24 Hours of Le Mans, GT500 and GT300 classes of Asian Super GT and JGTC, Super Taikyu series and a few legends from other series. For fans of Japanese road racing, 10th Lap put forward an interesting proposition: when you mix some of the world's fastest production-based race cars with elite endurance counterparts, who wins?

The answer came almost immediately as the Nissan R391 dominated from the start. Piloted by the same Masami Kageyama who won the earlier March Cup race, the 1999 Le Mans entry quickly reeled in the GT500 thoroughbreds to take the lead. A few laps later, the race and festival were over.

While every Nismo fest is special in its own way, Nissan really pulled out the stops to make the 10th anniversary special. It was truly an event for all the senses, from mingling with the legendary hardware in the paddock, to watching them sprint around one of Japan's most famous circuits, exhausts barking and flavoring the air with the smell of race gas. But most importantly, it was a great way for Nissan to show its appreciation to motorsport fans.