The Tanaka International (TI) Circuit in Aida lies three and a half hours by bullet train due west of Tokyo. Michael Schumacher won the Pacific Grand Prix here in 1994 and '95, but today it's hosting a tuning festival to mark NISMO's 20th birthday.
Throughout the day, the track will reverberate to the sound of NISMO racing cars, while the paddock areas will be packed with Japanese tifosi eyeing road cars and racing memorabilia. We can't help but feel like we're in the middle of a giant game of Nissan-dominated Gran Turismo.
NISMO is an acronym for Nissan Motorsports, and for the past 20 years this wholly-owned subsidiary has been responsible for Nissan's racing programs, including its entries into the hard-fought Japanese GT Championship (JGTC). In its motherland, NISMO is to Nissan what Ralliart is to Mitsubishi and it's now seeking to expand its exposure worldwide with a range of new race and road cars, including a 300-hp version of the Z coupe similar to the 35th Anniversary edition car sold in the United States.
Today is supposed to be a celebration of the past, the present and the future. In the area behind the main grandstand, a line-up of Japanese NISMO road cars-everything from a Z to a diminutive Cube-competes for attention with the inevitable display of Gran Turismo 4.
There's also a stand selling broken racing car parts. If you really want a chunk of the rear wing that fell off a red Skyline at Suzuka in '99, then you can probably find it here. In the West, such a stand would dissolve into an anarchic free-for-all, but the Japanese go about their business with the earnestness of an archaeologist in Pompeii. Given the average size of a Japanese apartment, one wonders where they put a broken front splitter.
Back in the main pit area, the racing cars are lined up in formation. Many predate the NISMO era and attention is being drawn to a racer based on the original Nissan GT-R of 1969, which boasts a 2.0-liter engine and the not-inconsiderable output of 250 hp. There is something undeniably appealing about its chopped, hunched proportions and the extended wheel arches. It looks like it would be a hoot to drive.
All of Nissan's Le Mans cars are present and correct, including the beautiful R390 GT1 that finished third overall in '98, but for sheer schoolboy droolery, nothing can match the JGTC cars. From the late '90s onwards, these were officially based on the R34 Skyline. Although the glass and carbon-fiber panels blend into a whole that looks something like a Skyline, this is really a bespoke racer with a 500-plus-hp engine mounted so far back in the chassis that it's all but mid-engined.
The cars in the leading GT500 class now boast some 500 hp and closely resemble the FIA GT1 class cars, such as the Corvette and the new Aston Martin DBR1. Indeed, there are plans afoot to unify the regulations for the 2006 season, which is an exciting prospect.
The '98 and '99 Skylines were driven to victory in the JGTC by Eric Comas, who moved to Japan after his Formula One career ended in 1995. He's now NISMO's elder statesman and great company.
"The GT Championship is a very high-value series," Comas explains. "Its popularity is almost a match for F1 in Japan and the major manufacturers-Toyota, Honda and Nissan-all support it.
"It's obviously more fun than Formula One,"he continues. "We have 15 cars within a second in qualifying. When was the last time that happened in a grand prix?"
For the 2004 season, the old Skyline bodies were swapped for one that more closely resembles the Z. It secured pole position in its first race in the hands of a canny Irishman by the name of Richard Lyons, who is standing beside his charge. Still only 25, he won both the Japan GT and the Formula Nippon championship this year, which should be a passport into F1.
The likes of Frentzen, Irvine, Herbert and the Schumacher brothers have graduated successfully from Nippon to F1, but Lyons is still pursuing his first test. "Formula One really doesn't make sense," he says. "Some days it just isn't working for you, but I know that whenever the test comes I'll deliver, and that's the most important thing."
Lyons has lived in Japan for the last four years and his success has attracted a peculiarly Japanese following. "Whenever I go abroad to race, such as in Malaysia, my race fans from Japan travel, too," he says. "They come with big 'Richard Lyons' banners, they sit in my hotel and eat in the same restaurants as me. Every time I go to the toilet, the same three or four girls follow me."
They also bring presents. "Sometimes they just give photo albums of my victories, which is nice. But I'm also given lucky charms, which can be a bit creepy."
While he has his own band of supporters, Lyons, like Comas, has had to get used to his Japanese teammate receiving most of the media attention. "If I win a GT race, my Japanese teammate is pictured in the newspaper, even if I secured the pole and the fastest lap," says Comas. "We [the Europeans] come to Japan as support drivers and if we do the job, they take the flowers. But I have no problem with that."
Comas enjoys the organization and discipline of life in Japan, but Lyons admits he struggled to adjust to living in the Far East. "I was 21 when I first arrived and I lived near the team at the Aida circuit," he says. "There was no big city close by so I felt isolated. All I did was train and spend time with the team."