2007 Nismo Festival

Welcome To Mecca

writer: Scott Kanemura
photographer: Scott Kanemura

2007 Nismo Festival Jgtc Gt500 Class R34 Skyline Gtr

On Sunday, December 2, 2007, 30,000 hardcore Nissan fans invaded Fuji Speedway in Shizuoka, Japan, for the 11th annual Nismo Festival. The theme was 'Scoop 2007'. On this occasion, the ace up Nissan's sleeve was the debut of the 2008 Super GT GT500-class GT-R. Hence the scoop.

Fuji Speedway was packed with activities designed to give fans the opportunity to familiarize themselves with their heroes. Nissan set up a driver's talk show, as well as race queen and 2008 GT-R engineer interviews. Also spread throughout the main paddock was a vendors' booth area, March Cup car display and racecar garage access. But most of the attention was focused on the track action, which started at 9:00am precisely with a short ceremony. All the drivers were introduced, followed by a quick speech from the founder of Impul, the legendary Kazuyoshi Hoshino, then the festivities were under way.

First up was the Nissan March Cup Exhibition race. The March is a JDM-only, B-segment vehicle that resembles an insect more than a car. Pole position was snatched by one of two female participants. Her name was A. Machida from the Arabian Oasis racing team. Another notable entrant was Nissan's vice president, Carlos Tavares. It was an exciting race. East Japan Champion, Hirokazu Suzuki, made his way up from the last spot and started to lead the race on the white flag lap. Unfortunately, Suzuki was not able to close the deal. The runner-up in the East Japan Championship, Satoshi Furuta, stole the victory in the first turn of the final lap.

The Z-Master Challenge came next. This race is limited to performance-tuned, naturally aspirated VQ35DE/HR-powered Fairlady Zs (Z33). There is a weight requirement of 3410 pounds and they must run radial tires, highperformance catalytic converters and exhausts no louder than 90 decibels. In essence, completely street-legal 350Zs racing against each other.

There were 13 Z-Master Challenge entrants, with many top names from the street tuner realm, such as MCR, Powerhouse Muse, T&E and Nismo. This battle for pride (in almost perfect weather) made for some good racing. In the end, it was Eiji Yamada in the Midori Z who claimed this year's bragging rights.

A quick break to sweep the track and it was time for the All Category Mock Race. The entire complement of vehicles brought out by Nissan was released onto the track at once, although with a little twist. This year, during the first 15 minutes of the session, a circuit safari took place.

1999 JGTC GT500-class
R34 Skyline GT-R

A decidedly non-US affair, the litigation-free JDM circuit safari is a special on-track bus tour. While all the racecars were making highspeed passes, a lucky few got to feel what it was like to be sharing a track with them. We're talking former Super GT cars, JGTC cars, Group A cars, GTP cars and a former 24 hour of Le Mans entrant. Imagine coming down the front straight at Fuji Speedway in a bus, then a 1998 Nissan R390 GT1 zips by at over 100mph.

After the buses left the track, the historic cars came on. The historics were split into two sessions. The first featured pre-1990 racecars. This class had six entrants, the most interesting being the former test car from Nissan's Omori Factory, equipped with a special GTS racing-inspired crossflow-spec L28 motor that produces 300bhp and 231lb-ft of torque.

The second session included former JGTC cars, Group A cars and prototype-classed cars. Kazuyoshi Hoshino drove his 1990 # 12 Calsonic Group A R32. In the Calsonic R32, Hoshino and his team made a recordbreaking winning streak of 29 races over a four-season period starting in 1990 and ending with the finish of the 1993 season. Another exciting entrant was the 1998 R390. In the 1998 Le Mans race, this car-driven by Kazuyoshi Hoshino, Aguri Suzuki and Masahiro Kageyama-took third overall with an all-Japanese crew. In total, four R390 cars were entered and all of them finished in the top 10.