Nishimachi

This Blaupunkt Team Joest Racing Porsche 962C finished in 3rd place in the 1988 24 Hours of LeMans. The car is famous world-wide and well recognised for its achievements with Swede Stanley Dickens, Germans Frank Jelinski and Louis Krages. This car is powered by the 2.8 litre twin turbo flat 6 with part water and part air cooling.

The 1988 LeMans race was significant for Porsche as their 7 years of successive wins ended. The well-sorted 7.0 litre V12 Jaguar XJR-9 of Jan Lammers, Johnny Dumfries and Andy Wallace broke Porsche's rein. Aussie Larry Perkins, along with Irishman Derek Daly and American Kevin Cogan, drove the second Jaguar to 4th place behind this Blaupunkt Porsche.

The beast that recently conquered Mt Panorama in the Bathusrt 12 hour race is an obvious result of hard work by the team during the event. Though this successful result is attributed to the hard work in developing this car in regions across the world in GT3 ruling. The factory Nissan team running in Super Taikyu, Japan's headline endurance championship, has played a big part in the development of this car available to anyone who wants one. As long as you qualify for the list price of ¥49,800,000 which is around AUD$540,000 one of these beasts will be built to your order.

Modded fairly significantly into rear wheel drive GT3 race spec the GT-R Nismo has many interesting points that have been added for pure performance, though I also see these points as artwork. I had some time to photograph the #24 ThreeBond Nissan Technical College GT-R close up on track at the Super Taikyu round in Okayama. It finished third, on the podium with another GT-R that took the outright win. As the name of the team suggests this team has a great involvement of students doing the work. You think the concept of the Nissan GT Academy for drivers is super cool? Well this technical college that maintains the GT-R GT3 program is just out of this world!

Building on my previous post introducing the Nismo Showroom I could not hold back on my photos of the R391 on display. This is one of two R391s built for the 1999 24 hours of Le Mans. It was the only one to make it the race after the other was serious crashed by Eric van de Poele in qualifying. It was Nissan's only venture into the Le Mans Prototype class. The engine is a specially developed VRH50A, a 5 litre V8 that gave away the twin turbos the previous VH had in 3.5 litre capacity (as run in the R390).

Driven by Comas, Motoyama and Kageyama this car did not finish the 1999 24 Hours of Le Mans due to electrical problems but had success in the Fuji 1000km, an event run by the Le Mans organising body. Nissan pride was high after beating its main competitor, the Toyota GT-One.

I spotted this Nissan Skyline GTS-T on my daily commute. It stood out bright and one of a kind. Its stance. Perfect wheel fitment. Simple styling. Its smooth ride. That 2 litre six cylinder sound! I followed this silver sensation through sets of traffic lights admiring the styling. Then I lost sight of it among the thick traffic.

I posted on the Skylines Australian forum, reaching out to my fellow Skyline fanatics to find its owner. I didn't get anywhere.

The Nismo Showroom in Tusrumi is not far from Nissan's global headquarters in Yokohama. It is a showcase of the highest performance Nissan has to offer. It displays performance parts available for Nissan owners, a workshop (Omori Factory), cars from the Heritage Museum, race suits and helmets of famous drivers.

Around six months after the facility opened (March 2013) I headed there. I'm an absolute Nissan fanatic. I was born into a Datsun family and I've owned a number of iconic Datsun/Nissan's. I decided to live in Japan mainly due to my passion for Nissan and Japanese cars. Just like going to my first Super GT race and Nismo Festival, arriving at the Nismo Showroom I became enveloped in emotion. 

Welcome to the second part of this two part series.

In Japan promotional girls at car races are affectionately called Race Queens. They add entertainment to the race event like in any other country adding grace and beauty. Their sexy PVC, lyrca, latex, leather outfits are referred to as "kawaii". The closest translation in English to that is "cute".

The variety of motor sports in Japan is exciting for any car fan. As far as endurance racing goes the championship of Super Taikyu is pretty amazing. Six classes of competition run together for hundreds of kilometres. The races vary in length, the shortest round at two and a half hours and the longest at seven hours.

• The fastest class is ST-X consisting of current spec FIA GT3 BMW Z4's, Audi R8 LMS Ultra's and Nissan GT-R Nismo.
• The next level is ST-1 with a BMW Z4 and I.P.S. Kuruma.
• The numbers of cars increase with ST-2 turbo all-wheel-drives consisting of Mitsubishi Lancer EVO IX and X's and Subaru Impreza STi.
• Naturally aspirated 2WD from 2001cc to 3500cc makes up the ST-3 class with Nissan Fairlady Z's and Lexus IS350's.
• The biggest class in Super Taikyu is ST-4 with great diversity in the 1501cc to 2000cc cars consisting of Toyota 86's and Vitz, Honda S2000, Civic Type-R and Integra Type-R, Mazda Roadster, Fiat Abarth 695 and G-Tech Sportster GT/R.
• Then the buzzing class of ST-5 under 1500cc consisting of Honda Fit, Mazda Demio and Toyota Vitz.

It really is amazing to see all these cars on the circuit at once. Their variation in speed is exciting. Nissan GT-RG Nismo GT3s with big power, aero and brakes carve the corners with Honda Civic Type-Rs. I can't imaging any driver getting a clean lap, either passing a slow class car or moving aside to allow the faster class cars through. This is a remarkable racing formula. Watch the video below and experience some pure engine sounds. 

In Japan promotional girls at car races are affectionately called Race Queens. They add entertainment to the race event like in any other country adding grace and beauty. Their sexy PVC, lyrca, latex, leather outfits are referred to as "kawaii". The closest translation in English to that is "cute".

There's a number of websites and magazines dedicated to Race Queens and they have a huge following. The Race Queens at the top level races are so popular they have their own tables set up like the race drivers to sign their autographs for their fans. Most of their fans, amusingly, are middle-aged geeky men. But hey, as long as they are respectful in the usual Japanese way there's no problem.

The Subaru Impreza STi has a reputation for being one of the world's fastest road and competition cars. This reputation has been built since the Impreza's birth in 1992 with already established credentials from the successful Legacy RS. The forth generation of Impreza STi has been exciting Subaru Docklands' customer's since April this year. The STi Melbourne facility offers expert advice on current and past models. "This new model has created a lot of interest", says New Car Sales Manager Dale Baxter. "Its an exciting design and the price point is even more exciting". With so much good press, especially on its radical styling, I certainly looked forward to the opportunity to drive and photograph this new STi.

The aggressive front styling and sloping a-pillar gives the car a very athletic appearance. The pumped wheel arches similar to the current generation of Liberty/Legacy give the impression the wheels are small-ish. But they are more than adequate for performance and this is just a visual impression. I will leave further thoughts and comments on styling to you. I want to tell you about the actual driving experience.

Inessa Tushkanova is a professional model and an absolute rev-head! She is perhaps more enthusiastic about cars than she is about high heels and hand bags. She's a real action lover; motorcycles, rally cars, time attack and road cars. In 2013 she was invited to compete in the Yokohama Work Time Attack Challenge. At her disposal was Nissan Skyline GT-R and a Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution.

This is a throwback to December 2012 at the Classic Japan car show at Como Park, Melbourne.

Lina Heinze is a professional working in the public service sector. Outside of that she is dedicated to aerobic, high pace exercise and cardio workouts. She's a regular competitor in the INBA (International Natural Body Building Association) and other popular contests such as Miss Hawaiian Tropic.

Susan is a qualified accountant who works at a global car company. She has a sweet nature and is a real cutie. She loves her cute little MINI and has it decorated with Sylvanian Family characters and Hello Kitty.

Susan normally models in a cute style similar to her personality though as we developed the concept for this shoot she quickly admitted she wanted a sexy and glamourous look different to what she normally models.

The Subaru BRZ and Toyota 86 is perhaps the most unique collaboration in recent decades. Subaru is well known for its boxer engine and all-wheel drive. Toyota is well known for losing its soul and excitement with concentration on cars designed for A-B use. Subaru's lack of all-wheel drive and Toyota's injection of excitement with not much of a difference between the two has a lot of people talking... and giving their opinion. Here's mine.

When I approach the Subaru BRZ S a smile grows on my face. Shining silver with the black S kit including black STi wheels, it looks aggressive but retains good style unlike the Toyota GT86 Aero styling. STi Docklands expert Dale asks if I'd prefer manual or auto. Manuals are fun and pretty straightforward. Automatic transmissions in sports cars are a great option for suburban and city driving in thick traffic. I was keen to experience how the automatic performs its changes up and down so I chose it.