Event – Rs Meeting – Part 1

Rs Meeting is the biggest of its kind in the world, as I touched on in my initial ‘Lo-Fi’ post here. It has been run some 12 or so times over the years and attracts somewhere between two and three thousand GTRs each year!

For this post I thought I would dive in a bit deeper to what our day looked like, come for a ride…

It was an early start, 4.30am early in-fact, as we wanted to get on the Tomei Expressway (yes Tomei as in the legendary engine/parts builder) – which is actually an acronym of the Tokyo and Nagoya areas it links but I digress… It was a long weekend in Japan so we wanted to beat the crowds as they got away from the city. By Australian standards it was packed at 6am on the expressway!

We were meeting up with Grand Touring at PA (Parking Area) on the way, as we pulled in it was obvious we weren’t the only ones heading to Rs Meeting. In-fact for the next 1.5 hours I could look ahead or in the rear view and see a different GTR for pretty much the entire drive… it was quite surreal but then again the whole day was turning out that way!

The Parking Area (P.A.) was pretty impressive car wise!

A beautiful green 32 GTR heading out back onto the Tomei.

I met the owner of this 32 in the PA, without doubt it is one of the nicest examples I have come across.

The owner and I had a conversation through Google Translate – the common love of cars is a universal language!

Arriving into the town around Fuji was crazy, the sheer number of GTRs everywhere was hard to comprehend, you know every image you see from Japan of a GTR at a convenience store or petrol station? I am sure half of them were taken this morning haha.

Any the infamous gate/entrance of Fuji Speedway beckoned and we hopped in the line, paid our small-ish admission fee (Rs meeting itself is free but you pay to enter Fuji Speedway). In now familiar Japanese fashion, we were directed by a plethora of assistants to our parking spot and we got out of our (non GTR) hire car! Previously I had heard/seen that the car park itself is an unbelievable scene and I can emphatically confirm that – for most GTR owners this would be enough by itself, eclipsing, by some margin, any other car event I have ever been to.

I’d essentially seen every R34 GTR colour before heading to Rs Meeting in the flesh – except Silica Breath (or Brass as it is now being referred to). It didn’t disappoint, a beautiful colour in real life! This car was gone a few hours later – whether it left or moved somewhere else I don’t know.

Big love for 33s, white, dished wheels, Ganadors, projector headlight – a lot of ticks!

After trying to refrain ourselves from excessive car spotting (is that a thing?!) we made it to the circuit/display area. At Fuji you pass under the track and come up to the paddock via a escalator, the first view we saw was the unmistakable shape of some Nismo LM wheels affixed to a 400R! One of at least four present on the day…

One of at least four 400Rs that were present on the day, this one greeted you immediately as you entered the display area.

The display area was made up of a who’s who of aftermarket manufacturers and workshops, NISMO, HKS, Mines, Top Secret, Enext, Robson, Trust, the list goes on. Some were selling their wares (at a discounted price if you were lucky) whilst some just had displays. I have included a few highlights below:

By now you have probably seen that Nismo are re-releasing LMs in a 19″ model – black only at this stage. It was an interesting conversation with a few friends as to why this might be the case. Sure it might make Nismo more money but is it to help burst the bubble of crazy prices we are seeing? Is it because Americans love big wheels? Is it for a new product line up?

Another release that hasn’t gotten as much attention is the new air duct for the BNCR33 – from what could be gleaned from Nismo; this is a prototype but will be something available through Omori on an order basis.

E-Next-GTR had this beautiful Midnight Purple 34 on display, when was the last time you saw a set of the specific MNP, lighter colour wheels!

JUN and their ‘Hyper Lemon’ cars were as bright as ever.

It was awesome to see the recently restored HKS 33 out in the sun, the deep black, white wheels & colourful graphics all working together to look amazing.

It is not all just looks though, HKS can supply you a 2.8L RB with Vcam and twin turbos as you desire… any takers?

Of course not all the displays were strictly cars or parts…. GTR toasty maker anyone?

Fujitsubo are relatively close (their factory has views of Mt Fuji itself) so they had a stand set up. Having a Fujitsubo exhaust myself I popped in and said hi!

These carbon tipped exhausts on their 35 looked quite good.

Global Auto had some amazing cars on display, this 34 full of Nismo goodies : O

The view from the display area looking at just one section of one car park….

After viewing the display area it was time for lunch (you really need to do multiple passes of the display area to take it all in with detail but time moves fast on the day if you want to see everything). We grabbed some food and went into the grandstands to eat as cars flew by, some were on display/photography laps before the open track time started. It was a treat to see owners getting the most out of their cars on the track – the soundtrack was pretty good too!

R35s were noticeably quicker on the track, decades of technology improvement (& displacement increases) don’t lie!

After lunch we went back to the display area before crossing under the track and into the pit area to watch some cars on an open track session.

Nismo had various parts from the current R35 GTR that you could pick up ( whilst wearing white gloves of course) including the carbon roof.

Of course being the 50th Anniversary of the GTR Nissan had some of the first GTR models on display.

One of the big highlights/surprises was seeing the LM GTR on display, out on what I gather would be a rare outing from the Nissan Heritage Collection.

Made famous in a large part due to Gran Turismo it was interesting up close. It’s overall finish definitely not as polished as a production car – I don’t mean the paint either but the whole cars appearance. Clearly built to satisfy the homologation rules.

Talking about Nismo, behold the fastest (& most expensive!) tissue box in the world haha

If you read GTR Magazine you would know about their long term cars, these cars have traveled hundreds of thousands of kms. They have from the 32 to through to the 35 inclusive – how cool!

They have just released a kit allowing owners of a 33 GTR to fit the factory rear diffuser from a 34 GTR.

This 35 was chilling near the pit paddock – for some reason I find I always prefer the way Japanese mod this model Vs the rest of the world, practical, subtle but still purposeful.

It was cool to be able to get up close to both the cars and pits as well as the main straight.

It wasn’t smooth sailing for everyone – this car was towed back down pit lane.

After that we made our way back to the car park before heading back to Tokyo.

There were some real pinch yourself scenes…

There were a few cheeky cars roaming around that clearly weren’t GTRs! This NSX looked very clean.

Exiting the venue was another surreal experience, a true GTR traffic jam! As we went back through the entrance gates we couldn’t resist another photo op – at this stage the Global Auto transporters rolled past with various cars one carrying the 400R and the other the Z Tune! Heading back to Tokyo being stuck behind a Z Tune was the icing on a surreal day…

I can deal with Japanese traffic when it is like this!

I will have to do a part two, there is just so much to share, as always please follow the socials including my Instagram @kurosorablog (& Facebook) as I will be continuing to share images across them! (WordPress has reduced the quality of the images but hopefully they’re still okay)