Omori Factory

If you are reading this it is likely you are a Nissan enthusiast or at least a JDM car lover, if not maybe you just appreciate quality cars either that or you’re my mum haha! Seriously though if Nissan is your religion then Omori Factory is your Mecca. For Nissan fans across the globe it is arguably the most important destination for the cars of the past 30 years or so. I was fortunate enough to tick this off the bucket list on a nice Autumn day in Septmeber 2019. Here is my visit to automotive nirvana…

I want to start by saying if you are a fan of Omori then you have already been… What do I mean by that? Well with today’s social media, blog, YouTube, etc. coverage there are so many pictures and videos you have literally seen everything. I have never been to a place in my life where I felt like I knew exactly where everything was located and what I would be looking at as much as Omori – it was slightly surreal… Of course I am not saying don’t go! There are little hidden details and experiences you can only get by visiting, it really is a place all Nissan die-hards should visit at some stage.

I am getting ahead of myself, Omori was previously located in an area of Tokyo known as, yep you guessed it, Omori! Hence the name but it is actually now in an industrial area of Tokyo known as Yokohama. By now the Omori name had stuck so it lives on.

One of the roads that snake up into the sky as you head to Omori.

It was a warm Sunday as we rolled through Tokyo in Grand Touring‘s beautiful S1 equipped R33 GTR (you can follow along on Instagram @gt_grand_touring). As you head through the back streets and under the freeways, pulling up to the complex it does stand out a bit with its sharp design (to mimic the samurai sword – no pun intended). The first surprise for me was just how big the complex is, whilst the area you can visit is relatively small the building itself is quite large. It houses various Nismo/Nissan race teams, etc. and the site was previously another Nissan work-site location so no shortage of space.

The facility itself is quite large and was previously another Nissan development facility.

Being directed through the car park (in typical Japanese fashion by a number of attendants) there is no doubt you’re in the right place – in case the large logo didn’t convince you! Out the front on display were some of the Nismo vehicles used for Circuit Trial sessions they hold for customers, as well as ongoing development, etc. There were also some customer cars in the car park which obviously grabbed my attention. Now without wishing to generalise, the other give away we had arrived was the visibly excited guy (from the UK as we later found out) who approached the GTRs camera in hand, smile ear to ear, all whilst his apparent partner had a much less amused look on her face as she followed! Haha a common occurrence here at Omori and across the world at various car locations no doubt but the fact they were there suggests he is onto a good thing! (Yes I am aware there are many female car lovers out there, etc.).

Even the cars in the car park at the front were impressive!

Nismo’s own cars used for track days, ongoing product development, etc.

Walking through the fabled doors… I am sure this wouldn’t get old whether it is your first time or 100th time!

So what is it that makes Omori the epicentre for all things Nissan? I think it is many reasons, if you are fortunate enough to live in Japan then you to can have your car worked on there. Everything from ‘regular’ servicing to engine rebuilds or full ground up restorations! For many of the foreign visitors, like myself, it is a combination of the history, the cars on display, the various parts available to buy and of course some of the cars that have been produced there. Let’s go for a walk through…

There is one car that is awalys on display, it is this R390 Le Mans racer bolted to the wall! It immediately greets you as you come through the main entrance.

Now this is where your senses start getting overloaded, race cars and production cars in front of you, workshop on the right and then engines and parts to the right of that, where do you look first!

Some are for sale, some are purely for display – like this RB26 from the ‘old’ JGTC R34.

Lucky the floors are concrete, it is easy to mop the drool up! A group A engine from the R32 GTR – note the Reinik tuning sticker, they were one of the original tuning companies that worked very closely with Nissan, helping develop some of the legendary engines like the RB-X GT2 you can find in the 400R. These days they go by the ‘Reimax’ name and are a very popular parts supplier in Japan.

Here is one of the RBs you can actually buy, providing you have 4.8 million yen burning a hole in you pocket (that is about $68,000 AUD), in this case a complete R2 motor, of course you will need to bring your car into Omori as Nismo don’t ship these world wide. That said with many companies, HKS springs to mind recently, offering full engines off the shelf how long until Nismo offers customers this option?

If you want something more street orientated (the R2 is more circuit based) then the S2 might be your ticket! Another plus for Omori and Nismo engines in general is that many of the mechanics who work here have many, many years experience and often worked for race teams. You can be sure what these ‘ shokunin’ (craftsman) don’t know about engines or Nissans in general is not worth spreading on your toast!

After drooling over the engines my attention turned towards the ex-race cars on the showroom floor. If it is a quiet day and you play your cards right, the staff will even let you sit in the drivers seat and grab a pic!

Not sure what to say, for many of us these cars forged our love for the Nissan/GTR brand!

This particular car, the #23 Xanavi car, was the 2003 JGTC series winner. What stood out to me was how the front fenders looked high but the bonnet looked low – that was thanks to the VQ30 engine that was under the bonnet – not the fabled RB26. With the engine sitting lower in the engine bay (presumably helping with the centre of gravity) it gives a different look to the RB equipped race cars.

I had to remind myself to put the camera down and take it all in, details are important!

Next to the 34 was the car that replaced it, the 350Z/Fairlady.

It is not hard to see where time attack cars are getting a lot of their aero inspiration from!

Then moving on from the 350Z/Fairlady to the R35.

Of course the cars on display are always changing – you can check the Omori website to see what is on display at any given time.

I noticed how the controls & surrounds evolved as we moved through the years and the finish continued to get further and further refined!

You can’t stop progress but I am a bit of a sucker for race cars with more ‘tame’ aero parts, only because they more closely resemble street cars that way.

On the left walls of the building there are various trophies, race suits, helmets and other racing paraphernalia that shows Nissan’s strong history in motor-sports.

In-fact, there were various cool bits and pieces spread across on the walls – like this GTR badge.

Which consisted of many smaller painted R35 models.

A scale model of the 35 race car behind the glass, you can see how the changes are stuck on and then tested. .

Can you spot Australia? No that is not Pitbull’s DJ equipment in the bottom of the pic but I will explain in the next pic.

There was a Super GT race (evolution of the JGTC – Japanese Grand Touring Car Championship) being held at Autopolis GT, which is in the South West of Japan. Omori set up a TV (hence the DJ equipment) so that customers could come in and watch the race from the confines of the building, surrounded by some amazing history – imagine just popping down to watch a race on the weekend!

Having walked around and checked out the race cars there was still the production cars to check out. Often Nismo will display a hero car (in this case the 400R) as well as some ‘regular’ currently available production cars, starting with a March and then a Leaf. I would happily drive either of these, especially as a daily drive, Japan has embraced hybrid/electric cars and it is easy to see why when you get stuck in traffic!

Here are the road cars, starting with the production models before working back to the 400R!

I was very happy to see this car at Omori!

I love the yellow, this car was originally Sparkling Silver before it was changed. No Series 3 headlights here either…

Moving on from the production cars and one of the big draw cards at Omori is the workshop. Even if you can’t have your car worked on here it seems like there are always amazing cars to look at! There is a new policy that visitors can’t enter the workshop area to take pics of the cars, you must stay behind the glass – that seems fair enough to me. You have to remember this is a functioning workshop with work to be done, plus – if you don’t take a picture through the glass, with bright reflections in it, have you even been to Omori!

You can see the workshop immediately to the left (or right as you come in the front door) and the floor to ceiling glass windows really show it off.

So what is your pick from the workshop? Every modern model was represented.

A few R34s, the Bayside Blue V-Spec with the white Nismo wheels and an S2 engine is absolutely quintessential Japanese GTR, never-mind the silver model on the lift!

Moving down the line we see this white model, again with a few visible mods.

If you read a lot of blogs then this 33 should need no introduction, it is Aki’s from r33gt-r.com and it was pretty cool to see in the flesh! You have to excuse the reflections in the pic, I actually bought a polariser for my camera to use specifically at Omori, as you can see it didn’t get much of a workout unfortunately haha.

Next was this R35, as always with customer cars the number plates get covered to keep the identity of the owners private.

If you have been invited or have a car being worked on this door will open for you and a pretty cool door it is!

It is not just GTRs at Omori, this 350Z/Fairlady was being worked on and how about the colour!

Now by this stage you might need some refreshment or even a toilet break so let’s go check those out (yes even the toilets!)… As I was walking through the hallway I noticed one of the conference rooms was occupied, my suspicions were it may have had something to do with the race happening that day.

Need a refreshment? The infamous Japanese vending machines strike again! Look closely and you will notice something special…

GTR water anyone? Being Nismo it will make you 10% faster, at least haha.

The bathroom’s at Omori are something that are well documented, they keep the engine theme going…

By now you’re refreshed and ready to go, how about some retail therapy? Well you are in luck because Omori is the place to do it! In a small corner sits some of the best parts money can buy…

When we were there the new strut braces were becoming available, you could pick one up and feel the weight (if you wore the gloves!).

Not everything was available to pick up and feel the weight of!

Of course it is not just upgrades available, with maintenance such an important part of keeping many of these older models going, many regular ‘standard’ parts are available.

It is funny, before I visited I had made a spreadsheet with all the available parts in my price range, discussed it with a few friends and spent a lot of time thinking about it. When I got there I was so excited and overwhelmed by the whole experience I wasn’t even fussed about getting the list anymore. Of course, I grabbed a few little reminders but was just happy to have visited!

Part of the Japanese culture is that you don’t hand your money or credit card directly to the person taking it, you place it in a coin tray like this (of course at Nismo it was this carbon number…) and the attendants do the same returning any change or receipts on the tray.

By this stage it was time for us to head off which meant heading back through the car park and luckily there was more to see!

Presumably some of the cars were from spectators of the race happening inside as we left.

The future… electric charging available at Nismo.

That wraps up my visit to Omori Factory, as I said a great experience and one for any Nissan enthusiasts. A big thanks to Grand Touring for his help on the day, from here we were off to our next stop… check back for that soon!