Travel Blog - My first trip to Japan - Cars

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BACKGROUND


During this time in my life, I was working for a car company based in Japan πŸ‡―πŸ‡΅. And I was more enthusiastic about cars πŸš—, in general. So I took a lot of car πŸš— pictures πŸ“Έ and went to many events with colleagues centered around automobiles πŸš—.

To make it a little easier to bounce around, here's a Table of Contents:


Street Cars


279 - Standard Japanese Parking Garage - Notice the turn tables to spin your car around when you pull in/out.  Eat your engine (car's heart) out, vending machine car sales company!

022 - A Corvette? In Japan? Holy smokes!

023 - I like this idea. Let the car wash move and keep the car still.

031 - Brabus Mercedes-Benz (very rare).  The engine is equivalent to TEN Kei-car engines.

041 - Maserati, molto bello!

281 - Mercedes-Benz AMG S55, essentially the same as the Brabus.

362 - Porsche 911 GT3, one of my dream cars.  Seen at the Formula Nippon race, below.

373 - BMW 118i at the Autumn Sakura Blooms.  I don't think the 1ers were introduced in North America yet, so this was a "first viewing" for me.

394 - Maybe the best street car here, Nissan Fairlady.  I love this car, but have a big scar on my head from where my mother crashed hers when I was riding shotgun.

316 - Japanese Beetle. Very similar aftermarket styling as a westerner's car.

591 - Yes it is a Ferrari parked outside my brother's hotel in Nagoya.  See the Hotels section for the view from the lobby of his hotel.

627 - Mercedes-Benz CLS in Ebisu.  Not a big fan of this car, but my step-father is, so I took this for him, mostly.

393 - Ramen noodle shop for lunch, but really just an excuse to show examples of Kei-cars.  That yellow Hondoozle is a pretty cool car.

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Tokyo Motor Show 2005


120 - Tokyo Motor Show 2005. If there is strong requests, I can post pictures of the human advertising billboards, also. But I didn't want to be creepy, so I left them out.

Motorcycles

124 - I had only been to the North American car shows, until now.  They are cars, and only cars.   So it was a unique thing for me to have motorcycles, suppliers, trucks, and the human advertising billboards.

123 - The only example of a human advertising billboard.

Production Cars

132 - Nissan Skyline GT-R, a.k.a. Godzilla (cue Blue Oyster Cult, because we are in Tokyo). This car is still in production today (2023-Feb) with a much larger price tag though.

133 - Nissan Skyline GT-R, this version of Godzilla is tame enough to NOT trample the crowds.

153 - Lamborghinis - every (western) 15 year old male's dream car.

152 - Bugatti Veyron - engine is equivalent to TWENTY Kei-cars!

156 - Corvette Z06 price tag, essentially two times more expensive than the same car in the US.

157 - BMW Alpina B7 Supercharge

158 - BMW Alpina B5 Supercharge

Concept Cars

147 - Lexus LF 5h concept - Don't think this nameplate was ever used.  Must have been a study for the LS flagship.

148 - Lexus LF-A concept - This did go into very limited production (500 globally, maybe?). Very cool car!

149 - Lexus LF-A concept - When it went into production, it looked a lot nicer. This is uncommon, usually the concept cars look way cooler!

150 - Lexus LF-A concept

145 - Toyota bB concept, what became the Scion xB in the US

144-Toyota bB concept - See what I meant about the concepts looking a lot nicer, usually?

162 - Honda W.O.W concept - Same color green as above. That must have been the "analyst prediction for popular color" in 2005

163 - Honda W.O.W concept - In later years, I end up working on a completely different vehicle with these same style doors.  Neither ever go into production because this design is not great and would cost a fortune to make great.

164 - Honda concept - So much better looking than the Acuras that were available in the US at the time (even though the same chassis).

166 - Honda FCX concept which I would guess is the study for what was sold as the fuel-cell Clarity in the US

168 - Honda FCX concept - so much more interesting design than the production vehicle.  Again, probably changed due to durability and/or function and/or manufacturing.

130 - Renault concept foreground, with a teaser for the next section on the wall...

Race Cars

131 - Renault F1 car - Oh Fernando, I miss you in this car!

143 - Toyota T105 F1 car - I always thought this was the best paint scheme on the grid

160 - BAR Honda F1 car

161 - Honda IRL car of Dan Wheldon - a foreshadowing for my career?

136 - Porsche 911 GT3 Cup car - to compare to the street car above

137 - Porsche GT3 Cup car.  Oops, another human advertising billboard.


Toyota Motorsports Festival 2005, Fuji Speedway


220 - It is called ε―Œε£«γ‚Ήγƒ”γƒΌγƒ‰γ‚¦γ‚§γ‚€ (Fuji Speedway) for a reason.

227 - Paying honor to all of the drivers of the Festival.  Many of these guys are retired now, so it was a true honor to see them at their title-sponsor company's home track.


Garage Queens (temporarily in some cases)


253 - Super GT race car, this is a Mark IV Supra body, but I think they are running Prius bodies now.

254 - Another Super GT racecar. Red, no Blue! AAAHHHH!

248 - Some children enjoying (in my opinion) the coolest car here.

247 - Toyota TS020 car.

249 - T102 Formula 1 car.  Three generations older than the one at the Tokyo Motor Show.  But still the best paint scheme on the grid.

250 - T103 Formula 1 car.  Two generations older than the one at the Tokyo Motor Show.  But still the best paint scheme on the grid.

252 - Lexus LF-A prototype that one of my co-workers was responsible for producing.  Same car that was at the Tokyo Motor Show, above.  Just in more realistic settings.


On Track Action


218 - I love Kei-car racing. I've actually done the American version of this and it is a hoot!

219 - My co-workers watching the race.  The taller one is the guy who worked on the LF-A.

272 - Tour busses racing Super GT cars.  Not really.  The busses had fans inside so that you could "be on track" with the race cars while they thundered by. It seemed like a neat way to experience racing.

274 - Tour busses racing Super GT cars. There was a large speed difference, which should have given the fans in the bus a really exceptional view of the experience.

Hey SAMMIT, check this out from 20 years ago!
(Name dropping to have a grassroots growth for this blog. Hope that's ok.)
255 - Drift cars line up on front straight.  I wonder if SAMMIT will find this interesting.

258 - Drift cars doing what they do, but have just gotten warmed up.

264 - Drift cars doing a quadruple donut. That's right, FOUR cars simultaneously doing the same donut. This takes skill to stay that close to 3 other cars, all while you can't see anything due to tire smoke.

265 - All four drifter cars make a grand finale of tire smoke!

238 - The big 3 Toyota fendered road race cars. If I ever get around to uploading my racing experiences, we can see something similar that I used to drive.


Demonstration of Formula 1 performance


244 - This was really telling.  And Top Gear has done similar, not sure who did it first though. They lined up a Yaris (small commuter car),  Mark X (large commuter car), and T105 (the car that was at the Tokyo Motor Show 2005, above.  The Yaris and Mark X took off several minutes before the Formula 1 car.

245-And Jarno Trulli wins by a nose (and then some), even though the other cars had a HUGE head start.


Toyota 2000GT on track experience


229 - Toyota 2000GTs. I have a lust for these cars because of the James Bond movie, "You Only Live Twice".  Very few were made into convertibles, and the one in the movie was made that way because Sean Connery was too big to have graceful entrances into the small cockpit of the hardtop cars.

230 - Toyota 2000GTs. As you can see, there were only 2 convertibles here.  Also, most of them are white, with a few reds and the odd colored ones toward the back. Seeing a group of these model cars, of this size, is a once in a lifetime experience for most people.

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Formula Nippon Race, Suzuka


341 - A co-worker heard of my love for racing. So he took me to Suzuka for a race.  I miss these guys. There were a lot of "first times" on this side-trip for me.

342 - Suzuka Circuit entrance. Yes, that is a roller coaster.  I was thoroughly pleased when our co-workers son did not pay any attention to the rolly coaster and wanted to proceed directly to the track.

343 - Suzuka view down the Front Straight.

363 - Lunch at Suzuka - θ›Έη„Ό (Takoyaki) - Octopus πŸ™ in bread 🍞, balled up. The art of making one is something else. My Japanese co-worker didn't warn me about the molten bread lava inside.  Pretty sure I still have a scar on my tongue from that first time!

366 - Junior Formula race, much cleaner racing than Spec Racer Ford I used to race with.

369 - Formula Nippon qualifying

345 - Formula Masters practice. My memory is not so great, but I think I remember Niki Lauda being in this event.  This was before he became involved in Formula 1 team management again.

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CONCLUSION


This isn't even all of the pictures from Tokyo Motor Show 2005. As I mentioned, I used to be super passionate about cars. Imagine the gentlemen in Akihabara taking pictures of cosplay girls, but a bigger, hairier, gaijin taking photos of cars.

If you want to see more pictures of the human advertising billboards, I'll post them separately if there is some demand. But for now, I'd prefer to use my resource credits for less "simp" things.

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