2018 Nismo Festival in pictures - a feast for Nissan fiends

Every year at the beginning of Japan’s winter, dozens of race cars and thousands of Nissan die-hards descend upon Fuji Speedway, nestled in the hills beneath Japan’s iconic Mount Fuji, to celebrate the company’s motorsport history… and take a glimpse at what’s around the corner.

This is the Nismo Festival, a tradition that brings together Nissan's most notable race cars and puts them - and the fans that worship them - on the track. Now in its 21st year, around 30,000 Nismo fanatics attend the festival on average, and Nissan and Nismo make sure there's plenty to keep them entertained. The headline acts that roll onto Fuji's 4.5-kilometre track are all owned by Nissan and normally kept garaged at its huge Zama 'archive', west of the company's Yokohama headquarters, and despite being irreplaceable pieces of racing history their drivers don't hold back. Joining them are dozens of privately-owned historic racers, grassroots-level Zed-cars, and privateer-run racecars from Japan's Super GT series.

If you’ve ever wanted to watch Nissan’s hero cars from the JGTC era, Le Mans, Daytona and even Bathurst driving at full speed on one of the world’s fastest circuits, then there’s no event better. Want to know what it's like? Click through the gallery above to find out.