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There are roughly 1500 active volcanoes quietly burbling away on the earth’s surface and the snow-capped peak in full view over my shoulder is a reminder one of them lurks close by.
It’s better known as Mount Fuji, however, right now I couldn’t care less if a cataclysmic eruption is imminent. My attention is focused instead on a bizarre-looking Skyline that’s squaring up the inside of the bus I’m aboard.
MOTOR’s at Fuji Speedway for the NISMO Festival – an annual motorsport party Nissan’s thrown for loyal petrol heads every autumn since 1997. About a two-hour drive west of Tokyo, Fuji Speedway’s NISMO Festival spans two days and this year attracted 30,000 spectators. Not an enormous crowd by perhaps V8 Supercar standards but quite a turnout nonetheless, and attracting punters from all over the world.
Japan’s written attempts at English are often more comical than informative, so I dismissed the ‘Circuit Safari’ written in my schedule with a chuckle as nothing more than some poorly translated ‘Japlish’.
They looked lost, or perhaps part of some strange Speed tribute demonstration, unable to drop below 50mph, but it wasn’t until our 30-strong group was installed on a similar bus, watching in awe as the priceless Skyline vanished in a turbocharged rush that the words ‘Circuit Safari’ clicked.
It’s followed in quick succession by its big brother, one of this year’s GT500 GT-Rs (the number stands, roughly, for the horsepower produced) then a 1969 V12-powered R382 Can Am racer and the R390 GT1 that took Nissan to the Le Mans podium in 1998.
That Nissan would thrust us on track with priceless racing artefacts tearing around at such speeds, some just so we can see them in the ‘wild’, should be all the convincing you need to attend the NISMO Festival.
The circuit schedule moves on to historic runs and one-make races. I meander past the garages, where the safari wildlife rest, to end up in the bustling paddock.
I spot some punters poking around a modified Silvia crate engine. Japanese tuning gods Tomei are raffling off a swathe of goodies. It’s all happening.
For me, it’s this sight that is the most powerful image I take away from the NISMO Festival. Today more than 30,000 people will flood the grounds of Fuji Speedway. But they haven’t made the biggest effort today. Nissan has.
Fans will meet their hero drivers this afternoon during the grid walk for the NISMO GP, watch pit stops from mere metres away, and see Nissan’s precious competitive cars tussle on track.
It may take place at the foot of an active volcano, but it’s the eruption of passion that will keep Nissan fans returning to the NISMO Festival for years to come.
