CELEBRATING 23
THE ANNUAL PILGRIMAGE TO THE NISMO FESTIVAL AT FUJI SPEEDWAY, WHERE CELEBRATING NISSAN’S LONG AND RICH HERITAGE IS THE ORDER OF THE DAY
Picture yourself standing among 10s of 1000s of people at Fuji Speedway as train upon train of Hakosukas, 280Z, R34 GT-Rs, and the rest all roll past like it ain’t no thing — that, ladies and gentleman, is Nismo Festival. Join the editor as he explores what he describes as the one event a Nissan fan never wants to miss.
Take an FIA Grade 1 track, a spattering of priceless and irreplaceable Nissan race craft from the ’60s all the way through to modern times, then add in 10s of 1000s of Nissan-mad fanatics, and you have Japan’s annual Nismo Festival, held at the end of last year on December 11. It’s run at the absolutely massive Fuji Speedway facility nestled in the foothills of snow-capped Mount Fuji, and the scale is so large that you simply get lost in the madness: unless you develop flying powers, experiencing the entire event is nothing short of impossible, considering that it’s held over a single day. But, for any Nissan fans reading this, book your damn tickets now — and here’s why.
As soon as you come within a 10-kilometre radius of the track, you start to get a sense of the scale the event has grown to. All the roads leading to it are swamped with modified and classic Nissans, many in convoy, having come from far and wide. It’s not uncommon to see road trains of Hakosukas, 280Z, and R34 GT-Rs, and we even spotted a procession of Nismo R35s making its way along a country road. We arrived early (7.30am), and just the lines leading out the gate could have formed a show worth attending, but, as we had been there before, we knew this was simply a taster of the main banquet, which would present itself as soon as we squeezed through the gates.