Event>>japfest 2010 Pt1

The UK is graced with many specialist car shows throughout the year. some small meetings with just a scattering of vehicles parked up in a field, some huge lavish affairs with a attendance in the thousands… Japfest is most certainly the latter! I had never been to Japfest before but on the promise of the best Japanese machinery in the UK and some top class drifting 5am Saturday morning i found myself on the M4 motorway heading to Castle Combe circuit  to see what Japfest 2010 was all about.

yes its huge! the above photograph is just a tiny part of the club sections scattered around the Wiltshire track. Just getting through the gate and navigating the half mile of so to the paddock is a 45 minute affair with every Japanese owners club represented at the show the attendance is estimated to be around the 20,000 mark.

Finally arriving in the paddock and hiding my Ford cunningly behind the JDM Allstars stand to avoid having to wipe the phlegm off it before leaving the first port of call was the 'Z' cars area..

The real reason i was lurking around the Z paddock was of the selection of 240/260/280's on display. With hints of Ferrari Daytona MGB and E type jag in the styling i just love the 70's Zs. I normally despise modern wheels on classic cars but the i think the above example really works…

 

.. The modern theme continues under the bonnet with the L24 straight six replaced with a beautifully installed 1jz Toyota unit.

The outrageous Janspeed 240 of Ben and Dee Stapley..

.. no more 2.4 but a 3.1 litre straight 6.

Triple Delortos K&N's and clean enough to eat your dinner off.

A huge selection of Mazda Rxs on display. From the clean and subtle…

To crazy chrome finish

But topping crazy list was Alex Khateeb's 700hp RX7… you really have to hear this to believe the noise it makes…. 104db limit at Castle Combe…….per-leeze!

My favorite Mazda of the day was to be found squirreled away by the Japspeed pits.. Drift Judge Judge Jordan Butters clean FC just looked…. right!

Wandering over to the track to have a look at the public track time I was greeted with the sight and sound of a race prepared NSX screaming round..

..Try as i might to hunt this car down in the paddock I sadly couldn't find it in in amongst the thousands of cars on display.

There is a growing trend in the UK of moving out of the city in to the countryside right next to a age old race track then moaning to the local council that the noise is stopping you enjoying your cheese and wine party at the weekend. The knock-on effect of this is ever increasingly ferocious noise limits imposed on our race tracks. Ben Broke-Smith fell foul of the 104db limit recording a 107db before the Team drift challenge, an effort to redirect the sound to beat the sound guys DB machine unfortunately failed….

..So more extreme measures had to be implemented before he was aloud to head out on track.

Have you ever wondered what 3rd gear looks like on a R34 Skyline? Well this is what Walton Smith's looked like after the first lap practice for the team challenge..

And this is what team mate and Garage D owner Julian Smith's gear selector looked like on his rather expensive Blitz R34 gearbox after the first lap..Now you would have thought that would be the end of Julian and Waltons day after two gearbox failures on the first lap of practice.. well under normal circumstances you would be right. But this is Garage D we are talking about so expect the impossible!

More from Japfest including the team drift challenge and the Garage D gearbox challenge in part two.

-Ross.

ADVERTISEMENT

Comments



Comments are closed.

41 comments

by Oldest
by Best by Newest by Oldest
1

any close up shots of those st185's and st205's in the first picture?

2

Wow, nice name for an event....haha. Some clean looking cars. Why is that RX-7 rocking Rota Grids when the own could obviously afford TE37? Don't tell cause its only track wheels and no reason to spend money on real wheels.

3

Isn't "jap" usually considered to be a derogatory term?

4

Jesus that chrome Rx-7 looks insane,but owner have to clean it damn often...

5

that chrome rx7 look stupid

6

and the drift judge's rx7 is a fc, not fd...

7

that FD you said tucked away is an FC by the way.

8

Skyline baalt hard met zon versnellingsbak

9

any MR2 love at Japfest?

10

most racist event name evarrrr... hahaha.

11

Great pics capturing the spread of the day chap. Agree that White RX was very pretty and Garage D are legends!

12

Noise complaints... Come on now. Thats like moving next to an airport and complaining about the noise the jets make.

13

Yes, a small review of those celicas please...:)

14

that can't be 1JZ in the Z...

15

Do people in the UK realize that's a racial slur?

16

Sweet work Ross. Smith and Jnr are legends for there work.



Wish i could of got there, 1st time i've missed Japfest in years.

17

@wilson



I agree that it's not very stylish, but it looks better than your FD3S.

18

Than janspeed 240z sounds so friggin awesome on the track, he some videos of it youtube.

19

haha, that rear silcencer modfication, is just crazy hehe :)

20

Ouch man. That hurts. Your "favorite Mazda of the day" is not an FD, it's an FC. Please, please, please, please, Please never make that mistake again, it hurts my rotary-loving brain.

21

A wild GEARBOX appeared! GARAGE D used RB POWER... A critical hit! GEARBOX fained!

22

I'm always so happy to see any Celicas on Speedhunters :-) More pics of them!

23

im sure you ment FC, sick cars, love the chrome te37, and the chrome FD ,also the blue FD spirit type A looking street, some sick cars in there, mega cool event

24

it was an awesome day for sure, looking forward to more pics!

25

The 700bhp FD has a Revolution Periphial Ported engine and a T51 and sounds fully insane. Makes bridge port cars sound like a 1litre Micra

26

Quite familiar with people moving next to an existing racetrack then complaining about the noise. Just ask the Road Atlanta folks.



How is that chrome RX7 legal in the U.K.? I figured some Health & Safety minister would have had it impounded. ;)



And how come the U.K. has an event called "Japfest", when here in the U.S., "Jap" is considered a derogatory term on the scale of the infamous "N-word"? Are there no Japanese people living the U.K. to complain?

27

Awesome collection of shots. Gotta love JDM. Also gotta love Mosport in Ontario, Canada. no sound limit there! Helps that it's at least 10 miles away from any form of civilization.

28

japfest.. looks cool!! never heard of it before.. but it looks well attended.. nice pics - bring on Part 2..

29

people in the UK readily refer to Japanese cars as "Japwagons", "Jap-crap" or similarly "Jap-scrap". unless you're the government, nobody takes casual racism that seriously here.

30

"Jap" isn't really considered derogatory over here. It's just an abbreviation of 'Japanese', so I can't see why it woud be offensive... No more so than calling British people 'Brits' :-\

31

The term 'Jap' is not considered a racial slur in the UK especially when linked to a celebration of the Japanese Automotive Industry. It's merely used as an abbreviation like ‘Brit’ is to British or ‘Aussie’ to Australian. I didnt make it to Japfest this year but everytime I've been in the past I've had a great day. I love Castle Combe.

32

Ahhhh, and not a single Neon in sight. I gotta go some day but the pics are good at getting me closer.

33

Dellorto*

34

i'm of Japanese heritage.. and yes the term "Jap" is takedn to be very offensive.. but hey i do like the white RX7.. cool

35

Japfest was awesome

I had an amazing day there

36

Hi guys in the UK the word "Jap" is like saying "Brit"... it's just shortening of the word Japanese or Japan. This event is a celebration of JDM car culture and there is nothing racist about it.



There is a drift team called "JapSpeed" for example... same usage.

37

feature 700hp rx7 please

38

@ken im pretty sure the reason that FD has rotas is because it's sponsored by them...

39

Generally in British english speaking countries (UK, Australia, NZ etc.) "Jap" is used as a colloquial shortening of "Japan" and it lacks the contempt and social connotations that seem to be attached to the word in the US. It's all pretty innocent really and it typically isn't used as a racial slur, just like Brit, Aussie, Kiwi and other abbreviations aren't.



I honestly wouldn't take offense to the word when it lacks any weight behind it, even if people in other parts of the world are using it as a racial slur.

40

What a sad missed opportunity to feature something fresh by getting some close ups of those GT-Four Celicas.



You shall make up for it by giving us an all-celica feature. Yes, clean ones are harder to find, but that's why it's fresh when you do find them.

41

"There is a growing trend in the UK of moving out of the city in to the countryside right next to a age old race track then moaning to the local council that the noise is stopping you enjoying your cheese and wine party at the weekend. The knock-on effect of this is ever increasingly ferocious noise limits imposed on our race tracks." too true oulton park near me hasthe same problem with the escape to the country brigade. I blame the the daily mail which encourages these more money sense idiots to do this.

OFFICIAL SPEEDHUNTERS SUPPLIERS