Fire spitting, RB26-powered Super GT R34s flying past a few meters from me can only really be described as pure bliss. Seeing these cars like this lined up on the Fuji grid at the Nismo Festival on Sunday was one thing, but later witnessing their massive performance out on track is another thing all together. The impressive braking and cornering capabilities of these GT racers seem to defy physics as they swing around fast corners like the 100R without shedding much if any speed, before getting hard on the brakes for the following hairpin, slowing down almost instantly.

But before we take a look at more action from the GT-R and Z All Star race…

…and the closing ceremony…

…that was held on the main straight at the end of the day…

…let’s take a stroll through main paddock area to check out what was on display. The cars from the Historic car race that we saw in Part 2 were all grouped together under a big marquee. I spent a good amount of time in there looking over these superbly kept race cars like the Pro Shop Ogata B110 above…

…and Moty’s Takazawa Sunny.

The special Tomei tuned A13 is the engine all B110 owners dream of having, a tiny little thing that is capable of making these lightweight Nissans faster than the S20-powered KPGC10 Hakosuka’s out on track!

Pure seventies style from this Bardhal Racing “Ten-nen” B310.

Just look at that work of art! Another Tomei A13 this time running extremely long velocity stacks.

No matter how much faster and nimbler the Sunnys seem to be the Hakosukas are the epitome of the classic Japanese race car. With the great Kurosawa Motoharu at the wheel these Skyline 2000 GT-Rs helped kick off the legend of the GT-R which has been going strong ever since.

S20 power! The sounds of this lump is like no other.

Further down from the quiet and relaxing area where the classics were parked was total chaos. The tuner stands always attract an incredible amount of people all fishing for the deal of the year as most shops slash prices and come up with barely believable offers. The MCR Z34 is once car that really does deserve a feature, wouldn’t you agree?

Impul as ever has something for every single Nissan model on the market and the Impul 651S based on the Fuga (M37) is their latest demo car, along with the new Elgrand. Aside from the complete aero kit, the VQ37 benefits form bigger throttles, a throatier exhaust and a reprogrammed ECU giving better response and a marginal hike in horsepower.

No R35 GT-R demo cars to be seen anywhere! Mine’s brought one of their street-tuned BNR34s as well as the Z34 demonstrator.

However it was the little discount sale area behind the cars that was attracting most of the attention. Check out the Z33 titanium exhaust, it was selling at almost half price!

The prohibitively expensive Endless monobloc 6 and 4 pot calipers are all the rage these days but their regular 2-piece 6-pot based brake kits still remain the most popular choice for customers looking for a great brake upgrade.

New car on the scene is this recently re-tuned Do-Luck Z33…

…sporting a stroked 3.8L and twin turbocharged motor. Ito-san, we are coming over for a test drive!!!

Tomei Powered took their opportunity to launch their Expreme Ti titanium exhaust system for the BNR32. You have to see the welds on this thing to understand the quality of the construction. We can only hope that they will also make the same system for the R33 and R34!

Rays borrowed the Tamon Design Z34 to exhibit their popular VR G2 forged wheels, in massive 20-inch size!

How is this for artwork! RB26 airbrush on a V35 Skyline!

I always enjoy taking a closer look at the HKS R34 Driving Performer as it’s the testbed for all new HKS parts for the RB26.

HKS are still working at developing new parts for the RB and the car seemed to still be fitted with a twin turbo set-up like we first saw at the beginning of the year at the HKS Premium Day. Even Nismo have restarted developing new products for the RB26 and are currently working on creating an all-new demo car based on the R34. Rumors point that one of the new features of this new car will be a fueling system borrowed from the R35 GT-R with far more efficient and accurate injectors.

R31 House always seem to put on the best display area at the Nismo Festival. For 2011 they even had this stunning GTS-R!

How about this for a cool paint scheme!

We saw this particular car earlier in the year at the Nagoya Exciting Car Showdown…

…and I have to say it looks even better out in the open!

As I was finishing my tour of the paddock I heard the start of the GTR & Z All Star Race was going to be happening soon so I jumped on the media shuttle and headed to the hairpin to position myself…

…in one of the nicest shooting locations at Fuji. You can just about see a faint silhouette of Mt. Fuji in the background above.

For 2011 Hasemi has taken on the GT-300 class with this Z33 “Tomica Z” with drivers Kazuki Hoshino and Masataka Yanagida.

Once the 10-lap battle had ended it was back to the main straight for the closing ceremony. As famous Nissan drivers had lined up in front of the main grandstand area the race cars…

…where slowly driven and parked up in front of the crowds.

The sun was quickly heading for the horizon and the light became ever so warm, softly highlighting some of the finer details of the GT cars.

Satoshi Motoyama, driver of the Autech Motul R35 GT500 GT-R, thanked the loyal Nissan fans who supported him and the other drivers through the 2010 season.

Italian driver Ronnie Quintarelli of the Impul Calsonic Team pulled up in the R92CP.

Every year the event concludes with the waving of the flags by the die-hard supporters. It’s an almost emotional ending to one of the best events of the year.

It all wrapped up right before the sun disappeared behind the surrounding hills.  That’s it for the Nismo Festival coverage for yet another year.

Roll on 2011!!

Nismo Festival 2010 – Part 1

Nismo Festival 2010 – Part 2

Nismo

-Dino Dalle Carbonare