Time to get on with things and return to the Nismo Festival to continue from where I left off last week. With so much to see in such a short space of time I made sure I didn’t hang around too much in one given place…

…seeing that this year there was also a rather large Skyline Historical line up on the top floor of the main pit building which I had to make sure I checked out.

There are the kind of views you can expect at Fuji Speedway when the skies are blue. Incredible!

So after checking out all the cars in the pit garages in Part 1 it was out onto the pit lane where I came across Ronnie Quintarelli heading out on track for more demonstration laps along with a selection of other Super GT cars. I can’t tell you how intense it is to get close to these cars as they scream past you in first gear.

Here is a car that won’t be doing much screaming, even when speeding down the main straight! The Nismo Leaf RC looks like something out of the future…and sounds like it too!

Ah that’s more like it, nothing to get the hairs on the back of your neck to stand up than an unsilenced RB26 from a Gr.A racer like this Zexel BNR32.

From the pits it was a quick jog up the stairs to the third floor to dive into a bit of nostalgia. It’s great Nissan and Nismo went to these lengths to display the whole Skyline history, model by model starting with the 1957 Skyline Deluxe, the very first Skyline. This 4-door luxurious sedan was the flagship of the Prince brand, a few years before Nissan came to be.

The Skyline evolution continued with the S54B (seen above on the left) and then the C10 model from which this KPGC10 2000GT-R Hardtop, or Hakosuka (hako=box, su-ka=skyline referring to the boxy design of the car), was developed from.

Soon, thanks to successes in racing, the GT-R logo became an instant reference to performance and as they say the rest is history. With a model change in 1972 the C110 Skyline was born and with it came slightly more flowing lines. A year later the KPGC110 Skyline 2000GT-R was created with only 197 cars being built, making this particular “Kenmary” model the most sought after and valuable GT-R out there. The KPGC110 was all set to make itself noticed in motorsport but before the race car Nissan built even made it to the circuit, the mid-70s oil crisis forced them to drop any involvement in racing. A true pity.

In the late seventies things got a little angular with the C210, also called the Skyline Japan. This particular car is a 4-door PC210.

In 1981 the R30 was born and things got really boxy!

Before the R32 it was the turn of the R31, which was introduced in 1985. The car above, the GTS-R, was the pick of the bunch and the first proper sporty Skyline since the Kenmary GT-R.

The Skyline of course also raced in Le Mans in 1995 and 1996, with the JGTC-based BCNR33 GT-R LM GT1. Too bad they didn’t bring the only road version GT-R LM in existence, built to comply with the homologation requirements of the race.

More R33 love with the Penzoil GT500 racer.

This is the Falken BNR34 that dominated the Super Taikyu back in its day. It sports the same livery as the Nurbugring 24h racecar that Nismo used back in 2001 and 2002.

As I made my way down to the paddock I noticed the Sunny and Hakosuka guys getting their engines warmed up.

This of course meant it was time for the Historic Car exhibition race, which has become one of the biggest spectacles at the Nismo Festival in recent years.

This is the original race Sunny that Tomei still supports in these races.

What a line up!

Don’t make any assumptions about these cars, most of these little Sunnys can lap Fuji in 2-min flat, and some of them even faster!

In the tuner portion of the paddock I noticed a large crowd tightly packed around a white BNR32.

Tomei Powered surprised everyone by bringing their demo car fitted with their all new Expreme Ti titanium exhaust system. This is the R32 version of the same exhaust that was featured in this post of my car.

It’s the first time I hear the exhaust properly, and I’ll tell you it’s not surprising so many people flocked over like zombies to hear the GT-R being revved. Can’t wait to fit it to my car!

Here is something else I’ve been drooling over, Tomei’s new-gen Arms turbos for the RB26. This is giving me all sorts of naughty ideas.

The Nismo Festival is always the place to pick up deals, be it second hand stuff like the above selection of exhausts and miscellaneous items, or new parts which tuners and makers sell at special prices.

Mine’s of course were also present with their Z34 and R34 demo cars. The reason you aren’t seeing any tuned R35s is because, for some odd reason, Nismo still asks everyone with a display tent not to bring modified R35s. I think it goes all back to the original message from Nissan that the new GT-R shouldn’t/couldn’t be modified. That was 2007, now in 2011…800~1000HP R35 aren’t all that rare.

MCR and their stunning BNR34 street-tuned demo car.

Midori has cleaned the cobwebs off their old BNR32 demo car and breathed new life into it thanks to an all new-engine sporting a rather large single turbo conversion.

And the whole event just wouldn’t be complete with R31House and their usual stunning selection of modded R31s!

Stay tuned for the final part of the coverage with action from the last exhibition race of the day and the closing ceremony. Back soon!

Nismo

Nismo Festival 2011 coverage on Speedhunters 

-Dino Dalle Carbonare