sanjuu-ni

The one you refer to at Double Bay was the one at Vaucluse, I think you will find, and it was a recently arrived Japanese import. There was an Australian delivered one sold through a dealer in North Sydney about 2 years ago and that went for over $100,000.

I've just returned from Japan and a couple of weeks ago hired an R35 GTR from Premium Rent a car. We had it from 9am to 8pm on a Saturday. It cost around Aus$660 all up. A 24 hour rental didn't suit us as we had to leave very early on Sunday morning for Fuji. A couple of words of advice if you are going to rent one. Although the guys are very friendly, it would help if you got someone who speaks Japanese to make the booking. Also, we went by train to Gotanda Station and caught a taxi there. As some of you will realise, Tokyo traffic is very congested, so dont expect to do more than 400kms in the 11 hours. It is bad manners to return the car late, too.

Honda's design objective wasn't to make a firm noisy car. Those characteristics were the unwelcome side effects of stiffening up the suspension and removing weight. And was it really a race car for the road? Honda's sales brochures may included plenty of photos of it on the track and promoted it with the races up at Indy, but it was sold as a ROAD car that could be used on the track for supersprints. It was first and foremost a road car. That's why it came with carpets, a radio, air conditioning, a back seat etc. I've already acknowledged its excellent handling, with that impressive diff. Is now the time to mention that the brakes are slightly over-servoed, the steering doesn't have the feel of an MX5 and the seats dont suit everyone? Porsche got it wrong with the 968CS, too. Far too stiff for the road, yet thousands of dollars away from being a racing car. I haven't driven an NSX-R, but the standard car is quite firm enough for Australian roads. And who wants to live without air conditioning and a radio? A proper homologation special, like a stripped down Porsche 911 SC RS or Escort RS1800, created for a motorsport purpose, seems more relevant than stiff road cars where the marketing department has had as much input as the engineering department....

Actually, it wasn't designed to be firm and noisy. Surely the design objectives were to make it handle well and perform well on just 1.8 litres. Stiffening the suspension so much and removing the sound deadening turned it into a tiresome road car even though it was good when you occasionally went to the track. What Honda didn't achieve with the Type R Civics and Integras was a decent ride/handling compromise, even though they had shown they could do it. And the concept of V-tec remains fundamentally flawed. I definitely don't want to be driving around the city using 7000+rpm, but what acceleration do you get for lane changing when the thing is doing 3000rpm in third? Or when you turn into a side street at say, 20kmh and it wont pull up an incline in 2nd? The Mazda RX8 has the same kind of drivability issues. Driving in the real world requires low down flexibility and plenty of instant torque. Well developed 6s, V8s and turbos meet these requirements in a way the screaming V-tec fours never have. Don't think I'm knocking V-tec Hondas either: I actually own one at the moment. And even though I own a GT-R, I'm quite capable of identifying its flaws.

I bought a DC2 Integra Type R not long after they were first released and found it one of the most ill-conceived cars I've ever owned. I may have been sucked in by the hype that Wheels and Motor created, because on the test drive at the dealership it seemed a blast. In reality it was too firm riding, very noisy and gutless unless it was doing more than 6000rpm. I took it down to Goulburn and discovered one of the draw-backs of the V-tec system. If you came up behind a slow moving vehicle doing say, 80kmh, and pulled out to overtake in 3rd gear the car would barely accelerate because it was off V-tec. Next time I repeated the manouvre in 2nd gear and took it out to about 8500rpm and changed up and the thing died in the arse because it had dropped below the 6000rpm V-tec point. On the track it was a pretty good car but if you drove around the city doing 7000rpm all the time, you would just look like an idiot. The NSX doesn't suffer from this syndrome because the 3 litre V6 engine is so much more flexible.

In fact, the murder rate would seem to be very low in Japan. A search of websites provided the following information. The statistics came from an American site that didn't appear to be promoting Japan as a safer place than it actually is. Murder rate per capita from 62 countries listed: No. 1. Colombia. 0.617847/1000 people. No.43. Australia. 0.0150324/1000 people. No.60. Japan. 0.00499933/1000 people. As with all stastics, be careful how they're interpreted. However, Japan seems to have a well deserved reputation for being safe.

Would this be the angle you're after, Terry?

Terry, this should get you going. And with that lovely quad cam V8, it sounds as good as it looks!

In fact, the Montreal is a 60s design too. First shown as a 4 cylinder concept car at the EXPO in Montreal in 1967, it received the 2.6 litre V8 and a few body revisions when it went on sale around 1971. The Lamborghini Urraco is another beautiful looking car.

I have a real soft spot for cars from the 80s. I've been lucky enough to own or drive many of the interesting ones that were available in Australia. From the era, the Ferrari 288GTO would be the one that excites me most in terms of looks and character. However, I'll never be able to afford one, so it's a bit irrelevant. In my opinion, the best cars from that era are the ones that still feel like competent products today. The following ten are all cars that I've driven in the last few years and have still been a pleasure: 1. 1988 Honda CR-X. Still looks sweet, revs willingly and corners well. 2.1989 Lexus LS 400. Amazingly quiet and refined for an old car. And so much cheaper to own than Jaguars, BMWs and Mercs. 3. 1987 BMW M3. Fantastic, balanced FR layout, solid body, comfortable seats and willing performer. 4. 1989 Mazda MX5. Again, a delightful FR chassis, sharp steering, pleasant 1.6 engine, cheap and reliable. 5. 1981 Audi Quattro. Good looks, nice throb from 5 cylinder 6. 1988 Toyota MR 2 AW11. Excellent ride/handling compromise (thanks to Lotus), great engine and gear change . 7. 1989 Nissan GT-R R32. Fantastic performance, reasonable size, good seats, precise gear change, better than its race track rivals. 8. 1987 Mercedes Benz 300E. Solid, well made saloon. Very good at everything, bad at nothing. 9. 1989 Porsche 944 Turbo. Developed thoroughly for '89 with 250bhp, superb handling and brakes, excellent build quality. 10. 1985 VK Group A Commodore. Really needs the 5 speed gear box, can sound good, fun FR handling, not too big. (I haven't included the Mercedes 190E EVO II because it wasn't launched until early 1990) The most over rated cars from the period are: 1988 Peugeot 205 GTI 1.9. Drove a low mileage one recently and it felt flimsy, slow and harsh. Plus the gear change is crook. 1987 Ferrari 328 GTS. Such a gap between image and reality with these. Uncomfortable, expensive to maintain, not super quick. 1986 Ford Sierra Cosworth. A really cheap feeling car, old school turbo response, flimsy body.

This is a selection of cars from March 2008. Starting with an early morning shot of Mt Fuji.[http://img99.imageshack.us/img99/4011/dsc04227dh0.jpgimg][/img] This wasn't a very large historic meeting but there was plenty to look at within the Fuji complex with two drifting areas, motor cycle training, a lap dash and hundreds of cars on display in the paddock area. Under Toyota's ownership the facility has been immaculately rebuilt.

There are two Nissan showrooms that are worth a look in Tokyo. The Nissan Gallery is in the Ginza on the corner of Chuo Dori and Harumi-Dori, a busy intersection. You can find it easily on any of the tourist maps. The TimeOut guide to Tokyo shows it clearly. This is only a small showroom that holds two or three cars. The road and racing R35s were there in March. Upstairs is a small shop selling Nissan merchandise but I recall they didn't accept credit cards. Ask the girls at the front desk for a map to the Nissan Head Office showroom. They're really helpful and speak English. It is two blocks down and six across if I recall correctly. However, that GT-R display was only there until the end of March. It would still be worth a visit as I would expect the display to change constantly.

Yes, I'll be going to the Nismo Festival this year and the Toyota Motorsports Festival at Mt Fuji on the 23rd of November. Be great to see and hear those cars on the track. I was at Mt Fuji this March for a historic race meeting and the car makers sent along some of their old racing cars. There was a R 33 GT-R Clarion , A Le Mans Mazda 787(?), a Honda NSX LM and a Nissan R390 Calsonic. All were going quite briskly considering their value.

Thanks for your interest and comments, guys. I didn't see any other R 32 Group A cars. A number seem to have survived, hopefully there may be some at the Nismo Day at Mt Fuji in November this year. This is the balance of the photos taken at the Nissan HQ.

The coffee, cakes and pastries in Japan are as good as I've had anywhere. And cheap, too. The coffee is usually under $2. Apart from the novelty, I can't understand why so many people want to queue at this place: This branch has been open in Shinjuku for over a year and I've seen waiting times of more than an hour.