Suzuka Circuit From The Drivers Seat

[Amayama]

Try again...

Hi, I'm from Amayama Trading in Osaka and do part-time photojournalist work for a UK publication and a couple of Russian websites.

On this occasion I was asked to do an article on a "Beginner Soukoukai" or beginner's track meeting featuring a current Toyota Mark X. It was pretty simple, hire a GRX133 Mark X and go driving!

Well that wasn't to be when we found out no 3.5L Mark Xs (the current model) were available. The Mark X was supposed to be the feature car. Anyway, what other cars were available? Only a Nissan X-Trail! Apparently it was a busy time for every single rent-a-car place in Osaka, Kyoto and Kobe so we had to settle. An X-Trail... on Suzuka Circuit... yep

But can you take 4WD SUVs on a race track? Officially, no. When we made the booking we asked if a X-Trail was OK and the polite young lady on the phone said yes, which was wrong, she thought we meant NS"X"! Go figure! So they kept their word when we arrived and they saw the big hulking X-Trail waiting to unleash its kilowatts through the mighty CVT. I don't think it'll ever happen again so I don't recommend anyone try to take a SUV or non-performance car there.

Anyway after a short meeting with the chief safety official (we were late for the drivers lecture) and instructions on track etiquette and a clear warning that Porsche 911s and GT-Rs would be on track going a lot faster than us, we were let out on the circuit... for 2 laps!

The car we unfortunately had to drive. I asked the Editor if we could pass this time and organise it for another day but he said "no, it'll be interesting to see how it handles" hahaha... yeah ok.

In the pit lane ready to go out, with much faster and drool worthy machinery behind us. We had to wait for them all to go first before we could go out. Just as well because they were at half track by the time we got to the first corner!

Esprit was there doing some testing and tuning of their R35 GT-R and NSX race car. The NSX went out alone during another time slot for GT cars.

Porsches, Skyline GT-Rs... I sure felt like a moron in the X-Trail!

..and off we go. The first thing I felt was the sheer history of Suzuka Circuit and being on the very same tarmac where Senna, Prost, Mansell and other childhood F1 heroes battled each other. Nevermind about the heavy, ungainly wagon doing it's best to make this as painful as possible.

Through the S Curve

Under the bridge... it kind of felt smaller than what it seems on Gran Turismo, and the changes in elevation seem more noticable.

The famous hairpin. The elevation here too felt more severe than depicted on any game.

Down the back straight. The X-Trail was hopeless, it was a 2.0L MR20DE and CVT and was wailing trying to get up to speed... I think we hit 140km/h or so.

After going through the Casino Triangle we get on the main straight and it's foot to the floor almost stretching the accel cable trying to get every last ounce of power. On the bright side at least we got to see more of the scenery around the track.

Yep, even the Navi agrees we are finally on Suzuka Circuit... "In 300m turn right"... is there any other way?

I thought it was nice that the Suzuka Circuit staff apologised to us about the mixup. They actually offered us a ride in the Honda Legend Safety Car instead of going through the ordeal with the X-Trail but we came here to drive so that's what we did. It's a real ultra-professional (of course) track meeting and well worth it if you want to drive at speed on one of the worlds top racing circuits.

[Moelders]

Nice pics and write up!

Thanks for posting

[Amayama]

Thanks

People can also take special (limited to 20km/h or so) kids two-seater go karts around the short track for one lap, it was pretty fun dicing with the other guys at walking pace while trying to keep the best racing line