Speedhunting: Izu Skyline Drive with Friends

This year, I have been too busy to take my car out on a proper drive. Lots of minor tinkering, yes, but not a chance to really enjoy the car for what it’s built for.

This changed when my friend Dino proposed a short drive trip up to the Izu Skyline road near Hakone, ostensibly to try out his new tire and wheel combination, but we both knew the real reason was for all involved to de-stress from our daily lives.

Here is the link to his fantastic as usual Speedhunters post. He does a better job than I could of explaining the route we took and the scenery along the way, so I won’t bother to describe the trip (please read his post) and further I have taken the liberty to borrow these photos from his post:

So hard to take a decent photo of these brakes and the car, but I think Dino did it! Except the car looks grey...

As Dino mentioned in his post, the three of us, Thomas in his Midnight Purple BCNR33, Dino in his Bayside Blue BNR34, and myself, first met up at the Ebina Service Area off the Tomei.

Yes, Dino was late...

Hey look, those non-functional brake scoops actually work... kind of...

In addition, we met up with our friend Matt (BNR32 owner) who was on vacation in Japan and kindly agreed to meet us up there in his rented orange Z34 Fairlady. You can see it in one of Dino’s photos.

I also took some photos, but they were nothing special.  Matt had a decent camera with him and was kind enough to share his wonderful photos for inclusion on this blog. Here they are, and thank you again Matt!

Here is the entrance to the Toyo Tires Turnpike, which then leads up to the Izu Skyline Road!

At the top of the Turnpike, Matt was already waiting for us... here I am explaining to Dino that
Matt beat us up to the top...

From another angle...

Close up of my car while in the three car formation at the top of the Toyo Tires Turnpike. Yes, Thomas was driving in his beach sandals...

After the Tsubaki-line run, I kept going... into the town of Yugawara.  Here I am after I called the boys and re-met up with them where they were waiting for me...(Dino had to cool off his brakes anyway...)

Fantastic picture Matt! The lighting is sublime, I love how clean the car looks!

At the parking lot on the Izu Skyline. Just like the photos in Dino's Speedhunters post.

And here we are cooling the cars off... getting ready for Dino's mini photo-shoot.

So there you go... and for those of you who know me, yes, I was running a new "mod" which I will talk about in my next post. Stay tuned!