R's Meeting 2026! (I think the R33s are starting to be big...)

So friends, apologies for the lack of an update. The usual work excuse, but if you've been following me on LinkedIn and Facebook, you will see that I have been quite busy at NISMO working on expanding our presence overseas.  That's all I will say for now...But meanwhile, the GT-R life continues. As in, this past weekend we had the R's Festival 

Note that they had a photo from last year of me, Craig and Dino on their website this year! (this year, with all the rain I don't think I saw any official looking photographers...)

While it was mostly the same as last year, for some reason it seemed to me that THERE ARE A LOT MORE R33 GT-Rs all of a sudden?

On the way to Fuji Speedway, we stopped off at one of the 7-11s nearby and...

Rare blue one, and the silver one on some classic wheels

Both the blue one and this other silver one were running the R35 brakes!

And then as we pulled into the West Gate at Fuji Speedway:

A LeMans! and a white one in front of it!

As well as this red 400R and this silver one that looks very similar to mine

Once we parked as walked toward the festivities, first we saw this Skyline Japan... wow

And then the transporters used by HKS and Mine's. Note the Mine's transporter license plate has a "33" in it as well...

And then a GT-R democar on a transporter, which was...

yes, another R33 GT-R! 

of course another R33, but this one had an R34 GT-R rear wing. Can't say it looks bad, but I don't think this car ever came off the transporter so maybe Meiku were ashamed of it? :)

First cars on display as we walked from the parking lot was, of course, the Omori Factory cars. Both R33s! Of course the 400R (someday I will drive it!), and the CRS.

And even though I work at Nissan Motorsports & Customizing (NMC - the parent company of NISMO and AUTECH), I swear I had nothing to do with the car selection...

Walking around, I ran into some old friends from Nissan who were passing out flyers for this - 

So these are R35 NISMO prints, as created by Morita-san, the NMC chief designer.  Every NISMO road car - he's the guy behind how those cars look different from the standard car.  Only 35 of these R35 prints will be sold, of course, with a price tag at 230,000 yen, at the upcoming NISMO Festival on December 6.  For each one sold, Morita-san will be on hand to personally sign each print.

Speaking of Morita-san, I found him signing some other artwork at the Kusaka Engineering tent:

A true legend, and consumate gentleman!

I need to get him to autograph something on my Skyline NISMO!

As usual for these kinds of events, there were some talkshows as well - the two I saw featured the actual legends behind the cars, as well as the legendary race car drivers who did battle in the R32, R34 and R35 GT-Rs!

Don't let anyone say they are the father of the R33 or R34 GT-R - here are the real gurus.

This talk show had, left to right, Hiroshi Taguchi (R32 GT-R product specialist); Kozo Watanabe (R33/R34 Chief Engineer); Masatoshi Yoshikawa (R33-R34 chassis/testing chief); Hiroyoshi Kato (Nissan's top test driver); and Motohiro Matsumura (father of the SR20DET engine as well as primary powertrain engineer of the R33/R34 RB26DETT - and ex COO of NISMO - oh and R33 GTR owner).  Just in case you missed it, in my previous post,  I was able to sit down and chat with both Watanabe-san and Matsumura-san.

As for the racing drivers, my buddies Katsura-san and Sunako-san were joined on stage by Keiichi Tsuchiya and Takayuki Kinoshita. I'm sure most of us have seen Kinoshita-san on many, many Best Motoring videos.

I would have to say that Tsuchiya was there just because? But the other 3 did talk about how they used to race the R32, R33 and R34, and how each race car was different. Strangely the background photo for most of the talk was Sunako-san's yellow Prince Tokyo Taikyu race car:

Meanwhile, I was going around meeting with old and new friends:

with Kobayashi-san from MCR (and Ugajin-san from NISMO)

Basically, the 2 guys who built my car - Watanabe-san and Mine's owner Niikura-san!

And then I got to hang out with the race drivers, and was pleasantly surprised to learn that Kinoshita-san is a really, really nice guy!

Connected now, must learn from this guy too.

It was raining pretty hard and I wanted to beat traffic back, so I managed to leave a couple of hours early. But on the way out, I found these:

I know this car...

And then I found this, which was REALLY interesting. Who makes this exhaust?

Close up for research purposes...

Anyway, all this R33-ness got me inspired.  The next day, I picked up my own R33 from the dealer (it seems I might have a faulty G-Sensor? Inconclusive...) and drove home in the rain! (weather has been almost non stop rain these days...)

Super clean here...

And yeah, I am too scared to go fast in the rain when expressway traffic is slowing ahead of me - and I am taking a photo...

So next post?  Don't know but meanwhile here is my car as it is drying off in my garage:

I use a power air dryer thing to fling off most of the water...

Hint - I really need to do something about the mess in the garage. Changes coming soon and I will post here when I can share!

Dinner with Nissan and R33 GT-R Legends!

So due to my new position in the Nissan Group (some of you might know exactly), I was lucky enough to be invited to a very special but casual dinner/drinks with some legends from the R33 GT-R world.

Thank you everyone! Especially Hiromi-san for arranging this!

First of course, was Mr. Kozo Watanabe.  Most of you know that he is the real father of the R33 and R34 GT-Rs, so of course I took advantage of this to ask questions to confirm my belief that the R33 is the better car (lol).  So yeah, on my promise to not publicize the details, I learned about why the R34 GT-R never had published numbers for Nurburgring, actual horsepower numbers of the GT-Rs, and how the shorter wheelbase of the R34 was not something driven from a dynamic performance perspective.  He was quick to deflect admiration on his efforts, saying that most of the amazing work for these second generation GT-Rs was by Ito-san, father of the R32 GT-R, and the teams of people involved.  Oh, I also got him to autograph a couple of things for me...  

As Sunako-san looks on, Watanabe-san squeezes his signature onto...

The front GT-R emblem!! 

I do not think I will install this on my car... way too valuable... but on the other hand...　

Watanabe-san was kind enough to sign and leave a message on my car's sun visor!

Note that in addition to his signature, he asked me if I wanted to have him write anything special? My response was, "Anything, I will leave it up to you sir!" 

So he wrote - 究極のドライブングプレジャー　(Kyu-kyo-ku-no-dora-i-bing pu-re-jah) which translates to "The Ultimate Driving Pleasure"- this is the concept Nissan pursued for all of the Skyline GT-Rs beginning with the KPGC10 to produce world-class sports cars. Watanabe-san would obviously be the one guy intimately connected to this phrase, and when he showed us all what he wrote, there was a murmur of Wow and Naruhodo! expressed at the table from the others, including Matsumura-san and the race drivers.

Matsumura-san is a super interesting guy.  He retired from NISMO in 2024 where he had been the COO; but as a career Nissan motorsports engineer (with a PhD!) he was involved in all of the cool stuff, working with Ito, Watanabe, and Mizuno on the GT-Rs.  Known as the "The God of Engines" at Nissan and NISMO, I learned he is the father of the SR20DET?!!! But most importantly, he owns an R33 GT-R and I have heard the guys at Omori Factory about the lengths he went to in order to get the RB26 engine running PERFECTLY in his own car.  Hopefully I get a chance soon to check out his car, and when I do I will post what I learn here!  I have actually worked with him on a couple of projects at Nissan/NISMO and so he knows me well, but I never had a chance to post about him before.

Anyway, as you can see I am pretty happy with just being in the same photo with these two legends!!! 

Another bucket list item for me!

Matsumura-san's successor at NISMO as Chief Motorsport Officer is Kiga-san - who was kind enough to pose for a photo with me and ex Nissan racing driver and current WTAC driver Tarzan Yamada who I had not seen for several years!

Long time blog readers probably remember the time he drove my car on the track, testing out the Tarzan G-Box.

I was also able to meet up with Sunako-san, who I had not seen in about 10 years!

This man does not age..

In addition to teaching me on how to drive on the track, his real claim to fame is winning the 1996 Super Taikyu Class 1 Series Championship in an R33 GT-R, of course.

From Sunako-san's website

In addition to his WTAC fame, Yamada-san was Sunako-san's co-driver in the Super Taikyu series, so it was interesting to hear stories from both of them from that (golden) era.  I was just happy that both of them remembered me!

And then I was able to get to know Katsura-san too!

Super nice guy Shinichi Katsura

I had met Katsura-san very briefly at TAS before, but this time I got to sit down with him and have a series of very interesting chats with him about how awesome the 33 GT-R is (in front of Watanabe-san, of course!). He also talked about Aston Martins, a topic Watanabe-san actually knew a lot about, so that was really interesting too!

You can see a very young Katsura-san (oh and a very young Sunako-san too) in this Best Motoring video from 1997, upon the release of the kohki BCNR33.

And finally, another NISMO legend - Mizuki-san, long time NISMO Racing Team Manager/Group A GT-R Chief Mechanic! Even though I lift weights at the gym, Mizuki-san apparently works out every day and showed off his impressive shoulder and arm muscles - the guy is 64 and SOLID!  Here, Katsura-san is laughing at how weak I am compared to Mizuki-san...

And finally, I have to thank the both of these lovely ladies - Hiromi-san (long time NISMO) and Yumi-san (long time AUTECH PR) - for arranging and for keeping the conversation going at all times!

Anyway, first thing I did when I got home, was to reinstall the sunvisor in my car.

Yeah, I know it is not an OEM part, being an S15 part, but as you know I installed these to match the dark grey Alcantara on the roof! So now, everytime I drive the car, I can flip down the sun visor and remember this evening I had with so many incredible people who have contributed to the Nissan Skyline R33 GT-R!

2025 is Over and Done - Will 2026 Be a Better Year?

Fall/Winter tends to be the best time to get shots like this due to the clean air...

Happy New Year to all of you reading this.

2025 was a very busy year for me, and honestly I feel bad about not having much content to post about these days. There are a few more projects I have in mind for the 33, but as you all know with Nissan having its problems and my job there being instrumental in helping to turn the business around, there was not much time for play.

Having no Nismo Festival last year also did not help. That, and in addition to not much free time for simply driving the car around, I am also worried about the lack of spare parts (just like most owners) and so want to keep the mileage minimal until I can feel comfortable drving the 33 around normally, again.

But in making some new friends mainly through my additional work at Nissan Motorsports & Customization (NISMO/Autech company), at the end of the year I DID go for a group drive to Hakone.  It was cold, tires did not grip, but it was nice to just go for a drive and hang out with like minded car guys.

I will let the photos speak for themselves - and note the copyrights belong to the people in the group who were kind enough to allow me to use these photos.  Enjoy!

Getting up early to beat the traffic...

I'm not much into R35s, but damn that is one nice machine!

Yep, this is our group. Right before the tollgate.

These guys too - and Proof of dawn

Miyata-san's Z31 looks mean. Because it is!!

Right before the pedal hit the metal...

Took a short break mid-way up...

Then at the top...

Yes, the local Mazda guys were there too!

The Alfa was one of our guys. Not all Nissan guys drive only Nissans! Really interesting stuff on that car.

Stopping to let someone catch up

Final stop for me (wasn't feeling great and wanted to go home early)

...but not before I join the other car nerds to marvel at how
 Miyata-san squeezed in an RB26 into his Z31!

Was I the fastest? Certainly not. But this car is just so raw and pure compared to what I have been driving lately. SO communicative and honest. I was grinning the entire time I was driving it. A pointed reminder that I need to do this more often! 

I mean, just listen that engine and exhaust sound!