Nismo Festival 2024!

(Please excuse the belated post - I was overseas on a business trip the day after the Nismo Festival (which was on December 1 this year) and I am finally getting caught up...)

I know many of you are not going to like this, but I have been lucky enough to attend the Nismo Festival so many times that frankly, it is beginning to lose some of its luster.

Instead of checking out the latest from Nissan and Nismo - uh yeah well I know as I work at Nissan - at the Festival I am able to meet up with old friends, both car owners and shop affiliated, that I have not seen for some time. 

Of course, from an R33 GT-R perspective, there are some cool things too - check out the Global Auto 400R that was on display.  Seeing a 400R is no longer that exciting but it was interesting to see what it looks like under the hood!

And then walking around I see some privately owned 33s in the parking lot...

It was cool to see the Nismo carrier truck out as well.

The parking lot was sectioned off according to car model - one section for Zs, R32 GT-Rs, R33 GT-Rs, etc... probably organically by the owners too.  In the Skyline sedan section I found this Skyline 400R (JDM version that has the 400ps engine):

I like the paint, but that sticker...nope

And one other interesting thing I saw - at Nismo Festival wtih so many shops sellings stuff, and some shops taking cash only, what happens when you run out of cash? Simple, you go to a mobile ATM, this one operated by 7 and i Holdings, operator of the 7-11 convenience stores here in Japan...

Interestiing products for cars - yeah there were a couple. One shop - Ota Automotive - selling recreations of the Series 3 front blinker grill with cut-out for the oil cooler - but modified to allow air to flow slighlty better (for some reason I can't seem to find the photo I took).  Another shop was selling Nissan OEM interior clips - an entire set for the interior of one car.  I guess I will have to update this blog when I get some photos or the products themselves in hand for me to try out. Stay tuned!!

Meeting The Father of the R33 GT-R, Kozo Watanabe!

At this year's R's Festival, I had the honor of taking a photo with Kozo Watanabe, who was the Chief Vehicle Engineer that oversaw the development of the R33 GT-R and the R34 GT-R.

Here is the Wiki link for him.

Much like Kazutoshi Mizuno for the R35 GT-R, and Naganori Ito for the BNR32, Watanabe-san is a true engineer who worked his way up at Prince Motors and Nissan.  Watanabe-san in particular, in addition to being the chief engineer for the R33 and R34, also worked on the Pulsar and the C110 Skyline and was also the Chief Experimental Engineer of the R32 under Ito-san.   Both Ito-san and Watanabe-san were mentored by Shinichiro Sakurai, who is acknowledged as the father of the Skyline. Further Mizuno-san worked on the R34 project under Watanabe-san and took over the BNR34 program when Watanabe-san retired from Nissan in 2000 and went to head Nismo, overseeing its racing program!

Watanabe-san had probably the toughest job ever - how to make a heavier and longer car go FASTER than the race champion R32 GT-R! And as we know, he succeeded so well that most of the running gear engineering on the 33 was carried over to the 34!

So you see, THESE guys are the ones who should be getting accolades as well as the nickname of the "Father of the GT-R" - as they truly were.  Unfortunately there is at least one guy running around now who is over stating his involvement in each of the programs, whereas his true talent seems to be in the area of self-promotion.  Caveat Emptor!

So... if you find yourself at any of these GT-R related events, and happen to run into Ito-san or Watanabe-san... well now you know who actually to ask the question - "Why didn't Nissan have a Nurburgring lap time for the BNR34?"

Nismo Festival 2023 - Some Random Photos...

Friends, as I was volunteering my time to help out at the Nismo Omori Factory display (with their 4 CRS demo cars) I did not have have much time for photos, but my friend Henning also sent some over to share so...

Well here is the one I took:

I spent most of time there trying to figure out why so shiny...

643254321And these are his - thanks Henning!

Nissan CEO Uchida-san and Nismo CEO Katagiri-san

Love the classic dumbbell motif there around the headlights and grill

Argh! Actually, that should be "Nissan Motorsports International"...

Nice R31, not sure why it has the 33 license plate though...

Henning says this is his favorite photo of the day, hard to disagree...

So what next... I have a couple of ideas, but not sure quite yet...