The Road to Karuizawa

[— oldgrayleather —]

For you diecast collectors, imagine having your own exact car modelled down to the tiniest detail?









Pricing is not for the feint of heart

[— oldgrayleather —]

In person? Nope, not better for me but who can’t appreciate the effort that went into this car, rotary and all!

[— oldgrayleather —]

This one? MMMM1006 tribute. Caught me by surprise! Never did manage to get a look under the hood to see if it had the V6

[— oldgrayleather —]

Takeshi-san and I in front of a 1028, but not his. Because of course there were several around.


Repping the Palooza!


The GHO booth had some bargains to be had. On top of this great red collection there was an minty M2 1001 seat for ¥30,000. A faded Bride bucket for ¥5,000. There were loads of Roadster sills, typically ¥500 or less. My sense is that YJA has figured out who their buyers are.


Kijima-san


Jeff from Downunder, Takeshi-san, Daisuke, Vaho and Weldon (ueru). It was so brilliant that this expat Texan who I first connect with via MR.net made the trek with a backpack full of camera’s. Since I’m crap at taking photos perhaps we all just need to hound him enough to post up his shots?


And finally a face to face meeting with Yoshida-san from Zoom – a kind soul who has helped me countless times over the years!


Kenji with Max (Rev9) in the background

[— oldgrayleather —]

And with that there was the group pictures, warm farewells and I was on my way back to the station and onto Kyoto. It was brilliant to have a farewell beer with Maxime and his assistant on the platform before we were all whisked away at something like 150mph.

The Crew from Sydney spotted me on the sidelines and yelled for me to join them. It was awesome to be an honorary Roadster Bros



Should you go? Yes. All of you! Every single one of you! We should all go together. It was like my entire collection of Hyper Revs, Road&Sters complete with all the cars and their wonderful owners all came together to celebrate this crazy little tribe of ours. It was less than 24 hours and was gone in an instant. I missed out on so many pictures that I now wish I’d taken. More interiors and rear but I have not a single regret. Every roadster nut should get to mecca atleast once!

[— Phatmiata —]

This is just amazing, and my mind and eyes are exhausted just looking at all these photos of Roadsters, and im sure you are physically exhausted as well.

I would love to go to this one of these days !!!

This is on the bucket list and thank you for all these great photos you have shared with us here!! Too much awesomeness in this thread!!

[MLambert19]

Thank you so much for sharing, Pete! If a picture is worth 1,000 words, a picture and words is priceless.

So many amazing examples, and inspirational builds. That Pitcrew with the weathered fenders and stripe really is awesome.

Thanks again,

-Matt

[LagBlu]

Thank you very much for sharing this awesome experience with us.
Looking at these pictures brings back memories from my trip to Japan. Time passes to fast when being there.
I hopefully will be there one day, too. Until then, I enjoy every day with my Eunos.

[marlonthegreat]

it keeps getting better and better every year. I believe this is one of the events that any miata enthusiast should attend. you can feel the camaraderie right away despite the language barrier. you won't feel out of place. when you arrive, the atmosphere is that "it just feels right" to be there.

great great write up. thanks pete for sharing your experience. hair at the back of my neck was standing reminding me of my experience back in 2017 while going through your photos

[— Madaboutmx5s —]

Hi Pete,

Thanks for sharing the photos and the experiences! It is something I would love to do at some stage. Highlights for me on the photos above is using meeting Yoshida-San. Helped me many times as you know and would love to share a coffee with him at some stage. Likewise I really like some of the cars. The yellow MK1 on the first page is simple yet beautiful while it is great to see the 'Pitcrew King' aka the crème white Pitcrew is still wowing enthusiasts. For me back in the day that was a inspiration for me getting the vibe to like Pitcrews (to begin with I wasn't a fan).

Cheers

James.

[— oldgrayleather —]

Highlights for me on the photos above is using meeting Yoshida-San. Helped me many times as you know and would love to share a coffee with him at some stage.

If it wasn’t for meeting up with you when you invited me to test sit the Type R’s and your introduction I would never have connected with Yoshida-san. Meeting him brought it full circle to the fact my inspiration has been built on the amazing community we have. xo

[— Madaboutmx5s —]

If it wasn’t for meeting up with you when you invited me to test sit the Type R’s and your introduction I would never have connected with Yoshida-san. Meeting him brought it full circle to the fact my inspiration has been built on the amazing community we have. xo

Pete when you are next in the UK come to dinner mate or hopefully with a change of job I will have more time I have missed the last few years and I could meet in London. Your car is amazing mate and Karuizawa is something any of us JDM enthusiasts would love to do. I look forward to what you do next. I almost think you need a new blank template (read another car) for a future project too!

[Sharpie]

Thanks for sharing your trip, what truly great experience! I’ve been seeing pictures of the cream pit crew for yours. Glad to see it still receives love.

[benpopham]

Lovely write up Pete, and awesome to get to meet and travel with you for a few days. Same time next year? I would do it all again in a heartbeat.

[— fwdtamiya —]

I'm just now getting around to scrolling through all of this. Thank you for the photos and for taking us there Pete. I look forward to going one year, maybe 2020?