Most memorable: Nismo Festival 2015

LOOKING back at 2015, it was a huge year—the biggest and best yet for the entire automotive industry of the Philippines. This meant lots of new cars, lots of events and lots of traveling.

Indeed, many manufacturers tried their best to outdo and outshine the competition.  This left the motoring beat on their toes, scurrying about from one event to another.

So with the multitude of events and activities, it’s tough to decide which one was the most memorable for most.

For me, though, there was one particular event that stood out, and to this day, months after the event, still brings a warm, nice feeling to my entire body. I’m talking about the Nismo Festival 2015.

Nismo stands for Nissan Motorsport, Nissan’s racing, aftermarket and tuning arm, which was founded in 1984 after merging its Omori factory operations (responsible for Nissan’s factory-backed works efforts) and its Publication Division 3 (based out of Nissan’s Oppama factory, and responsible for supporting privateer racing teams).

The Nismo Festival started in 1997, celebrating Nissan and Nismo’s involvement in motorsports, competition, tuning, and today, its growing road car program which Nissan and Nismo are keen to develop.

Aside from the almighty GT-R and its Skyline GT-R predecessors, Nissan is also developing a fleet of Nismo-tuned road cars such as the Patrol, the  Juke RS,  the Tiida and the March Nismo variants.

This year’s Nismo theme was particularly special. As Nismo celebrated its 30th year in 2015, Nissan wanted to look back and celebrate Nismo’s glorious past to its crowning present.

Indeed, 2015 was a big year for Nissan and Nismo as the factory teams won the 2015 Super GT GT500 driver’s and manufacturer’s crown in Japan, the Blancpain World Endurance series in Europe, and the historic Bathurst race in Australia earlier in 2015.

Despite being seven years old and counting, the GT-R remains as fast and as competitive as ever in the face of newer, more expensive and more exotic rivals.

Fuji Speedway in Oyama, Shizuoka Prefecture, nestled at the foothills of majestic Mount Fuji, one of the most sacred mountains for the Japanese, played host to the Nismo Festival.

We were blessed with great weather and a very clear view of Mt. Fuji throughout the day as tens of thousands of Nissan and Nismo fans strolled through the gates to partake of the various activities.

The day before, we had the pleasure of meeting the factory works drivers of the Nissan and Nismo GT-R teams.

On the day of the festival itself, we had sessions with various Nissan and Nismo executives who helped explain Nissan’s plans for the future.

But for the average punter, what’s it like to be at the Nismo Festival? For any car fan, even if you aren’t a Nissan/Nismo vehicle owner, so long as you love cars, driving and performance, it is sheer bliss.

The day started with the mob of Nismo-mad fans, estimated at over 35,000, storming through the gates of Fuji Speedway and finding their way to the retail, display and food areas behind the main paddock and grandstand.

Race teams, aftermarket parts tuners and hobby shops were selling official team merchandise, lifestyle products and aftermarket parts at heavily discounted prices.

It was extra special, too, as many of the factory teams were selling their new line of products with the No. 1 branding, as Nismo was champion in a variety of racing series locally and abroad.

I spent a considerable sum of what little money I had buying various official race team merchandise.

It was also amazing to see tuners like Top Secret, Rocket Bunny and Tomei bring out and display their latest GTR and other Nissan time attack, drift and tuner cars as well as car parts to an admiring public.

Nissan, Nismo and GT-R car clubs also held a swap-meet, buying and selling a variety of rare, hard-to-find parts.

Even Nismo’s legendary Omori factory was represented on-site, selling old, rare and unused/preloved parts to the general public.

Classic car races were also on order. A variety of gentlemen racers in their pristine and immaculately restored “Hakosuka” and “Kenmeri” Skylines battled it out on track for supremacy.

Hearing these engines breathing through properly tuned, old-school carbs with their exhausts popping as they made their way from their makeshift pit row to the main straight, surrounded by fans old and young alike, was truly unforgettable.

After the intense classic car race, there was a variety show for the factory works drivers, with Q&A sessions on the main grandstand for the fans.

After lunch, it was time for the big guns. Nismo held a gridwalk for fans to see their favorite racecars in the flesh, to admire the gorgeous race queens, and ultimately, to get up close and have a quick chat or photo with the factory works drivers.

And it wasn’t just the young guns having all the fame and glory; older drivers from Nismo’s storied past were also present and garnered just as much attention.

In succeeding sessions, Nismo wheeled out its  big guns, based on their year of competition. While the GT-Rs remain to be as popular as ever, prior to the Skyline GT-Rs, it was the big, bad and mad Group C and sports prototype racecars from the ’80s that helped establish Nissan’s competitiveness in the international motorsport arena.

These Group C cars were in many ways  a Formula 1 car, but with bigger, wider wheels and a closed body which gave them more aerodynamic grip, and often sporting more power than a comparable F1 car of the same era.

After the Group C cars, it was the R390 and 391 Le Mans cars from the ’90s alongside the R33 LM cars which Nissan raced with in 1995 and 1996.

Finally it was the R32, 33 and 34 from the Group A, JGTC and Super GT eras that took to the track.

The next session was the modern Super GT-R35s based on German DTM chassis regulations (a move meant to make R&D cheaper and safer for race cars in general by sharing technical rules and regulations), followed by the FIA GT3 and Blancpain GT3, and GT4-spec R35 GT-Rs, alongside Super Taikyu 370Zs, and even more GT-Rs.

The entire afternoon was nonstop filled with cars running flat-out in mock battles and races between each other.

The Nismo Festival was part of a bigger Nissan 360 event, a series of major events meant to increase awareness and appreciation of all things Nissan, Nismo and the Japanese way.

Nissan Pilipinas Inc. plans to open up the Nismo Festival to a bigger, wider audience in the coming years.

Should you have an opportunity to attend it, by all means do so. I’m excited to come back this 2016, God willing.