Super Autobacs Yokohama Minato Mirai

For the Japanese car enthusiast Autobacs is the equivalent of Demon Tweeks and the like all rolled into one, but instead of having to order the parts you want, they are all on display. The amount of stock Japanese shops holds is immense compared to the UK and if you have a Japanese car and want to order tuning parts, the first time you tend to see them is when they arrive at your door. 

This place has a bit of everything, from daft stuff like crazy air fresheners with rabbit ears, to steering wheel covers, sat nav systems, wheels, tyres and more serious tuning parts like coilover suspension systems, exhausts and even aftermarket ECU's and the like. 

All the major Japanese brands like HKS, Tein, TRD, Cusco parts are there to see. 

It's a bit of a treasure trove in all honesty and an almost heady experience for those keen on modifying their cars. So we went to this alladin's cave of tuning parts to see what we could find! 

First off, loads of wheels, so much stock and so much to choose from. I was dissapointed not to see any Rays TE37's like my wheels, but Rays Engineering were present!

A wall of wheels! 

Then there were the aftermarket, oils and the like which you'll never see in Halfords in the UK! 

TRD items were present of course, again such things are only available to order in the UK if you're lucky and the wind is blowing in the right direction. Realistically such things have to be shipped to order from Japan which makes the cost prohibitive for these kind of items. 

Yes, there was 86 specific oils, it was lovely to see so much stuff for the car on show. Two aisles were dedicated to it. This says to me that this car is big business in Japan and will have a healthy tuning market for aftermarket parts for many years to come. If you can get the parts it's great! :) 

There was a lot of stuff for manner of Type-R's and rightly so, this is a highly desired marque of Honda's. We loved our DC2 (Integra Type-R) when we had it. 

Yes, TEIN on display and not only that the new (released in January 2014) TEIN EDFC Active Pro (which stands for Electronic Damper Force Control), think damper rates that alter according to G force in three planes, lateral, longitudinal and speed. I have all this kit on my car and it really is briliant. 

HKS had a good showing too at Super Autobacs with their Hyper Max IV (I hope I've got that right, Maz!) Coilover setups. 

As you can see there was just so much choice and this was all for the GT86!

There were tuning parts magazinse fo the GT86/BRZ too. 

Not the best picture but glass causes problems when it comes to reflections, but here are some lovely Defi gauges that were wired up of course and in demonstration mode. 

If that wasn't enough there were videos of the GT86 in action on track as a demonstration of the products available. 

Blitz had their section too of GT86 tuning parts. 

Toms rear lights. These are very nice to be fair and a lot cheaper than in the UK, but by the time you've shipped them and paid VAT they'll only work out about £70 cheaper. 

Also there was a garage attached where tuning parts were being fitted, tyres and brake pads were changed and I took this picture from the cafe that had a window looking down to the workshop. Pretty little MR2 Roadster here. 

Obviously there was no way I could leave without buying a thing or two and I opted for a TRD engine start/stop button. Now I know this won't make my car any faster but I wanted to get a present for my car so as to speak and seeing as this was literally half the price it is in the UK I had to have it. Also I only know one other person with this fitted, so it's rare in the UK due to it being pretty expensive at around £125 for a switch that lights up basically.

I also bought a couple of DVD's as these are the kind of things you just can't buy at home. 

Overall it was great fun and the car park was worth a look with some pretty serious cars about. When we drove in I noticed a Subaru WRC blue BRZ so had to park next to it. I left a postcard for the GT86 BRZ Drivers Club under the wiper of course! 

I totally understand that this is very focused on my interests, but any Japanese car enthusiast will tell you that they dream of going to Super Autobacs so it was great to finally get there. Oh and in the above picture you'll notice a 3.5mm jack lead, this is so we now have an alternative to Japanese radio and can get the iPod etc connected! 

Hakone Skyline, Toyo Tires Turnpike and driving quickly enough to set the brakes on fire.

So we set off from Mount Fuji to the famous Hakone Skyline. This is a road immortalised amongst car enthusiasts around the world as not only being a spectacular drive but also having spectacular views. 

It's a toll road that goes up the mountain and down the other side. This road is a tourist road, or perhaps it is more commonly known as a bit of a racetrack. Any car enthusiast that visits Japan longs to drive these two roads in particular. 

The drive from Mount Fuji is only about 40kms, so the distance was covered in no time. The route up to the Hakone Skyline must be the twistiest road I've ever driven on with barely any straights long enough to even think about getting out of second gear. It was only when I saw a Yaris behind me looking like they were keeping up, that I realised that first gear was the only option for the incredibly tight hairpins. The road was characterised by a gutter that would kill you should you go anywhere near it! 

Suffice to say after a bit of brisk driving that Yaris was nowhere to be seen and so we drove up to the Hakone Skyline. 

The famous picture that is an absolute must. This is definitely one I'd like to get framed. :)

Some way up we stopped for a picture and for me to have a breather. More on that shortly. 

By a shrine (I think) on the Hakone Skyline viewing point. You could see Mount Fuji from here, but it was not easy to see in the haze. 

The road up the Hakone Skyline was tight and twisty, I elected to turn off all the stability systems as it was not terribly high speed. Second gear was mostly what you needed with the odd burst in third on the occasional straight that was long enough. The climb was characterised by tight hairpins, one after the other and switchbacks which made it fun. As the ascent was reasonably steep there wasn't enough power to really push the rear of the car out, but on the chicanes where one bend flowed into another, the car would unsettlle on the rear under braking and the rear would come round a little. 

The stability control lights were flashing a fair amount of the time (they do this even when everything is switched off) and the car was dancing from bend to bend. It was actually quite hard work and I had to turn the aircon up, but it was immense fun. :)

From there after a few navigational errors, as Japanese sat nav is not easy to programme, we got to the Toyo Tires Turnpike. 

This road is much, much faster and we were after a little climb on a long downhill all the way to Odwara. Just like the Hakone Skyline speed limits were low though a paltry 10km/h higher at 50km/h. Just like on Hakone I elected to completely ignore this for once as the road was just too good to cruise along. Interestingly when you approach cars driving at the speed limit they generally pull over for you which is handy. I reckon that people expect it on these roads. So all good in my opinion! 

We were hitting pretty high speeds, sometimes 170km/h+ and the bends though significant were not as sharp as on Hakone, the high end of third gear proving ideal for this kind of road. So there I was accelerating up to decent speeds on the straights and still flying the bends at 120km/h or so for the most part. 

Upon hitting around 160km/h down one straight I braked for a third gear bend, but I felt the pedal go long and the ABS was having a bit of a fit. The car was slowing but not to the degree I expected. It was a long flowing bend so it was easy enough to balance the chassis rather than try to scrub more speed with the now non-existent brakes! The road straightened and I backed off a bit and tried the brakes, they weren't working! 

I spotted a little car park on the next corner and did all I could to stop the car, it did slow, it wasn't as scary as it sounded, more that I was in danger of over shooting the entrance to the car park. I made it fine and when I stopped clouds of smoke were wafting up from each wheel arch! 

I've done a similar thing in my own car on the racetrack, so I knew what was happening the moment the brakes faded. 

Here is a picture though it was a couple of minutes after the event so the smoke had gone by then, so you'll have to imagine it! 

Experience told me to leave the car in gear with the handbrake off and just let it cool. I checked under the bonnet too, no problems there. Ten minutes later we set off and I checked the brakes carefully on the last part of the descent. Everything was fine. 

I suppose cooking the front brakes is directly proportional to how much fun I was having and I was having lots. A road like this needs to be driven hard and I knew that the 86 could take it and it did. Great car, great fun, great scenery and a fantastic morning driving roads that until now I have only dreamed of. If I hadn't gone for it down these roads, I would feel that I hadn't done them justice. Sometimes you just need to put the hammer down and soak up the experience. Brilliant and a great antidote to the relatively boring drives I've had up and down the expressways so far. 

Also to celebrate I revved it in first put the steering on full lock dumped the clutch and spun the car round in the car park a few times on it's nose. We had noticed that at many little car parks and turning points there were tyre lines everywhere, so it was only fitting that we left the car park in a cloud of burnt rubber too! 

Hakone Skyline and Toyo Tires Turnpike I salute you for being a rare haven to all the real drivers of the world. :)

Mount Fuji, Lake Yamanaka

We drove over to Lake Yamanaka which is the highest lake surrounding Mount Fuji. 

It was a long three hour drive over pretty boring expressways where speed limits are 100 km/h and for the last hour or so we were on dual carriageways through literally dozens of tunnels with a speed limit of 70km/h. So we were dawdling along. 

The topography here is quite severe with tree covered mountains and hills obscuring the view at most points. We climbed to a high point I think of 766m. 

The hotel driveway consisted of numerous hairpin bends and I felt it a good opportunity seeing as it was deserted to test the limited slip differential in the car. It seemed to work just fine. In fact the hotel driveway could double up as a hill climb as it climbs steeply from the lake up to the hotel which is some height up from the lake. 

We checked in and from our hotel room we could see the lake, but it was quite cloudy so we presumed that Mount Fuji must be on the other side. 

I was tired after all the driving so we had a siesta and awoke at 8.30pm. We decided just to go to a nearby restaurant and pick up some beer from the 7 Eleven. These places are just everywhere and handily they have a cashpoint that we can use our cards in and it's in English. So if you're going to Japan all you need to do is use the 7 Eleven for cash and they are absolutely everywhere. 

We opted to try Denny's which is an American chain just for convenience as I didn't fancy driving far. It was burger fair and I have to be reasonable in saying the meat was good enough, but that's about all I can say about it. 

We headed back to the hotel armed with some beers and ready to do the inevitable blogging! 

The next morning I awoke at 6.53am. I opened the curtains and then, wow, there it was, Mount Fuji, right before my eyes! 

Here is the picture I took: 

Mark took a pic of me after breakfast in the hotel gardens.

It's amazing how it changes as the cloud passes by the mountain. 

Mark took some pictures as well: 

Hotel Mount Fuji is a funny place, mostly full of Japanese tourists, the hotel itself has the obvious impressive lobby as so many hotels do, but the room was very much in need of a refurb and the bed was a standard double, so tiny! Still it was spotlessly clean and breakfast was included which was a mix of Japanese food and western food. Some oddities came out of this, like filter coffee with the milk already added! 

Subaru factory tour at Gunma plant, drive to Lake Yamanaka

So today, we set off from our Gunma hotel to the Subaru factory. It's in the same prefecture but about an hour's drive away. 

We had hoped to take in some sights with regard to Initial D, the famous anime/manga that helped to immortalise the AE86. 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Initial_D

Unfortunately as ever, time was not on our side, it's also a long way from Yokohama and we haven't got time to come back here. It's a shame but you can't do it all.

It was obvious it was going to be hot and as we made our way down the mountain to the plain, the temperature increased. We saw 35C at nine in the morning! 

We arrived at the factory where the GT86/BRZ is built. A good Japanese friend, organised a tour for us. The tour was of the Legacy and Forester and XV models and showed three processes, namely the stamping of the metal sheets into body parts and the body shells being put together and welded. We also got to see the cars being finished as they made their way along the production line. 

In comparison to what we saw at the Toyota Deeside engine plant, this process is far more automated with lots of robots flying around with doors and the like on their robotic arms with spot welds and sparks flying. It was really good as there was a high level walkway right round the factory enabling us to have a bird's eye view. 

The tour was in Japanese so there was no way we could hope to understand it, but from what we could see it was very interesting nonetheless. Mark and I have never seen cars being made in a factory and I think even if you have little interest in cars, anyone would find it a fascinating experience! 

It was fun to see the cars move along the production line and begin to look more like cars on every step of the way. We got to see the engines in final preparation as they are made at an engine plant 4kms away. 

I know it wasn't seeing the GT86/BRZ being made but the process is obviously the same and to think my car was made in the same plant, just a different building to what were in is very cool indeed. 

It was also good to see the final testing where cars are driven on to rollers, given some beans whilst simultaneously testing every function. You had to think that the guys doing this were doing about five things at once. They do this day in, day out and it showed with the speed cars hit the rolling road, wipers and washer jets fired, headlights flashed, horns beeped and engines were put through a bit their paces. Great stuff! 

We weren't of course allowed to take any pictures as one might expect when it comes to such tours, but it was brilliant and finished with a tour of the visitor centre where we got to see a mixture of Subaru's! Thank you, Yukiko! :)

Our rental GT86 outside it's birth place! 

Cool RC models on display. GT300 here. 

Richard Burns's (RIP) WRX 2000 WRC winning Impreza. Very nice to see. A car that was built by Prodrive rather than Subaru! 

Petter Solberg's more recent WRX:

The manufacturer's trophy won by Richard Burns for winning the British round of the WRC in 2000. 

A white BRZ on display. 

This was a cutaway demonstration showing the engine, gearbox, transaxle and steering of Subaru's 4WD system. Yes, it all moved and in different stages, quite cool. 

Deployed airbags that never go down. Inevitably everyone had to touch them! 

Subaru 1000 Sports Sedan. Sports being relative of course! 

From here we got back in the car, it was now 37C and searingly hot. We hit the road and headed our way out of town which seemed to take an age, not because of lots of traffic, it was rather the 60km/h speed limit that hindered progress. Lots of traffic lights didn't help either. We haven't seen any roundabouts in Japan. 

It was a fairly dull and uneventful drive, though we did stop in a services for lunch and happened upon another GT86 in matching colour too! 

Next to our G Spec (think poverty spec) 86 this one was a higher spec comparable to what you might get in the UK, though interestingly it had no spoiler but had a mixture of TRD body kit parts on the front and STI sideskirts. It also had a TRD exhaust and diffuser. 

From here we took the expressway and found our way with only one mistake of me going the wrong way at one point, but we got back on track. The scenery got more and more rugged as we approached Lake Yamanaka which is has the highest altitude of the five lakes surrounding Mount Fuji. There were lots of tunnels too, all with 80km/h speed limits so progress was easy but slow. 

We made it to our hotel for 4pm and checked in. Not long after that I fell asleep for about four hours, I just feel exhausted from the non stop aspect of this holiday and having driven for three hours or so I needed some rest. Mark joined me after apparently going for a wander. We couldn't see Mount Fuji today as it was too misty and by the time we awoke at 8.30pm it was dark, so we got dressed and headed out for a quick bite to eat.