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.
Hi Lauren,
ReplyDeleteThank you for the information. I'm planning on visiting the Subaru Factory in April and I've faxed them the application form but after that I don't know what's going to happen, as to whether or not they've received my fax or our application will be accepted. I don't speak Japanese so I can't phone them and they don't have an email address that I can follow up with. Will you be able to tell me if you had to phone them in advance before you sent the application? and if they contacted you after your application had been accepted? Much appreciated. Candi
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDelete