JAPFEST - CASTLE COMBE - SATURDAY 17th
MAY 2003
Castle Combe hosted the first of what is going to be
a very popular event for our club on the 17th May this year. I am very sorry if I missed anyone, I know a few of you ended up parking in
the public car park. For next year if you book through the club you can join us
on the club stand. STEVES REPORT: For immediate release - 19/5/03 Andy's on board camera catches all the action
Andy sails past a red MK2
Peter Walton takes the perfect line, just clipping the kerb
One of the best Club turnouts at Castle Combe
Two members having a great time
Peter Walton dices with a Subaru
When things go wrong
It is called
Japfest and as the name suggests its specifically for Japanese cars. It is along
the lines of Billing but has the benefit of a track which adds to the days
excitement. It was organised by the same people who organise TRAX and anyone
that has ever been to TRAX knows it is a very big and popular event.
My day
started by meeting up with a few local members just off the M4, Stephen Paffey
in his white MK1 (touring car single wiper), Nick Osborne in his dark blue MK1
(loads and loads of lights, neon, flashing, its all there), Alun Jenkins in his
white MK1 (twin exit exhaust with NOS on the way) and Jon Thorne in his white
MK1 (very nice wheels). In convoy we made our way to Combe, obviously keeping to
the speed limits and arrived about 8am. There were already quite a few members
on the stand and with a few people to help we soon had our gazebo up.
Next a
few of us attended the drivers briefing. We were told the usual stuff like not
to push our cars too much, it’s not a race, not to overtake in the braking areas
or corners, to overtake on the right and so on.
A few of us were then let
out on the track for some fun. The immediate thing that hit me was the lack of
queuing. For anyone that has been to the action days at Combe you will know that
as good as they are there is loads of queuing, this really is not the case at
Japfest. You are given an allotted track session time and queue up for the
session 5 minutes before it starts, you’re then on the track!! In this first
session there were Ashley and Alison Goodfield in their red MK1, Martyn and Dawn
Westbrook in their red MK1, Peter in his green/beige Sherwood two tone, me in my
blue supercharger and a MK2 thrown in for good measure. Another thing that
struck me was only 12 cars were let out on the track at one time, whereas for
the action days they let out 37!! This means you have loads of room to play and
don't have to worry about other cars. At times it felt like I was the only one
on the track. On top of this you have between 15 and 20 minutes on the track,
this is almost 3 times what you get at the action days. It had been raining and
so the track was a bit wet and greasy and we all know that our cars can be a bit
twitchy in the wet. However I really enjoyed the slippery surface, so long as
you’re careful you can slide the car very nicely at pretty slow speeds too. As
the track surface is such good quality, far better that the surface on standard
roads, the track dries very quickly and after 5 laps or so it was dry and you
could really push things. There were a few spinners, I heard the guy in the MK2
spun twice and a guy in a very early Datsun spun in front of me going into one
of the chicanes, probably through too much braking.
After the track session
I took my supercharger back to the club stand and got talking to a few of the
other members. In all we had 14 MK1’s turn out which was pretty good seeing as
we had the FA Cup final and the bad weather to contend with. So to all you that
did turn out - thank you and I’m sure you all had a great day.
After
catching up with everyone I had a look around the other club stands. All the
Japanese clubs were there, from the Mazda MX5 club, the Mitsubishi VR4 club,
more Scooby’s (Impreza’s) than I have ever seen before - there must have been
over 70 to the mighty Nissan Skylines which I have to say I really do like - I’m
one of the playstation generation.
There was also a rolling road allowing
owners to get a printout of the BHP figures for their cars, I know someone from
our club bought a session, though not sure what the BHP figures were for
him/her.
There was also a ‘sound-off area’. For those who don’t know and I’m
by far no expert, it’s basically a competition on the sound quality, and quality
of installation of car stereos, speakers, amps etc. Some of these guys/gals had
spent huge amounts of money on their systems. Some had TV’s built into the
headrests and dashboard, others had playstations also built in. Although I
couldn't imagine doing this to my car - all the extra weight would really slow
me down on the track!! - you really do have to congratulate these people for the
time, effort and imagination they put into installing a stereo in their cars.
There was also another sound test where two cars compete against each other
to see how low a frequency and air pressure they can produce - never seen
anything like this before, the whole car was vibrating from the noise!!
Then
there were the paint jobs. The simple ‘go faster stripes’ of the 80’s has gone,
in come huge emblems, multicoloured transfers and pearlescent paint jobs, all a
la ’Fast and the Furious’. In fact they had a replica of the orange Supra used
in the film, the major difference being it was right hand drive. On the whole I
have never seen so many feature cars in such a small area.
There were also a
whole host of traders, from exhaust manufacturers, loads of performance traders
selling everything from turbo hosing to 18" alloy wheels and even a trader
specialising in NOS which seems to be THE thing at the moment. Basically for
anyone that doesn't know it’s a gas injected into the engine and can produce
HUGE power gains for short periods of time.
I had another 2 track sessions
in the afternoon, once again very little queuing and loads of track time on a
very quiet track. The weather, even though the forecast wasn't great was OK, it
did rain a little through the day but not enough to spoil anything.
Without
a doubt this was probably one of the best events that I have ever been to at
Castle Combe and I would highly recommend that you all go next year. The track
sessions are excellent value for money and with it being so quiet you don’t have
to worry about other cars and can just enjoy yourself, something you can’t
really do on the roads, even if you don’t want to go on the track there is
plenty to see and do.
I actually spoke to the organiser of the event at the
end of the day and he said they would definitely be doing the event next year.
Once I know the dates I will put the details on the club web site.
These are
the owners who turned up - I’m sure you all had a great day:
Stephen Paffey
G768 GDW White NA
Alun Jenkins D454 RDV White NA
Jon Thorne G601 XPK
White NA
Ashley and Alison Goodfield F629 BFX Red NA
Martyn and Dawn
Westbrook F438 HTT Red T bar
Peter Walton B419 AUR Green/ Beige Sherwood 2
tone
Gavin Pressler F109 HMV Red NA
Stuart Kynoch D234 WBM Green SC
Karmeleon conversion
Toni Leadbeater M7 TWO White turbo MK2 - she does have
a MK1
David Price D8 VMP Blue NA
Paul Ashworth G507 YTA White Levin
supercharger conversion
Mark Dalton E181HFS Silver NA
Andrew O’Brien
G918 VNX Blue supercharger
Nick Osborne E189 XKG - A local member in South
Wales and always attends our meetings, who I’m afraid to say is moving to
Florida (lucky bugger) and selling his blue NA. For the same money in Florida he
can buy a very nice supercharger. All the best and keep in touch with me and the
club.
ANDY O’BRIEN
We all met in the morning for the drive down to
Japfest, I never knew there was a 6 o’clock in the morning. we had 5 cars going
from Newport - 2 dark blue and 3 white. I would have loved to have known what
people were thinking as we drove past them down the M4. The rain spoilt it a
little but for once my roof decided to seal and I stayed dry, this was a good
sign for things to come. At the track there is one thing that will stand out for
me for a long time. I had the privilege of being a passenger in Andrews
supercharger, I really want that engine. I've never been on a track before and
never in a supercharger. Andrew is a brilliant driver and even though it slid
about a bit it never went too far (well at least not when I was in the car), and
I spent the entire session smiling to myself. One Mitsubishi Evo did take it too
far and got totalled. "mechanical failure" I believe he said it was. It’s a
shame there were so many Impreza`s I got a little bored of them after the 500th
one drove past. A few of us went for a drink later and discussed the day we’d
had. I don't think any of us were disappointed and we all can’t wait for the
next one. I’ll just have to get my gearbox sorted for the next one, then I might
be able to go on the track myself.
JAPFEST 2003 - Castle Combe,
Saturday May 17, 2003
Japfest, the country’s only live action event
dedicated purely to Japanese performance cars, took place at Castle Combe
Circuit in Wiltshire on Saturday May 17. The show was a huge success with just
over 6,000 people through the gates — an incredible figure considering this was
the inaugural event.
The day’s action centred on the track with dedicated
track time sessions on the circuit for drivers who were hungry for fast and
furious action. It was all about sheer power — when owners weren’t demonstrating
their prowess on the track, screaming displays on the mobile rolling road showed
just how much grunt some of these oriental wonders can pack.
The event was
actively supported by many owners’ clubs, with a total of 22 clubs present
showing off a wide variety of both standard and highly modified examples of
these exciting cars. The trade area, with 41 specialists in attendance, gave
visitors a chance to browse and purchase a wide range of accessories and tuning
parts.
Japfest is organised by A and S Publishing — the company behind TRAX,
The Performance Vauxhall Show, Ford Fair and Mini In The Park — and sponsored by
Avon Tyres, one of the world’s leading performance tyre manufacturers.
FACTS
AT A GLANCE:
- 6017 visitors - 1126 cars - 26 track sessions featuring 312
Japanese performance cars of all marques - 22 clubs in attendance - 41 traders.
