JCCA Classic Car Festival at Tsukuba

The month of July finds Japan sliding into the midst of a lazy Summer, but it also marks one of the big track events for the JCCA (Japan Classic Car Association).  Open to both Japanese and foreign classic cars, there are racing classes that range from mildly modified road cars to wild racers.

It’s a great chance to see classic racers put through their paces, and the JCCA runs a tight ship, with only a short delay between races.

The most extreme class of the day was the F-Cup, which are for highly modified race cars.  The field was dominated by Nissan products, with the feisty early 70s TS-b Sunnies dicing with the big-cube Zeds.  There was even a KPGC10 Hako racer in there too.  In the end the race was taken out by a wickedly quick Lotus Super 7, but the scrap for 2nd to 5th places was nose to tail and fascinating to watch, as the Zeds pulled away on the straights, only for the scrappy Sunnies to catch right back up again in the corners.

The next fastest category was for highly modified 1968-1975 cars. This one was a cracker, with a 911 Carrera 3.0 taking pole, then being hounded by a freakishly fast 510 (above) and then falling into the clutches of an RX3 to come 3rd.  The category was also had Isuzu Bellett GTRs fending off a strong challenge from a bunch of Alfa Romeo GTVs, with the midfield being fought over by a Z432 and Datsun Roadster 2000. 

Less radically modified 1968-1975 cars had their own class too, where you could see Alfa Giulietta, Triumph TR4 and Lotus Cortina fight for the top three positions, with the rest of the grid filled with Honda S800, Toyota Sports 800, Alpine A110 and more!

Then there were classes for non-Japanese cars (even though I notice that  the Alfa Romeos that ran in the 1968-75 class aren’t Japanese either!), Ginettas and open wheelers too.

Finally, there was a “Japan Run” class for road cars, which were open practice sessions rather than races.  However these were perhaps the most interesting category of all, as they were cars you could really relate to.

   
All in all, a superb event put on by the JCCA, in which you get to see your dream cars put through their paces, and a highly recommended event to attend.

Want more?  Want laptimes?  Well, we have over a hundred more pictures and videos of the action, in our forum thread.  Come and check it out.