After a 10-year hiatus the MH Hill Climb, the centerpiece event of the Maniwa Speed Festival, has returned. The event, now in a new location, gathered an impressive roster of legendary Japanese race cars both old and new, from tuner demo car to classic Formula 1 racer. Many of the priceless machines were even sent up a winding mountain road in damp conditions, and the entire spectacle was put to film.
Like the original, the new MH Hill Climb is put on by Japan’s Motorhead magazine. Originally the event raced along the renowned Hakone Turnpike, one of the birthplaces of underground drifting. The revived event is now part of the Maniwa Speed Festival and takes place on Maniwa-Kiyama Highway in Okayama Prefecture. It’s a public road, closed during the event, but nevertheless making the presence of a Williams F1 or Nissan R91CP Group C race car rather shocking.
Just as thrilling is the diversity of cars involved. You’ve got the OS Giken Fairlady Z running up the same road as the Cusco JGTC Subaru Impreza, which also took the same route as an IMSA GTO Mazda FC RX-7 that somehow made its way across the Pacific, followed by the Advan Porsche 962C. Then there’s the museum, which borrowed cars like Honda RA272 and McLaren-Honda MP4/6 and parked them next to the HKS Skyline GT-R Group A touring car and JGTC Taisan Ferrari F40.
This event was billed as the first annual Maniwa Speed Festival, so we look forward to more. In the meantime, there’s a behind the scenes video.
Even though they say it’s the first annual event, they held it in 2023 as well, albeit smaller. I used to live around there in Okayama, but I had moved back to the US a few months prior; when I first heard of it I thought “Why the heck couldn’t they have done that when I lived there?!?”
That road is a typical Japanese country road, which is to say pretty sketchy… it’s certainly no Hakone Turnpike. Also worth noting, right down the hill from there is Madlane, an extremely cool shop. They brought their Porsche 935 replica and a Diablo GTR to the event.
Enjoyed the videos – pretty great with one little complaint that is very common for these sorts of things – I’d rather not have music interfering with the engine sounds. Otherwise great.
Wish there were some english subtitles in the BTS one, but such is life!