CAFÉ RACER 76: 09/24/12

As the long and seemingly unrelenting summer in Japan comes to an end, there is one event that for a few years now has marked the seasonal transition for me. I am of course talking of the Roadster & Rotary Meeting, held every September at the beautiful Sendai Hi-land Circuit, a celebration of all the great things Mazda has stood for over the years. With the company having ended rotary engine production as of this year, nobody really knows if Wankel-power will make a comeback in the future, so it’s these…

…soukoukai events that enthusiasts have to rely on for their fix. Pan Speed has been a big part of the event from day one, and has continued to support it every year, helping attract rotor heads from the Tohoku and Kanto area of the country. It is in no way a big event…

…although this year there was an impressive turnout of Roadsters, significantly outnumbering their bigger and faster brother, the RX7. It was also great to be back in Sendai and seeing the hard work that the guys at Hi-land have done in keeping the track functional. Following the big damage from last year’s earthquake the track facilities were ravaged by a typhoon and landslides, ending up in the track being closed again. While there is still a lot of obvious damage at least the track and surrounding attractions like the drift course, drag strip, golf course and amusement park are all open to the public.

The big Roadster turnout meant that there were some extremely interesting cars to feast one’s eyes on, from the older versions of the car…

…to the newer.

The line-ups were impressive, and you can expect some interesting spotlights of cars like the number 93 F-Factory NB you see here…hiding a nice surprise under its hood.

Unlike the RX-7 and RX-8 the Roadster does have a future, which is at least good news, as Mazda continues to concentrate on developing more economical cars and its diesel technology.

Check this NA I spotted driving through the paddock…quite the familiar color scheme wouldn’t you say?

While the rotary line up was somewhat lacking this year…

…there were still some awesome cars that showed up.

One of my favorite is always this Pan Speed modified FC, a true track monster that on top of a fully tuned and side ported 13B boasts a stripped out interior and serious suspension, making it one of the fastest and most dramatic sounding cars out on track.

Pan Speed takes the opportunity of a day out at the track to fine tune its demo cars, and as Komoriya-san – the man behind the legendary rotary shop – was telling me, he has “promoted” his 3-rotor RX-8 to shop’s main car. They will be concentrating on getting the most out of the naturally aspirated car for the next year and plan on participating at this year’s Super Battle in Tsukuba to set the fastest NA-rotary time. Kouta Sasaki, who on top of driving the GT300 BRZ in Super GT and winning the production car class at the Nurbugring 24h race this year with an STI Impreza, was on hand to pilot the RX-8.

And speaking of the BRZ check out what I spotted in the car park, a brand new example sitting on a set of Rays Homura 2x8GT. Nice.

Local rotary shop Zesty Racing brought a nice selection of RX-7s…

…all highly tuned as you would expect.

Another local shop, Suzuki Jikou was present with their awesome RX-7 demo car…

…all ready to head out and post some fast times through the technical corners of Hi-land.

On top of the usual event coverage you can expect a spotlight-o-rama of some of the most interesting cars that I came across during the day. So make sure you check back for more Roadster and Rotary action from Sendai Hi-land!

from speedhunters.com