TIME MACHINE FESTIVAL 2009: Racing machines, Euros and Americans

April 9, 2009 12:35 am Published by

Walking from the parking lot up to the pit area in the rain after just paying a rather hefty entry fee made us doubt the effort we made to get all the way to Fuji Speedway so early in the morning.

Walking into the first pit display put aside all those doubts.

Biasion & Sivero’s twincharged Group B Lancia Delta S4. Not a bad start to the day.

No velvet ropes surrounding the cars meant upskirt shots were easy to take.

I think this BMW M1 was just brought along as a static display.

It would have been good to see it actually run though.

That’s a remarkably spacious interior.

OK, now we’re talking. 1977 John Player Lotus.

Gold on black never looked so good.

Jolly good.

Cars back then really did have all their guts out on display.

Used and abused.

Those wheels would look good on anything.

One for the dish freaks.

Racetech Design still make gauges like this today. Might be a good option for someone who’s looking for something a bit different in their road car.

There was not one…

…but two 1989 Camel Lotus cars there as well.

The wheel, sliced bread and gaffer tape. Mankind’s greatest achievements.

You could spot those bellmouths from across the room.

I get the feeling that they don’t have too much confusion with chassis numbers in the spare parts department at Lola.

Yeah, we all said “Oooh!” as wel.

Obey the Mugen.

Bugger the conditions, I’m talking the car out for a spin.

The Porsche part of the day’s schedule was the Rennsport Cup run.

At least he was able to drive it back to the pits.

A neat Ford Corti…I mean BMW 1600.

The Lotus Europa is remarkably popular in Japan.

There was also the SMS Challenge Cup, which consisted only of Ford Mustangs.

This Saleen, sadly, stayed safely under cover for the whole day.

This desert-spec Humvee just goes to show that the parking lots at events like this are often just as interesting as the event itself.

Next time: Japanese cars at the Time Machine Festival!

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This post was written by Alexi

8 Comments

  • DAN-XIII says:

    holy crap, i wanna hear that mugen engine so bad.

  • Fury-S12 says:

    pity the saleen didnt get out on track would have been an impressive sound as would pretty much everything photographed

  • Namakeshi says:

    Really nice Porsche I like the 936.
    And the engine of the camel F1 is a Mugen?? Always was that??

  • brendan says:

    jealous

  • Daniel says:

    from wiki on that first car (still amazes me!!)

    “The car’s 1759 cc four cylinder engine combined supercharging and turbocharging to reduce turbo lag at low RPM. Officially the car produced 550 horsepower (410 kW). Independent figures show the S4 could accelerate from 0 to 100 km/h (62 mph) on gravel in just 2.3 seconds.”

    WOW! 😛

    love the early green 911 too!

  • Roger says:

    Yea the Mugen engine is original, the Honda team won the Formula 1 championship in 1988 with Nigell Mansell driving, only Japanese team ever to do so

  • Fred says:

    Ayrton Senna won the F1 World Championship in 1988 with McLaren-Honda… I don’t know where you got your info from but you’re totally wrong. Back in those days Honda was simply a motorist, they did not have a full on works team. They were supplying engines to Lotus, and later on Williams and McLaren.

    But those Lotii were not actually powered by Mugen/Honda in 1989, but by Judd. I believe those might actually be F3000 cars, or F1 cars with F3000 engines.

    Oh and by the way, keep up the great work Alexi, always a pleasure to read you!

  • Ian_M says:

    I’m pretty sure that Mugen V8 powered car is, as Fred said above, a F3000. Chassis model number matches too – T90/50 which was Lola’s 1990 F3000 car. Easy to tell when it’s got it’s cowling on or by any front/side shots, plus the rollbar looks like the ’90 Lola which had it’s air intakes on the sidepods rather than through the rollbar. Don’t know what team was running in 1990 with a Lola with Camel sponsership though. Eddie Jordan Racing were running Reynards(though they had the Mugens) that year. Not that down with the Japanese F3000 teams though so might be from that championship. Or it might just be repainted randomly!

    Great pictures as always either way!