Honda Trip to Japan Day 2 – The Twin Ring Motegi Circuit
Driven Around the Twin Ring Motegi Circuit
18 October, 2005, Tokyo – Day 2 of the Honda Journalists Japan trip. We had the rare chance to take a closer look at the Twin Ring Motegi Circuit today. Too bad we cannot stay a couple of days longer, because this weekend, this very circuit is going to host the Japan GT Race, and from tomorrow onwards, it is expected that the various teams will be bringing in their cars to be sorted out and set-up for the coming race. (Of course we will be in Makuhari then, attending the special Press Day of the Tokyo Motor Show.)
The Twin Ring Motegi Circuit was built in 1997, and consists of two parts; the main circuit is built to Indy Speedway specifications, and is an oval track, with banked turns, while the second part is an extension of this oval to include twists and turns and a very long 800 metre straight, making it easy to switch from an Indy track to a regular racing track, or vice versa.
Our friendly guide from Honda, himself a dabbler in the sport, took us (in our tour bus), on a sightseeing tour around the outer support track to show us the full track, after which we were driven (also in the same bus) for two laps around the oval part of the circuit. According to our guide, an Indy car takes only 24 seconds to traverse the 2.4 kilometre oval track – awesome, isn’t it?
To keep us from being disappointed, Honda also arranged for all the Malaysian journalists to be driven around the oval circuit by two experienced Japanese race drivers in two NSX’s, which in normal times would have been the Safety Cars. It was interesting enough, but of course it would have been better if we had been given the chance to drive around the track ourselves. However, the weather was bad, with a heavy drizzle making the track very wet, and slippery. Maybe it’s a good thing, because who knows what might have happened if they had unleashed us upon the track in those conditions. Some of us grow horns when put into a fast car.
Later on in the day, we had a chance to try out the latest Honda Civic, the Type S, the FCX fuel cell car, and an array of other very interesting models. Unfortunately, since we were in the Honda R&D Centre, no cameras were allowed. However, they had official photographers to catch the cars in action. These pics will only be given to us on Thursday, so the report will be written then (hopefully).
