Endurance Racing a Stock Miata in Japan at the Idlers 12 Hour
After racing in Japan in 2015, Eddie decided, "Why not do it again!". So, a plan was hatched for some of our team members to do a little team bonding retreat to Japan to contest the Idlers 12 Hour Enduro, which takes place every August at Twin Ring Motegi. The previous trip involved a car that was a little more exciting than this year's, granted Martin, Eddie, and Dan had the privilege to pilot an RWB Porsche built by Nakai-San, but the neat part about this go-round was that our team was going to take a bone stock Miata and prep it to race themselves.
Eddie and Martin worked closely with our friends at Buy Now Japan to source a donor car that was in solid shape. They found a perfect NB Miata with about 60,000 miles on it that was well taken care of and reasonably priced.
The first half of the week was set aside for doing tourist things and taking in different parts of Japan. From seeing downtown Tokyo at the Shibuya crossing to visiting a handful of historic temples, experiencing all of the exceptional Japanese cuisine, and doing some JDM car spotting along the way. The second half of the week was scheduled for some time to wrench on the Miata to race it on Sunday.
The group making the trip to Japan included Eddie and George, who had both visited Japan multiple times before, plus our technicians, James and Steven. It was their first trip to Japan and their first time visiting a country in Asia. AR customer and close friend Adam Griffith and his family were also part of the journey, as Adam would be one of the drivers. Getting across the Pacific takes twelve hours, which is never fun, regardless of how much you like flying. On top of that, it is a 14-hour time change. They flew into Narita, the other primary airport serving Tokyo, which is a bit further south, and stayed in Chiba the first night near the airport while waiting for Adam and his family to arrive.
They were all pretty jet lagged, but Steven and George were curious to roam about the area in Chiba. Everyone always sees those photos of rare JDM cars rotting away in bushes in Japan on the internet. Well, the boys proved it's true. They spotted a few cars at first and then looked around the shop more, only to find a collection of them! An E30 M3, Skylines, Silvias, Miatas and more. As car enthusiasts, we find it cool yet sad. But shop space is limited in Japan, and car enthusiasts love collecting!
Later that day, George took James and Steven to visit their first "Up Garage," a Japanese chain of used auto parts stores. It differs from our traditional Pick-N-Pulls in America as these are more like a Pawn Shop for performance parts. Everything inside is used, but there were quite a few neat treasurers if you wanted to modify your car. They also visited their first temple. It's a shrine located outside the city of Chiba called the Naritasan Shinshoji Temple. James found it fascinating that there were temples near or in the city, as if everything was built around them. "The combination of old and new was unique. You had 1,000-year-old temples in the middle of a busy modern city full of noise and people everywhere. You would turn the corner only to find a gigantic temple that was serene and quiet. It felt like you were out of the city," James said.
Later that night, the crew experienced their first authentic Japanese meal in Narita. They had eel for dinner at this very old small restaurant. Steven and James experienced the first of many customs of Japan by having to take their shoes off and place them in plastic bags. This shows respect for the place you are entering and delineates the outside and inside. Everyone sat on the ground to eat, sitting criss-cross.
The next day, they rode the Subway to the Anime district in a town called Akihabara. It's a popular destination as the area is filled with music, vintage video games, and lots of people in cosplay costumes. George wished they could have gone at night because it's a bit cooler with all the lights on, but they still had a fun experience checking out all there was to see, which included stores on top of stores on top of stores. Architecturally, everything goes up. There are always multiple levels to most buildings in populated areas of Japan. James also mentioned that vending machines are everywhere, lining most streets, which is quite different from here. While roaming about, they did some car spotting and saw their first R33 GTR out in the wild. All of them heard it before they saw it, and their suspicions were proven true when the car came around the corner.
They found their way to a Diecast car store and had to do a little shopping to bring back some mementos. James and Steven both bought a collection of Hot Wheels. Typically, George does not buy knick-knacks but found a couple of cool 1/64 diecasts he was ready to pull his wallet out for. Most of them were $50 per car. He wanted the LeMans winning Mazda 787b on display, but it was sold out. He also wanted the FD RX7 since he used to have one, unfortunately it was a prototype yet to be released officially to the public and was not for sale. That wasn't the only time George was going to get dealt some bad luck. More on that later.
Steven and James were quite astonished about how clean things were and how overly friendly everyone was throughout Japan. They specifically drew a comparison to what a 7/11 here in the U.S. is like vs. over in Japan. "The people in 7/11 were really polite, and everything was spotless, even the floor. They would put gloves on and serve you the food themselves. It was completely different from what one looks like at home. It didn't even seem like the same place."
On the 3rd day, the group split and George recommended that Adam and his family visit the Anime district they were just at yesterday. Adam's son loved the area and was able to buy some Nintendo games at one of the shops.
Meanwhile, George set his sights on visiting the Tokyo Arcade to try and drive on the Initial D arcade simulator game. It's not your typical arcade game. These full-on simulation cars had complete interiors with full vehicle motion and force feedback steering wheels, shifters, and working gauges inside the vehicle. He had heard about it for a while and had yet to have a chance to try it out on his previous trips through Japan. They took the subway there only to discover that the Initial D arcade simulators had been removed. Sorry George!
From there, the group went to the Shibuya crossing, the busiest intersection in Tokyo and in the world. The boys were impressed and overstimulated, so visiting the Meiji temple afterward was a good way to unwind. It is one of the most prominent temples in Japan. (Photo of everyone together at the main entrance.)
Later that night, George took the boys out to a place called the Koto Whiskey Bar to get some drinks. The bar had a lot of photos of Moto Superbikes throughout it. It turns out they discovered the owner of the bar races a Suzuki bike. He started pointing to a picture on the wall and then pointed at another person sitting at the bar with them who happened to be a pro rider. They used Google Translate to communicate and chat for a few minutes. He said he also raced at Motegi, of course, and enjoyed talking to them.
The following day was dedicated just to visiting the Toyota Museum. It took about three hours to get there on a few different trains. The highlight was the Bullet Train, James's favorite part of the trip. "187mph, it was crazy. Yet buttery smooth, quiet, and exceptionally clean. It was awesome!" It went 300 miles in about 2 hours. Nobody talks on the phone inside the train out of respect for other people. Additionally, in the train station, people would stand on the left side of the escalators to let people in a hurry go first. Courtesy was a recurring topic throughout the trip. When they arrived at the museum, lots of photos were taken of an immersive collection of cars.
Steven loves Silvias being an owner of multiple over the years. He got to see the first generation at the museum. Look at that smile!
Most of the sightseeing for the trip was over, and it was time to start getting the Miata prepped to go racing. So the next day, Eddie sent Steven, George, and James in the rental car to acquire some standard tools. Your basic 10mm wrench, jackstands, jack, etc. Much to their surprise, purchasing hand tools in Japan was challenging. They went to three automotive stores but foud no hand tools. They had to start googling construction shops to try and were finally successful at locating some essentials after spending nearly the whole day looking.
After that, they took some time to visit the RE Amemiya shop which was nearby in Chiba, that was on George's bucket list. It was a small place with cars everywhere. They walked up to find a guy fiddling on an RX8, only to find out it was Isami Amemiya, the founder of RE Amemiya. George was hoping to see him but wasn't sure if he would be there. Well, it turned out to be him. George grew up watching Isami on the Best Motoring show and in Touge battles. They communicated with him via Google Translate and told him how cool it was to meet him. He said feel free to look inside. They were wrenching on a D1 pro drift car equipped with a four-rotor single turbo that was getting its motor refreshed. They also had a Ferrari with four rotor 26b swapped into it.
They all went to the Senso-ji temple after that to get fortunes. George's bad luck ended as Steven ended up with the bad fortune and then accidentally ripped it while trying to perform one of their customary traditions. James got a good fortune, and George got the best fortune.
The next day marked the start of three days of wrenching on the Miata. Japan has roadworthiness tests for vehicles, similar to the DMV. The Miata didn't pass for tires and headlights early in the week, so they had to get another appointment. Work on the car got delayed, and they were behind schedule when they got started. Eddie originally wanted an EG Honda Civic hatch, but the Civics were more expensive. Martin coordinated with Buy Now Japan to find the Miata they had. There wasn't a set place to wrench on the car, but Buy Now Japan was kind enough to offer one of their shops for the boys to use. The shade was welcomed because it was crazy hot at 100 degrees plus 90% humidity. Although the shade was nice, there was no AC, so it was still a sweaty operation, but it was certainly a lot better than working in a parking lot. We're grateful for the group at Buy Now Japan and all their help. They were so accommodating; they even gave us a street car to borrow when we needed to get around while we had rental car troubles.
Converting a sight-unseen completely stock Miata to be track-ready in a few days wasn't easy, but it wasn't impossible. Fortunately, we did not have to have a full roll cage or fire system in the car to compete in the race. Safety regulations are much looser for the Idlers 12H enduro, which was in our favor. They had a few complications, specifically with the timing belt and water pump. In America, NB Miatas were only offered with a 1.8 liter. In Japan, the NB chassis got the 1.6 and 1.8, and they ordered parts for the 1.8 motor by accident. Outside of that, the bolt-in roll bar we bought wasn't the most straightforward fitment. Race seats are always a pain, and this one was no exception, as they had to modify the bracket to get it to mount correctly. From there, they changed fluids, rotors, pads, brake lines, radiator & hoses, plugs & wires, clutch & flywheel, exhaust, shocks & springs, tires, and a handful of other items to try and make sure that the little Miata would make it all 12 hours.
But first, it needed to make the road trip to Motegi. They loaded it up till it was stuffed with tools and spares. Steven and George started the hour-and-a-half trip to Motegi only to find the soft top wasn't up for the task and started peeling up. "It was pretty fun booking it there with George. The top came off on the expressway, so we had to stop and tape it down. That Miata was loaded up with crap!"
The following day, they visited the Honda Collection museum, which is located at the track. If historic Japanese race cars are your thing, this would be the place to go. They had a collection of historic Super GT, F1, IndyCars, and other significant Honda cars. Both the Toyota and Honda Museum are places we encourage any car enthusiast to visit.
They went to bed early that night at the hotel they stayed at in Motegi as the gates officially opened at the track at 1:00 a.m. for race day on Sunday. The boys arrived at 1:00 a.m. only to discover that everyone else had already unloaded the day before. Since they had to be up that early, it made for a very long day. The drivers meeting started at 6:00 a.m. This was one of the more challenging parts, with the meeting being all spoken in Japanese. Eddie did his best to interpret the critical things. They only needed the lead driver at the meeting, which was quite interesting. Not that any of our other drivers would have understood much of what they were saying anyway.
They found out quickly that plastic gas cans are frowned upon. The officials only wanted metal cans. They were nice enough to give them a break and let them use the plastic VP can once they realized they were newer to the rules/series. Their pit stop procedures were similar yet different from how most series do things in America. Just like Lucky Dog Racing, they have pit stops that are a minimum of 5 minutes long. Fuel first, then driver change. But service could only be done to the car once the 5:00 minutes were up. Interestingly enough, the officials wanted the fire bottle person to be right next to the fueler, almost on top of them. They pushed Steven a few times closer to the fuel guy during our first pit stop. It was peculiar, but every series has its own rules and ideologies.
The race ran from 8:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. Adam was our first driver, followed by George, Steven James, Rob, and Eddie. The Miata was in the E2 class with 11 other cars. The total field was composed of 52 with a wide variety of machinery. Current factory Audi R8 GT3 cars were mixed in with AMG GT4s, a GR Yaris, two RWB Porsches, and one cool AE86 Corolla. Ideally, our Miata should have been reclassified to a slower class, as the original plan was to run a Honda Civic, but it wasn't a huge deal.
Interestingly, there was no practice or qualifying before the start of the race, so the boys crossed their fingers and hoped that the Miata didn't reveal any unexpected problems. Outside of the radio communications not working, the car ran fine in the first stint. The guys went old school and made a cardboard sign when it was time to pit. The driver limit was an hour, and so was the fuel limit. Adam missed it once and was penalized for exceeding the driver limit, but it wasn't a huge issue. George hopped in and thought the car was down on power at first, only to realize it's just a 1.6 Miata that doesn't make any power in the first place. By the third stint, the heat and humidity started to take their toll on our Miatas cooling system as it started to overheat. They added a lot of water, turned the heater on, and went back out. After a second round of overheating, it became apparent that there wasn't a high-pressure cap on the radiator. Fortunately, the crew tracked down a cap from another Miata and installed that at the next pit stop. The cap helped some, but they had to continue occasionally topping it off with water.
Steven drove his stint and had a great time before James hopped in for his first hour. The heat caught up to him, and he started to get sick from dehydration, which forced him to come in early during his first stint. He still had a great time, saying, "The track was amazing. It was perfect for a momentum car and easy to learn for us."
"It was by far the nicest circuit I've been to or driven," Steven said. "Every flag station had a digital board. They had a front straight clock, and the garages were pretty neat. Plus, they had a full amusement park on the property for families to bring their kids to. That was pretty cool."
"Being out there during dusk as the lights started to come on was pretty special," George said. "The transition from day to night is always the best stint of an endurance race."
Everybody drove smoothly without any contact or major offs on our team. It was a bit of a 50/50 mix of crazy drivers and quality drivers in other cars, though. In Japan, if you're courteous and move over or point a faster car by (which they did a lot), the passing driver will often turn their hazards on as a way of saying thank you.
Eddie finally got in for the final stint to bring it home. They started 9th and finished 5th in the E2 class, which was a solid result considering they were in a faster class than they should have been. Regardless, the goal was to have fun and experience racing in another part of the world.
The consensus was that it was a fantastic trip. Everyone involved had a great time, and Steven and James enjoyed taking in all aspects of Japanese culture and history. Of course, the cuisine was a highlight. "All of it was good, but the Sushi was the best," James said. Steven, on the other hand, loved the cold Soba noodles. "It was delicious, and I didn't think I would like cold soup. I didn't have a single bad meal," Steven told us.