Gorgeous weather and a superb turnout of Japanese cars made for a great day out at Castle Combe circuit in Wiltshire for Japday 2016. This was my first time at the circuit and it was also Japday’s first time there.
On track there were drifting demonstrations and trackday sessions, with the car show going on in the paddock and around the outside of the track.
The day was mainly about performance cars, so if you were after huge turbos, polished intake pipework and iconic Japanese fast cars you were definitely in luck. You may have been a little disappointed if you wanted something at the quirky / luxury end of the spectrum. Notable (although not the only) exceptions to this were the 4 Toyota Alphards on the Alphard club stand, a Nissan Pao and a Nissan Bluebird with a full set of doilies.
The car show comprised trade stands and an impressive range of club stands, with Nissan and Subaru seeming to be represented particularly well. The Japanese cars only parking area also had a really nice range of vehicles.
The drifting demonstrations courtesy of the drift outlaws series featured some seriously impressive driving. It was interesting to see the cars up close in the paddock afterwards: the dust, shredded tyres and cable tied battle scars offered a welcome contrast to the high gloss shine all around. That isn’t a dig at polished cars by the way!
The only thing letting the day down for me was some thoroughly irresponsible driving in the public areas of the paddock. I was sad to see this because apart from being dangerous it detracted from the family friendly feel of the day.
Overall the event was a real success for me and I was glad to have been there. The organisation of the event was very good and I was pleasantly surprised not to have to queue in traffic on the way into or out of the venue. I hope to see this event on the calendar for next year!
Pictures from JapDay 2016
