Recap of Japanese F1 fleet - Part 1

[ArchangelGTR]

Thanks for the recap of your trip F1. Looking forward to your pictures.

[hurstg01]

Great post

Originally Posted by F1 monster

i made it to zaz yesterday. it was a small place but it had amazing supercars. photography was forbidden and there were security cameras everywhere. i had to do some serious sweet talking through my translator...eventually they relented and even opened up the barriers and allowed me to sit in the lm and take pictures. the gt was the maroon car, repainted. it was locked and they couldnt find the key so i wasnt able to get into it. i hope the serial number is known because i couldnt really see it

That'll be #58F1GT

Originally Posted by F1 monster

I will post the pics after i get home, in a couple of days.

Looking forward to it

Originally Posted by F1 monster

the cars are not driven too often, perhaps twice a year. once for a festival in the summer, once around xmas.

Now THOSE are pics I really wanna see

Originally Posted by F1 monster

the owner had a white f1 as well, it was sold back to the factory and from there...i hope peloton/hurst or one of the other experts knows.

That'll be #053 (); I am unsure as to where it is now though

Originally Posted by F1 monster

there was a lot of information about the gtrs and the racing scene but my translator had a sore throat by then, so i guess that will have to wait till my next visit. apparently a green f1 is on display a half hour away. and there is some connection to someone named Mark in Australia who owns a Ford dealership. He has two McLaren F1s, including the Lark GTR, if I understood it all correctly.

He had, not has, the Lark F1 (#13R) but that now is owned by a German businessman, and resides between the South of France, the UK and Germany. I guess the green F1 would be #051 (?)

[Peloton25]

Originally Posted by hurstg01

That'll be #031; I am unsure as to where it is now though

You meant to say #053. Shin Okamoto has #031.

Originally Posted by F1 monster

...and there is some connection to someone named Mark in Australia who owns a Ford dealership. He has two McLaren F1s, including the Lark GTR, if I understood it all correctly.

That would be Mark Coffey of Maranello Motorsport - a Ferrari dealership - who purchased the #13R LARK GTR from the ZAZ collection, but as Greg notes it has since moved on. At the time, Maranello Motorsports also had #16R, but as we all know that one ended up in mr bridger's garage. Mark has posted here in the past under the screen name coffeym.

Sounds like you had a wonderful trip (at least by my standards). Thanks for sharing the details - can't wait to see the pics.

>8^)
ER

[hurstg01]

^^ :doh: I've named both my #031 and #053 files as ZAZ = corrected now. (blame it on old age )

[Le Man]

F1 Monster,

Great to hear you had an F1 filled visit to Japan, as for viewing Mount Fuji first over an F1 LM (how many years has that rock been there!!)

Look forward to viewing your pics, with great anticipation.

Let us all know in advance, of your plans to visit Japan again.

[F1 monster]

Right, pics are up, but first things first.

Many thanks to my friend Bob, who managed to recover my CD. I had been using a friend's camera in Japan, so had transferred the pics in batches onto a CD. The internet cafe where I went to do this was always busy, so I ended up using their only available machine, a Mac. To me, the Mac is a retarded machine designed for retards. I always get stuck trying to do the simplest things, and this one was running some Japanese version of the Mac OS, so I had to guess my way through numerous dialog boxes...which meant that somehow I managed to really screw up the CD.

Imagine my dismay when, upon landing in the US and loading up my CD on my PC, only half of my precious pictures showed up, and they appeared to be corrupted as well! However my friend went into his company's data recovery lab on a Sunday and managed to get all the files back! What a relief! Something to do with sessions...grrr, whatever!

Many thanks also to tvrfreak for the hosting. Stellar job on getting everything sorted and generating the albums and transferring them up to the server so quickly. The pics have been resized to save on bandwidth and time. I will be loading up the hi-res ones later, when there is more disk space available. If you really want any of them in hi-res , please send a PM, although I can't promise anything because I will be traveling again soon.

Right, here are the pics...enjoy!

Bingo Motorsports

ZAZ Museum

I have removed 3 pics from the Bingo gallery and 1 from the ZAZ gallery to protect the identity of the individuals who allowed me to take the pics.

Apologies in advance for the poor quality pics...

Peleton, please feel free to edit and add thumbnails or whatever to this post.

[hurstg01]

Some great shots . and some oh-so-near Chassis plate shots too of the GT. Congrats

[jkbon]

Nice pics, thanks.

[BRX880]

Didn't #053 end up at SPS HK...?



@ F1 Monster

Big thanks for those super pics!!
Is there a chance of a higher res.?

[Peloton25]

Originally Posted by BRX880

Didn't #053 end up at SPS HK...?

It did - but I am not sure if it is still there today.

Took a glance at your pics Monster - they are great. You got an excellent shot of the GTR #28R chassis plate! Shame they couldn't open the GT for you. What were your thoughts on the new paint scheme for the car?

>8^)
ER

[Le Man]

Ace pics F1 Monster, opcorn:

Originally Posted by F1 monster

i had to do some serious sweet talking through my translator...eventually they relented and even opened up the barriers and allowed me to sit in the lm and take pictures.

You sat in the LM and did not take any interior pics . Oh well perhaps next time.

I,d like to see them in high res please, in your own good time though, esp GTR# 28R. Many thanks in advance.

[F1 monster]

I loved the new paint scheme on the GT. The lighting at ZAZ is very dim, so it's hard to make out some details, but the grey/black was simply beautiful, and the interior was very tastefully done as well. It was basically black with magnolia on the driver's seat. It looked kind of like a toy set with the F1 car next to it, in identical colors.

I read in Racing Line that they are very careful about how many microns thick the paint layer is that they put on the F1 car, in an effort to keep weight down. The sponsor logos, etc., are all painted on, they are not stickers. I wonder if the GT also had a very thin layer, as it probably was done in the same paint booth. I suspect it's applied in thicker layers on a road car though.

[F1 monster]

Le Man, yeah, he let me sit in the LM as a special favor so I didn't want to appear pushy. I sat there and just soaked in the experience...didn't want to be so busy clicking pictures that I didn't get to enjoy it. Wish I had taken more pics now, though. Same with all the beautiful temples I went to--I didn't take any pics at all and now I am regretting it. At least I got a couple of shots of Mt. Fuji...!!

[Peloton25]

Since there is not a clear picture of the GT's chassis plate, do you recall exactly what was written on it? My best guesses would be 058 or 58F1GT - did you happen to notice?

>8^)
ER

[hurstg01]

My guess would be 58GT, as the GTR's have R after the chassis number, with no reference to F1.