April 4, 20169 yr Just got back home after a whirlwind few days traveling down to be a part of the Japanese Nostalgic Car touge california 2016 event. I applied back in March and was accepted to attend this event. This was an invitation only event and I was thrilled to have been extended the invite. Turns out only 28 cars were invited to attend (not sure how many applied) and I was the lone Subaru amongst mostly Datsuns and Mazdas. Me and the wife started the journey Friday morning at 6am and arrived in Escondido around 3pm. 1st leg of the trip was about 500 miles. Got a good night sleep and headed out Saturday morning to start the drive after topping up the tank. Here are a couple pics at the start. And here is my car ready to go It ended up being a little over 200 miles start to finish and took about 11 hours( ), including the final stop. The whole event was an absolute blast, just like about 3 hours too long, IMO. The drive was through some great SoCal backroads that were a combination of nice high speed sweepers, tighter more technical sections mixed in with some decent elevation changes and only about 10 miles of freeway time. There was one ball buster 8% grade (i think) that had me real worried. Ended up making it but was floored in 1st gear! Made it all the way to the final checkpoint at Corona Del Mar beach then it was off to Mazda North American R&D in Irvine for a BBQ meal and a tour of the Mazda Heritage Collection, which 3 cars from the collection actually took part in the touge. (85' RX7 GSL-SE, 75' REPU, and a 78' GLC) They also had a display in the courtyard where they held the dinner of some other notable Mazda vehicles such as the only LHD spirit R RX7 ever made and a RX-792P race car that they actually started up for us. It's unbelievable the sound of that 4 rotor motor and how quickly is would rev! By the time the event was over, it was about 10pm and I was dog tired. Luckily we had hotel reservations close by so we were checked in and resting by 11pm. Got up and hit the road to come home at about 8:30am and pulled in the driveway at a little past 3pm. Last leg was a little over 400 miles so total trip was probably just over 1100 miles with the biggest issue a loose alternator belt that was easily fixed. Based on the comments I got during the event, the little Subaru surprised a few people with it durability and how well it handled the roads. To be honest, it surprised me as to how well it handled also. I was kind of expecting it to be a bit of an understeering pig, (I only have stock size tires on it) but as long as you drove at a spirited pace, it just dove into the corners and stuck pretty well. Go a bit past that and it would overwork the tires and start plowing. Just dialed it back a notch from there and enjoyed the roads. And here is the proof the car made it. (I think 3 cars dropped out?) Now she gets to rest for a while!
April 4, 20169 yr That's really cool. I've been keeping tabs on your posts and I'm glad to see you enjoying the car so much.
April 4, 20169 yr Very cool! I have always wanted to get down to a JCCS event, but haven't made it a priority yet. I also don't think any of my cars are nice enough to be invited to any of their drives or shows.
April 5, 20169 yr Author Couple action shots that were sent to me. The blog reports are starting to hit online. So far I've seen Autoweek and Petrolicious.
April 7, 20169 yr I've been wanting to take my XT6 to JCCS for the last few years but life tends to get in the way. Looks like a lot of fun!
April 8, 20169 yr Author Just to be clear, this was not the JCCS show, or put on by the JCCS organizers. This was organized by Japanese Nostalgic car (JNC).
April 29, 20169 yr Author JNC writeups. http://japanesenostalgiccar.com/events-2nd-jnc-touge-california/#more-48736 http://japanesenostalgiccar.com/touge-california-the-cars-and-teams-of-2016/#more-49456
Please sign in to comment
You will be able to leave a comment after signing in
Sign In Now