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On Swift Springs to Sendai
For such a modern land that Japan is, it holds on to some strange quirks. One of such is the lack of a 24 hour lifestyle. Trains in Tokyo take a break from midnight, sending literally millions scuttling home just when the going gets reasonably lubricated. ATM machines, until recently, were even more frustrating, shutting off before you have even had time to leave the office. That is, if your office actually lived at a 9 to 5 schedule, as opposed to the 9 to 9 schedule most do.
And if you had to drive long distance to go to an Event 350 kilometers away in Sendai, North of Tokyo, and ended up arriving around 2am... Well, let's just say that not only will you not find a place to stay (even the "business" hotels tend to close the front up around midnight), but you may get a bit of unwanted attention from the black and whites if you just try to park somewhere.
Thus Ross and yr humble correspondent ended up sharing the front seats of my Legacy GT at a rest stop about a half hour out of Sendai. That seems to be the official method of resting up, given the amount of other cars and trucks parked silently under the lights. Since we had to pay 7500yen for the privilege of using the expressway that far (about $65 USD), I certainly felt we were due some sort of rest place. Too bad there were no showers. Plenty of hot coffee in a can or cup, though, at a dollar a pop.
The journey up was quite pleasant for Japan given that there was little traffic on the way out. New performance springs had just been fitted a spare week or so before, and this was a good test of their ride ability on the espresso way at paralegal speeds (by definition, speeds that may require a legal specialist if the plod was about). And from speeds up to 100mph, they certainly impressed. Despite being relatively firm, the very initial impact on small bumps is well damped without those jiggles that tend to upset the inner ear to no end. Some spirited runs through the twisties showed it to have a very neutral balance with a touch of understeer on high-speed sweepers, an ideal setup for spirited street driving and most circuit duties. The JDM Legacy GT comes with firm Bilstein dampers as stock equipment and these springs had definitely been designed for use with them. AVO stabilizer bar endlinks helped finish off the setup by reducing free play in the stabilizer bar setup. Overall result is a very M3 level of handling performance without any harsh tradeoff in ride. With a pair of AVO mufflers and a panel filter the overall modifications were quite minor, but provided a pleasant amount of spice to the proceedings.
Sendai itself was somewhat anti-climatic. It misted or rained steadily through the entire weekend. That was vaguely comforting to me as I come from Seattle, but in Seattle there is a latte stand on every corner to dispense caffeine comforts throughout the year-long drizzle. Saturday was a little slow, for people further out in the countryside of Japan tend to be a bit more traditional than Tokyo in working 6-day work weeks, Monday through Saturday. Still there were people arriving before the opening at 10:30 with a steady trickle of customers throughout the day. Ross spent some time on the dyno, a hub-mounting 4-wheel dyno that allowed for testing of 2wd and 4wd vehicles. One of the most interesting through there was an R32 Skyine GT-R with a single turbo conversion kit that liked to belch flame out the back on overrun, and produced some 600hp at the hubs. They certainly don't make the fire-belchers like they used to.
At least we got a good sleep in beds of the more regular sort that night, after a little bit of beer to make up for the night before. Ok, ok, a pitcher or two. More? Memory is suspiciously fuzzy, and the following days hangover a bit vicous. Sunday was a bit better than Saturday in terms of weather and of crowds, with bits of sunlight now and then, and the parking lot nearly full before the event even started. While there was a great deal more customers and interest that day, most of the crowd was preparing for the winter season. Soon enough we were packing up and preparing for the trip back, another late night journey, though not as late as the one out. The discovery of a Tullys coffee in downtown Sendai cheered us up immensely, there is nothing better for a long trip back on a Sunday night.
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