What a feeling! Arriving to Kobe on that rainy Sunday night felt surreal,
Not because Ayesh and I did it ahead of everyone else (except for World X founder Conrad Wall, who left checkpoint early to get to hotel to help with organizing and one of the Jaguars who missed the check point all together),
and not because we somehow managed to avoid any police trouble or heavy Kansai traffic,
but because we have achieved something truly amazing.
We teamed up with Daily Driven Exotics and Steve's POV to launch a rally phenomenon in Japan and it was an absolute blast!
For starters what was supposed to be a quiet 10 car cruise from a hotel in Tokyo to a Hotel in Kobe turned out to be one of the highlighted events of the weekend.
Perhaps the 15 minutes I spent talking to Steve at Tokyo Auto Salon could be summed up as the most productive in my automotive career. A quick mention of Daily Driven Exotics started a massive snowball effect about which I remember saying to Conrad: just grab your popcorn, the rest will sort itself out.
Fast forward to April 11 -- the rally haven't even started yet,
and we already had weird trucks, DDE, cop trouble, and a broken Ferrari!
I will let DDE boys talk about it here.
April 12 was when we have added a special Night Run, again thanks to Steve,
and this man... Still recovering from injuries resulting from his horrific Aventador crash, Morohoshi-san showed up in the Rolls Royce and brought his entire crew with him.
For full story how this became possible check out this feature on Life of Palos presented by Steve
We turned Disneyland up on its head, but I think Mickey Mouse was filing a police complaint.
We took the famous Wangan expressway to Daikoku parking area,
and everybody just showed up.
Next day was the official start.
We rolled out of the hotel bright and early, hit a bit of traffic, but were all clear once we got out on Tomei,
Ahead was the open road,
beautiful scenery,
and a group of amazing cars.
But we were not alone.
Morohoshi-san's team followed us up all the way to Hakone
where we managed to have a small photo session with a few cars.
Started with couple of BMW's,
with few additions,
we got ourselves a squad!
Just look at this scenery
Or this!
Soon after we had to separate with Morohoshi-san's crew and hit the road.
We were still 6 hours away from our destination in Nagano!
That meant we had to skip some of the scenic stops and gun it down, which resulted in some people getting lost, or taking wrong turns.
Eventually we reunited at service station, which was not even on the route, but oh well, sometimes a rally has to just fix itself. We were soon on the way to our stop for the night
Lotte Arai Resort in small town of Miyoko.
Day 1 complete, here is what DDE had to say about it
In the morning of April 14 we were greeted by crisp fresh air, nice breakfast and some new friends who decided to join the fun.
And some of the cars they had were absolute riot!
Just look at these things!
Again, we were not alone. We received warm welcome from local supercar crew from Toyama, who escorted us all the way to what can only be described as automotive wonder of Japan. Big shout out to Wakata-san for making it happen!
Chirihama Nagisa driveway - or just to put it simply: a sand highway.
With DDE around it only meant one thing
Send it! All we needed was some coffee to go along with these donuts! Nonetheless our fun was over soon as local law enforcement in form of worst investigating police officer on the planet made us pack up and go get some lunch. Check out DDE video to see what happened! #whateverfloatsyourboat
By the time we hit our first service area it already started to rain, and unfortunately it was following us all the way until final destination in Kobe.
We didn't get to see the beautiful city this time, but regardless of the weather the reception we got was awesome. What a way to conclude the rally.
Before I end this coverage, I want to give a shout out to something that made this event even more special: My BMW E90 M3.
What an amazing car this is. As I said in my previous post: a rally is the ultimate way to get to know your car, and what an amazing way for me to get reacquainted with this masterpiece of a car! Yes, as everyone I am very guilty of mundane starbucks runs, so this opportunity to stretch the legs, hear it revs, and finally see the shifts like was very welcome
The car just kept swallowing miles, in comfort, while carrying luggage for 3 people.
And when it came to the point of getting there quick, the car no issues keeping up with the supercars.
To sum it up, I can attest to the fact that I owe much of the delight of experiencing this rally to my car, and I'd do it all over again, and I'd only do it in my M3.
As for World X, things are just beginning to warm up. Please follow them on their Instagram page as Conrad is truly taking this project around the world with return to Japan being set for September.
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