A Visit To The Japanese Temple of Collector Cars

A Visit To The Japanese Temple of Collector Cars

Words + Photos: Jack Shepherdson

The Japanese love collecting cars. Possibly more than in any other nation, their love of cars runs incredibly deep. Of course, everyone is familiar with the Japanese tuner culture that was centre stage in Fast & Furious Tokyo Drift and Initial D - but there’s another side to Japanese car culture that is a little quieter, but approached with just as much fervour.

Japan holds collections of some of the rarest, most unbelievable European classic cars. Specifically, they’ve got a taste for Italian cars - the more esoteric and rare, the better. We’re talking Zagato-bodied Alfa Romeos, Ferraris made especially for Japanese clients, and the most hardcore classic Lamborghinis ever built. Sadly, these cars rarely see the public light of day, outside of the occasional early-Sunday morning blast out of the cities up to the mountain roads. The Concorso d’Eleganza Japan is the exception to the rule, and is where the nation’s best cars came out to play for the weekend.

Held on the grounds of the World Heritage Site Yakushiji Temple in Nara, formerly Japan's first permanent capital city, it’s a place that’s arguably more impressive than the cars dotted around the temple grounds. The temple usually isn’t open to the public, so the chance to walk around this extraordinary place is a treat on its own. Arriving at the Concours, the cars are fanned out along the lawn leading to the steps of the temple. Around the temple are smaller satellite grounds, where more cars are on display. Each car is spaced out with lots of breathing room for you to meander around the cars, no velvet ropes or barriers in sight so you can take in all the details.

So which cars are we talking? The first Ferrari ever made, the 166 Inter, parked next to another example that’s just a year older, a black 159 Inter. A bright orange Lamborghini Diablo GT, a gorgeous little jellybean-shaped Alfa Romeo Giulietta SZ, and the Mazda RX-792P racing prototype whose four-rotor engine was so loud we could hear it from six blocks away.

Japan’s Prime Minister, Sanae Takaichi, has become something of a cult hero in the car scene for driving a rare Toyota Supra Twin-Turbo in her earlier years. Her actual Supra made an appearance on the Concours grounds (alongside her cardboard cutout in the passenger seat). Toyota couldn’t keep out of the fun and also brought along their fantastic one-off AXV-II concept car, the precursor to the Toyota Sera, breaking it out of their museum for the festivities.

Staying along the line of Japanese specials, lounging on the grounds was one of Ferrari’s ultra-rare J50s, a limited run of 10 unique Ferraris made exclusively for Japan, parked alongside a few other Ferrari flagships like the SP1 and LaFerrari.

My personal highlight was the Lamborghini 400GT - no matter how many times I strolled around all the cars, I found myself floating back to look at this unrestored Lambo. It was the second car the company ever built, before they made supercars, built at a time when the company was trying to be the Italian Rolls-Royce.

As you walked down the main display, the cars aged backwards in time down through Alfa Romeo, Abarth and Lancia 1950s racing machines, past the Concours winner (a unique 1928 Rolls-Royce Phantom Experimental Torpedo), all the way back to the actual first car ever made, the Benz Patent Motorwagen.

As the sun began to set, the engines fired to life, and the cars began making their way out of the temple grounds onto the main roads. Their destination was another temple around the corner, for an evening award ceremony and dinner. Given the range of the cars - from the Benz Patent Motorwagen to the track-only Mazda racing prototype that gut-punched you with a wave of sound and vibrations when it started up - I was surprised to see every car make its way onto the public roads for a short blast. In some cases, the suited-up attendees were riding shotgun on the single-seater race cars by sitting on the cars’ open bodywork and hanging onto the rollbars. Hearing these incredible machines roar out of the temple in the soft light into the quiet Nara streets is a sight that will stick with me forever.

The Concorso d’Eleganza Japan has just announced its dates for next year, running across the weekend of April 10th-11th 2027. After this year’s event, it has well and truly earned its spot on the global car event calendar.

A Visit To The Japanese Temple of Collector Cars

Words + Photos: Jack Shepherdson

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