Visiting Honda in Japan next week

[NSA]

Barring any acts of God, on Monday night I will be flying to Tokyo with Honda and Pistonheads to see the new Civic Type R Mugen. I saw a late request for entries on PH, entered on Friday, and they told me on Monday I'd won. Did anybody else see or enter the competition - describe in 250 words why Honda / Type R / Mugen is so great. Easy!

The plan is to see the car, visit the Honda Collection, take a factory tour of Mugen, and some other stuff I can't remember. I'm in Miami at the moment and it doesn't quite seem true that I'm going on this trip yet. It should be incredible though.

[NSX 2000]

Yes, I also saw this, all I can say is you lucky bar steward ;)

Please take lots of photos and post up.

[WhyOne?]

Nice trip.

Tell anyone and everyone you see who works for Honda to get their fingers out and stop making cars powered by lentils and get back to building exciting, innovative drivers cars!

[Senninha]

Nice trip.

Tell anyone and everyone you see who works for Honda to get their fingers out and stop making cars powered by lentils and get back to building exciting, innovative drivers cars!

And to get the new super sports back on track!

[havoc]

You lucky beggar - I entered that too! :(

(TBH, didn't have enough leave spare at work, so it saved me a hassle...still would've liked to have gone.)

Not sure if you've been to Japan before, but if not have you got a Japanese phrase-book or a few words phonetically translated? Can't see you needing much as the whole trip's likely to be escorted, but a few words always oils things socially...so:-

Hai - Yes
Ee-eh - No
Ohayo Gozaimas - Good Morning
Kon-nichi-wa - Good Afternoon
Konban-wa - Good Evening
Hajime mash'teh - How do you do
Arigato / Domo Arigato / Arigato Gozaimas - Thank-you (very much)
(They don't generally have a word for please)
... ... o kudasai (I'd like ... ...) - use only at the end of a sentence.
... ... o hitotsu (one ... ...) - ditto, at the end.
... ... o futatsu (two ... ...) (e.g. naama birru o futatsu - I'd like two draft beers).

Oh...and there's a lot of 'Japlish' around - kohi = coffee, hamu sando = ham sandwich, cheesu sando = ...well, you can guess!


If you've not been there before, the people are wonderfully friendly (not all-smiles like the Thai, for example, but very hospitable and eager to help a tourist if they can. Very forgiving of faux-pas as well...), and the place feels both very Western and very odd at the same time.

Any which way, take a camera, and let us know how you get on...be really interested to hear...

[NSA]

Thanks guys. I'll definitely take lots of shots and will quiz them on the sports car plans. I've been to Japan once before a few years ago but missed the Honda factory tour (we did Toyota instead) so this is a real dream come true. Thanks very much for the phrases Havoc, I'll be sure to use them as much as possible.

Next post from Tokyo!

[AR]

Congratulations, did not even know it was on!

[havoc]

I've been to Japan once before a few years ago
Apologies then - hope I wasn't teaching you to suck eggs there!

Have a great time...you lucky git! ;)

[Rob_Fenn]

I expect to see hundreds of pics!! Have fun.

[TheSebringOne]

Congrats and have a great time!

[NSA]

I got back from Japan last night. Some of the details of the trip are in the Pistonheads news articles, and the journalist will write a story about the Honda Collection in a few days. As soon as I can track down my camera cable I will post my photos here.

Honda highlight was definitely the Collection, which is rammed full of cars and bikes. Most of these are classics or racing heritage. Unlike at Toyota there weren't many contemporary models, and as somebody else has previously pointed out, there isn't an oil pan to be seen underneath any of the cars or bikes.

NSX highlight was seeing a purple Super GT in the Mugen workshop on Thursday that will be racing this weekend. I was able to get up close but they wouldn't let me sit in it.

More later.

[NSA]

Here's the PH story on the Honda Collection:

http://pistonheads.com/news/default.asp?storyId=20341

My photos aren't much better but if I can find anything they didn't cover I will post it.

[havoc]

Been following the PH articles...and you ARE a lucky git!!! (I couldn't persuade the wife that we had a day to spend visiting Honda when we were there...and to be fair we didn't - 11 days only)

So:-
- what was the Mugen Civic like?
- was the museum as good as it looks in the photos, or are the photos most of the museum?
- what else did you see/do in Japan?

[NSA]

The trip was incredible. The day after we arrived I drove the Civic Type R Mugen back to back with a Type R saloon at Twin Ring Motegi (although it was just a big concrete test area rather than the circuit). The Mugen felt like more than 2 litres and definitely more refined than the previous car. It was wet so there was more understeer than usual but it was still a great drive. £35k is a lot but they only plan to sell 25 cars - I think it's more a marketing exercise for Mugen. I will probably get shot for this but outside it even sounded as good as my NSX at full throttle. You have to hear it to believe it.

The Honda Collection is at Motegi and is mostly racing and historic cars and bikes (lots and lots of bikes, which aren't in the photos), with explanations and sound clips of the best examples. Surprisingly, they also have other marques like Porsche 356, Bugatti 35, Suzuki bikes on show. You must be pretty confident of your own output to be able to do this. We didn't have long enough here to really savour it; although the photos are the best of the museum, I could have done another hour or two.

Motegi is a bit of a theme park and we saw Asimo in a separate area. He did the same show as at the UK Motor Show last year.

The Mugen factory tour was a real experience. They walked us round design, machine shop, fabrication, dyno testing, and the showroom. We could ask lots of questions and I saw the NSX Super GT car in the workshop. There was also a Civic Type RR with carbon fibre everywhere.

We also stayed in a top hotel and went out every night at Honda's expense. I couldn't have asked for more the whole time and I came away with an even better impression of the company than before.

I would definitely say Motegi and the collection are worth a visit, but they are a bit of a trek to get to. Japan is also unbelievably expensive. Beers in Roppongi were 1,000 Yen, which is about £6.50, and everything seemed to be at least twice the price of over here. I was in Japan in 2004 and don't remember it being this dear. Having said that, I only brought out my wallet once the whole of this trip - for a Mugen cagoule (£65), and a present for the wife.

[NSX 2000]

That does sound like Honda treated you very well :) To say I'm green with envy would be an under statement!

Can't wait to see some photos!

[TheSebringOne]

Sounds like you have been treated like royalty, very lucky fellow! Pics please.

[NSX 2000]

Piston Heads now has a video of Nick's visit to Japan :)

http://www.pistonheads.com/news/default.asp?storyId=20410

I'm really liking the Civic, just hope it comes with rear seats and not as the car you tested.

[TheSebringOne]

Saw the vid on PH lastnight, looks like Nick was well treated and the sound of that CTR Mugen is simply amazing! Just one thing, the estimated £30K price tag! :eek:

[AR]

Thanks for sharing your experiences mate one day I hope to make it there as well.

[NSA]

I assumed you'd all see the video on PH so I didn't post a link. I never did get those photos updated, my memory card looks corrupted because the computer can't read it. The video has most of the details.

The Honda Collection is definitely worth a visit if you go to Japan, but it is a good two hour drive from Tokyo. There might be tours available.

The Mugen HQ doesn't do any factory tours although they get a lot of requests. If you turn up the only thing to see is a few cars in the showroom, however one of these is a carbon fibre Civic!

Hopefully see some of you at the Ace Cafe on 20th September.

[autotecart]

WAW that sounds like a fantastic trip for sure!! Bet you will see some great cars in the museum there. Take your camera and send us some shots!! PLEASE!