FT86CLUB Homepage Featured Story
I was in Japan earlier this year, and one of my goals for my time there was to drive an 86. I've been following the car since the first internet rumours, and since I can't afford to buy one just yet I really, really wanted to drive one.
I found a couple of websites offering one to drive for a pretty good price - 10,000 yen or so. However, after shooting them an email application it seemed that they required a Japanese licence or for an applicant to hold some company position in Japan. I was about to give up on my dream, when I thought I may as well check the Toyota rentacar website to see if they had one there.
There was nothing on the English website, but by sleuthing around on google I found this one page offering you to hire
either an 86 or a Prius PHV. Hmm, tough choice...
So I called up their English rentacar hotline and they let me rent one! It was 23,000 yen or so, so not the cheapest but I didn't care.
I picked it up in Yokohama later that week (you can see my brother in the back seat!):
We wanted to head for Hakone, a hot spring resort town about two hours drive along the coast then up into the mountains. Sweet.
At a service area, we found a BRZ. The owner was quite amused to see us I'm sure.
Once we headed into the mountains, a large sign saying 'TOYO Turnpike' caught my attention and the GPS's instructions were ignored. All told, I rode the turnpike 3 times that day. It was an amazing road: wide, plenty of corners and pretty deserted! Being the cold day that it was however I was a little scared of frost so I didn't push the car hard at all.
Sorry I don't have any photos of the road - I was too busy enjoying it. Here's a photo of the rest area:
At the top of the mountain, it was really really cold. Well, cold for an Australian like me anyway. I'm glad the snow wasn't on the road.
We were pretty hungry so we drove along the lake to a curry place for lunch. While I was taking a photo, a super unusual car for Japan just happened to drive past:
I wasn't a big fan of the econobox exhausts, but looking at the car from this angle I did notice the numberplate they had on the car. Cool!
The coastal town of Odawara had a cool castle:
Anyway, after lunch, we headed up another pass (seriously, I was just chasing signs that said 峠 (touge)). Upon traversing a tunnel to the other side, we were greeted by an amazing view. At this point, any regrets of spending 23,000 yen hiring the car were banished from my mind:
Wallpaper version of the image here. I can't stop drooling over it.
In summary, it was an awesome day in an awesome car. I can't wait to get one for myself! Oh, and random fact: my 190cm brother said sitting in the back for a good 4 hours that day 'wasn't too bad'!
As a finisher, when I lived in Japan for a year a few years ago, I hired a car with a little more power as a goodbye present to myself:
