Welcome back everyone. We’re a little over the halfway point of our Japan trip coverage and today we’re going to look at the rest of the photos from our visit to the Honda Collection Hall. The photos today from the Hall are probably the more exciting ones since they will cover the Motorsports section. Yesterday we took a look at some photos of some early era Honda bikes as well as some of the less-often-seen early model Honda passenger cars. Those who have been there before will unlikely see anything new in the photos but I know there are many of you who have never had the chance to see what the Honda Collection Hall consisted of. I hope you have a better understanding of it now if you ever decide that you want to make a trip to Japan. Honestly, I wouldn’t go again and if you’ve spent some time looking at my photos, you probably won’t have to go either. It isn’t exactly accessible to those who take the rail system there and isn’t really worth going to unless you have a ride there or have an event at Twin Ring that you already had planned to attend. It’s cool, don’t get me wrong, but what you see in the photos is pretty much what you get. There’s a whole lot of history in that building and if you’re a Honda history buff, then you will probably enjoy it. If you’re into modded vehicles and the customization of cars, you’re better off taking the time to make some shop visits instead. I’m happy I was able to experience it for myself, and I’ll remember it forever, but I know now that my next trip to Japan will consist of checking out tuner shops instead. The Honda Collection Hall is one of those landmarks that you only have to visit once. It’s like the Statue of Liberty. You go there, check it out, appreciate it, and you never go inside again. It won’t change much and your next visit will probably be the same as the first…

I guess now would be a good time to remind you guys that there are still many more parts of our Japan trip coverage to come. TAS ’13 coverage may have ended already but we did so much more in the week that we were there. We later headed to Osaka to visit our friends at Tactical Art and even made a random trip over to J’s Racing to see what was new…

Before we get started today, here are the links to the previous six parts for those who are playing catch-up…

The Chronicles 2013 Japan Trip…Part 1: Intro and TAS 2013 Coverage…
The Chronicles 2013 Japan Trip…Part 2: TAS 2013 Coverage…
The Chronicles 2013 Japan Trip…Part 3: More TAS 2013 Day 1 Coverage…
The Chronicles 2013 Japan Trip…Part 4: Dinner With USDM FREAX and Day 2 of TAS ’13…
The Chronicles 2013 Japan Trip…Part 5: The Last of TAS ’13 Coverage and Dinner With USDM Magazine…
The Chronicles 2013 Japan Trip…Part 6: Twin Ring Motegi and The Honda Collection Hall…

Here’s the rest of our day at Twin Ring Motegi….

The Motorsports section of the Honda Collection Hall was the only area left that we hadn’t seen yet. I loved the way the Collection Hall was displayed and really enjoyed the bright white walls and ceiling. It made it really easy to shoot and the cars just looked great under that lighting…

Everyone sort of scattered the moment we walked inside because there was so much to look at…

Since I’ve always been a huge fan of Accords, the first car I went to get a closer look at was the 1997 Honda Accord SiR race car. This Accord participated in the 1997 JTCC Japan Touring Car Championship and eventually went on to win the Championship at Fuji Speedway in its second year of racing…

Team Kunimitsu Raybrig/SP Air/Kaneko NSX that participated in the 1996 24 Hours of Le Mans race, piloted by Kunimitsu Takahashi, Keiichi Tsuchiya, and Ryo Michigami…

No. 84 Team Kunimitsu NSX-GT2 that competed in the 1995 24 Hours of Le Mans race…

1987 Mugen Motul Civic Si race car… Love the center-locking Mugen MR5s and the classic Mugen livery…

Honda S800 RSC (Race Spec Car)… This roadster was the winner of the GT-1 class in the 1968 Suzuka 12-Hour Automobile Race….

This V12 RA122E-powered 1992 McLaren Honda MP4/7 was the final car in Honda’s second F1 era and was driven by the legendary Ayrton Senna…

Mugen never looked better than on this Beams Racing DC5 Honda Integra Type R race vehicle that competed in the Tokachi 24-Hour Endurance Race. It finished 1-2 in its debut race and also won Round 5 of the 2001 Super Endurance Race…

The 1964 Honda RA271 was the second Formula One car produced by Honda but the first to actually enter a race. It made its debut during the 1964 Formula One season, just one year after Honda had started producing road cars, and was the first Japanese-built car to ever participate in the FIA Formula One Championship…

Cooper T53 Climax…This was the first post World War II mid-engine car that served as the predecessor to the modern F1 race car. It was purchased by Honda as part of its own F1 development efforts and can be considered the precursor to the Honda F1 machines…

1965 Brabham Honda BT16…Honda’s first F2 GP vehicle that was a Brabham chassis featuring an RA300E Honda engine…

1967 Honda RA300 which is identical to the RA300 that was on display in the Honda section at Tokyo Auto Salon ’13…

I missed out on the description for this car. I can only presume that it was a Honda RA270 or something similar. I merely captured this photo of it because I thought the wheels were really interesting…

After we had finished up at the Motorsports area, I decided to get everyone together for a photo. The Honda Collection Hall was definitely a memory that I won’t soon forget, and I couldn’t think of a better section to take some group photos in…

Just before I called everyone, May got this photo of Salem and I… Good to see that Salem was feeling better that day and not yacking everywhere…

Group photo with Takeshi…USDM version…

Group photo with Takeshi…JDM Kawaii version…

Der wanted me to get a photo of him next to his idol Ayrton Senna’s McLaren F1 car…

…and of course, I couldn’t leave without getting a group photo with all of our Japanese friends that had accompanied us to Twin Ring that day…

After we stopped by the gift shop inside the Collection Hall, we walked outside to the parking lot and spotted this blue NA1 Honda NSX on bronze Black Racing wheels…

We walked back to the cars so we could drive over to the track area of Motegi. There wasn’t really anything crazy going on but we did hear some bikes blasting down the track so we decided to go check it out…

Before I got back into Takeshi’s van I made sure to get a closer look at how clean Akifumi Ikeda’s Integra interior was…

Soon after, we made our way onto the legendary Twin Ring course. We didn’t actually drive on the track of course, but it was an amazing feeling to be in that space. The only other time I had ever experienced this track was in a video game. It almost didn’t seem real to be staring at the Twin Ring sign…

Ikeda’s Integra on Volk SE37Ks parked in the paddock area…

Spotted this motorcycle with tire warmers on it…

Also in the parking lot was this Subaru Legacy wagon. I suspect that it must have been more heavily modified than it looked and was probably in “winter mode” with stock Legacy wheels on it…

I was lead to that conclusion because the Legacy had huge Endless brakes front and back and wheel clearance was very minimal…We were all surprised to see that the brakes cleared at all…

Yosiyuki Hatano took advantage of a photo-op in front of the Honda Racing sign…

Caught Takeshi snapping away while we were up in the elevated bleacher area…

Overhead view of Ikeda’s DC2…Proud to say that the only sticker he reps on his Honda is a Chronicles decal. One tidbit that I thought was interesting was Takeshi telling me about how Akifumi’s employers weren’t happy with his car. As I stated yesterday in Part 6, he works for Honda Corporate of Japan. He used to have his Integra much lower and they told him to raise it up because they weren’t happy with the ride height. He is in winter mode anyway so the car is a bit higher than usual but crazy to think that they would tell him to raise his car. Also, if you noticed, he has USDM Integra taillights on his car. USDM tails don’t have amber blinker lenses and Honda of Japan was also not happy about that so he had to switch out the bulb to make sure that the turn signals lit up in amber… Seriously, you can’t even make that shit up…

This was random…

Der and May watching bikes blast through the Twin Ring course…

Hatano’s CR-converted S2000 Type-S once again being used for photos, this time in front of the Gran Turismo Cafe. Yes, inside the Twin Ring Motegi is a cafe themed after Gran Turismo…

Of course you can also play Gran Turismo inside…

I wandered off into another parking lot to see if I could catch a glimpse of some other cars that were lurking. Other than this DC5 Honda Integra Type R, there wasn’t much to see…

Even the manhole covers beared the Twin Ring logo…

I really liked this photo because I think it shows the camaraderie between the older motorcycle enthusiasts…

Nick taking in the moment…

Back in the parking lot, I captured this Repsol bike that was unattended… Larger, alternate edit HERE…

One more of the bike with the tire warmers…

FD1 Civic with Spoon Sports brakes, unknown rear trunk spoiler, and matte black SSR Type-Fs…

Liked this snap because it had the Twin Ring sign in the distance…

There was a podium that was free for anyone to stand on so the guys took the opportunity to pose for this funny picture…

Bronze Mugen GP wheels and OEM FN2 Civic Type R brakes on a FN2 Motegi Pace Car…

Closing Part 7 out with a shot of another Repsol bike… Alternate, larger photo HERE…

Well, that concludes number seven in a 12-part series. Make sure to come back tomorrow for the next installment of our Japan Trip coverage. As always, thanks for looking. I appreciate the support and I hope you like what you see…