Ahhh Japan. Does a week go by without another massive AE86 event happening somewhere on your small-yet-crowded island? First it was 8/6 day, then the insanity of racing at Okayama and now “HACHiRoCK!! FESTA 2008” When will it end? (Never we hope!)
The event is held annually in a reserved parking area owned by the Sagamiko Resort in Kanagawa and last year saw over 250 cars turn out for a day of AE86 fun and friendship. HACHiRoCK!! FESTA is mostly a social event where AE86 owners from all over Japan can get together and meet up with those they might only have ‘spoken to’ on the Internet.
The event is organised around an official schedule and within it there is an ‘Introductions’ segment where they go from group to group (organised into regions like yokohama, tokyo, kansai, etc) where everyone can find people they know on Minkara (A Japanese ‘Cardomain’ style site) and Mixi (Japanese ‘Facebook’) as well as people who live in your region and get to know them a little better. Oh and of course talk endlessly about your own car and the experience associated with drivng, racing, fixing and living/breathing an AE86 life.
For the 2008 event, over 20 sponsors turned up to support the gathering (including all the big workshops like Garage Annex, Expert-Oz, TOOLBOX, Ukiya Shoukai, CBY, TecArts and heaps more!) with more than 300 cars attending! It was an AE86 gathering of epic proportions!
Most of the workshops who turned up, brought along their top-shelf demo cars to no doubt garner interest in their hottest new design idea or perhaps just to gather spectator drool off the floor. A few of the more well known AE86-exclusive drift teams made the trip and transported their entire squads down there too!
It’s one of the biggest social AE86 events of the Japanese AE86 enthusiast calendar along with several other internationally renowned meets, its surely one to watch out for next year. Watch the HR Blog for next year’s direct coverage when our reporters head over to cover the massive event planned for ’09.
Check out the pics from the day here.
