Circuit driving in a 5MT-spec Esse

Mr. “J J”, 72 years old, was enjoying circuit driving in his Daihatsu Esse with its attractive blue body. He was a living legend who used to attack the Tsukuba Circuit and Fuji Speedway half a century ago. So we asked him what he is particular about his beloved Esse.

Bought a modified Esse

More and more owners are enjoying motorsports in classic cars, and there are many races and running events held at circuits in various parts of the country. The 44th Tokyo Bayside Classic Cup Series (hereafter TBCC), held on 10 March 2024 at Sodegaura Forest Raceway in Chiba Prefecture, was held in conjunction with the 14th Family Circuit Day, a circuit driving event that reaffirmed the fun of driving a car The event reaffirmed the fun of driving a car.

“The Daihatsu Esse, registered in February 2009, which I bought from a junior colleague, is a 5MT version and is equipped with dampers and sports filters. It has stabilizers in the rear as well as the front. It has been like this since I bought it. I chose such a car and bought it in July 2023.”

Mr. “J J”, who told us this, is 72 years old and this was his first time attending a Family Circuit Day.

A circuit-spec car with nothing more to tweak

“I only observed the last TBCC. In fact, some of my classmates and work colleagues are also participating as entrants. Because of this, I decided to buy a car suitable for circuit driving myself and try it out. The Essesse I bought second-hand already has over 140,000 km on the odometer, but it’s running great. There is nothing more to tinker with it, and I don’t have any particular difficulties in terms of maintenance and upkeep.”

“The Esse has great style and I like this body colour. It has specs that allow me to enjoy circuit driving, and I can make full use of the 5MT to drive it briskly in any situation, but I usually use it as a work vehicle.”

As a senior automotive enthusiast in terms of age, I thought he was a late bloomer and asked him about his younger days, but he was a living legend, having driven on the Tsukuba Circuit and Fuji Speedway when the 53-year-old author was in nappies.

Half a century ago there were a lot of mechanics on the street

“Over 50 years ago now, I was racing in a Nissan B110 Sunny and other cars. After that, you had fun zeroing in on Oldsmobile Cutlasses and other cars with V8 engines of 455 cu. in (about 7.5 liters), and the standard cars of the 1970s included Pontiac Firebird Formula 400s and Chevrolet Camaros.”

It seems that there were a lot of mechanics on the street at the time, and there was even a kind of normal car racing that was enjoyed with cars that had been lowered in height and had just had their mufflers changed.

“I was a mechanic myself, so I used to change the displacement of the Crown from 2.6L to 2.7L and up the displacement of the Cedric’s engine to 3L. At that time, I used to do Signal GP because bikers would sometimes make fun of me at traffic lights when I was driving a sedan.”

With such saga stories to tell, Mr. “J J” is a skilled mechanic and has received requests from various quarters to work on young people’s cars for some time, but has always been adamant. Even now, if he wanted to, he could probably tune his own car to a crisp and enter it in the TBCC, but he dares not and instead enjoys sports driving in his lightly tuned Esses, which is the “J J” way.

translated by DeepL