Show Review: La Festa Mille Miglia 2007

Those who arrived early for the Tokyo Motor Show may have had the chance to see Japan's take on the Mille Miglia, the 1000 mile race held between 1927 and 1957 in Italy. Never a nation to take their hobbies anything less than seriously, La Festa Mille Miglia is a popular recreation by Japanese enthusiasts of the historic race, which replaces the Tuscan countryside with ten of Japan's states. Now in its eighth year, this time the race also commemorated the 80th anniversary of the first of the original series.

Unlike that however, cars here are divided into five different classes, approximately one for each decade between 1919 and 1967. The route begins in central Tokyo, not far from one of Nissan's design studios, on the outskirts of the popular Meiji Jingu Park.

The first stretch from there is along shopping-haven Omotesando, dubbed the Champs Elysees of Tokyo after the Parisian street, through Roppongi where Designer's Night is held, then out of the city. The cars then head up through the cooler northern prefectures of Japan, before returning via Motegi race-circuit to Yokohama, the city south of Tokyo - in all, 1000 miles.

Usually traffic in Tokyo is made of chrome-covered trucks and domestic models from Japan's 'Big Three', so it was surprising to see only one Japanese car in the race. This was a 1967 Toyota 2000GT MF10 - really good looking, and hard to believe from the same company as some of the small cars here. But being the newest car in the race meant the Toyota was last to start, with five Bugattis dated from 1924, a '29 Bentley Speed Six, and two Rolls-Royces setting off first. In a city like Tokyo where old cars are rare, those early Bugattis caused quite a stir - it was hard to get a view with so many shoppers holding out their cell phones for a photo! In fact, they had to cordon off the street, resulting in some great sounds from the cars as they used the space to accelerate past Fendi, Louis Vuitton and the rest.

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By Takeshi Sato