We arrived at our last shop we had planned to visit in Japan, Nismo's Omori Factory. Nismo Japan (which is completely seperate from Nismo USA) is Nissan's racing branch with a lot of racing history behind them. They offer complete car care to any Nissan car, sell many high-end bolt on parts, custom engine builds, and even build complete "Nismo tuned" cars to be sold at dealers in Japan with a full warranty. Take the Z33 (350Z in America) for example. In Japan, you could go to a dealer and ask for a Nismo Fairlady Z33. From there, you then specify what package you would want it in, such as E-Type, S-Tune, R-Tune, or S1. How cool would that be to have a fully built Mazdaspeed RX-8 autocross monster, right off the dealer floor, with full warranty?
We were given a short tour, as they did not allow us to see the real "bread and butter" of Omori Factory unfortunately (Kaizen's crew got to see it during last year's visit I heard, but no pictures were allowed). We did however get to see where the assembly process gets done and some of the engines that were being built for customers. Very clean and organized, but I suppose that is to be expected at an establishment such as this. We got to see the engine dyno in action, which was great! The room was impressive to say the least. We got to watch the tech working his magic on the engine for awhile, which was interesting to see him engine tuning with his equipment setup.
After that, We were taken to their small parking garage out back where we hit the jackpot. I'm pretty sure everyone was speechless for awhile at what we saw. Two 370Z race cars, one GT-R33 Skyline 400R, the legendary GT-R34 Skyline Z-Tune, and some other cars. The Z-Tune GT-R was one of 20 made in the world, a very rare car to see. We had just saw a replica Z-Tune that was a customer's car, but seeing the real deal was entirely different. It saddened everyone to see such an amazing car sitting in the garage and collecting dust, but hopefully someone will buy it and awaken it from it's slumber.
When we were done drooling at the collection of cars, we finished the tour with a walk around their second service area before heading into their store. They had all sorts of bolt on parts on display, race wear, engine powder coating options, and much more. I couldn't help but purchase an Omori Factory shirt after finding out that this is apparently their last year in that factory.
All-in-all, Nismo is a one-stop shop for any Nissan owning car enthusiast or racer. Being able to order race built engines to whatever specifications, high-end bolt on parts, or even being able to request custom parts, all in one place, was definitely an amazing sight. Mazdaspeed Motorsports Development offers great services and support for racers, but how cool would it be to be able to go to them for things like a basic checkup before a race, or to order a full custom built engine from them and have them install and tune it? Pipe dreams at the moment unfortunately, but something I would love to see in the future.
Thank you to Yozo Takayama from Nismo for the tour, and a big thanks again to Allen and Jun at Tomei for taking us to Nismo and spending the day with us. It was all a great learning experience that helped me shape my ideas even more. Be sure to check out the Nismo photos on my second photo album. Maybe in the future I'll become a Nismo customer when I decide to own a GT-R… That would be fun, don't you think? Maybe... If I ever get tired of rotaries that is!
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