I decided to make a separate F31 and Leopards post for a few reason. Obviously bias and since these are my brothers, I always decided to highlight them more.
A few months back, I was planning my trip and gave the dates to Ogawara-san. He told me that if I shift my schedule, I can go to a few events. This was Lake Suwa Old car festival, 80s Hero meeting at Fuji Speedway and Stance Nation (which was cancelled that weekend).
Any chance I can meet my brothers at a show or meeting, I will take it.
I misunderstood Ogawara-san when he said he’ll get me from the train at 0700. I thought he wanted me to take the train at 0700, which the train takes 2 hours to get to location, so I arrived at 0900 after taking the Super Azusa express to Lake Suwa, where Sugiyama-san picked me up and took me to the meeting.
Upon parking, we saw a Gold Zenki Grand Selection in the parking lot.
I found out it was Ogino-san later.
Once we got in, I saw our group line up and it was amazing. Umezawa-san and Ito-san didn’t drive their F31s, but an Infiniti M45 and Gloria (respectively and of the same year). It is nice to get a comparison side by side and learn the differences between North American and Japanese models. They are brothers, so I have to include them in this. Their impact in the F31 community is massive!
Here was the line up with tons of people (since I arrived later, I couldn’t get a clear shot of everyone’s car in one line).
Before I go further, I wanted to post the “other leopards/group” that was in the other side of the building. They were not attached to our group and I was only able to talk to one of the owners. I wanted to connect, but the F31 owners for those cars were walking around.
Their group had Y31s, Y33 Leopard, Zenki and Kouki Leopards.
Here was a random Leopard. The couple went inside and I hoped that they connected with our group.
Since this is about Leopards too, I was amazed to find this F30 Leopard in the parking lot! Even Sugiyama-san took pictures. This also marked a milestone for me as I have seen a 4 door earlier in the week from Shooting Star. This was Coupe!!!
Now to my brothers! I believe in this line up there were 25 Leopards. Yokota-san was across set up with a KITT car and BMW. Additionally, Ito and Umezawa-san’s Gloria and M45 and Ishikawa-san’s Maserati Ghibli.
Yokota-san
As I was going around taking pictures, Sato-san came up to me. He remembered me from Carshop Friend’s Hakone Meeting. I only knew him on IG, but he asked me to see his leopard! I was honored!! He even asked me if I was okay with transportation and if I needed a ride to train station. When we got back in, I asked if he knew any of the leopard owners. He didn’t, so I introduced him to Ogawara-san.
Additionally, my brother from VanKulture, Taguchi-san, came to Lake Suwa to meet me. I was so busy catching up with everyone that I didn’t get to talk to him as much as I would like too. I introduced him to other leopard owners (he came to Suenaga-san’s house last year to meet me).
Soon it was time to start getting ready to close up the show. These are the pictures I enjoy the most, the group pictures.
