Unaffected by the pandemic because of its timing and outdoor activities, the Toyota Automobile Museum’s 33rd Classic Car Festival will be held on October 9 in the city of Nagakute.
In 2020, the event proceeded despite COVID-19 restrictions and under special permission. The 31st edition of the event ran but was limited exclusively to Nagakute residents and the museum’s annual pass holders. About 50 privately owned classic cars participated in a street parade under strict health protocols. Most of the event was live-streamed with news-like coverage. The following year was a little less restricted.
The 32nd Classic Car Festival ran under the theme “sustainable car ownership as a rising culture,” and featured the usual street parade and an exhibition that focused on Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). accompanied by a variety of information through fun-filled live streaming. The parade of classic cars manufactured 30 years ago or earlier was escorted by the latest electric vehicles.
For 2022, the 33rd Classic Car Festival has “motorsports” as its them in commemoration of the return of Rally Japan, halted for two seasons by the pandemic and the opening of the new Fuji Motorsports Museum on October 7. The event will also feature the legendary Toyota 7 and have a series of motorsports-related talks.
The FORUM8 Rally Japan 2022 will be held just across town in Aichi in November, preceded by the opening of the Fuji Motorsports Museum in October as a branch facility of the Toyota Automobile Museum.
To kick off the 33rd Classic Car Festival a parade will be led by a rally car driven by locally-based racing legend Teruo Katsuta and his son Norihiko. The parade route runs through downtown Nagakute to delight the crowd. About 100 privately owned cars will then depart from the museum and parade through the town before reaching Aichi Expo Memorial Park. The spectacular motorcade will include vehicles spanning the 100-year history of automobiles in Japan, the U.S., and Europe.
The parade vehicles will be displayed at the venue, where a variety of events will be held–including talks by the two Katsutas and their associates, who will discuss the attractions of the FIA World Rally Championship (WRC) and things to look forward to in the final race, Round 13, in Japan starting on November 10.
The Toyota Automobile Museum will also resume exhibiting vehicles, halted by the pandemic in 2020, 2021. Then a demonstration of the Toyota 7’s engine performance will be made. The Event Zone features presentations of car restoration processes, GR (Gazoo Racing) heritage parts, and traffic safety awareness programs.
The event will be broadcast at a later date on the Toyota Automobile Museum’s official YouTube channel and on the Himawari cable TV service (Himawari 11). Though health protocols are less stringent now, the number of entrants to the Aichi Expo Memorial Park venue will still be “appropriately limited” according to the organiziers. Like in 2022, if the Aichi Prefecture suddenly goes under a state of emergency on the day of the event, for example, severe entry restrictions will apply.
