JGTC - Japan's Most Insane Cars In One Race 

Got a screwdriver in your bung hole?? Or been in a car accident, workplace injury, or other personal injury? Morgan and Morgan has got your back with any legal issues! Check them out: www.forthepeople.com/Albon Do you miss the glory days of JGTC? SuperGT is alive and well, but you ain't watching it, so what do you think they need to get back into the spotlight?

I've moved here from donut when the killed up to speed, it's amazing to see someone as talented as you and as smart keeping us into car culture!

I think Group A deserve a video of it's own. It might not been the fastest, most glamorous class of race cars, but it gave birth to many iconic performance cars that people can actually buy without selling their organs.

Gran Turismo 2 having licensed JGTC cars is what made me fall in love with Japanese motorsport and JDM cars as a whole. Not only were they absolute beasts, they looked awesome, are easily recognizable by their bodywork and liveries. Cars such as the Castrol Supra, the Calsonic and Pennzoil Skylines, the Mobile 1, Raybrig and even later the Arta NSX Honda's, those cars are absolutely stunning.

When i was 7 years old I was exposed to JGTC when I got to play Gran Turismo 2. I fell in love with JDM cars like the NSX, Skyline, and Supras. When I unlocked my first JGTC car I was infatuated. The Pennzoil Nismo R34 GTR. It was lowered, slick looking, and wide as hell. The aesthetic was beautiful. Since then, I've always loved the Japanese Sport.

Even now Super GT is still very fun to watch, they post the full race on their channel after a few days of the race, super action packed.

This and 90s BTCC shows that the 90s/early00s were the best time for racing.

Honestly, you will never see another era like mid 90s JDM cars again. The world has changed.

Every time a new Albon video comes out, it’s a good day.

I'm glad someone is giving Super GT/JGTC attention, Gran Turismo sparked my love for those races

The 90's was peak motorsports in every part of the world. F1, Rally, LeMans, BTCC, JGTC and sooo many other Championships

90s were insane years for racing, the extremely competitive BTCC, Japanese racing, later years of Group C, CART and the technological rise of F1 not to mention the legends in early 90s F1.

Awesome vid but definitely have to shine some light on 10:23 10:26, this was the skyline that raced in the Australian Group A touring car championship, it had a completely different setup from front to rear compared to its Japanese counterpart. The entire car was redeveloped from ground up which included using their own engine block as the block that came from Nismo Japan couldn’t handle the heat and power being produced in the Australian climate. The Australian Group A GTR also ran higher hp/boost along with a revised/strengthened awd system. The Australian GTR was faster and far superior than the Japanese version which led to Nissan Japan banning the Australian group A GTR from competing in Japan. If you want to look into it a bit more search up Gibson motorsport r32gtr, there’s a video by HP Academy where they speak with the team manager about how the car was acquired and redeveloped/reengineered to race in Australia.

The 1990’s was my favorite decade, best cars, best music, best everything imo. Every Japanese car manufacturer had produced some special cars, Europe as well and even in the US. great video btw.

I love your videos. JGTC was such a part of my automotive interest as a kid. The RE-Amemiya Asparadrink RX-7 was the most amazing thing to me, and ruined my life by turning me into a rotary geek.

This is my absolute fav era of racing. Growing up in Sri Lanka this was the pinnacle of racing other than F1 for all of us Asians. JGTC was and Japan in general was the place to be how cool.

The “Calsonic” GTR is actually from team Impul. Calsonic was just a sponsor. they actually still run that same livery in their modern 400Z and won the 2022 Super GT championship with it

Racing itself is already crazy

Great vid and story but just wanted to point out that Toyota themselves never used a 2jz in any of their supras in JGTC every Toyota/TRD factory entery was a 3S-GTE powered car all the way till 2003 where toyota switched to a 5.2L 3UZ-FE V8 engine and then in 2005 they used a different spec 4.5L version of the 3UZ-FE IN 2005 which was the supras final year of competition the only time a 2JZ was used was by privateers BLITZ and Gre-Co SHIFT POINT being the only two teams to run 2JZ powered cars AND Some sources I've heard qoute that all the 3S-GTE cars had completley bespoke engines enlarged to a 2.1 and others say that all the 3S-GTE cars where just 2.0L so I'm unsure about displacement but yeah.

9:46 mk3 side exhaust pops ❤️‍🔥

this guy needs his own news channel or something, i have never been so intrigued by how someone explain something. the way he explains all of this made it so simple but exciting, his words and transitions are fantastic. you sir have earned a new subscriber

“Godzilla” (including the nickname) was born in the Australian racing scene, the locally specced Aussie R32 GTR had a higher spec trim than the Japanese ones, and Nissan in Japan even sent folks over to Australia to see how they did it.

Also other R32 Taisan team driven by Keiichi Tsuchiya and Kunimitsu Takahashi. What a dream team. In 1994 JGTC, they drive a Porsche 911 and won the race

15:48 That weight penalty system based on points is super interesting! I wonder if any modern-day racing series have thought about adapting something like that? Great vid as always!

The weight handicap is such a brilliant idea

I can’t thank you enough for how much effort and information you put into your videos. I grew up playing Gran Turismo, but never looked up all the facts about the history behind all of Japan racing. Keep up the great work man!

Fun fact : In 2000 JGTC championship, Ryo Michigami driving a honda nsx won both championship, without getting a single pole and win.

It's 2am and the YT algorithm decided to present a 24 minute documentary to me about something I know nothing about. Well hell yes, thank you YT, that was the most interesting 24mins I've had in a long time. Great vid.

I swear I love these style videos. Please never stop them, I love the stories and the knowledge of the hobby I love. Keep this going bro! It's your golden ticket!

This was a great video. Well done, good sir. Racing "production" cars that fans want to see is key to popularity.

this is the first video i've seen from you and I gotta say, I am really impressed with the consistency & quality of narration, not getting muddied in details, and the extensive footage from the era instead of a whole lot of talking heads. Thank you for making motorsport content.

I live less than 20 minutes away from where the Elgin Road Races took place & never once heard about them... thank you for filling me in that I essentially lived at one of the places where motorsports was born - you are doing a good thing here man

A N1 spec R32 GTR also raced in the USA at Daytona in 1994. The only R32 to race on US soil in an official race. This car was a joint partnership between a privateer team and Nismo to gather telemetry and data from the car racing at Daytona to use for future projects and various R&D. The car was in the GTU category and the chassis was an ex Japanese ran N1 car that won the Tsukuba 12hrs. The car at Daytona practice was immensely fast in the infield. This was because it utilized an AWD system and made a decent amount of power. Teams using RWD GTU cars complained about this so in typical IMSA fashion they added ballast and forced them to use a 38mm Restrictor on the turbo to put less air dumbing down the power. The car qualified 43rd at 2:06.121 and finished 20th overall. If it didn’t have these handicaps we could’ve seen a possible R32 GTR in class win!

Malaysian here and I did watch a few races at Sepang when Super GT circus was there. The atmosphere was amazing, with good racing, great cars and lovely GT queens. Ya your video left out another Super GT's spectacle, where race queens are a great attraction. Malaysia supposed to return in 2020 replacing Thailand but got postponed due to the pandemic. It supposed to return in 2023 but perhaps let's wait till official announcement. Great video btw! Yup, I enjoyed the screaming and fire-breathing rx7 at Sepang. The Honda HSV (successor to gen 1 NSX) had an F1 soundtrack too!

Thank you youtube algorithm for recomending this, I didn't know I needed to know about Japanese motorsport history outside of F1 or MotoGP, I just wish I was able to live that era of the JGTC and the fantastic cars I met on Gran Turismo. I hope for better times for the Super GT, will make an effort to follow it this year. Thank you for the amazing video, you now have a new subscriber. Cheers!

Your vid are always a trip down memory lane for those that grew up in 90s . Hearing about that one car in japan that has been dominating all the races and then to be able to play it on GT1 & GT2 on PS1. And then there was the whole concept of "boost" and to dream with boys on owning a MK4 and "boosting" it. Finally, the formula for next run is simple - good economy and making next cars just as much fun as the 90s. Latter will not come to pass sadly with EV. Yeah lap times are meant to be shattered but quietly . Great to see your vids ; @Albon. keep the historic JDM spirit alive bud.

This was an excellent video I've always wanted to know more about the history ever since I was a kid playing GT.

JGTC & BTCC in the 90 were breathtaking.

Absolutely wonderful video. Really well thought and curated. Easy to follow and very interesting. Great job.

Dude I'm literally addicted to these videos I never get tired of revisiting them. Keep up the amazing work!

Finally, I've been waiting this kind video to be covered and now it is here!!!! Man, this really almost teared me up for joy to see these authentic Japanese Touring Car Events being covered!!! Imo, besides the underground racing scene like the Midnight Club, touge race/drifts, this is the peak Japanese car culture on its era where you could find every big tuning houses are going all-out into this series!!!! I genuinely enjoy this content my man!!! And lastly, I've been watching this thing ever since I was a kid and I was really happy to see my favorite cars competing in this Touring Car Championship events!!! Anyways, keep on doing these kind of contents and hopefully, you could be able to also cover the Time Attack Racing (which is basically originated in Tsukuba Circuit in Japan) and how it became popular worldwide, and also more documentaries about the iconic Japanese tuner shops there like FEED, Seeker, Maou, Spoon Sports, Mugen, Car Shop Glow, J's Racing, JUN, and last but not least, RE Amemiya!!!! These are the shops that made me fall in love in car culture even more especially watching them testing their aftermarket machines on touge tracks and circuits which you could watch them on Best Motoring Official's YT channel and their old CDs!! Fun fact that most of car culture in Japan that we know nowadays are mostly based or inspired on this JGTC or JTCC events especially the Super Silhouette Skyline Group 5 that which gave birth to the Bozosoku Culture and Bozosoku cultures eventually led to the Rocket Bunny and Liberty Walk culture that we know nowadays!! Since Porsches competed in those series, it also inspired and led to the RWB culture by Nakai-san which he basically modify old Porsches and gave them track inspired widebody kits which is literally inspired on those racing series that I've mentioned above recently!! Amazing isn't it?! What a great time to reminisce to their glory of car racing and culture and hopefully, I'd be able to have a budget to go and live in Japan and build my car life there!!! Really wanna explore their shops out there and experience their raw, authentic car culture there!!! It's not all about hype or brag and rights, but rather to experience the real connectivity between a man and the machine!!!! So yeah, thanks for posting this, Guff!!!

Always nice to see an Albon vid in the upload list!

I always loved the JTCC Castrol Honda Accord CD7. Such a beauty and underrated machine built for its purpose along with the iconic JGTC Castrol Supra

Great video mate and so well put together. Arta NSX, Calsonic GTR, and the Castrol Toyota are some of my favourite machines of all time. Very interesting to hear the history of all this!

the golden era of JDM racing

Albon i love the fact you've taken the place that donut refuses to do, (even tho i still love donut) as a community i feel we need more "up to speed"-like content, more people need to know what the roots to the culture are and making it accesible with great videos like this one is amazing an amazing way to do so

Phenomenal!!!! One of the best on RU-vid with car content... Hands down

Genuinely enjoyed this thank you mate 👍

I think it's good that the series is back in it's home.

as a floridian whose heard the morgan and morgan commercials pretty much my whole life, pretty crazy to see u have a sponsor from them. never seen them sponsor a yt channel

Very good video. Mid to late 90s was the best of the best. I went to Japan in 03 and tried to schedule my trip around a JGTC but ended up going to a Super Takayu race at Fuji. The Sard Supra is my fav of the Gt500 cars.

Great documentary. Thank you so much.

Thank you for making me love cars man! Love your video's ❤

Amazing video! Also my favorite would be the r34 Skyline.

As a Gran Turismo player, JGTC racing is my favorite in the world!! I quickly fell in love with all the cars from the GT 500 category especially!!

The most beautiful era of race cars ever!🤤😍

I am glad that you mentioned 'Japanese Pressure' towards non-Japanese makers/teams. There is a ton of corruption in Japan in regards to propping up 'homegrown heroes' in Motorsports and the Auto Industry in general (you need to look no further than Carlos Gosn's story with Nissan). In 2001 JGTC , Nissan were allowed to run a 2.8L Stroker Kit in the RB26 (for huge TQ increases thanks to the added 4mm stroke and 1mm bore increase) in order to keep the BNR34 competitive (at this point, the Honda was pretty potent) and were even given an extension to run the BNR34 in 2003, even though the BNR34 production ended in 2002. With the 2003 Model exemption, Nissan switched to the VQ35DETT V6 (out of the 300-Z) for better packaging/front to rear weight distribution thanks to the shorter length of the V6 vs the I6, eventually switching platforms entirely, to the Nissan-Z in 2004. Toyota were also given a pass in 2003 for the Supra, even though it's production ended in 2002 and switched to a 32valve DOHC N/A V8 engine straight out of a Lexus and swapped out the 4cyl Turbo. When pride is on the line and you have zero outside Countries to worry about, you can make all the rules and exemptions that you want. Japan will do EVERYTHING in it's power to make it's homegrown heros look good, even against each other.

It's a shame that IMSA and JGTC couldn't work out a shared ruleset for cars back in the '90s. The old GTO/GTU categories were great and would have paired well with the GT500 and -300 classes respectively. I swear this isn't just a scheme to get Skylines in IMSA and Camaros in JGTC. 🥺

Great videos.... and always a great soundtrack. Sweet man.

Such a great video. Thank you so much!

For me JGTC was the pinnacle of motorsport as a kid, because of all those cars in Gran Turismo 2, 3 and 4 that I admired so much for being some of the coolest in the game. I didn't know anything about the cars or even the discipline itself, but those liveries became so iconic to me before I even got into watching real world motorsports and into simracing.

you make Super GT sound like its bad right now at the end. I would argue its one of the better racing series right now. Though there is a big problem of nationality bais against non Japanese cars after the Gt3 Specs dominated for a short while, and the grid seems to be getting older not younger like other series, which is a problem in general for Japan and its population. It still has some of the most intense, close and exiting racing out there. Dare I say even more than F1 some seasons.

Im 47 & just wanted to say, I appreciate the level of knowledge you bring to the table. Always great content, and cool shit... Continued success bro, really great work!👍🏼

Never heard of you untill today, and instant subscribed. This was an awesome video.

i love how an entire class of racing in the ALL JAPAN touring car championship was just e30s lol

It almost went the same way the DTM did in the '90s where it outgrew Germany and became the ITC. And FIA did what FIA does when something's starting to challenge F1. They undermine it and put it to trash.

Brilliant! Brilliant! Brilliant! .... great editing, great storytelling! Just brilliant!👋👋👋

The JGTC was absolutely amazing!

19:40 seeing JGTC headed to Malaysia in year 2000 , that's just makes the pro racing more special

I think we should have an Asian (literally) series, where its limited to Asian teams only, foreign teams can participate, but only if they partner up with an Asian team. Because as of right now, Asia unironically has more manufacturers now then there were back then, so it would be funny and interesting to see a Geely and Isuzu having a sports car that also race in such a series.

Great video. I learned so much about Japanese racing. I own an Fd so it was great to see its racing heritage in Japan. Brap on.

This was such a good video! Thank you.

Would love to see you do a video on those Aussie GT-Rs - so much of an insane Group A machine compared to the Japanese NISMO-sold GT-Rs that Nissan refused to let them race in Japan.

one big factor is the fall of the japanese economy. it plays a big part into all of this. the industry, the people's interest in cars in general, when you're overflowing with cash you get to think about cars, and when you're not, you get 21st century japanese people mindset

Wow!! Super informative. I had no idea about the ballast add on. No wonder these races were so good!

i still following Up to Speed series in Donut but they leaving it hanging but finally there's successors (and more in-depth) like Albon's, Hunter's Moon, The Squidd and Project Dream Keep it up, man!

such a cool history. great video!

og JGTC was one of the best periods in Motorsports, I discovered it when I went to Japan a long time ago and it caught me instantly. Since then I watched religiously (often illegally). But man peak Motorracing

Another great video. Thanks Albon!

This is a really well thought out and well spoken video essay!

YES! Finally! Albon is covering JGTC!

17:04 Ralf Schumacher and Naoki Hattori, that's huge duo.

Very informative. Well done

one of my favourite albon vids since the skyline price video

This is an awesome channel. Keep up the good work 👏

Great video 👍 Enjoyed this one. Greetings from 🇨🇦

Went to JGTC race in California. That was 2004!? Dang. Time flies. Well it was amazing. I didn’t know they were still racing with a new name. Thank you for the video!

beautiful storytelling , great job man

Wow such a great short documentary. First time watching this channel now I’m a subscriber.

I have been wanting a documentary for JGTC so bad dude I’ve been googling it and can’t find a proper documentary of how it was created so thanks for this .

Very interesting video, wasn’t bored at all. Great history

Toyota Supras, Nissan Skylines, Even Lamborghinis, & McLarens all on one track, racing all out. The Japan Grand Touring Car Championship was the most insane and thrilling race series to come from the east. But when the organizers wanted to expand at all costs, they paid a price that they never expected... Albon Great Job For The Video And We Love It.

JGTC back then is the best! Ended up buying diecast of them...such a big fan

This is dope, learned a lot.

This video is filled with passion. I grew in China now lived in the US for 10 years. It HURTS to hear that Motorsport in China never became a thing when I was growing up.

All the gran turismo cars from my childhood - thanks for this!

Awesome vid. I love that Castrol livery.

So glad I discovered this channel

Small correction from the beginning The RX7 was never in the GT500 class. Always only in GT300. It also had a 20B (Triple) Rotary Sourced from the Eunos Cosmo. This engine theoretically could make it easily competitive in the GT500 division. Eunos was a luxury division of Mazda that never took off outside of Japan. Aside, the historical context of the JGTC is fascinating! Good work! (Also had no idea the 2JZ was used in circuit racing Supra?!) from my reasearch most were using a prototype 3SGTE single turbo 4 cyl engine, not a sequential TTV6 Supra engine. The engine itself was actually Le Mans and Group A derived from Motorsport so not really a production engine. The engine itself was actually not a production model as the block and the headers are owned by TRD. The Nissan RB26 as far as research goes, was pretty standard, with custom pieces on the production block, which makes it stand out as the only genuine one closest to being a production model and not a Silhouette race car. The Lark McLaren was pretty cool. The most competitive JGTC car in the year 1999 was the Pennzoil (NISMO) Skyline. Which had a weight handicap in game Gran Turismo 3 Aspec. Year before and after that it was the TOM-S Castrol Supra that dominated in 1997 and then skylines before in the R33 era. The Castrol Mugen won in 2000, then lost to the au Cerumo Supra but was dominant for a few years after - JGTC ultimately banning mid engined cars some seasons after the NSX unbroken winning streak. There was also an entry by HKS who entered a Mercedes Benz CLK DTM styled race car entered in the GT300 class for a fun fact.

Love your thumbnails, keep up the great work! 🏎💨