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Inside "the vault" - Nissan's DNA garage - 56k warning!


Squee

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Been meaning to post some pics up of my trip to Nissan's DNA garage (aka 'the vault') since my trip in June.

 

Some of the pics are a bit crap and not in the most orderly fashion - but enjoy!

 

It's housed at Nissan's Zuma plant, about 50km south west of Tokyo:

 

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Upon arrival you gather in a reception area with some nice little displays:

 

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(Me and my long-suffering other half)

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But what lies behind the roller door?:

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This is the first glimpse that awaits (I felt like a fat-kid who'd been fed nothing but Redbull for 24 hours and then taken to the Haribo factory).

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Turning left into the garage the displays are arranged in roughly age/chronological order up to about the mid 70s:

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Historical Nissan fire-trucks!

 

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This one was used by (and signed by) the Japanese Olympic team at the Mexico Olympics (1968):

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Here comes the babylon!

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Had to have a little cool down after seeing this one:

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I've always preferred the old Pulsar ;)

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Tongues away please!

 

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They leave some of the windows open so you can have a sniff (very Japanese!)13442258_10154889991685021_7085156333686751229_n.jpg?oh=60ac49b3beef916b9651c71c1eda3c9d&oe=5852FDD2

 

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The other half and I met when I showed up to buy his 300ZX so we had to have a selfie in the Z32 area

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Oh yea, they had other Zeds there too ;)

 

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Who said Diet Coke's just for girls? ;)

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Rallyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy cars!

 

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I loved this knocked-about brute. The engineers/technicians who look after the collection believe it's important to leave the battle-scars. Good lads!

 

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This is where the team carry out repairs on the collection (nothing happening day I went):

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Whats that nsx type thing i have never seen or heard it ? plate says M104 but i cant find anything?

 

Not all of the exhibits had their own info boards and those that did were in Japanese aside from the marque name.

 

There were stacks there that myself and my other half (who's worked in a few specialised Jap garages in the UK) didn't recognise. The guide didn't speak any English either (I don't think it's a required skill to learn in schools over there so even very educated and 'high up' folks in business don't speak it).

 

S.

Edited by Squee
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The "knocked about brute" was Shekhar Mehta's 240Z which won the Safari Rally in 1973. He won it 5 times in total.

 

I'm surprised its still in one piece!

 

Great to see again....thanks Squee for all the pics.

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Thanks for all of the kind comments guys - glad you like the pics!

 

The place is actually a private collection (owned by Nissan) rather than a museum. It's actually more like a (very big and special) storage unit as Nissan often ship some of the cars off to go on display at car shows etc. Some of the cars are driven at these events hence there's a workshop within the building housing a collection. There were a few missing when I went - mainly from the Figaro collection.

 

I too find it sad when you see such amazing machines just sitting on display but this place is a genuine working collection which massively adds to it's appeal.

 

There is, however, one very big downside to going to this collection - very, very, very few collections will 'cut the mustard' as much as this one did so I feel like I've been very spoiled!

 

If anyone's off to Japan then I booked the trip to the collection here: http://nissan-herita...ction.com/TOUR/ but be warned it's all in Japanese and you have to use translation tools to submit a request to view the collection. It's only recently been opened to the public so hopefully once it's a bit more established they'll make it a bit easier for thick westerners to book ;)

 

Oh and also - it's FREE to go and view. £0.00!!!

 

S.

Edited by Squee
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