The Karuizawa Meeting 2018 was a huge annual Mazda MX-5 Miata Roadster meet last week on May 27. I made another 9 hour drive to beautiful Karuizawa in Nagano, Japan, to check it out.

The event was held, as in the previous years, at the Prince Hotel Ski Slope parking lots. There, as far as the eye can see, were rows upon rows of unique Roadsters in all years, conditions, and modifications. This year, I felt there were less NBs and NCs, but many more NDs. There were still a fair number of NAs present.

(Sadly, due to various commitments, I was not able to attend this year’s meet.)

I wasn’t sure I would be able to snag parking, so I actually ended up stopping at Naka-Karuizawa Station and parking there, though I realized later I came early enough to potentially get a good spot when I walked up around 8:30 AM. I did learn a lesson last year: since there were three lots, I had to work quickly to cover as many cars and as much ground as possible.

I started with Lot 2, which was already full, instead of Lot 3, which was still filling up. While I appreciate a good stock, well-kept NA or NB Roadster as much as anyone, I came here for the custom ones.

I didn’t spend long taking beauty shots of the stock ones or the ones with minimal modifications, as my time was limited.

Another big change this year is the wider variety of wheels and many NAs rocking smaller diameter wheels with fatter tire setups than I saw the year prior.

Now that it was getting into the late morning, Lot 3 was full and closed up. (They stop entry into the 3 main lots at 9:30.)

There were more NAs, NBs, and a few NDs, even the “Fiata” (Fiat Spider) versions.

Finished with the outer two lots, I entered Lot 1 where the dealer booths and shop cars were shown, along with the main tent. RS Factory Stage had two sporting NDs quite heavily cosmetically modified. Autoexe made a good showing with their variety of braces for the ND, Barchetta with their always… unique… NC, Car Make Corn’s with their lifted car and variety of parts.

Even though the NA stopped being produced 20 years ago, Garage Vary still had a few new parts to showcase, such as their newly redesigned aero lip, hardtop, and yet-to-be-sold rear diffuser. According to the staff the diffuser is tested and is flat-bottomed to ahead of the rear axle, though I couldn’t see well underneath to confirm.

Jet Stream’s blue NA looks posed to take a track and on the other hand, Esqueleto’s ND is ready to just cruise.

Although this wasn’t part of the official booths, a few companies brought their shop cars. SS Works was probably my favorite of those. It had some serious engine work… and nitrous!

Finished with the shop cars, I set about to go up and down the rows of Lot 1. As with the other two lots, there were a range of heavily modified to virtually stock, but most had at least a set of aftermarket wheels. I took plenty of pictures of those, especially since I recently became inspired to change up my own Miata. I finally determined that 14” wheels with fat 60 Series rubber fits the look of the NA the best, especially since my own has a retro-modern theme. Watanabe? Work Wheels? Enkei RPF1s? Volk Racing TE37Vs? Ah, the potential is endless...

If you’re gonna do something strange, you might as well go all in. This has some cool Buzzin Hornets livery used on Hondas in the late 90s.

Full bumper and fender conversions really change the look of an NA Roadster.

Aston Martin NB, anyone?

I saw a couple more Project-G -style G-String Bikini Tops this year from last. A few of them are definitely homemade, though a few I thought might actually be legit.

I definitely noticed a few more lowered, stanced Roadsters with minimal wheel gap and greater camber this year, but few I would consider “slammed.” I know there are quite a few in Japan, but maybe those guys don’t really come to these type of car meets. In either case, these are really clean and well-taken care of. The love for their cars shows, as they all have properly rolled fenders and reputable wheels. Thankfully, I didn’t see the likes of the haphazard, poorly slammed ones I often see bouncing around on Los Angeles freeways.

On the opposite end of the slammed spectrum, perhaps literally, were these two lifted cars, riding high on all-terrain knobby tires. Excluding the shop car, these two owners really wanted to be able to take their Roadster anywhere. I know in North America, Paco Motorsports sells a lift kit for the Miata, but I’m not sure how these have been raised. Either way, I really love the NB2 with its off-road LED lighting array, custom skid plate, and spare tire and gas racks bolted to the rear decklid. Flawless execution.

There were plenty of beautiful examples of absolutely stunning custom paintwork.

While I could probably write whole articles on each individual NA or NB on the lot, I think these two cars were my favorites this year because they each pulled off a theme very well. This NA, while not adorned with massive flares, body kit, or extremely wide wheels, managed to draw my eye as it pulled into the lot. It was beautiful, simple, and cleanly executed. The owner likely wanted to keep true to the “M2” classic Roadster theme and yet offer his own unique plus alpha take on the concept with some custom work.

Kudos to this gorgeous one as well, rocking simple fender flares, beautiful Hayashi Racing wheels, chrome roll bar, topped off with a bikini top.

And then there is absolutely so much to love about this NA. With so much kit from a fastback hardtop, huge fenders, slick diffuser, fat wheels, and a huge bulge in the hood… certainly hiding something monstrous underneath.

As always, I am attracted to the little custom things that some guys do to their roadsters. Added hood vents, interior gauges, and engine work are often seen, but sometimes you get a few really unique things. Now this was something special. It is definitely the cleanest original work I’ve seen in awhile.

This one has a few things that I personally like, cut rear bumper, full cage, 14” TE37s…

Yesss… Fender mirrors, anyone? How do y’all feel about them?

This made me smile. Is this supposed to be old school Alitalia rally car livery???

Not everything was peaches and cream, though. Sometimes less is more.

Completely exhausted, I meandered back to the train station and took another 9 hour drive straight home. There were so many things I wanted to buy, but my funds sadly are tied up in my Alto Works and Swift Sport at the moment. I’ll make it a point to bring a bit of cash next year for these show-exclusive deals they offered... There’s always next year! I’ll definitely come again.

www.karuizawa-meeting.com

I had a chance to attend the largest annual Mazda MX-5 Roadster meet in Japan on May 28. (Miatas to us Americans.) Nestled in the mountains of central Japan, Karuizawa is a small, fashionable, and beautiful city in Nagano Prefecture. Though centrally located, the small, local roads make it a slow drive to reach from Tokyo, Osaka, or Fukui, where I am from. Luckily, the weather was absolutely gorgeous that day and I had a wonderful time chasing down local Roadsters on a curvy mountain pass from my hotel.

Coming across the first lot, little convertible cars stretched as far as I could see. Briefly walking the first of the two visible lots, I was mesmerized by the sheer amount of varying combinations of colors, wheels, and kits. Most were tastefully adorned with a few select parts, like a beefy set of wheels, a roll bar, an aftermarket front bumper, and/or lowered to just the right usable height.

To an MX-5 fanatic, this was absolutely heaven. Nearly every car present was meticulously maintained, despite the early NA6 Roadsters ticking at 27 years old. Here, one could find all generations with crazy conversion kits, rare parts, NB coupes, lovely stock examples, and everything in between.

For you Stance or Slammed fans, sadly, very few would have made you tingle. The blue one looks like it is rocking a Project-G bikini top.

Stopping halfway through the second lot, I was puzzled. How could this possibly be the largest MX-5 meet? While it was impressive, where were the booths of manufacturers, the demo cars, the free lunch I was promised? My stomach gurgled, sustained only on rice balls, water, and Monster.

Maybe it was the tiredness of driving so much the past day, but I was certainly not aware of the procession of people passing beyond the trees. And there it was. The main lot.

I had been wasting entirely way too much time on each individual car. It was already noon and I rushed straight to the dealer tents drawing the crowds.

ZOOM Engineering, Barchetta, and Jetstream had so much to offer. My heart raced as I wiped a bit of sweat from my brow. How much could my wallet handle? The cash and carry society made it impossible to overspend.

Here were some of the demo cars that certainly were excellent displays of the company offerings. Garage Vary's ND looks ready to attack the track or local mountain roads alike.

Also in attendance was the 1,000,000th Roadster made, an ND Roadster in Soul Red, adorned with signatures from its travels abroad.

One thing I noted, after walking the lots, was the distinct lack of engine swaps. (Of course, definitely not the V8 LS engines Americans often swap in.) Most of the open hoods had element filters and tower braces and were meticulously clean. Few others had ITBs or forced induction. Closed hoods had no hints of intercooling, so I could only assume the rest were similarly stock. Nonetheless, you could tell these owners appreciated taking care of their car and leaving it as the Mazda engineers had intended.

Some car clubs were out in full force. The two more notable groups were the Nara Gundan Roadsters were adorned with huge stickers and usually some strange theme.