Video: F1 Cars Tackle Japan’s Toughest Road
Motorhead Hakone Hillclimb Pt. II features classic Lotus and Benetton racecars.
Last year, the maniacs from Japan’s Motorhead magazine ran the Hakone Turnpike as a hillclimb. It was an act of love and obsession in a land of strict regulation. A tribute to a spectacular strip of asphalt that ducks and weaves over the mountains southwest of Tokyo, written in giant inky drift-marks and V8 echoes that probably still bounce off stone canyons a year later. They rolled cameras. It was glorious. It was art.
This year they did it again. With Formula 1 cars.
That’s a John Player Lotus 78 and a Benetton B189, unless I’m mistaken. The two cars sound absolutely diabolical as they trace the Hakone, their giant aero waggling against the strain of common pavement. Word has it the Motorhead story also features a Porsche 962 making a run at the Hakone Turnpike; you’ll have to buy the latest issue, or wait out their next video to know for sure. We’re not the patient type. See you at the newsstand.
