Any night at Tatsumi is a good night. This is the parking area in Tokyo famed for its epic car meets held every weekend night. It’s a place where enthusiasts from all walks of life come together in appreciation of all things motoring.
It’s one of my favourite places in the world as it shows the true passion of petrolheads, whether they prefer exotics, tuning, or muscle cars. Tatsumi has all the bases covered. But last night it was even more special than usual with the arrival of 11 Paganis for the start of their Touge Run, the very first Pagani Vanishing Point in Asia.
Following a convoy of a dozen or so Paganis from the starting point in central Tokyo to Tatsumi on the famed C1 highway was something out of a dream. The noise, the scenery, the noise… It’s hard to describe the feeling of being amongst some of the most epic and beautiful supercars ever made. Sure, they’re a tonne and a bit of metal and carbon fibre but they’re also moving pieces of art.
I’m writing this article now at 2:20am and I don’t feel sleepy or tired at all. The sound from those V12 engines are still keeping me awake. You’d imagine fitting 11 Paganis into a motorway carpark would be easy, but being a Saturday night Tatsumi was already packed by the time the convoy arrived.
Cue kicking people out and parking in spaces reserved for trucks and buses. Basically, the Paganis took over Tatsumi. There were four AMG support cars, some of Bingo Sports’ support cars, and a random Mercedes-Benz G500 4×4². Unfortunately I didn’t get a photo of that but I’ll have more chances to later on. Watch this space.
Unsurprisingly, the whole of Tatsumi crowded around the odd looking cars with foreign number plates. As part of the Pagani Rally in Japan, owners from overseas were invited to participate. So there are cars from the United States, the United Kingdom, Hong Kong, Singapore, and Dubai here. For some, including myself, its the first time seeing plates from some of those countries and indeed the first time seeing them on Japanese roads.
Tatsumi isn’t a big car park so the crowds soon made it damn near impossible to take any decent photos of the cars. I promise better photos of the Paganis will follow, watch this space. What was cool to see were some unexpected guests such as the rainbow wrapped Lamborghini Aventador 50th Anniversario and Bugatti Veyron joining the show to see the Pagani party.
As amazing as the experience of seeing all of them together, some cars stood out more than others. Of course every Pagani is unique, but the local cars such as the gold Huayra and white Zonda F which I see often, didn’t get as much attention as say the blue Zonda Cinque from Dubai or the new Zonda 760 ‘Oliver’ with that ridiculous wing.
Then there’s the ‘La Monza Lisa’ Huayra from Miami. This was the first Huayra I’ve seen with the upgraded Tempesta pack and it looks amazing, especially in the bare black carbon fibre exterior.
Apparently the cars were supposed to head to Daikoku Parking Area after leaving Tatsumi but with the police shutting down both Tatsumi and Daikoku, the parade of Paganis decided to call it a night.
The cars will be in Japan for a little bit longer and I will be with them for most of their trip to cover this incredibly special event so stay tuned for a lot more content involving these cars. I’d like to give a special thanks to Pagani Tokyo and Bingo Sports for inviting me along to share this event with all of you. This is going to be one helluva journey.
