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Yatabe High Speed Test Track A.K.A the JARI Test Course (JARIテストコ-ス, JARI Tesutocoosu) was a high speed banked motorsport testing track located near center of the modern city of Tsukuba, Ibaraki, in Ibaraki Prefecture, Japan. As one of a small number of banked oval tracks in the world, it was well suited to testing the top speed limitations of cars. From the 1980s until its closure in the early 2000s, the track became famous for its association with the Japanese tuning scene, and it was used both by tuners and street racers to test their modified cars. It was built in the early 1964 for automotive testing as part of the Japan Automotive Research Institute's car testing facilities. At the time, the city around the track was known as Yatabe, and the track took it's name from that municipality. In 1987, the city of Yatabe merged with nearby cities to become the city of Tsukuba, Ibaraki. The track was often used by Japanese automakers to test new vehicle designs, and also used by researchers conducting automotive testing research. The track was replaced in 2005 by JARI's new Shirosato Proving Ground, and the land on which the original track sat was redeveloped. The location of the old track is now covered by the Tsukuba City Hall and crossed longitudinally by the new [[Tsukuba Express] train line. Some JARI buildings remain from the proving grounds, including the old crash test center.

Since it's demolition, the Japanese tuning scene has shifted to comparing lap times at the nearby Tsukuba Circuit.

1961: JARI Founded in Yatabe Japan
Fuji Speedway Corporation was established in 1963, as Japan NASCAR Corporation. At first, the circuit was planned to hold NASCAR-style races in Japan. Therefore, the track was originally designed to be a 4 km high-banked superspeedway, but there was not enough money to complete the project and thus only one of the bankings was ever designed. Mitsubishi Estate Co. invested in the circuit and took over the reins of management in October 1965.

Track Design
Top speed 250km/hr? 45 degreee bank. Number of lanes? Dimensions?

Records set on the Yatabe Test Track

 * October 1966: the Toyota 2000GT Prototype ran an FIA sanctioned speed trial at the Yatabe test track, breaking sixteen international endurance and speed records by running the car for over two days without stopping. Toyota and the four test drivers (Shinonome Hosoya, Hiroshi Fushida, Mitsuo Tamura, and Sachio Fukuzawa) then held records with this car in the 6 hours, 12 hours, 24hours, 48hours, and 72 hours endurance classes.
 * October 6th, 1967: the Prince R380 in it's modified Mk2 form driven by T. Yokoyama set 7 international speed records at the Yatabe test track, collecting FIA approved record speeds in the 50km, 50 miles, 100km, 100 miles, 200km, 200 miles, 1 hour categories of 250 to 256 km/h average.

Association with Street Racing


The track became popular with the Japanese tuning scene in the late 80s and was most famous for its use by the legendary Mid Night Club hashirya street racing team, who took regular track days at the proving grounds to test the top speeds and endurance of their cars. The most famous car at this time was the Yoshida Specials 930, a heavily modified Porsche 930 Turbo which held an unbeaten speed record within the team. This team would be the inspiration for the popular Wangan Midnight anime and Midnight Club driving game series.

At this time, many tuning groups commonly met at the track, including Top Secret,

2005 Demolition Commemoration and Replacement
In 2007 the Yatabe course was demolished, and the land was redeveloped, with a replacement proving grounds built by JARI nearby, also in Ibaraki Prefecture.

A short section, about two car lengths, was preserved at the south extreme of the track where it traveled east-west at the bottom of the south corner. This section can be found labeled as "旧谷田部45度バンク" at 2 Chome-8-5 Gakuenminami, Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305-0818, Japan. It is difficult to see from the road but can easily be seen from above, next to a pair of tennis courts.



Other Oval High Speed Test Tracks

 * Nardo Ring, Nardo Italy
 * Autodromo de Sitges-Terramar, Spain
 * Idiada proving ground, Spain
 * Brooklands Race Track, United Kingdom
 * Contidrom proving grounds, Hanover Germany