Tour d'Elegance Japan

Three nights on Japan’s mountain roads in a rare classic, finishing with a black-tie concours dinner. The field is limited to twenty cars, and overseas owners can apply to join, which is unusual for an event of this kind in Japan.

The driving is the quiet pleasure of it. Japanese mountain roads are superbly surfaced, lightly trafficked and relentlessly scenic, and the route uses them rather than the expressways. From Toyama the first day climbs to Myoko and a welcome dinner at the Akakura Kanko Hotel, a ski resort hotel built in 1937 that still looks the part. Day two crosses east to Nikko National Park and the Ritz-Carlton on Lake Chuzenji.

The finish is at Karuizawa, at the foot of the active volcano Mount Asama, with the Gala Awards dinner in black tie. Judges give trophies for beauty, elegance and authenticity rather than for lap times, since this is not a timed rally in any sense. Routes change each year, so the above is the shape rather than a fixed itinerary.

Tour d’Elegance Japan include the hotels, the meals including both the welcome and gala dinners, entry to the places visited, the concours judging and a route book. Fuel, road tolls and flights are separate, and shipping a car to Japan can be arranged by the organiser at extra cost. The price is per car for two people. For a classic owner who wants to use the car somewhere genuinely different, Japan is an inspired choice and this is the civilised way in.