Autopolis

The circuit was conceived by Tomonori Tsurumaki, a wealthy real-estate developer and investment banker who became internationally known in 1989 when he bid 51.3 million US dollars for Pablo Picasso's painting Les Noces de Pierrette at a Paris auction, reportedly placing the bid from his Tokyo hotel room. He announced that the painting would hang in the art gallery of the racing resort he was developing. The circuit itself was designed by Yoshitoshi Sakurai, who had served as project leader for Honda's Formula 1 programme during the 1960s.

The total cost of the development was reported at 500 million US dollars. To mark the circuit's grand opening in November 1990, Tsurumaki ordered 30 Buick-powered single-seater race cars — known as Sabre Cars — for an invitation race mixing American CART drivers including Stan Fox, Johnny Rutherford, Dick Simon, and Gary and Tony Bettenhausen against Japanese competitors. A short-lived series using those cars, called Formula Crane 45, ran a handful of races in 1991.

The only major international event held at Autopolis was the final round of the 1991 World Sportscar Championship season, the 430 km of Autopolis, won by Michael Schumacher and Karl Wendlinger in a Sauber-run Mercedes-Benz C291. Tsurumaki's ambitions extended to hosting a Formula 1 race, and Autopolis sponsored the Benetton Formula 1 team in 1990 and 1991 to raise the circuit's profile. However, visitors to the 1991 World Sportscar event criticised the remote location, which required a multi-hour bus ride from nearby hotels.

Tsurumaki's company Nippon Tri-Trust declared bankruptcy in 1993, the year in which Autopolis had been slated to host a Formula 1 Grand Prix under the Asian GP slot on 11 April. That slot was reallocated to Donington Park. The circuit and associated assets — including three hotels, swimming pools, and an artificial ski slope — passed to Hazama, the construction company that had built the track. By 1995 the entire site was offered for sale at roughly 10 percent of its original build cost.

Autopolis first hosted a Super GT race in 1999, an end-of-season exhibition event won by Tom Coronel and Hidetoshi Mitsusada in a Nakajima Racing Honda NSX-GT. After a three-year gap it joined the Super GT calendar as a regular venue from 2003, and it hosted its first Super Formula race in 2006, becoming a regular stop in that series as well. Kawasaki Motors purchased the circuit in 2005 and has operated it since.

The track sits within the Aso Kuji National Park at an altitude of 820 metres at the start/finish straight, with an overall elevation change of more than 50 metres across the lap. The thinner air at altitude reduces atmospheric pressure in a manner similar to the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez in Mexico City, creating tuning challenges for teams. The layout trends downhill through the first sector and climbs back upward through the latter part of the course.

Autopolis was added to Gran Turismo Sport in March 2019 via a game update, and it also appears in Need for Speed: ProStreet, Need for Speed: Shift, Shift 2: Unleashed, and Gran Turismo 7. Its combination of altitude, elevation change, and technical character makes it a distinctive circuit within Japanese-themed sim racing content.