I drove some touge for the first time in my life near salt lake when I was delivering a Nizmo-Z for a friend from California to Illinois, took the Nismo on a little run up this park road with my buddy who lives out there, drives an SR20 240 hatch.

Here's some pics:

 

More:

 

This one time at band camp I wanganed my chucki while tougeing next to my zenki with a kouki.

Sorry, had to look up what the eff a touge was.

 

Nice pics!

 

Come on guys, driving season over already for you up in the mts? Post up some stuff!

 

my fun lil canyon carver

 

^ Nice wheels.

 

Kinda, i mean, I love weds wheels, but not a big fan of replicas, especially if you're driving in the mountains, where a random rock could shatter a replica wheel and force you off some cliff... just sayin lol

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BJeFB6SRslk[/youtube]

 

I've been mountain running since I was 16, that's 10 years now. I will tell you this, no one and I mean no one running cheap Taiwanese wheels has ever had a problem. If you hit something hard enough to put enough force to bend or crack your cheap chinese knock off rims, the rim will be the least of your concern. However, even then, in the dozens of total'd or near total'd accidents I have seen up on the touge, no one has bent a rim, and most people run cheap rims. My 2 cents.

However, I don't run cheap rims myself because they are typically heavy compared to legit rims, which is a performance issue at that point.

 

thanks funkjaw

I know what you mean Tyler, but fj has a point. if you hit some "random rock" hard enough to crack you replicas, your rims are the least of your worries.

the weight difference is a b*tch tho =(

 

Not in my FC but riding with my roommate in his Evo VIII, and chasing down some friends in M3s.

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Are you takumi? Now an honest question, have you been seriously running the touge (a.k.a. doing it for fun and not to show off/brag to people)? If so, have you ever had an accident? I've been doing it for about five years and haven't had a serious accident yet... just curious how other people's luck has been.

 

In the 11 years I've been in the mountains, I've seen 3 totalled cars, was a passenger in one. Seen about 5 more accidents, and had 2 other friends wreck their cars. I've never wrecked... well sorta, I started to oversteer and my gas tank tagged a curb, but saved it and still made the rest of the run.



Needless to say, it is very dangerous. I've known of at least 3 times as many accidents on mountain roads than track days, drift events, and autox combined. But is so much fun. I only did three mountain runs in the past two years. I've been doing more and more sanctioned events. Idk why, you have to wake up super early and only get so much track time throughout the day. Touge lets you run as long as want, but I'm getting old haha, so it's causing me to live a more boring life as time goes on lol.

 

Yeah.. I'm slowly getting there. lol. I actually never wrecked my fc while doing a touge run, just once drifting on a backroad at around 3 or 4am.... Nothing major though. I liked autox but waking up early and only getting to drive 30minutes is sort of lame...

 

Since I live in Texas, we dont have many mountains, but we do have curvy roads. Here is one of my runs, im in the fc and my brother is behind me.

(Sorry for the annoying music, just hit mute if you want)

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No I am not a Japanese fictional character.. my ***** is too big. lol jk jk.

Not sure what you mean here. I have been fascinated by the touge and going as fast as I possibly can over it ever since I was a teenager. My friend's older brother came back from the Navy (stationed in Japan) and told us all about it and I have been into it ever since.

It got to the point where we would go up around midnight, and not go home until the sun came up. We would do that 3-5 times a week!

You say "doing it for fun and not to show off/brag to people"... To me these two things are one in the same. I went up there sometimes by myself and would practice drifting one turn over and over, or see if I can improve cornering speeds here and there... BUT, the real thrill was going up there and racing other people JUST to show them I was better than them. Sometimes I would go up there, hang out, and if I saw lights coming up I would get back in my car and wait for them so I could chase them down.

I built myself quite the reputation up on the hills. People who I have never met would talk about me, shake my hand when they do meet me, ask me to take them for a ride in THEIR car. One time I got a call in the middle of the night from an unknown number, turns out it was a dude saying he had heard so much about me and that he wanted to race me. The guy ended up being one of the fastest drivers I have ever met; sadly, he passed away in an accident about a year ago while up on the touge. RIP Darrel.

Point is, my life WAS Initial D. The stretch of canyon I ran the most is over 12 miles long, out in the middle of nowhere but still right smack in the middle of JDM ville (fremont and milpitas). We used to get 15+ cars up at a time and stage races, gosh it was fun! Showing off and bragging rights is where most the fun is!

Yes I have had an accident.. couple in fact lol.

- Brushed my old Volvo 240DL station wagon against some trees at around 50mph due to understeer: popped a tire and caused road rash on the side of the car (while drunk and high, first DUI also)

- Understeered into the side of a cliff in my old S13 due to coming in too hot and locking up the brakes: smashed the passenger side fender, front bumber, radiator support, and bent the tie rod. (again, was pretty drunk and high)

- My one and only 4 lug FC, I tapped my right rear quarter panel on a guard rail due to understeer because I couldn't slow the car down at all. Literally, my brakes had faded so bad due having just did one full lap (about 20 miles) that I had about 20% stopping power. It was a minor tap and I just kept going (just started braking a LOT earlier lol)

- I've spun out probably about 30 times. Either while practicing drifting or time attacking.

- I would go up when it was raining ALL the time. It was like a fetish of mine to race while it rained. One time I went up there to slide around (while drunk and high) and ended up in a high speed chase with the police. I spun out and my tire got stuck in the mud. This was my second DUI, and a 6 month jail sentence LOL.

Point is don't drink and drive! The 3 times I decide to go up on the touge while drunk, two of them end up being DUIs and the other one I end up crashing my Volvo.

 

Lol@***** joke.
They are, but... around here people will brag about their driving on our "touge" and then never actually show off/race/etc...
Then again while we've got a big car scene... it is mostly v8's and people that are horrible drivers...
On the other hand I AM the most reckless driver around here (note:reckless might not mean fastest; just most ballsy), so most people are scared I'll show them up...
I'm jelly though, I wish we had midnight touge runs and a huge mountian scene....
='(
Oh, and drunk driving is bad...
I got lucky and never got caught, but the last time I drunk/smoked and drove...
I was drifting on a gravel strip mine road on top of a mountian at 65, slid off the road and came about 3 inches from dropping my tires off the hillside. haha.

 

I'm glad it wasn't worse

 

In my area we have some great country backroad fun. Last year I slid off the road in my old car and ended up getting held at shotgun point by the owner of the mailbox I was holding.


Fun times! Im trying to do sanctioned events these days. My daughter could use my support in her future lol.

 

Were are the 5th, 6th, and 8th pictures from?? Seriously thinking of relocating right about now!

 

^ Yeah those pics are beautiful!

 

 

there are so many amazing pics in this thread. i hate that im stuck here in flat florida where the only roads are flat and straight. florida blows. i would give anything for some touge action but not going to happen anytime soon. thanks guys for taking great shots and blessing this forum with them.

and Rotarybeat, your pics remind me of why i want to move to the carolina's. i would give anything for a change in scenery from this flat place.

all we have here are rolling highway racers sitting on cut springs because thats how hondas roll lol. the drift scene here is falling on it's face where im located. the nearest track to drift or autocross is a good 2.5 hour drive form me in traffic.

anyways thanks for such amazing pics and good stories. keep the goods coming!!!!

 

oh yea, just so we're clear, i drive an 88 gxl stripped and gutted. building an NA pp. should be fun!

 

I love NAs on the touge.. so much balance... so much fun!