Touge

[Intensevil]

I can't find any information about the touge races that go on in japan. I know they happen, but thats about it

So whats it like? Do they just drive for fun? Or is it a bit more organised. Theres very few videos of the touge runs too, but the ones i've seen are amazing. The ability to have lightning quick reflexes in pitch dark conditions where one mistake will leave you in a lot of pain is quite incredible to say the least. I'm just curoius about the history of touge and how it all got started up untill to what it is today but i can't find anything on it. Surely some of you guys up there in japan would have seen it first hand?

[EnricoPalazzo]

i would love to know more about this aswell and see more footage. ive only seen the best motoring stuff.

[Rezz]

I don't really get into it...

Of course its cool and all, its just the tiny margin for error puts me off ever wanting to do it.

I don't know much about Hashiriya Touge, but Touge itself comes in many forms: driving, downhill bike riding, walking, joggging... anything really that involves going up or down a mountain. If you look at the Kanji for "Touge", it actually consists of three seperate Kanjis joined together 1) Yama (mountain) 2) ue (up) and 3) shita (down).

That aside, I do know that alot of the Touge Drift is def underground and not really presented in a way that could inform the police of their activities (websites etc). I live REALLY close to Mt Rokko where they have Touge going on, yet I've only been out there once and our arrival signaled the end of the fun for some reason! It seemed pretty organised, and the cars go off in pairs trying to overtake each other before they get to the end of the predetermined distance or marker or something. I never met the guy who took us out there again, so thats why I haven't been since.

I tried looking on the 'net for more info, but nothing really to answer the questions posted by Intensevil. Sorry!

[EnricoPalazzo]

pfftt useless. and u call urself the japan moderator.

hehe j/k

[DCD]

I've seen a bit of touge in the nikko area and up tsukuba san. Very hush hush, very well organized and of course people do it to compete against each other, not just for fun. Every time I've been to one someone had a small crash (coming down the mountain with the front bumper sticking out the back of your hachiroku is quite popular!). Most of the cars that participate are old mistreated bangers, old silvias, 86s, 180s, laurels, soarers, evo 1-3s, WRXs and a few rwd 32s. I guess I must have just seen the low budget side of touge, but to tell you the truth I haven't really heard of any more extreme machinery competing. Most also seem to prefer to drift rather than grip.

[DaiOni]

I think very few people are skilled or rich enough to run a decent car through the mountains. And, as far as I can tell, not many people in the western world have realised that. Drift is the same - they're driving old sh*tters because it's a panel-hazerdous sport Do people really think a cefiro or laurel is the ideal car for the job?

D1 is about the only level of driftsports where you will commonly see a newer performance vehicle (and they're all sponsored cars anyway)

That's what happens to the old performance cars - they drop in price, get bashed around as 'drifters', then get sold on to p-platers in australia and nz

[Intensevil]

They drift on the touge... freakin nuts! Now i'm truely in awe : O

I've got some videos of fd's and r33's doing some touge runs, as well as some pretty built up hachis. Its good how its all under cover at the moment, its how it should be, kept away from the mainstream

[EnricoPalazzo]

DaiOni: Soo true man, the drifters wont have anywhere to sell there cars when the 15yo rule in australia ceases...

[Parag0n]

I have Drift Tengoku Volumes 5-19 here and theres heaps of Illegal Touge going on, Nomuken even takes is R34 out to the mountains to take his friend for a ride down the mountain

All the numberplates are blurred and there's no names etc...

Fun to watch.

[Rezz]

We just need the "Initial D" fan club to post up a history of Takumi Fujiwara and Co and how all that came about... well not really...

[summoner]

the old school option and drift tengoku used to cover heaps of illegal events, just goto find myself copies of them

[Intensevil]

If copys in a digital format that can be aquired threw the internet should arrise, you would "share" them wouldn't you

[summoner]

yes I'd host them on my site

[StraightSix]

  EnricoPalazzo said:

DaiOni: Soo true man, the drifters wont have anywhere to sell there cars when the 15yo rule in australia ceases...

Well we have a 15 year rule here in Canada as well, and it isn't changing - I have a feeling quite a few guys are going to get drift beaters unawares

J

[Rezz]

  StraightSix said:

Well we have a 15 year rule here in Canada as well, and it isn't changing - I have a feeling quite a few guys are going to get drift beaters unawares

J

Hey... tell us more about Skylines and the general scene in Canada! Thats something I never hear about...

[StraightSix]

Hm, well, not much to say about Skylines at the moment as the first ones will be arriving in May. We can't import anything not originally made for Canada or the US unless it's fifteen years old. So we will soon be having quite a few R32s As for the rest of the scene, where I'm at it's mostly domestic stuff drag racing - pretty similar to much of Australia from what I gather. Imports are gaining in popularity quite a bit though, as is autocross - have yet to have our first drift day though here, that is really new, but a couple of the major centres (read: Toronto) have had some drift events . . . we're catching up, I think

The link in my sig is to the first Skyline forum in Canada, I originally started it as a mailing list, then in January we moved to a web forum that one of the guys started.

Cheers

Jason

[EnricoPalazzo]

sorry the thread is changing directions but i wanted to ask more qs about canade a usa.

With these 15 yo cars coming in like gtrs and such, all the domestic crap and hondas will get owned so badly.

Why do people do up hondas like the do in usa. I mean there are so many of them? Do people actually think they are fast. Stock gtrs would prolly eat most things on the street.

[StraightSix]

  EnricoPalazzo said:

sorry the thread is changing directions  but i wanted to ask more qs about canade a usa.

With these 15 yo cars coming in like gtrs and such, all the domestic crap and hondas will get owned so badly.

That's the plan

US doesn't have a 15 year rule like we do though, they have to wait 25 years before cars are considered antiques - heh heh suckers

  EnricoPalazzo said:

Why do people do up hondas like the do in usa. I mean there are so many of them? Do people actually think they are fast. Stock gtrs would prolly eat most things on the street.

I think its more of a cultural thing than anything else . . . when import tuning first became popular here, Hondas were extremely popular especially among Asian families - not stereotyping or anything, just how it was - so, you get into cars as a young guy, you tend to stick with what you grew up with. Hence a lot of done up Hondas, and more than a few seriously quick ones. I think the quickest Honda in my province (Manitoba), which is by no means known for import tuning, runs mid to low 11s. It's funny, they're probably the lowest performance imports out of the box, but because they were so popular for so long, you can build them up like Lego. So many parts available. Everything from simple bolt on turbo kits to get 170-ish hp out of your D16, to insane 250hp n/a B-series crate engines . . . and yeah, a stock GT-R will have most of them for lunch Hondas are losing popularity a bit actually, Nissans are on the rise

Sorry for the ramble

J

[Rezz]

StraightSix, you didn't ramble... it's all good.

In fact, could you start another thread about Canada (in the Japan section)? We really should stop hijacking this thread...

[Duncan]

Intensevil, we have touge racing in Aus too, they just call em "Hillclimbs".

Eg, one ran last month: http://www.mtbullersprint.com/, check out the track map here: http://www.mtbullersprint.com/media/pdf/PM...OR_MAP_2004.pdf

I've done 2, one at the Sutton Road Driver training complex near Canberra (track was made to teach bus drivers, imagine that at full tilt), and the other one was up Mt panorama.

Its a shame that everyone assumes the only road based fun is in Japan