I don't know how many of you have actually been to Japan or have driven on the mountain roads out here but all I will say about them is that they are F'ing NARROW and NO JOKE. Blind hairpins, tight chicanes, steep elevation changes in some places. Oh yeah, did I mention that they are F'ing NARROW?

Well the good thing is that these roads are virtually deserted at night and miles away from the nearest village. So one of the more popular things to do around here every Saturday night is for everyone to meet up in a location, and caravan out to the mountains to see just what we (and our cars) are really capable of.

I bought my '93 EVO GSR last month and I have been dying to see what it can do. So when I was asked for the 50th time to go out with the guys to run the mountains I finally accepted being well aware, and a bit concerned, about the dangers.

There were a pretty impressive list of cars that came along. Two Skylines, one GT-R and one GTS-T, a '91ish Supra turbo, a sweet Silver S-15 Silvia turbo, a Red MR2 turbo, some guy in a Miata, and a few others I can recall offhand. About 9 cars total.

We all set off into the mountains from Downtown Iwakuni and as soon as we started to get out of town, we started pushing harder, and harder. We would stop after every segment and B.S., take smoke breaks, and then off we would go again. In some of the straighter areas of the roads we were hitting 100mph and taking the turns as fast as our cars could handle. This is where things started getting bad.

The Red MR2 turbo was ahead of me. I noticed him getting a bit tail-happy around a couple corners and almost found a guardrail once. Because of this, I backed off him a bit more and it turned out to be a good choice.

Around a sharp, hairpin right, I noticed his rear-end begin sliding out. He counter-steered and hit the brakes at the same time. This caused the rear-heavy car to do an instant 180 and slam into the embankment on the drivers side. Upon the shock of seeing headlights in front of me instead of taillights, I pushed my ABS to the limit to get my car to stop in time and hit my hazards for the people behind me.

Luckilly, he was OK and the car recieved superficial body damage including a 3 inch hole in the bumper. Also his right-rear drag link was bent a little and he was leaking oil out the rear main seal. His car basically hit the softest part of the embankment and a fence absorbed most of it. Of course, we had to tow him the long trip back home.

The reason that I'm telling you all this is because this could have turned out a lot worse. There are parts of these roads that only a pathetic excuse for a guardrail stands between you and a 400 foot fall off the mountain. I'm not going to lie and say that it wasn't some of the most fun that I ever had with my car. It was. But death, isn't as much of a factor on the track.

Anyway, take want you want from this story but I just wanted to share this experience.

PS. My EVO handles like a MoFo with that RS-R suspension on it! Damn that bitch is quick!

I'd love to take my S30 out on a road like that....

Maybe not as fast as you folks... but just to drive in Japan would be awesome.

i remember you. i was there that night. i was ridin with corey in the silver s15 when dennis crashed the mr2. damn, small world. im in the process of getting orders back over there, so maybe ill see that gsr again.

are you guys from the army or something? too bad you guys didnt' see any hardcore dorifto action that night. lolz well i'm glad no one got hurt, but if i was to drive on those roads, i would be such a pussy. hehe i'm scared.

I was reading and i thought...

Hey cool, an MR2

then i hoped... "Please dont let him be the one to f*** up"

Driving in the twisties at high-speeds during the day is one thing....but at night...it's just not very smart.

its quit common for people do drive in the mountain passes at night. its been goin on since the 70's in japan. its much safer to drive at night if your familar with the course rather then in the daytime where there is on common traffic.

That sounds like uber fun, and I'd love to try it here, but I dont have my skyline yet ;) Oh well, summer comes earlier than one thinks.

lachean, your in the imoc board right? im on there too, since while im here in the states, i have a 91 turbo 2. its the typical mr2 mistake...go around a corner too fast, start to skid a little, then hit the brakes or decelerate, causing the heavy ass end to swing out. plus his tires sucked, but he doesnt know any better. hes been riding bikes forever, but is getting too old for street bikes, so he got the 2. hes not so great at driving cars yet, since it goes against the way hes been driving bikes all his life

rage your dream :cwm27:

its quit common for people do drive in the mountain passes at night. its been goin on since the 70's in japan. its much safer to drive at night if your familar with the course rather then in the daytime where there is on common traffic.

Yes, common to drive ....lol not race. Also...it's in the mountains..so I'm guessing at night there will be condensation on the road...I dunno, that's just crazy.

alright i don't expect you to know about japanese touge racing. they do race at night in the mountain passes. and they usually do drift style. i have videos of 2 cars doing parallel drifting down the pass. its a RX-7 FC turbo II following a R33 Skyline GT-R. and they would get soo close to each other, the tire smoke from the GT-R is literally blocking the view of the RX-7. and you see the driver in teh RX-7 driving one handed, and the steering wheel is counter steering and its amazing how the wheel can turn so fast with a slight whip, and it is done in pitch black. you can 't even see the road!!

this is indeed very very common in japan. they even made a very very very realistic and technically accurate comic/ cartoon called initial D based purely on drifting and racing in the mountain passes in japan, its based on maps very similar to real mountains. but these guys are amazingly skilled. also thats the main difference between how japanese people drive their cars vs. how americans like to drive there car. this is truely pushing the cars to the limit in handling. esp how the road is never ribbon smooth so a car like a mustang would have such a hardtime keeping its line because of its outdates suspension will not allow it to power out of the corner like most import cars can.

i'll try to find some maps of how a typical mountain pass will look in japan and i'll post up pics for the people whos not familiar with the import world.

here is a link to pics of the summit of a mountain very similar to mt akina, also the gas station where they work at, and etc.

http://www.geocities.com/vegeta_wrath_anime/initialdrealpics.html

heres a link to how a few of the mountains looks

http://www.geocities.com/initial_d_battle/akinamap.gif

http://www.geocities.com/initial_d_battle/myogimap.gif

also camarocoal if your interested in my video pm me, i'll sent it to you via aim.

Tat, I might have to check out that video later on, hope you're on.

I hate to say it, but Japanese street racing is so much better than American street racing that it's not even funny.

American Street Racing:
*revs*
*revs*

-light goes green-

SQUEEEAAAALLLLLL.


Japanese:

One word: Touge.

American Street Racing:
*revs*
*revs*

-light goes green-

SQUEEEAAAALLLLLL.


Japanese:

One word: Touge.


Eventually, we'll get it over here that the 1.4 isn't life and death...And dont forget wangan racing...Read an article about that, and I was like...I'm going to Tokyo...

For me, its Nurburgring first, then Wangan, the Autobahn...

ok, first of all, touge isnt a style of driving...touge is japanese for mountain pass. so ppl do both grip and drift on the touge. anyway, the dude who made this thread hasnt been there cause there isnt drifting anymore, but theres a road close to where we were that night called matsuo that ppl used to drift at, but the police put the really high cat eye lane dividers that will slash a tire if you drift across it. it was matsuo where many amateur drifters first started. the hatsukaichi area (matsuo) is where taniguchi used to drift when he was a normal dude and had his own car. he still comes down every now and then, and the guy who used to tune his car(rio) is the same guy who tunes my car. in fact, he stops down sometimes cause him and rio are good friends.

wow "no one better" taniguchi actually still shows up? he must be amazing to watch. and yes if i had my way, i prefer the wangan over touge. Wangan for the american guys stands for highway. however its not a straight line short spurt race. its a race to 180-200+ mph if your car can handle it through traffic and corners. that to me is alot more excilerating, and test the cars ability more IMO.

Tat, I might have to check out that video later on, hope you're on.

just give a PM.

LOL, I never said I didn't believe that people raced in the mountains at night, I said it wasn't very smart. And LOL @ thinking all street races in America are straight line drags..cmon now, The US has just a few ;) more mountains than Japan I dare say, and there are plenty of people that drive cars with other than "outdated Mustang handling" lol....I wonder how many of these redline warriors of the initial d mountains in Japan have died thinking they are the shit fishtailing it in these moutains? I'd guesss quite a bit. Mountain roads + night + high speeds = pretty stupid no matter how you skilled you are.

wow "no one better" taniguchi actually still shows up? he must be amazing to watch. and yes if i had my way, i prefer the wangan over touge. Wangan for the american guys stands for highway. however its not a straight line short spurt race. its a race to 180-200+ mph if your car can handle it through traffic and corners. that to me is alot more excilerating, and test the cars ability more IMO.

LOL...180+ weaving through traffic and corners huh....If you are stupid enough to do that, then you shouldn't be driving a car.

If you've ever raced, you're a hypocrite for saying that.

Yes I have raced. Have I hauled ass fishtailing around mountain roads at night or driven 180+ mph on the freeway? NO lol...

just casue i admire those people who have the skills and machine to handle that kind of racing doesn't mean i do it. and yes america might have more mountains then japan, but japan is a basically made up of nothing but moutains, and the mountains are very very packed together. so pretty much almost everyone is accessible to them. and the wangan is probrably the most intense form of street racing to watch. of course if i was in their cars i would shit myself 3 times. but you heard of Top Secret? or how about Yashio Factory? that is where most japanese tuners prove their shops worth. On the Wangan. the owner of Top Secret, Naga San has gone over 200mph on japanese highways in his R33 GT-R. and Yashio factory's S15 Silvia has gone 185mph on the wagan. and theres another tuner that has a full interior R34 GT-R taht has gone 195mph with workin a/c.

i'm not saying its safe. indeed it is very dangerous. but these guys have been doing it for decades and live to tell about it, and thats how the shops compete. by having the better machine. and then it actracts customers. their cars are designed for just the Wanga, Touge, or Time attack.

They race.
You race.

It's all the same.

There are rich stupidasses who take their ferraris on speed runs on the highways in the middle of the day.

At least the japanese have the common decency to do it in the dead of night.

I used to have a bunch of vids from a buddy who was in the military and stationed in Japan, got a ungodly amount of Wangan racing on video...I wanna race there so bad...Get my ass kicked by teh Top Secret Supra...