The Touge Showdown will always be one of my favorite bits of automotive media to watch. It’s a competition put on by the guys behind Best Motoring and Hot Version to see which Japanese tuners can build the best overall balanced car for street driving (touge is a term used for the mountain roads of Japan). The motivation was to discourage a troubling trend that the hosts noticed where tuning shops were selling customer hardcore extreme tuned cars with stiff suspension and stripped out amenities. While great for track racing, these cars were completely inappropriate for the average enthusiast driving on the street everyday. Cars participating in the Touge Showdown have to have full interiors, air conditioning and use street legal tires. A special twist and bumpy course was chosen to make sure the cars had enough suspension to be fast over imperfect tarmac.

This particular tournament is an all-star bash of previous tournament winners. Though filmed in 2011, this is the first time we’ve had access to them with English subtitles. There wasn’t enough demand for Best Motoring and Hot Version DVD’s in America to justify production, but the magic of digital distribution now makes it cost effective for us to be able to watch these videos. The free version is broken up into 4 parts with commercials every now and again to advertise the paid download version.

Part 1 has the guys testing out the two All-Wheel Drive entrants. First up is the C-Ser Subaru Impreza tuned by the guy who started Yashio Factory. The tuning focus of the Impreza was on torque which led to a 2.5 liter block, small twin turbos and a lower redline. The second AWD car is the MCR R35 GT-R. This is the first outing for the car with the HKS GT800R symmetrical double turbo kit.

 
Part 2 starts off with the C-Ser Impreza and MCR R35 GT-R going head to head to see who would represent the AWD camp. The hosts then start to review the front-engine rear-wheel drive cars. The two entrants are the Arvou S2000 and the Fujita Engineering FD3S RX-7.

 
Part 3 is where the AWD representative takes on the FR representative to see who gets to take on the reigning champion, the RE Amemiya FD3S RX-7.

 
Part 4 shows the guys setting up the RE Amemiya FD that has been tweaked with more boost to keep up with the big power cars present at this tournament. Will the challenger have what it takes to dethrone the reigning Touge Monster?

 
I hope you’ve enjoyed the Touge Showdown as much as I have. Thank you internet for making gems like Best Motoring and Hot Version available again.

Source: GT Channel on YouTube