Wow! What a fantastic event. It was amazing to see the diversity of tuner cars that showed up to the event. Everything from near OEM cars to many full blown race cars. Embracing the true spirit of Touge we opted to bring our daily street driven FX500 NSX (near identical set-up as Sigs). This is a true street car with all the amenities of a stock NSX. Running on DOT legal tires.
Upon arrival we were broken up into various classes to battle, RWNA, RWT,FF, AWD. We were placed in the Rear Wheel Turbo Class (RWT). We were first up in our class and had the honor of Japans D1 champion Kazama as a driver. After he completed about four laps, he came back for the interview. He scored the car 95/100 with his only real complaint being the weak LSD and the damn NAV pod with the AIM coming loose. On the positive side he was amazed that the power was controllable, suspension was good, and brakes were good.
After about five hours the drivers and crew deliberated and announced the winners of each class. First up was a BMW M3, next up was our FX500 NSX, Top Set-up EG6, Vivid Racing Turbo RX-8, and lastly the Vishnu EVO VIII. We were very, very excited with the results feeling we had a high probability of making it to the finals. Our initial match-up was with the Vivid Racing Turbo RX-8. Then something happened that we are still unclear about.
Apparently the rules stated that you could only run DOT legal tires and no Hoosiers. One of the contestants the XS Skyline was running the Hankook Slicks which fell under the gray area. The cast actually took a vote amongst the participants whether or not to allow these cars that have those types of tires to run. Overwhelmingly, everyone said no, and Dori-Dori acknowledged that in Japan Touge the cars must have 70% tread to be legal. Long story short, somehow the XS Skyline was allowed to run and unfortunately for us were matched up with them.
The Skyline was extremely well put together and was the same Skyline that won the USCC. With our LSD fried and the Skyline on the Hankooks we really didn’t have a chance. If we did have a fresh LSD and were running the Hankooks it would have been a much closer race. It was amazing to see Kazama drive the FX500 on that course with our failed LSD. Somehow he was still able to click off decent lap times all while smoking the inner tire up and down all the hills basically driving on three tires. If the LSD was on the edge there is no doubt it is toast now
Once we did hit the short straight aways and the tires hooked we made up time very quickly.
The Skyline easily advanced to the finals to meet up with Kip’s Comptech NSX. Like the others it really didn’t stand a chance either. If they were running similar tires to the Skyline it would have been much closer. Kip’s Comptech NSX is an amazing work of art. Incredibly well built, with complete balance. It really carved up that course effortlessly. We were hoping for the NSX shootout to end the Touge but maybe next time. We were just happy that two NSXs represented the Top 5. It was a pleasure to finally meet Shad and Joe from Comptech in person. Two class act guys with an incredible amount of knowledge. From conversation it sounds like there are some very exciting products that will soon be available to the NSX community.
Special thanks to our Tire Sponsor TOYO TIRES. They proved to be everything people say about them and more. Thanks to Autovation for providing us with the fantastic pedal set-up. You will be pleased to see your product highlighted on video. Thank you to Exedy for providing us with a fantastic clutch. We would also like to thank Jon K, Tod K, Glenn at Upgrade Motoring, and MJ at Dali Racing for helping us all along the way. Last but not least thank you to the Best Motoring crew for organizing this event and giving us the honor of participating.
We will continue to enter our FX500 NSX in as many contests that will accept us, to prove the durability of the system and to show everyone that the NSX is still one of the top tuner platforms. Next up the Standing Mile, Silver State Challenge, and preparation for Time Attack.
We can turn too,
Factor X Racing
Upon arrival we were broken up into various classes to battle, RWNA, RWT,FF, AWD. We were placed in the Rear Wheel Turbo Class (RWT). We were first up in our class and had the honor of Japans D1 champion Kazama as a driver. After he completed about four laps, he came back for the interview. He scored the car 95/100 with his only real complaint being the weak LSD and the damn NAV pod with the AIM coming loose. On the positive side he was amazed that the power was controllable, suspension was good, and brakes were good.
After about five hours the drivers and crew deliberated and announced the winners of each class. First up was a BMW M3, next up was our FX500 NSX, Top Set-up EG6, Vivid Racing Turbo RX-8, and lastly the Vishnu EVO VIII. We were very, very excited with the results feeling we had a high probability of making it to the finals. Our initial match-up was with the Vivid Racing Turbo RX-8. Then something happened that we are still unclear about.
Apparently the rules stated that you could only run DOT legal tires and no Hoosiers. One of the contestants the XS Skyline was running the Hankook Slicks which fell under the gray area. The cast actually took a vote amongst the participants whether or not to allow these cars that have those types of tires to run. Overwhelmingly, everyone said no, and Dori-Dori acknowledged that in Japan Touge the cars must have 70% tread to be legal. Long story short, somehow the XS Skyline was allowed to run and unfortunately for us were matched up with them.
The Skyline was extremely well put together and was the same Skyline that won the USCC. With our LSD fried and the Skyline on the Hankooks we really didn’t have a chance. If we did have a fresh LSD and were running the Hankooks it would have been a much closer race. It was amazing to see Kazama drive the FX500 on that course with our failed LSD. Somehow he was still able to click off decent lap times all while smoking the inner tire up and down all the hills basically driving on three tires. If the LSD was on the edge there is no doubt it is toast now
Once we did hit the short straight aways and the tires hooked we made up time very quickly. The Skyline easily advanced to the finals to meet up with Kip’s Comptech NSX. Like the others it really didn’t stand a chance either. If they were running similar tires to the Skyline it would have been much closer. Kip’s Comptech NSX is an amazing work of art. Incredibly well built, with complete balance. It really carved up that course effortlessly. We were hoping for the NSX shootout to end the Touge but maybe next time. We were just happy that two NSXs represented the Top 5. It was a pleasure to finally meet Shad and Joe from Comptech in person. Two class act guys with an incredible amount of knowledge. From conversation it sounds like there are some very exciting products that will soon be available to the NSX community.
Special thanks to our Tire Sponsor TOYO TIRES. They proved to be everything people say about them and more. Thanks to Autovation for providing us with the fantastic pedal set-up. You will be pleased to see your product highlighted on video. Thank you to Exedy for providing us with a fantastic clutch. We would also like to thank Jon K, Tod K, Glenn at Upgrade Motoring, and MJ at Dali Racing for helping us all along the way. Last but not least thank you to the Best Motoring crew for organizing this event and giving us the honor of participating.
We will continue to enter our FX500 NSX in as many contests that will accept us, to prove the durability of the system and to show everyone that the NSX is still one of the top tuner platforms. Next up the Standing Mile, Silver State Challenge, and preparation for Time Attack.
We can turn too,
Factor X Racing
