Ridge Running: The Motorhead Hill Climb, At Mazda Turnpike In Hakone, Japan (VIDEO)


Ridge Running: The Motorhead Hill Climb, At Mazda Turnpike In Hakone, Japan (VIDEO)

If you got a free pass on a local road, anywhere you could choose, to race, what would you pick? Some wide-open road in Nevada where you could put your foot to the floor and go chasing the setting sun? Some Southern backroads for a little bit of moonshiner-style fun? Would you pick some fire road in a forest and have your own rally track? All are good options, but if the choice was mine, the answer is easy: I want a closed-down mountain pass. You get elevation changes, some good straightaways and curves ranging from long sweepers all the way up to perfect hairpin kinks, and you simply cannot beat the views.  There are several good places in America that I can picture being great places to try out, but this is one area where the Japanese certainly can compete.

hakone2

Tōge racing has been popular there for decades, which uses the compounding S-turn layout of Japan’s mountain passes as the racecourse for “tōge battles”. This video is not of a tōge, but instead of a sanctioned hill climb-style event at the Mazda Turnpike, formerly known as the Hakone Turnpike. This video is racing porn, pure and simple. Get past some of the kitschy Japanese graphics that appear every once in a while and enjoy what it is: a beautiful road that racers get to play on. You have everything from a drift-setup GT-R to a GT40 running the road and is it ever a gorgeous piece of asphalt. The video does not lie to you: crank the volume on this one and enjoy the sounds of good ridge running.

Courtesy of Jalopnik


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2 thoughts on “Ridge Running: The Motorhead Hill Climb, At Mazda Turnpike In Hakone, Japan (VIDEO)

  1. Chevy Hatin' Mad Geordie

    A real GT40? I don’t think so!

    More like a replica – nobody in their right mind would risk a multi-million dollar car on that road.

    Could you lads at BS translate those annoying Kmph thingies into proper English as I gave up speaking French when i left school!

    1. ColoradoKid

      Nope ! Its the real deal alright . Just look at the details as well as the GT40 version that it is . No one makes that particular version [ to my knowledge ] and all the details are period correct . Plus the driver is saying what a pain in the ___ it is to drive in comparison to his Z4 because its a classic race car versus a modern reinterpretation of one

      FYI ;

      Hillclimbs …. a competition who’s time needs to come back …. like …. NOW !

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