Updates on Kenji's Integra

Suspension: APEXi N1 99 Spec R Coilovers with 11k front/5k rear spring rates, JDM ITR rear lower control arms, front and rear Skunk 2 strut tower bars, ASR rear subframe brace with JDM ITR 23mm rear sway bar, Blox front camber kits

Brakes: Drilled rotors, Axxis Ultimate Pads, stainless steel braided brakelines, and Super Blue Racing DOT 4 brake fluid.

Tires:
15x7 Rota Slipstreams 4x100
Falken RT-615
Front 205-50-15
Rear 205-50-15

Engine: B18C1 with USDM ITR 73-AO Pistons, stock bore, 1.8L, ITR oil pump, AEM Cold Air Intake, 68mm Billet Throttle Body, OEM GSR intake manifold with disconnected secondary butterlies, Nology HotWires, Denso Iridium spark plugs, B&M Command Flo Fuel Pressure Regulator, Buddy Club Racing Spec Condenser, OEM 3 layer headgasket, Blox Type A camshafts, AEM Tru-Time cam gears, Energy Suspension motor mount inserts, Chipped P28 ECU with CROME, JDM 98 spec ITR 4-1 header with 2.5" collector, Omni 2.5" test pipe, to JDM ITR 2.36" ITR chambered muffler: Compression is at 10:8-11:0. Tuned by Shawn Church making 192whp/148wtq on a DynaPack.

Cooling: CSF Racing dual core radiator, ARC thermostat

Drivetrain: 98 Spec ITR 4.785 FD Transmission with LSD, Exedy Stage 1 Organic Clutch, ITR Flywheel, steel braided clutch line, Motul Gear Ester

Exterior: 4300k HID conversion, Shaved Side Moldings, OEM amber corners

Interior: Fastline Shifter, 320mm NRG steering wheel, NRG Short Hub, NRG Quick Release, NRG Wheel Lock, Stripped Back Seats

1992 Toyota MR2 G-Limited

R.I.P. January 20, 2007

Suspension: TRD front and rear strut bar, Tanabe front and rear sway bar, Tanabe Under body Brace, TEIN FLEX Coilovers, TEIN EDFC, TEIN tension rods, High and Tight rear sway bar end links, Energy Suspension polyurethane bushings.

Brakes: 91 Turbo Calipers, Drilled and Slotted rotors, Axxis Ultimate Pads, stainless steel braided brakelines, and Motul RBF600.

Tires:

OEM wheels wet set up

Falken Ziex 512

Front 195/60/14

Rear 205/60/14

14"/15" X wheels dry set up

Falken Azenis RT-615

Front 195/60/14

Rear 205/50/15

Engine: Weapon R Intake, NGK Iridium spark plugs, APEXi SAFCII, Greddy radiator cap, Sun HVS, Nology Powercore, Headers, HKS Exhaust, Kirkosaurus motor mount inserts.

Drivetrain: ACT Heavy duty clutch, steel braided clutch line, brass shifter bushings, Redline MT-90.

Exterior: H4 headlight conversion, Gee headlight booster, TRD License plate frame, Clear Corners.

Interior: TRD Short Shifter, Cartune Short shifter plate, bent shifter extender, 320mm NRG steering wheel, NRG Quick Release, Momo F1 Concept horn, Imitation TRD Guages, Red Sparco EVO L, Sparco 4 point 3" camlock harness, and an Autopower Roll Bar.

The Story:

It was a Saturday night and I wanted some KFC. On my way out of the parking lot, some guy trying to get in blocked my left turn, so I decided to turn right and take a parallel street to KFC. About 3 blocks away from my apartment, I came up to an intersection where cars coming the opposite way were turning left. It's a small two lane street, so there is no dedicated left turn lane for on coming traffic. A 2002 Civic about to turn left saw me coming from the other direction. He braked, but changed his mind and thought he could turn left before I got there. We hit head on driverside to driverside. His insurance gave me $4200, and I parted out the car.

The Road So Far

Throughout the time I spent with my informants, my mind always wandered back to my last race in 2003. I mentioned my win was questionable because I didn’t know I won until after the race was over. I had no idea the locals were following Initial D rules, so I was trying to pass the guy during the whole race. Only inches away from his bumper, I’d try to line up with the RX-7 on the outside of a corner knowing it would be the inside of the next corner. He kept on blocking me, but when we got to the peak, everyone was cheering for me. Even though I won, I didn’t enjoy the race at all. Even now, competition like that doesn’t make sense to me the way it does to Kenji.

I had planned on doing an interview before and after a driving experience for both Martin and Kenji. Luckily I caught Martin a week before the Formula D Pro-Am national finals. Afterwards, he was very happy with his results even though he crashed in one of his qualifying runs. Kenji was easier to get a hold of, and I was actually able to be with him in the mountains. While there, he seemed more excited about it than he did talking about it during our first interview. After his engine blew, his car would overheat every time he’d drive, but that didn’t stop him from making short runs. The first thing he’s going to do when he gets his car back is take it to the mountains. Their follow up interviews were simply them talking about what they’re going to do next in their world of cars. It seems like nothing can stop these two from going to the mountains.

Illegal mountain driving brings a variety of drivers together. Those who want to show off their car control abilities, those who want to race, and those who simply like driving there. Their mindsets and techniques put them in different categories in motorsports, but they have many things in common. They all spend every penny they have on their cars, drive on the same roads, and all compete in some sense. It’s easy to see how people group them in the same category. The best way to categorize it is that they are both ball sports. One is soccer, and the other is football. They can be played for fun or professionally. They’re not the same game, but they can be played on the same field and have goals.

As it turns out, the questions I had about the motivation for mountain driving exist everywhere. Both Martin and Kenji continue driving to this day for their love for driving. It’s what makes them feel good and it’s what they’re good at. From professional to illegal underground racing, the drive is the same. Whether it’s drifting, or grip driving, they all want to be there. Even the drivers that are there strictly for the competition grow out of it. Someone will always be better. For Martin and Kenji, they know all the factors of drifting and gripping aside from competition. No one is forcing them to be there, and because it’s illegal isn’t a motivating factor. These drivers are the purest as they get.

I understand why illegal mountain racing is a problem, but digging deeper into the motivations of others has somewhat rekindled my desire for driving. Looking even closer to why I’d go is the same enjoyment. I stated earlier that I went to improve myself in other aspects of my life, but at the heart of it, I simply love doing what my car does best. It’s not about the cars, competition, or trends that keep people coming back. Despite participating in legitimate competitions, Martin goes to the mountains as much as he can. After Kenji’s engine blew, he was still going with a blown engine. The people that always go back to the mountains are the ones who love the drive.

Grip Masters

"I was racing a (Nissan) 350z, and I was leading in front of him with my car, automatic at the time, very, very un-tuned, the mods I have now, half of them I didn’t have before. I still was able to do a decent job in holding him off. I held my own that night. I felt a sense of accomplishment. Especially the guy who got out of the car to speak to me says, “Is that a GS-R?” And no it wasn’t it was a regular GS , with a crappier engine, no V-TEC, with automatic (Transmission). It’s that experience, definitely one of them that makes what I do that much more enjoyable."

Grip drivers are more concerned about speed than anything. Cruisers are like grip drivers, but competition is less of a motivator. Not limited like the drifters, most car layouts work well with these styles of driving. The more talented drivers, with drift friendly cars, incorporate drifting to help themselves clear corners faster. Like the drifters, there are track events that are for grip drivers, but they’ve been around for quite some time. It’s very difficult to get into professional racing from a background in the mountains. So many drivers prefer driving on the mountains under their own terms. These hobbyists, like Kenji, never leave the mountains for legally sanctioned events. Though these drivers share the same roads as the drifters, they are worlds apart.

"I’d (Kenji) say tires are everything. Without tires, everything you have, you can have the best modifications. It won’t make any use unless you have tires."

Kenji considers himself a grip driver. He drives a 1999 Acura Integra GS with plenty of modifications. For our first interview, we met at my house back in early October. I had known him since we were both six years old. The reason why I wanted to talk to him about mountain driving was because he was doing it before me and still participates. The real gold was being able to go driving with him in San Jose at the end of October. I told him how nice the roads were up here, and he wanted to see the local drivers in action. I didn’t have a problem out driving some of the local drivers, but Kenji was trailing. By the end of the night, he had several close calls with the wall, and a blown engine. Now he’s having a GS-R engine installed and can’t wait to come back to San Jose.

"The fact that you can drive a piece of crap car that looks like shit, sizing it up next to the car next to you, it’s just totally, totally not capable of running against something that might have upwards of 100 to 200 horsepower against you, but when you can hold that guy off with what you got, the horsepower offset is amazing. That’s one of the big ones. That gives you a sense of pleasure, that’s one of the things I like about it."

Grip cars, like Kenji’s, are set up in a similar fashion to drift cars. Emphasis on the tires, suspension, and brakes are more important than engine power. Overall course time or head to head racing fuels the thrill that grip drivers feed off. Most of the drivers follow Initial D rules. It is a run and chase race where passing is not allowed. It mimics the tandem runs done in the finals of drifting competitions, but based off speed rather than style. If the lead car pulls away through the course it wins. If the chasing car keeps up, the chaser wins. If they constantly finishing the run nose to tail, they’ll repeat until the driver with less endurance or technique falls out. Sometimes parts start to fail after just one run from bad technique. Some of the grip drivers are against head to head racing. They’re the ones that run for time or for fun with the cruisers.

"There are times where I want to go, and more often than not, I don’t go because of the fact that there is the possibility I can get be pulled over by the police or have, worse case scenario, or even worse than that and actually crash. I would risk it, I don’t want to sound like an adrenaline junkie, which I’m not, but it’s the rush, it’s the satisfaction, it’s the enjoyment and joy that is involved."

The consequences of being caught by the police are more severe than the solo drifter. The worst violation a drifter can face, if they didn’t harm anyone, is reckless driving. It’s a 2 point misdemeanor violation. Grip drivers have more to worry about. If they’re driving head to head, they can have their cars taken away and spend the night in jail. According to the Whittier Police, the second violation can put the driver in jail for six months. With the added hype from drifting and the media, it makes it more risky for grip drivers and cruisers to go up to the mountains. However, grip drivers like Kenji share the same love for driving that drifters like Martin have. Even though it’s more risky to drive, both of them are often at the same mountain at different hours of the night.

The Art of Sideways

"I (Martin) feel I'm more of a classically trained drifter if you will. Just because of the fact I drove in the mountains, and when I started, I didn't do it to go drifting. I went up there to have fun, drive my car, see how fast I could go. Um, I never really raced any of my friends. We'd go up and it was mostly having fun, keeping pace with, or challenging ourselves and keeping up with the other person. It wasn't an actual race. And that just kind of blended with our speed, and the fact that our tires would wear out, we just kind of started drifting naturally going through corners, and kind of just learned how to do it because it just happened."

Drifting is a sport that was born from the mountains of Japan. Calvin Wan, a Formula D driver, said that drifting came about from people racing in the mountains. They started to drive faster and faster to the point where they’d start to slide. Then people started trying to hold the slide longer and through multiple turns. Not long after, it wasn’t about the speed anymore. The angles, tire smoke, and control along with the driver’s style became more important. These drifters stay true to the racing line because it’s still the fastest path around a corner (Abad 2005). Drivers are awarded more points for showing off control. Some signature moves that some drivers use are excessive tire smoke, getting inches away from the lead car in a tandem run, and getting their bumpers as close to a wall as possible, sometimes trying to leave a paint streak on the wall.

Though drifting came about in the 1960’s, the first events geared toward drifting sprung about in the late 80’s. It never became a professionally recognized sport until the D1 Grand Prix came about in Japan in 2000 (D1GP.com). I was stationed in Okinawa at the time D1GP came out. Until then I didn’t know what drifting was. A year later, I would be driving with future Formula D drivers in the Angeles National Forest. In August of 2003, I attended the first D1GP in the United States at Irwindale, California. I had driven down with some students from San Jose State University who had a common interest in cars. The stands were packed, and the parking lot was full. We had to park in an industrial complex about a mile away. I was present when drifting went big in Japan and the United States.

Since none of my cars were the drifting type, I never really got into the sport. I didn’t have the RX-7 long enough to even get started. Many of my driving friends did have front engine rear wheel drive cars. One of them was Martin. I met him in the summer of 2002 at a popular windy pass near my home. We’d go up to the mountains and drive almost every weekend. Our new tires would be bald in a month’s time. When I left for San Jose, he continued to go to the mountains as much as he could. As I was studying in college, he was improving his driving techniques. When I finally got to talk to him this fall about his driving, he had won fourth place in the Formula D Pro Am and was preparing for the national competition in Bull Head City, Arizona.

In October, I met up with Martin at Diamond Plaza in Rowland Heights. It’s a Chinatown off the 60 freeway, and almost everyone who’s into mountain racing knows about that place. It happens to be a central hub to most of the best driving spots around Los Angeles. It wasn’t the best place to talk, so we relocated to a Denny’s not too far from there. I spoke with him for about an hour and I was surprised with his answers. I had built up a stereotype that he was a mountain racer like in the Initial D cartoon. I automatically assumed that he raced other people and used his drifting skill to give him and advantage. Martin’s reply caught me by surprise.

"I think they're (mountain racers) fools and anything like that where you're racing somebody for the sake of actually racing them or beating them normally leads one or both people to make a mistake, or it puts other people on the road in danger, because it is a public road and it's not something that should be done. And the people that I found out doing that, I give them a hard time, and I tell them that they're fools and they're idiots, and just because they don't hurt anybody tonight doesn't mean that they're not going to hurt anybody later."

Not only was I wrong there, but I automatically assumed his greatest fear would be the police. Most of the people I knew and spoke with didn’t go often anymore because they were afraid of getting pulled over. Martin’s fear was a surprise, but in some ways, it makes sense why the police are trying to control the activity in the mountains.

"The police are always there, but even if I get caught doing that, that's just me. If I have to pick one fear, I don't know if would be a fear, but it's something I'd feel the worst about would be getting into an accident with somebody minding their own business. Someone that wasn't involved in anyway, that was up there doing something 100% legal, and we just so happened to be cruising by and we hit them. Because heaven forbid anything happens, I would feel bad about that. Like if a cop pulls me over, yes I was racing, but I'm not going to feel bad about that. I might feel I was stupid, but if I actually hurt somebody, that would be the worst thing for me."

After the interview was over, I realized that I didn’t know Martin as well as I had thought. His roots are in the mountains and he’ll always drive them, but he’s using illegal mountain driving as a way into professional motorsports. Surprisingly, his Nissan 240sx happens to be very under tuned compared to his competitors with 300 to 600 horsepower, yet he manages to do well in the competitions. He doesn’t have the financial backing that his competitors do, so he has to make do with the most basic setup. I was glad to hear that he qualified fifteenth in the nation. Besides a career, I asked him why he drives the way he does, and he said, “It's relaxing, I don't know, some people paint, take walks, read books, I drive. To me it's what I do.” This left me with the conclusion that drivers who have gone legit use mountain racing as a stepping stone into motorsports, and it can also be a simple hobby. Regardless of his reasons, he finds a joy in driving. It’s strong enough to keep him coming back after several accidents.

Infiltration

Since I had been out of the game for over three years, getting a hold of my ideal contacts was difficult. Some of the people who I drove with in 2001 had ahead to becoming full fledged drifters for car shops and companies. On top of that, our relationships ended on negative terms. Some of the drivers were viewed as sell outs to their fellow mountain drivers. It’s not simply because they went big time. The main reason was an article in one of the popular import car magazines. The few that had become drivers for various shops had said that they never drove in the mountains and detested the people up there. After that, even though they still went to the mountains, many of them lost their following. They claimed that they were trying to promote sanctioned events for their organizations. This was a huge barrier, but I decided to go around it by approaching privateers in the legitimate motorsports world. This way, they wouldn’t be obligated to say certain things for their respective alliances.

Finding hobbyists to talk to would prove to be much easier. Many of my friends from Southern California still drive in the mountains. Though not as often as before, they still go several times a month, and they always invite me when I come home. Not only are they still active, there are also new faces in the bunch. Some of them as young as sixteen have started to follow the foot steps of the veteran drivers. I’m not too concerned about the new faces. Building a rapport with them would have been difficult, because they have a misconception that I’m still very active in the mountains. It’s true to some extent, but my reasons for going aren’t the same as theirs. So, I decided to interview my friends that knew me long before we were into cars, or were into mountain driving before I got involved. It provided a much more comfortable atmosphere where they didn’t have trouble answering my questions honestly.

I originally wanted to interview a group of people who grew up in a formal form of motorsports and get their feedback on mountain racing. I decided to drop that search because it didn’t seem relevant to the answer I was looking for. Instead I decided to participate with smaller local groups on runs up in the hills around San Jose. I also drove with some of my some of my contacts in Orange County. Aside from dropping the feedback from the orthodox racers, I never felt particularly safe riding with any of my informants. With my experience driving, I felt much safer in my own car relying on my own skill. It also gave me the opportunity to view events externally as well as participate myself. I was invited on several runs which ultimately ended in my car being out of commission and the end of a deer's life.

Introduction

Ever since there have been cars, there has been different forms of auto racing. It’s not a surprise because people have raced on foot since the dawn of civilization. Nobody really knows how mountain racing began. However, the locations share a common design. The tour guide of the Lick Observatory on top of Mount Hamilton explained that roads up mountains were windy and long because vehicles, even modern, can’t drive up the side of a mountain. Most of these roads pre-exist cars and were made for wagons. There are 366 corners from Alum Rock to the top of Mt. Hamilton. Roads like this draw in driving enthusiasts of all sorts. Different professional motorsports have spawned from these mountains. There are even tracks like Horsethief Mile at Willow Springs Raceway that are designed to simulate a mountain road.

This very night, there are people driving as fast as they can on mountain tops. They’re racing for the peak, the base, an opponent in another car, or themselves. Some won’t stop until they start seeing morning traffic or the sun rise. Among these drivers, there is a mixed group of enthusiasts. There are the drifters who turn driving into an art form, the grip drivers who are concerned with competition and times, and the cruisers who just enjoy the drive. Some of these drivers extend beyond the mountain and perform at organized legal events. The drifters have their own events where they perform their high speed slides and are judged by a panel. Grip drivers can run road courses such as Horsethief Mile for lap times. There are autocross events that are in parking lots that many of the drivers and casual cruisers attend because it’s cheap and safe. All of these forms of legal events overlap in the drivers and styles. It’s common to find all these drivers on the same mountain pass.

Though very similar, the activity in the mountains should not be compared to the legal events that have spawned from it. The drivers share this common ground, but they don’t follow the same rules and precautions. The dangers that wait in the mountains are much greater than those on any of the mentioned events. The isolation, the time of day, visibility, weather, road conditions, road width, and opposing traffic are issues that face all of the mountain drivers. Accidents happen often up there. Some are minor guard rail kisses, while others end up in death. However, there are things some of these drivers fear more. Most of them know what they are doing is illegal, and every since the drifting boom in 2003, there have been police and rangers patrolling the mountains looking to catch people in the act. Other fears include injuring bystanders. These dangers and potential risks don’t deter people from driving.

Aside from all of these the events and styles that have derived from illegal mountain racing, not much is said about what drives the individual to participate in this dangerous activity. The reasons may be many, but of the three types of drivers that occupy these windy roads make up the majority, their reasons for driving are very different. What excites one group to push themselves and their cars to the limit may disgust another group. The vehicle setup and choices are different along with their attitude. Of the drifters, grip drivers, and cruisers, their motivation falls into two groups. There are those who are using this illegal activity as a stepping stone to get to a more legitimate form of motorsports. Then there are the others who don’t plan on ever setting foot on a track. To put it more simply, the drivers group into motorsports, hobbyists, and sometimes both. The level of competition varies throughout the groups, within and between them.

All of the drivers share the same road for different things. It’s not only personal gain that brings people up to the mountains. It could also be the recent media exposure. Drifting coverage has leaked into NASCAR, movies like Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift, and anime cartoons like Initial D. Even with all of the hype, the reason for driving up to the mountains and getting involved could be as simple as boredom. The influence isn’t nearly important as the motivation, the drive that keeps people there when others lose interest. That’s what keeps people coming back to the mountains, but no one has ever asked what it is.