How Long Should A Touge Be?

Just a simple question, just trying to get some opinions on what is too long or too short for a touge. Mountain roads seem to go on forever, I'm sure going all out for a long period of time on those roads would be incredibly taxing! Of course, here in Richmond, the longest roads of interest are about 2-5 miles or so, going all out on these roads are tough enough. But I'm sure there are blokes that go all out on Deal's Gap, and that's 11 miles or so?

I've noticed Best Motoring's Touge Showdown usually only utilizes a section of road appox 2-3 miles, which goes by really quick. I'm sure for the sake of the show, they kept it that short.

What I'm thinking is: if the touge is too short, doesn't seem it gives the drivers time to resolve their driving skills, usually giving one car an advantage over the other, and it's not as fun. Too long, you run a greater risk of something going wrong, more uncertain factors come into play.

What do you think?

Perfect length is just under your fuel range

only old people complain about comfort

hahah! awesome answer Jared!

500,


I think it all depends on the mood you're in man. Like when i was in the dragon on Nov, I had soo much fun , i thought that the dragon wasn't long enough. Somedayz i want the fun to stop for food sake....lol

When you say how long should a touge be you might also be referring to how much time you spend driving seriously. I think that's more important then the actual length of the course. When I was an instructor most people were beat after about ten laps or so (on a 3 mile circuit) which was only 10-15 minutes of seat time.

However most touges are point-to-point type courses. This gives you more time between runs to take a breather. If you run a 3 mile stretch of road 10x you should be pretty well aquainted with it. Deals Gap is probably the most complex touge in the country. A single run on Deals Gap is twice as many corners as 10 laps on a circuit.

The Gunsai Touge from Hot Version is only 1.5 km long which is a little less then a mile. Its pretty impressive that they can push those cars so hard and create a gap at all in only 6-7 corners.

Yea I was gonna say the Nest Motoring course was pretty short.

It's hard to say how long the touge course should be. As intense as the Dragon is, we often run the Hellbender pretty hard before jumping on the dragon, so that adds a few miles to the course.
And our home course, the Loop, is pretty extensive requiring a few stops after each leg, each a few miles long and of different levels of intensity.

It's hard to say you are running full on the whole time as there is other factors to be thrown in that get in the way like traffic.

^This and Yes to scarsofcarma

As for everyone else, I was referring to pushing it, not just a leisurely cruise through the country side, that's not 'touge' imo.

There is this gargantuan Road near my area I have only been able to drive three times. I would be amazed if anyone could go all out the entire road. The road splits off at the middle. either way you choose, It ends up being about 50 miles of intense windy road. The road I hit up the most in my area is about 9 miles long.. I Have only went all out on it a few times.. Most of the time I just hit up my favorite sections.. When I have a group with me, usually we pull off at a few different points to evaluate everyone and decide if we should change the line up...Here is a google map of the first road I was talking about:

http://maps.google.com/maps?saddr=8501-8911+Mines+Rd,+Livermore,+CA+94550&daddr=37.44741,-121.5153+to:Del+Puerto+Canyon+Rd&hl=en&ll=37.498287,-121.449051&spn=0.373162,0.727158&sll=37.4987,-121.449295&sspn=0.37316,0.727158&geocode=FTjwPQIdTye_-CnDp1rTzd6PgDGMg7BLLldkbw%3BFfJmOwId3NLB-CmZLY8KkyyQgDGTqIii6iG4MA%3BFR7eOwIdDILG-A&mra=ls&via=1&t=m&z=11

I think you're too concerned with racing. The Touge is what it is.

50 miles may be too long... haha, Down and Back! how long can your car run all out for? should be the question, will your brakes fade? Does you motor like being cranked up and up in revs? I know 500's answer for the revs is "all day!" haha

It's interesting to see the range of answers. It's giving me an insight on how people approach the touge. I guess the million dollar question I have now is: What is the Touge to you?

As said plenty of times, we don't typically do "battles" amongst the group. We generally get together and do runs. Not your typical sightseers/Sunday drive type as we do push the limits and sometimes treat the mountains like our personal track/playground. Amongst eachother we know who's faster and toy with other "touge'rs" and have our own Heirarchy but it's not the Initial D/Fast and Furious type of calling out

We just shy away from the word Battle i think... technically i believe we do a caterpillar/cat&mouse style of 'battle' but if someones faster we just let them around at a safe spot. People who want to 'battle' usually push too hard, or bring up alot of immaturity/do something stupid that we don't want around us or our cars.

but thats my 2cents and doesnt represent 4touge as a whole

As far as pushing it, I think Deal's Gap is a great size... abit longer would be nice but can always just turn around and go again.

It is all about your equipment and you... Are you mentally\physically capable of pushing it, watching for doom, and controling your car inches from a cliff for 5 mins, 10 mins, etc?

Can your equipment take it? Like Vance said, can your brakes, motor, tires, and various other pieces of metal that make your car stiff take the abuse. If any one of those things fails calamity could insue soon afterwards.

Then there is the "This may be illegal" factor, how much attention are you getting from the local leos?

I personally like going hard for a length, then stopping to let everything cool down, for my brake fluid to stop boiling, and my tires to stop melting before hitting the next section of road.

My rule is whats the longest stretch of road I can control. (ie a buddy at each end with a walkie to radio if someone is coming)