Mt GT-R holds some of the most technical and low-speed roads in the area, on account of its design. Snaking through the high-altitude maze created by Mother Nature, instead of blowing a tunnel straight through it, the road jukes left and right with plenty of blind apexes and deceptive corner exits. There are even a few surprise elevation changes, with sudden dips and climbs so steep that AE86 Corollas have to go up them in first gear. Only a fool would push harder than 30mph through these parts because the cost of a mistake is so high. Get it crossed up and you're either going into oncoming traffic, into a rock wall or falling 200 feet.
Mt. GT-R also happens to be a popular weekend cruising spot for those with gear oil in their blood and a fun car in the garage. With the sun setting, it's no more than 15 minutes into our drive before we cross a 'peanut-eye' WRX STI and a BMW 5 Series going the opposite direction. They both make sudden U-turns to hitch onto the back of our GT-R wagon train. Again, a flurry of cell phone camera activity follows us. Soon we will appear in numerous internet forums and MySpace pages, with cute little avatar pictures below such names as 'GTKillaz423'. Sweet.
We come across a Highway Patrol officer and decide to cool it down at the next turnout until some of the attention subsides. The STI and BMW peel off into the distance as we make our stop, no doubt eager to find the closest internet cafff, for a quick upload. A red Chevy Camaro Z28 convertible bombs by and disappears over a hill before we hear the tell-tale screech of a slowly processed double take.
"Oh great, here we go" flashes through all our minds as we prepare for the unnecessary bombardment of a domestic-loving mindset. Strangely, the Camaro pulls up, stops, then the driver-doing his best Vanilla Ice impression-creeps away without saying a word. He re-appears minutes later, driving slowly, pointing a video camera at us with one hand and steering with the other. Again, he remains silent. Anything can happen on Mt. GT-R.
As Hathaway prepares to take under-hood shots, it's readily apparent that the variation between these cars extends to more than just age. Tseng's R34 pushes more than 700 wheel-hp on race gas and the engine bay has been fully outfitted to support it. We spy a pair of HKS turbochargers bolted to the RB26; Tseng tells us the motor is built with a combination of Tomei, HKS, Crower and CP Pistons parts. The jury-rigged Monster energy drink oil catch can points toward the daily use and abuse this R34 sees. This is no garage queen; Tseng tracks the car at least once a month. With a flurry of polished red, blue and green parts, this R34's engine bay could probably clean up at a local car show (catch can aside), and do 10-second passes on the way home.
The R35's engine bay looks antiseptic and boring by comparison, which is exactly the point. The area under the hood is 100 percent factory and re-installed by M-Workz to be just that: stock. Only in this crowd does a 480bhp engine look boring.
With the photos done and the engines fired up, we head for the mountain's downhill section. As we come around the third bend, we see a familiar face. Camaro-man has camped out on a later turnout with his video camera in hand. He doesn't follow us down the road, but we're pretty sure his day has been made. Three GT-Rs in one go, it's enough to make any enthusiast crack a smile.
The story is echoed for the rest of the drive. We don't catch any FC3S or S13 mountain-running kids betting for pinks this time around. But we do come across scores of old Toyota pickups, monster trucks and quite a few Subarus who gasp and mouth "Oh, my god" behind closed windows at the sight of The Night Kids. And so they should.