Yahoo Autos Watch Ryan Tuerck Destroy a Touge Run Through Appalachia
The Appalachian Mountains of West Virginia are home to some of the most spectacular roads in all of North America. The twisting mountain passes make an ideal location for some touge action, particularly when a motorsport organizer helps shut down the roads. Hop onboard with Formula Drift pro Ryan Tuerck as he and his buddies take on the Drift Apalachia event in the modified Toyota Stout pickup they built for SEMA Show 2022.
Tuerck is no stranger to automotive absurdity on the internet. Even if you are not familiar with his racing endeavors, you’ve likely come across his Ferrari 458-powered Toyota 86 or Judd V-8-powered Toyota Supra builds. Going farther back to his old YouTube days will pull up a couple different hillclimb drift runs he's done, running up a New England hillclimb course and the infamous Maryhill Loops road in Washington state. This particular Stout build packs a ton of Formula Drift-grade hardware. The chassis is a custom chromoly tubeframe unit, which comes supported by a modified PoweredByMax suspension kit for Corvettes. The stock lump of an engine is also gone, replaced by a turbocharged 2.0-liter 3S-GTE engine like you'd find in an MR-2 or Celica GT-Four. Of course this is a professional drifter we are talking about here, so the truck is making in the neighborhood of 650 hp. That power is routed out back via a six-speed sequential manual.
The event itself was organized by Drift Appalachia, which is a collaborative effort formed by Back Roads of Appalachia, Drift Indy and US Drift. The group claims that it ran the first legally sanctioned touge event in the United States, as Hagerty reported on hand from the side of a mountain road in rural Kentucky. It was no small feat to put together, per Hagerty:
Getting the state of Kentucky to agree to closing down U.S. Route 421 for drifting was a labyrinth of red tape. Fortunately, Drift Appalachia has Erik Hubbard as its secret bureaucracy buster. Hubbard’s nonprofit, Back Roads of Appalachia, is no stranger to organizing motorsports and motorcycle rallies in the Bluegrass State. The organization’s goal is to drive small-town economic development in Kentucky, Tennessee, Virginia, and West Virginia through motorsport tourism.
This West Virginia gathering stands as the group's second big event. There seems to be a decent level of talent on hand as well, with everyone diving right into the tandem runs without hesitation. That’s despite the fact that it was rather wet during the runs, a particularly scary encounter on the fast downhill sections. Tuerck’s skills are clear from the jump, reminding all of us what that gap to a professional driver looks like. Things dried out a bit for day two of the sliding, which brought all of the smoke you'd want on camera. Do yourself a favor and watch through the sideways shenanigans, which start at around 4:45 in the clip attached above.
It's remarkable that only now are we beginning to see legal street drifting events in the States. Interest in sliding cars isn't going away anytime soon. More events like these, with proper safety and organization, is what we need.
You Might Also Like
