J’s Racing ‘Touge Demon King’ S2000 Gets Wild During Hillclimb Race
Keiichi Tsuchiya, AKA the ‘Drift King,’ puts J’s Racing widebody S2000 through its paces in this throwback Thursday video.
When it comes to Japanese tuning companies, few have more prestige in the Honda world than J’s Racing. Enthusiasts the world over clamor for their exhausts, aero components and chassis upgrades. However, what happens when you give J’s Racing an S2000 and tell them to go wild? Well, it would probably look something like this, the J’s Racing “Touge Maou” S2000.
The phrase Touge Maou translates as “winding road demon king,” or “king of the underworld,” which is fitting for the fiery exterior motif, as well as the brutal way this AP1 covers ground at this Kyoto hillclimb event, covered by Best Motoring.
The Demon King S2000 is an insane build, from top to bottom. Under the hood, the F20C engine has been bored and stroked out to 2.7-liters of displacement. It has the full catalog of J’s Racing components, from intake, to tail pipe, including their own ECU. With all that displacement, the F27C engine only revs to 7,800 RPM. This is no problem, as the engine now produces 340 horsepower and a very stout 260 lb-ft of torque, all-motor.
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Inside, things are pretty simple, with bucket seats and an aftermarket steering wheel. Interestingly, the full dash is retained, despite apparent weight-sacving strategies seen elsewhere. Curb weight is a claimed 2,552-lbs.
Chassis-wise, this thing, again, has the full J’s Racing catalog thrown at it. While the 6-speed manual transmission is standard, it has a J’s Racing clutch-type 2-way limited-slip differential with 4.10 gears. There’s also J’s Racing coil-overs, with insanely stiff spring rates — 1,120 lb/in up front and 1,232 lb-in out back — which are paired with their own ball joints and roll center correction kit. Additionally, a big brake kit is present, along with rotor ducting. Interestingly, since there is no dust shield with those big brakes, J’s Racing used what looks like exhaust header wrap on those ball joints, presumably so that the heat from those massive brakes doesn’t melt them. Spherical tie rod ends can also be seen, and it’s safe to assume most every bushing on the car has been converted to spherical bearing, where applicable.
All of these suspension and chassis upgrades are paired with massive Rays CE28N wheels, which measure 18×9.5 +15 up front and 18×10.5 +18 out back. The tires are Yokohama Advan A050 semi-slicks, sized 265/35 front and 295/35 out back. All the better to fill out the insane widebody kit.
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It’s a brutally effective ride, as host and pro driver Keiichi Tsuchiya, shows. Tsuchiya-san, known around the world as the Drift King, wrestles with the Devil King S2000 through several stages of this Kyoto-based hillclimb event. The stiff springs and short suspension stroke visibly have the car all over the place on this winding road. The setup, no doubt, has been optimized for smooth racing circuits more than road use.
During Tsuchiya-san’s attack on this touge stage, the president of J’s Racing, Junichi Umemoto, rides with the Drift King and is notably shaken by the driver’s frenetic pace. After ascending the first stage, Umemoto-san proclaims that he was terrified. Amusingly, the DK hams it up in front of the camera, claiming that they now need to go back down the hillclimb, at race pace.
As the video progresses, it’s clear that there’s a reason why he’s called the Drift King, as Tsuchiya-san puts in sector times that are several seconds faster than the next nearest competitor. In a 0.6-mile course, having that much of a lead is almost unbelievable. The announcer states that the next fastest competitor ran 51.90 second lap through the first sector. Amusingly, Tsuchiya-san makes jokes about “feeling like doing clutch kicks” through the tighter sections of the course, before ultimately turning in a 48.02 sector lap, with the car completely sideways through the last corner.
The second sector is no less vicious, with the Touge Maou S2000 beating the competition’s fastest times in practice. Still, Tsuchiya-san sees more time left in it, and, after some tuning, manages a 38.05 time, which is 2.9 seconds faster than the next fastest competitor.
Watching the J’s Racing Touge Maou S2000 smash through the hillclimb is a wild watch, from start to finish. Just make sure to hit the subtitles button on the video before you get started.
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