The 4th Annual TougeFest – MFortyFive’s Maiden Voyage
I remember first seeing the event on Facebook. The 4th Annual TougeFest. We were already familiar with the area thanks to Boxer Takeover, but we had just heard about this other event and wanted to learn more. TougeFest is a yearly event in early November up in the beautiful Smoky Mountains of North Carolina/Tennessee. The word Touge is actually a Japanese word meaning pass. Touge usually refers to mountain racing and passing on the narrow winding roads in the mountains of Japan. TougeFest is all about having a blast on the Tail of the Dragon and the surrounding areas, and that is exactly what we did.
If you’ve already read through our TougeFest Prep journal entry, then you know what we did to our cars to prepare them for all the abuse that came over the course of the next few days. Typically, the preparation was done the night before the trip and kept us all up until 2 in the morning. We left the next day, on Wednesday, November 1st. That day was particularly tough on me, since I couldn’t miss class that morning. Right as soon as it let out, I rushed home to finish stuffing tools and clothes into the car. I met up with CJ and Zach at the Shell station down the street a little bit after noon. We all filled up with fuel and talked for a bit, and moved stuff around between cars. Zach wanted to go and ruin his nice, comfortable car with his half cage and gutted back seat and trunk areas, so he was begging for our bags of clothes for sound deadening. Shortly after getting some pictures, we were ready to hit the road.
CJ’s trip odometer was reset before we left, and helped us keep track of how far we traveled by the end of the trip.
My view for the next 11 hours, featuring my road trip essentials – a radar detector and a GPS.
Cruising along I-75 north, doing fly-bys every now and then to keep ourselves entertained.
Bathroom breaks and fluid level checks would occur every few hours.
Our destination for that day was the famous German mountain town of Helen, Georgia. If you ever get a chance to pass through or stop by this place, do it! It’s a very cool little town to hang around in, which is why the notorious Euro car show/party weekend, SoWo, was held here each May up until 2015. SoWo 2015 was my first time in Helen, and it was a blast. Ever since then, I knew I had to go back, and I was delighted to hear it was on the way up to the Tail of the Dragon. It was roughly 585 miles, and took us about 10 or 11 hours to get up there from our home in Bradenton, Florida. Once there, we checked into our hotel room at the Helendorf Inn, Helen’s iconic little German-themed hotel right in the center of town. The first night in town only consisted of a quick dinner at the Huddle House down the street, and going right to bed upon returning to the room.
We slept in a little the next morning since there was no real rush, as we were only 3 hours away from Fontana Village, the mountain resort we were staying at for TougeFest. The weather was perfect – the sun was out and the temperature was in the mid 70’s. CJ, Zach and I decided to walk around and explore the town, since we didn’t get a chance to do so last time we were there. We walked down to get some coffee and breakfast and take in the scenery. Before we left, CJ was able to get some rolling shots of us on the bridge going through town.
It was time to head out and hit up the mountain roads. Finally, some real driving! The fun was cut a little short right away when I heard some horrible grinding noise coming from the right rear of my wagon. I was concerned that my wheel was hitting my strut (with my alignment specs at the time, the insides of the high-offset WRX wheels were hitting the locking collar on my air struts in the rear, so I had to put on a 5mm spacer just to get the car to move. Yes, I was running 5mm spacers on stock lugs on the tail of the dragon. Not the most comforting thing.) Since cell service was terrible up in the Smoky Mountains, I had to pull over and hope the others stopped too. CJ didn’t. We later regrouped and headed back into town, where we parked at a gas station to check out what the problem was.
Digging through all my tools to find the torque wrench while CJ parks his car next to two dumpsters to start working on it.
I took my wheel off to look around and found nothing I could see that would be wrong or making noise. While I was wasting my time, CJ ended up taking out his clutch helper spring to improve clutch feel… and his entire axleback, “because the car wasn’t loud enough.” To further diagnose my issue, I swapped one wheel with Zach, since he’s got 7.5” wide BBSs that would give me more clearance. I drove a few laps around the gas station and the car was still making a terrible amount of noise. At this point, I was feeling pretty stupid and annoyed as you can imagine. Of course the wheel won’t get any closer or farther from the strut while the car moves, but I just could not find the problem. Turns out it was something to do with my rear brakes. Whatever, the car still stopped. Daylight was running out at this point and we needed to get moving. We headed to one of our favorite roads in the area, the Richard B Russell scenic highway. There’s one little overlook spot where you can see mountains and trees for miles, and the view was stunning in the Fall. So naturally, we parked our cars in front of the beautiful view and took some photos. We were actually getting cell service too, so we hung out for a little before leaving again.
The roads everywhere around the Smoky Mountains are a blast, as you can imagine. No major cities or heavy traffic, just mountain highways and rural little towns every now and then. Once we were about an hour away, we stopped at a Walmart to get groceries and all of that stuff. When we came out, some local kids were hanging out around their cars across from ours. They complimented our cars and asked us a little bit about them as we loaded up all of our groceries. Looking back on it, that was the third time someone has come up to us while we were all parked together to ask or talk about our cars, or even Subarus in general during the trip. It was kind of funny to us, but we always love talking to others about cars anyway. Before this, it was a rest stop attendant and then a construction worker at the Helendorf Inn back in Helen. That goes to show that Subarus definitely stick out to some people.
We showed up in Fontana Village, North Carolina around 9 PM. It was dark, we made wrong turns, got confused when the GPS lost signal, and we were exhausted. What was supposed to be a 3 hour drive turned into an all-day ordeal thanks to the random hold ups we had throughout the day. The roads leading up to Fontana Village were awesome though. The “Moonshiner 28” goes right through the mountain resort and leads up to the beginning of the Tail of the Dragon at Deals Gap. The Moonshiner 28 is probably our favorite road, since it takes about 15 minutes each direction, and is equally high speed as it is tight and technical.
Our cabin was the perfect size for us, and much better than the last time we spent up there. I got a bedroom, CJ got a bedroom, and Zach was left with the couch in the living room. We had a full kitchen too, where CJ would cook us some awesome food for breakfast and dinner. It was a bit of a struggle parking the cars in absolute darkness, but we crossed our fingers that they wouldn’t roll down the hill overnight. We unpacked and started to relax with some beer out on the front porch. It was nice to finally start enjoying the Smoky Mountains.
The next morning we were in awe over all the colors outside. The leaves were changing colors, and everywhere we looked we saw reds, oranges and yellows. This scenery made for the perfect backdrops in our photos. Plus, it was actually kind of cold! It was so refreshing to be out of the miserable Florida heat for a long weekend. We didn’t waste any time on the first day. CJ made some breakfast burritos and started shooting the cars outside the cabin right after we finished eating. We all got ready and came up with a plan for the day. It was now Friday, November 3rd and people would start showing up for TougeFest soon, so today was going to be our photo day.
We set out into the mountains, all wearing MFortyFive shirts and rocking our new door stripes on each of our cars. It was our first out-of-state event, and we wanted to make the most of it for the blog, and to hopefully spread the word about us a little more. Not going to lie, our cars looked pretty cool rolling around together.
We started off on the Moonshiner 28 until we got to a little pull-off area next to the river for a photoshoot. It was here where we met a couple guys from Tennessee in a 700+hp twin-turbo 370z that looked completely stock. We talked to them for a good 30 minutes while CJ was shooting our cars. I love car enthusiasts because you could talk to them for hours about their car, your car, or any car either one of you are interested in.
No, the marks aren’t from us. Our cars aren’t that powerful.
Next on our list was to hit the Killboy shop at Deals Gap, where the Tail of the Dragon starts. It’s always packed with other people who were going out to make a run on the Dragon or who had just gotten back and taking a break. Zach and I ended up buying some stickers and a TougeFest sign to remember the trip by. We met a couple other Subaru guys outside and hung out for a little before making our much-anticipated first run on the Dragon.
The Tail of the Dragon is one of the best and well-known driving roads in the country. The “official” Tail of the Dragon is an 11-mile section made up of 318 curves on US Highway 129, starting at the western edge of North Carolina and continuing into eastern Tennesee. It is hugely popular with motorcyclists, as it is a very intense road with tight turns and beautiful scenery. There are also dozens of car events held in the area that draw in more and more people every year, which is what attracted us to the area. The Tail of the Dragon has claimed several lives over the years since it is a narrow road with trees everywhere, paired with the steep drop-offs and lack of guardrails. One must know their limits if planning on making a run down the Dragon. Luckily, we’ve had some experience on this road, so we set up our GoPros and got moving!
I could go on all day about this road. Such an exhilarating experience being in “full racecar mode” with friends on the Tail of the Dragon. 2nd to 3rd and 3rd to 2nd shifts left and right, even with the occasional 3rd to 4th on those higher speed sections. Windows down to soak up the fresh mountain air and exhaust gases from the catless and E85 cars ahead of you. Feeling the car struggle to keep traction while taking a turn at the top of 2nd gear, then slam it into 3rd on your way out. Hearing those aggressive exhaust notes and pops all throughout the RPM range nonstop. It’s truly addicting for any car enthusiast.
Letting the engines and brakes cool after the first Dragon run.
Our goal for the first full day at the Tail of the Dragon was to get plenty of photos in several different spots. We remembered a few scenic areas that would be perfect for a shoot. One of them was just after the end of the Dragon next to the Little Tennessee river. This was a little hangout/resting spot for us both times we were up there. It’s nice because you can just pull off the road, enjoy the view, watch other cars go by, and get some awesome rolling shots as well.
Watching in suspense as Zach almost takes CJ’s lip off.
The next spot on our list was the Chilhowee dam, which we actually stumbled upon by accident. We were looking for the Foothills Parkway, a higher speed-type scenic road with long, sweeping corners and several pull offs to take in the views. We missed our turn and kept going west on highway 129 until we saw the dam. We had to stop, since it was such an awesome spot to shoot. CJ worked his magic with the camera for over an hour, getting tons of shots from all kinds of cool angles. After this, we headed out towards the Foothills Parkway – mainly because it was one of the only spots around with cell phone service.
An awesome shot of Zach’s RS from high above on top of the Chilhowee dam.
“Please don’t talk to me right now, I’m really in the zone.” – actual quote from CJ.
Like I said previously, the Foothills Parkway is a nice, pleasant, stress-free drive through the trees. It’s a scenic route with several pull-offs to park and enjoy the view. We stopped at a couple along the way, trying to check for cell service (Zach and I had some online homework we needed to do), and kept going when we couldn’t find any. Though there was one pull-off we HAD to stop at. There was a sweet Legacy GT Spec B parked there next to a 2016 STi. If you don’t know by now, I have a thing for Spec Bs. We waited around for the owners, but never got to meet them. We did, however, check out the amazing view of the Smoky Mountains.
CJ and I sharing a moment together while taking in the view.
A little bit further up was “our spot”. A nice, big pull-off area with not much of a view, so there wasn’t anyone else parked there. We had parked here the last time we were here, and knew there was cell service. So, we parked in a little circle, broke out the computers and got to work. CJ was doing some photo editing while Zach and I tried to finish our homework before our batteries died. After about an hour, it started to rain a little bit and was getting a little darker out, so we were pretty much ready to head back out.
Nothing too eventful happened the rest of the first day; we drove back up the Tail of the Dragon from the Tennessee side, ripped back down the Moonshiner 28, got back to the cabin with most of our energy drained and got some amazing food at the restaurant on the Fontana Village property. They had some really great burgers and beer, by the way. While eating, we got the itch to do another night run down Moonshiner 28. It’s such a fun road, and we wanted some excitement to wake back up. We got in our cars and went back out around 11 PM and made the first run from the riverside pull-off to the gas station at Deals Gap, a popular resting/meet up place for drivers after Dragon runs at night. We got there in about 15 minutes, parked the cars and talked about how they handle for us in the curves. This led to us swapping cars on the drive back to the pull-off. I drove CJ’s STi, Zach drove my wagon, and CJ drove Zach’s RS. Once back, we swapped again and I drove Zach’s, CJ drove mine, and Zach drove CJ’s. It was very cool experiencing each of their cars and comparing them to mine. Zach’s car, being NA, was amazingly fun since you could floor it and run through the RPMs constantly without going too fast for the turns. CJ’s STi was awesome as well, the grippy 265/40 Hankooks glued the car to the road, and the shifting and power delivery felt great with his 6-speed. After a couple more runs, we decided to head back and get some rest before we go out exploring the next day. Of course, we partied a little bit before going to sleep though!
The plan for the next day was to hit the famous Cherohala Skyway. It’s supposed to be one of the more scenic roads in the area, and I’ve heard it’s just as fun as the Dragon, but faster. This would be an all-day trip, so we wanted to make sure we had time. It would take us several hours to complete the whole route, plus the occasional break and photoshoot. The route we took was basically a big loop that started at Deals Gap, only instead of turning north to go up the Dragon, you turn to the south and head towards Robbinsville, North Carolina. The popular gas station was down this way, so we were familiar with the first section already. About half an hour past the gas station, we entered the Skyway.
A quick break near the start of the Cherohala Skyway.
The Cherohala Skyway is a beautiful and exciting scenic route up through the tops of one of the mountain ridges. Because of this, there was a bit of traffic from the sightseers. We’d be having fun carving the corners in the tight, technical sections, and all of a sudden have to slow down dramatically because someone in front of us would be going 10 mph under the speed limit. Every time this happened, we just passed them when possible and carried on. The road had some pretty drastic elevation change, which was a challenge for Zach’s RS when going up a steep incline. We’d stop at a few overlooks to see if they’d make a good photoshoot spot, but settled on a little stretch of road after an overlook instead. We took a little break, let the cars cool off, ate some food and planned out where we’d get some pictures. CJ stood out on the road and we started getting some rolling shots coming around a corner, which turned out pretty awesome.
Leaves. So many leaves. Every stop we took we had to pick dozens of them out from the front of our cars.
After we got what we needed, we headed back out on the Skyway. We were towards the top at this point, so there was only a little more we climbed before going back down. This area had the best views by far. I almost wanted to slow down and focus on the scenery instead of take advantage of the fun roads. You could see mountains lush with forestry for miles and miles in every direction. Now, add in the colors of Fall and imagine what that looked like! The descent was fun, although our brakes would say otherwise. There was a lot of rev-matching and heel-toe downshifting going on there. I loved how often I could pull off a good heel-toe downshift up there, it was great practice and felt so cool when I got it perfectly. We passed a few really good photo spots, but we wanted to keep moving before it got too dark to shoot. After all, we still had a few more hours before we were back near the cabin.
The rest of the drive wasn’t too eventful or exciting after the Cherohala Skyway. The roads took us through a bunch of rural farmland and a few small towns, eventually leading to a large state highway. From there, we took that north until we were able to turn onto Highway 129, where the Tail of the Dragon is located. We drove down the highway for a good half hour before we passed the familiar sights; the Chilhowee dam, the Foothills Parkway, the post-Dragon riverside pull-off, and lastly the end of the Dragon itself, where everyone would turn around and take a break. As if we weren’t tired enough already, we still had to head back on the Dragon to get to our cabin. We took it easy a little bit, but that only lasted for a few minutes. It’s just too hard to “take it easy” on a spectacular road like that.
A usual sight at Deal’s Gap. Drivers park and give their cars a break between Moonshiner 28 and Dragon runs. This was a popular hangout spot for many.
We were pretty tired once we got back to the cabin. We just hung out, had some beer and ate some food with a little sadness about our trip coming to an end. After a couple hours of resting, we went back out for another few night runs, where we met some people at the Deals Gap gas station again. The cool part about being up there during an event is that no matter where you go, you’ll run into other car enthusiasts and be able to strike up a conversation with them. We did a couple more runs back and forth on the Moonshiner 28 just to get it all out of our system, and regrettably headed back to the cabin for the last time.
The night before heading home from a trip with friends always sucks. We had a blast up there in a drastically different climate and landscape than what we’re used to (and aren’t too favorable of) in Florida. The weather was perfect, the mountains and scenery were beautiful, and the roads were the most fun part of the trip. We all took our time packing up the cars and reminiscing on the previous couple days all the way until 2 AM. At this point we had to get to bed to be ready to leave as early as we could, since the drive home would take about 12-13 hours.
After the ride up from Florida and all of the mountain driving we did up until the morning we left, we were able to rack up 1,027 miles. By the time we got home, it was near 1,700 miles.
In the morning, we didn’t exactly get a pleasant start to the day. CJ’s alarm went off 5 times in the room next to mine, each time waking me up. I then heard Zach freaking out about something in the bathroom and calling for us to come see. I thought they were just trying to get me out of bed, so I stayed put in the warmth of the covers. CJ got up to check it out as well, and started calling me too. I got up and looked in the bathroom to see the biggest spider I’ve ever seen in my life just hanging out in the sink. How did it get there? What does it want from us? I don’t like spiders. We just put a cup over it and avoided the bathroom sink until we left the cabin, and left it to be discovered by the cleanup crew. (Sorry!)
Walking back to my car half-awake after checking us out of Fontana Village.
Checking out of the Fontana Village resort was a little bittersweet, but it was nice to know we’d be home and sleeping in our own beds again that night. Before our dreaded drive home, we stopped by the locally-famous Fontana Dam to look around and get a few pictures. It was a nice little closing to our trip, since it was the one place we hadn’t been yet.
Walking away from my car to enjoy a nice breakfast consisting of a Naked juice smoothie and banana.
The drive home was miserable. Going back to flat land and humid heat wasn’t really exciting for us. Driving through Georgia on I-75 south after passing Atlanta was awfully boring. The road was long and straight pretty much from that point to all the way back home. During this mundane drive back, it gave us all time to reflect on the trip. For MFortyFive, it was a success, since we were able to get some great photos and bring you all this article, plus we got our name out a little bit and got to experience our first trip as a “team”. For us as friends, it was a great time spent with each other while doing something we love. Driving around up there chasing each other is some of the most fun we’ve had together, and it makes it even better that we are able to share this fun with all of you out there reading this. This trip was by far our favorite trip we’ve taken together, and we can’t wait to go back again for a third time in April for Boxer Takeover 2018. If any of you live near that area, we hope to see you there!
By Ethan Pfab – @indecisivewagon
Click below to check out the rest of our photos from TougeFest:
