American Touge started in 2004. Back then the theme was to see how Japanese cars are being tuned in the US - were they up to par with the home-grown tuners or was there still a way to go? The series revealed US tuners were a force to be reckoned with, and Comptech's NSX was crowned the first American Touge Monster. The success of the first installment led the makers to seek out more of the best tuners in North America. After receiving emails from tuners, owners and fans an open casting was held. The list was narrowed to 40 cars and Keiichi Tsuchiya and Yasuyuki Kazama drove them all. Vivid Racing's RX-8 showed style and real performance, Mueller lived up to their name, Vishnu proved they can tune the EVO and redeemed their retirement from the previous year. In the end the Comptech NSX could not defend the throne against the XS Engineering R34 GT-R. There was a new Touge Monster. The series continues with American Touge 3, an invitation only event looking for few and the best. The best means not discriminating if the cars are from Japan, US or Europe, the makers wanted to see which street machine would be worthy of the name 'Touge Monster'. The touge is a winding road in the mountains. Cars need to be well balanced with torque, overall power, suspension settings, aerodynamics etc. As long as this series is to judge which car rules the touge, it doesn't matter if the car can go fast only on the straights, or if the car is a great drift car. American Touge has been from the beginning. and will always be. the search for the car with the highest overall balance on the touge streets.