[/floatl]4WheelOffRoad: Japan 4Wheeling - Wheeling The Oriental WayWho'd-a-thunk we'd ever go to Japan for a wheeling story? OK, did any of you even know there is wheeling in Japan? And then do you really care? Well, the answer to some of these questions was posed to us by the folks at Nitto Tire, strangely enough headquartered in Japan [sic]. Since they wanted us to see their new testing facility and get the lowdown on how they test tires, we said sure-as long as we test them out in the dirt, not just on a dyno. Next thing we know, we're crammed in the back of a 747 sleeping our way to the island hierarchy for a few days of mud, rocks, dirt, and driving on the wrong side of the road. We flew in and stayed in Osaka...But being more interested in real-world testing, we again hit the rails and traveled to the Nara Trial Mountain 4x4 testing facility in the tall pines. Wait, tall pines in Japan? Yup. [sic] and better yet, this is a private park formed out of the owner's own forest, where they do logging year-round!...more...
Rock Crawling Japan
