Don't be alarmed. This isn't some weird Heaven-to-earth communication, since I don't think there's Wi-Fi up there.....
I'm TorqueAE86's cousin (I'm actually 19, Torque was 14), and I do know some of you from the stories he used to tell me. And I've actually driven with some of you (if Torque complained that his driving was sloppy because he was tired or something, it was actually me driving at his house. Except one time when he did some 4 way Wangan battle and sprained his hand).
He gave me his GTPlanet account for some reason, I don't know why, since I never have time to race like how he did. But I guess I can use it to clear some things up. Yes, Torque is no longer with us, and as you would expect, our family is in total grief. I've read that last several pages of this thread, and the support is incredible. I'm sure he never thought he would ever be this popular. But, from looking at the pictures, only his Wangan car was portrayed. While that FD3S is important, there was so much more to him as a Gran Turismo player.
(All of the pictures were found off his laptop)
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His love of Touge came from his love of Initial D, like anyone. He first started when he met a British racer who was the leader of a team called Monsoon. Back then, Torque just joined random Nurburgring rooms to mess around in. After meeting this guy, he became more determine to be faster in the world of street racing. That S2000 pictured up above was probably his favourite car. He said it was fast, but still required work to get the best out of it. His mentors kept on changing, with his last one I think driving the yellow FD in some of the earlier pics. The high of his Touge career actually happened the day before the crash, when he beat a Kaido Racer (can't remember who, just that he was in a GT86) in his FD3S.
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I'm sure everyone here knew of his Wangan adventures. He liked the FD for Wangan because "it was fast, even though most people associate it with cornering. They are, of course, wrong." Now for something he told no one online...
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Back in GT5, when he was just 11 years old, he met a group of touring car drivers. He got to know them, had loads of laughs, and then they decided because they love racing touring cars, they should join a league. And so they did. It mainly consisted of Touring cars and some Gran Turismo DLC cars, and took place on all the FIA tracks and some GT ones. And these guys were like crazy fast. (One of them just missed the spot for 2011 GT Academy Semi Finals) Torque was apart of a team called Team Fireblaze, who ran 2 BMW M3 GTRs. In his rookie season, he managed 2 podiums and 1 win, in the final, and he had beaten his team mate in every race. In his 2nd season, Fireblaze had a tough battle with Redwine Germany, a team that ran a Audi A4 DTM car and the R8 LMS. Torque's rival for that season was the A4, and had a great season racing with that Audi. In the end, after a ballsy move into the first corner of the final lap, Torque and BMW were victorious, not just the race, but for the championship too. He was, and still is, the youngest ever winner. The next 4 seasons weren't as good. With new guys coming in and new cars being added thanks to the TC DLC pack, Torque and Fireblaze found it increasingly difficult to keep up. He wasn't too upset, since he was friends with all the drivers in the league, but it hit a low point in his 8th season. For the 9th season, the first one on GT6, he switched to a new team, Canadian Falcons, and a new car, the FALKEN GT-R. At first, the car didn't suit him at all, especially the switch from RWD to 4WD. But after the 2nd race at Spa, he suddenly found a new home. I don't know all the details, but he won 3 races that season, but surprisingly unable to challenge for the title. The final race was to be held at the 24 Hour layout of Nurburgring, a 4 hour race. Here are some pictures of that race:
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Sadly, after that season, the main leader died from a heart attack. All the drivers were affected by this, and the series was no longer continued. Even when he would talk about past races, Torque would go all quiet in mid sentence, probably thinking about it.
And now we think about him. I agree, some of the things stated above don't make any sense, and I thought that too when I first heard them. But they did happen, and he had fun doing them, as well as meeting you guys. Well, I hope the pictures above will be of good use since I read earlier you were looking for a picture to commemorate him. While his Wangan FD is important, it's not who he was. I remember him as a circuit racer, either in a M3 or GT-R. I will not continue his GT legacy, or his GTPlanet account, since I'm so busy with life (even though I'm a massive petrolhead and would like to).
R.I.P TorqueAE86
(Sorry if this post it too long or is incorrect in terms of grammar and whatnot)
(And if this would be the wrong place to put this, but I didn't see any other threads with him in it so yeah)
if you want it, i'll PM you, guys 
