Author Archives: Jonathan L.

Super Lap Battle Final 2011

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Time attack season has began from couple weeks ago.

Temperature is getting cool down but still see the sun during the day, there should be a no negative effect for the engines and all of the time attack vehicles.

We went to Super Lap Battle Final at Buttonwillow Raceway for our supported vehicles for 2 days.

Luckily both 2 days were good weather.

and some of the vehicles break their own record.

One of the our support vehicle Crawford Perfomance’s STi driven by Tarzan Yamada

This vehicle outputs 800+hp…

and beauty of the function.

And also, Crawford Performance brought 2 Scion tC.

2 cars from Evasive Motorsports.

Their Evo marked 1:49.124 and got 1st place in Limited AWD class.

And S2000 marked 1:57.887 and got 1st place in Street FR class.

Congratulations to Evasive!

Our ex-marketing manager Philip Chase’s Evo marked 1:57.735 which is his record and 1st place in Street AWD class!

TEIN damper on Philip Chase’s Evo

And another winner with TEIN damper vehicle is Sportscar Motion DC2R.

This car marked 1:54.789 and winner for Limited FF Class.

This clean JDM converted Civic Si is one of my favorite vehicle at Super Lap Battle .

The driver Renzo Marsano break his own record today with TEIN damper!

Another TEIN user vehicle APM Racing’s RSX.

 

This is another well track prepped S2000.

Driver maked 1:59.066 with TEIN Super Racing damper.

It was very busy 2 days but we are glad that most of our support driver break and got 1st place in this event.

 

Industry Track Day ’11

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Once or twice every year, industry workers come together at a track somewhere, which is usually never nearby, and enjoy the pastime that we work to support on a day to day basis.

Industry Track Day was held this year at, the not so new anymore but new to most who attended, Chuckwalla Valley Raceway. Situated in the middle of nowhere, as most tracks that I’ve been to tend to be, it’s a long long drive to get there. In order to arrive in time for the check in and driver meeting I left my house before the crack of dawn. Still tired and ever so groggy I drove down the freeway, past Morongo Casino, past Palm Springs & Indio, and past the Salton Sea.

Yes, it is that far. 1 more hour down the road and I would have ended up in Arizona. I watched the sun rise on my way there and watched as the sun set on my way back home.

After arriving, checking in, and going through the driver meeting, the tents were put up and the cars were unloaded and prepared to go.

(That ridiculously taped up car is mine. I had heard horror stories of people tracking their cars at Chuckwalla with a brand new red tow hook, only to return home with a brand new tow hook that no longer had paint on it.)

(Too cautious? I think not! And don’t be fooled into thinking I had missed a few spots, what you’re seeing is 2 layers of blue painters tape and another layer of white and black duct tape on top.)

The showing at Industry Track Days is always a hodgepodge of many different types of cars.

We had American Muscle.


A plethora of German ultimate driving machines.

JDM

KDM

Italian Stallions

(Look at the size of those things!)

We had the old

And the new

Relatively stock cars

And the dedicated track only cars

Even pirates had a showing

Despite the blistering heat (it reached about 100 degrees out at CVR while it was a cool 73 degrees in LA) good times were had. There were some technical difficulties with the timing system, so unfortunately no one knew if they were getting faster or slower as far as lap times go, but that certainly didn’t stop us from taking our cars out and thrashing them around.


(Evasive Motorsport’s Mike behind the wheel of his Civic)


(Crawford brought their tC’s out to play as well)


(Featured on the blog many times before, Ex-Marketing Manager for Tein, Philip Chase’s Evo IX)

(I don’t have a GoPro, and wanting to review my own driving I resorted to my own GhettoPro. If you’re wondering, yes that is my point and shoot digital camera zip tied to my seat. It didn’t work out so well due to the shaking. I almost get carsick just watching the video that it took.)


(And by the end of the day, my normally white TE37’s had turned a brake dust grey/black color, and I’m on my way to earning my Brownbo [Brown Brembos] Badge)

So fresh and so clean clean

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To some automotive enthusiasts with suspension modifications, many think “install it, set it and forget it”. In many ways, this in incorrect. One thing everyone should consider is that suspension is exposed to the elements of the road. Whether its debris, rain, snow, dirt, mud, sand and possibly road kill, over time these elements could take a toll of the performance and life of any brand suspension. I wanted to go over a few tips for cleaning your suspension that myself and a few other coworkers use.

Cleaners and cleaning tools needed:
Running water, light brush, cleaning solvent in spray bottle (ex. Simple Green), rubbing alcohol, spray lubricant, clean terry cloth and elbow grease.

Damper removed for cleaning

Damper shown fully disassembled for cleaning. The adjustment threads were covered with dirt that made the seat locks hard to remove.

After 10 minutes of cleaning with the brush, simple green and water the damper is looking new again. Once the damper is dry, we clean the piston rod with rubbing alcohol to get rid of any water spots and remaining soap. Before we reassemble, it’s recommended to spray the threads on the damper body and piston rod with a spray lubricant to help from parts becoming seized and rusted.

The damper all assembled again and torque to the recommendations in the installation manual. This damper is ready to rock and roll!

The Car That Does It All

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Recently the Sparco Rally xD finished the New England Forest Rally (2nd in the 2wd class, and 10th place overall) also bringing this season of Rally America to an end.

This car has been covered many times on our blog, but each coverage brings with it different situations the car and crew has gone through, and one amazing constant.
That constant being how well this little car performs day in and day out.

(Watch the video and be amazed)

To be honest, when I first heard that an xD had been chosen as a rally car and that we would be making Specialized Dampers for the vehicle, I laughed inside (and a little bit outloud) all the while thinking that they must be dreaming.

Considering all the high end, rally bred cars there were in the market, “why go with an xD? Tein already has a plethora of offroad geared products for those other cars.” were my thoughts.

But seeing the “dream” car, with the help of the amazing team behind it, perform time and time again, against all odds, was truly a sight to see.

After every race the dampers would be taken off of the vehicle and brought in for inspection.

Seeing the video will show you how much of a beating the car takes (cracked downpipes, bent skidplate, oil leaks), here is a glimpse of the carnage the dampers go through as well.
(The powdercoating on the dampers has been sandblasted off to the bare metal and this is spite of the shields placed on the rear H-beam of the car.)

Look forward to another seasons of rallying next year.

Tein Overalls

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Just recently, over here in Southern California, the summer has begun showing it’s true face.

It may not be as hot as other summers have been in recent years *Knock on wood*.

However, it’s still hot enough to break a sweat doing the simplest of motions while working on cars.

Normally we here in the R&D and Warehouse section are wearing coveralls, but as you can imagine from the name coverALL it gets really hot wearing those.

 

That’s where the Tein Overalls come in.

On a warm summer day the Tein Overalls have a cool refreshing feel to them, much like a convertible.

But the usefulness of the overalls doesn’t stop at just keeping you cool and your clothes clean while working.

Another feature is the big pocket up in the front.

It can be loaded with small tools such as pens and rulers for easy access while working on cars.

Also, the knees have a padding sewn into the fabric that helps a lot when kneeling to work on your car’s suspension.

So if the heat is getting to you while working on your car, your friend’s car, or anyone else’s car at that, and you don’t want to get your clothes dirty, give us a call and inquire about the Tein Overalls.

The calm before the storm

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:a quiet period just before a period of great activity or excitement.

The World Time Attack Challenge held at Eastern Creek, Sydney Australia is meeting in less than 11 days. This years event is making big noise with the Pro Class line up.


Prep’d Motorsports Lotus Exige

Pan Speeds Mazda RX-7

Garage Revolutions RX-7

Sierra Sierra Enterprises Evo (2010 2nd place winner) Recently broke the Buttonwillow time attack record

Cyber Evo (2010 1st place winner). With a new engine, lighter chassis and more aero, the Cyber Evo is returning to keep the title.

As much as we are cheering for the TEIN sponsored Cyber Evo, this year all Pro Class teams are stepping their game up including 2 R35 900+ horsepower GTR’s.

Check out the World Time Attack Challenge website for more information.

All photos from World Time Attack website.

Sleepy Time Car Show

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Usually when we prepare for a car show, we do an early drop off, set up and then return later or possibly the next day for the actual event. Let me tell you, I’ve been to a number of these kind of events but never to a Cars & Coffee event which is held in Irvine, CA simply because of the early check in and show time. I’m talking about arriving before 8 am and finishing around 11 am on a Saturday (sorry but I need my beauty sleep).

Here’s a few shots a friend took while I washed the car the night before.






Morning of the show

Just a few Lotus Elise

A beastly Camaro

K20a Ariel Atom

Big Body Bentley

Classic Ford GT

And the best car at the show.. This bug

Hmm what motor could this be?

Oh Snap! 13b Rotary!

Peep that custom fuel cut off

Overall it was cool show to check out. I don’t think I will be attending another anytime soon… or maybe once I pick up my Bugatti Veyron Super Sport.

Gauges, Gauges, ZD

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Gone are the days when our gauge clusters were filled with gauges of this and gauges of that to tell you every little thing going on with the engine.

Just looking at the clusters of my old AW11 MR2 & FC RX7 I got the basic gist of what was going on underneath the hood.


(Pictured: Gauge clusters of cars from the 80’s that tell me more than most modern cars)

But, I’ve since moved onto newer cars, the most recent of which is the Evo X.
Now don’t get me wrong I think the car is great, it does everything that I need it to do.
However, I have no idea what’s going on with my engine, and I’ll probably never know until it’s a little too late.

Nowadays in order to keep up with the times and the styling of the times a lot of the gauges we used to have have been thrown out the window by the manufacturers; and instead we now have simplicity, we have more aesthetically pleasing “gauges” that require little to no effort to decipher. Blue means cold, red means hot, no bars and that blinking light that looks like a gas pump means go get gas now, and full bars means you have a full tank.

(Pictured: Go Get Gas Now)

That’s all great and such, until you start maintaining and modifying your own car; subsequently walking that thin line of paranoia.
And everyone who does work on their own car, knows that paranoia of driving down the street, suddenly hearing a clunk and wondering “Did my _________ just fall off/break?!”; or wondering if that smell of burning motor oil is coming from your car because you didn’t do your oil change properly and you have no way of knowing since you don’t have an oil pressure gauge, or maybe it’s just that old clunker puttering down the road in front of you.

For the former I can’t help you out, but for the latter there is a solution.
Defi Gauges, made to monitor all sorts of things that go on underneath your hood.

Now I know gauges have been covered many times, but maybe, just like me, you don’t want your entire dash and A-pillar bombarded with gauges.
So, I present to you the Advance ZD.
The ZD is a multi-gauge, in a small OLED display it can tell you a whole lot about your car without taking up a whole lot of space.

I recently installed it into my Evo X because I wanted to know the Oil Pressure & Temperature and a precise Water Temperature without the clutter.


(Pictured: No clutter)

You’ll notice that the majority of my Tach is covered by a Boost Gauge (installed because the one thing that the ZD cannot display is boost), but not to worry because the ZD also has a Tach option and there’s a Sequential Indicator consisting of 8 LEDs along the top of the display that are synced with the engine rpm and now one LED lights up every 500RPM I go passed 3000RPM.

The only part of installing the ZD that I dreaded was the tearing apart of my dash to route the wires.


(Pictured: A new car owner’s nightmare)

For those that want to add other things to monitor such as Exhaust Temperature and Fuel Pressure, they too can be monitored on the ZD.

If you want to save some money look into the ADVANCE ZD SPORT PACKAGE. That will get you started in the right direction.

So far the ZD has given me great peace of mind.
Now when I pull up to a stop and smell burning motor oil I can look at the ZD and see that I’m not losing oil pressure, then I can look over and think to myself that the owner of that old clunker needs to fix those oil leaks.

Looks too easy

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Came across this new video of MadMike Whiddett’s newly rebuilt Mad Bull FD RX7. He makes this car slide like its on ice.

All I gotta say is… Rotary > V8 (yea.. yea.. hate it or love it). Hear it scream and spit fire!
Mike is running TEIN Super Drift coilovers on his Mad Bull RX7 & his Bad Bull RX8. Its unfortunate he didn’t make it out to the US for Formula this year, but we will look forward to hearing how he does at the International Drift Challenge held at Eastern Creek Raceway in Sydney Australia later this year.