Category Archives: Motorsports

Not your normal RSX

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Congratulations goes to Doug Macmillan of Hondata for setting 5 new class records at the 2010 Bonneville Speedweek. He and his wife broken 9 class records between their two cars.

This particular RSX is powered by a 1.5L K20, supercharger and plenty of nitrous. Doug’s record setting Acura sits on a set of customized N1 dampers. Usually used for road racing TEIN engineers revalved and resprung the dampers per Doug’s requests. The result is a car that Doug says, “The RSX has never handled so well. Perfectly straight and no drama.”

N1 dampers were chosen because they can obtain a very low ride height, Mono Tube construction is less prone to viscosity breakdown in extreme heat and because the construction is very light weight.

Go to Hondata’s website for a full recap HERE.

All images provided by Hondata.

Rally Japan Production Class WIN

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Rally Japan – Production Class (P-WRC)

Patrik Flodin won the P-WRC class in Rally Japan. The win puts him into first place in the P-WRC class championship.

Team URT (Uspensky Rally Tecnica from Russia) in blue with TEIN USA Managing Director, Fujimoto-San in green and TEIN R&D Manager, Goto-San in black fleece.

Flodin and Bergsten atop their winning STi.

Patrik had the lead since day 1 and never let up. TEIN Japan provided Flodin with a new spec. of Gr.N dampers which proved to work well on the bumpy stages. The 2008+ STi is known for not have much suspension travel in the rear so designing a good rally coilover has been a challenge.

The body of the rear damper actually sits behind the lower control arm NOT over the top of the arm.

Formula Drift Rd. 5 After Dark Results

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This past Thursday night I was able to take a trip out to Vegas for Round 5 of the Formula Drift series.  As much as I love the sport of drifting, the smell of burning tires and the sound of V8’s, Turbocharged and Rotary vehicles around the track,  It was HOT at this event!

Tyler McQuarrie during practice. Photo from www.speedhunters.com

Vaughn Gittin JR’s new Mustang laying down tracks. Photo from www.speedhunters.com

In the pits: Tyler McQuarrie’s Vert 350z, Darren McNamara’s Saturn Sky, Justin Pawlak’s Ford Mustang and Vaughn Gittin JR’s Ford Mustang all currently running TEIN coilovers. Photo from www.wreckedmagazine.com

Congrats to Team Falken on their full podium sweep at Formula D Round 5 After Dark. Photo from www.wreckedmagazine.com

Results:

1st place: Tyler McQuarrie

2nd place: Daijiro Yoshihara

3rd place: Vaughn Gittin Jr.

SuperRally at X Games 16

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This past weekend was X Games 16. New for this year was SuperRally where four cars compete bumper to bumper on a dirt course. TEIN sponsored professional drifter, Stephan Verdier, driving his Subaru STi. The vehicle is actually Stephan’s drift car converted back to AWD and tuned for rally. Changes included a different motor and transmission package from Crawford (must use turbo restrictor plate per the rules), rally suspension, gravel tires and a host of other parts.

Being that Ford and Subaru had multiple cars entered into SuperRally I think it was safe to say that Stephan was a big underdog. However practice times showed that Stephan was one of the quickest competitors. His Crawford powered STi showed it easily had the power to compete with the high power and light weight Fiestas from Ford which are purpose built for Rally Cross competition.

During morning practice Stephan made contact with the wall and damaged both the front and rear of his car. His car arrived back to the pits with a motor trouble, suspension damage and body damage. It took his skillful and dedicated crew hours to get his car patched up enough to compete. TEIN engineer, Mr. Nakai was on hand to help with suspension tuning and witnessed the team fix a broken cam sprocket, pull the chassis with a truck, replace suspension components and repair the bodywork. At this point he was lucky to even make it to the starting line.

In the first round Stephan faced Dave Mirra, Ken Block and ACP.

Stephan blasted off the line and held his lead for the entire race earning the win and entrance into the final round.

In the final round Stephan faced Tanner Foust, Brian Deegan and Sam Hubinette. This time the Fiestas blasted off the line and Stephan used his Crawford power to gain third position.

Through aggressive driving he moved into second behind Foust but relinquished the position to Deegan 3 laps later.

300 meters before the finish Stephan slowed from a damaged intercooler pipe which allowed Hubinette to pass him for third. The Gr.N suspension worked flawlessly throughout practice and competition. The coilovers provided Stephan with good traction for the Crawford power plant, high cornering speed and smooth landings.

It was an exciting race no matter the outcome and I cannot wait to see this event again in 2011.

Special thanks to Gordon Ting of 0-60 magazine for the X Games pass and the images.

New England Forest Rally VIDEO

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0-60 magazine just posted their video from the 2010 New England Forest Rally featuring their project Rally xD. Check out the soft landing at the 55 second mark. The HG dampers worked well under the especially harsh conditions of this rally and took the abuse of multiple jumps. Note: this car weighs in at over 3000 lbs. so it is in no way a light weight vehicle.

If you love rally racing, cars flying through the car and crashes check out this weekends X Games 16.  TEIN sponsored driver Stephan Verdier will be competing in his STi which is using TEIN Gr.N dampers.

Video courtesy of 0-60 Magazine and photo courtesy of Gordon Ting (0-60 Magazine).

New England Forest Rally 2010

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Recently arrived back from the New England Forest Rally (NEFR) in Maine. This was the final event for the 2010 Rally America series. Our sponsored 0-60 magazine Scion xD placed second in the FWD class losing to a high power Dodge SRT-4. Scion xD co-driver Catherine Woods clinched her first championship when the Scion crossed the finish line (driver, Chris Duplessis clinched his National title at the previous round).

The 0-60 rally xD has been a successful project finishing 2nd in two national events in two starts. An amazing accomplishment as the car is almost stock. Since the Oregon Trail Rally in May the car received a new Quaife differential, rear wing and slight weight reduction. The motor remains completely stock.

Car getting final prep work done before the rally inside driver, Chris Duplessis’s barn at his family’s farm, Pooh Corner Farm in Bethel, Maine.

NEFR is considered the harshest rally of the series. Of the 64 entries at Stage 1 only 41 started the final stage (Stage 12). The stages are littered with large rocks/ small boulders and even a few man made jumps.

Chris and Catherine blast through Stage 2.

One of five services throughout the two day event. Most service times are 30-minutes which gives the crew enough time to inspect the entire car, change wheels, clean brakes, adjust the suspension, make any needed repairs and of course keep the car shiny.

At the finish line. 2nd place in 2WD.

Video by Rally America recapping NEFR 2010 and the 2010 season.

Special thanks to Forest Duplessis and the entire Duplessis family.

Photos courtesy of 0-60 magazine, Gordon Ting, Benson Ting and Gary Castillo of Design Craft Fabrication.

Super Lap Battle Video w/ Janelle Ha

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Mr. Super Lap Battle just sent me this video from SLB – Las Vegas. This was an exhibition type event which was invitation only. The event featured a few of the top contenders in various classes plus new comer Zenkai Motorsports. TEIN was well represented as Crawford, Evasive, SportCar Motion and Zenkai are all using TEIN coilovers.

Check out the video which features Janelle Ha.

Class Wins at Redline Time Attack w/ video

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Congratulations to SportCar Motion and Evasive Motorsports for their class wins at Redline Time Attack Rd. 6 at Willow Springs Raceway in California.

Modified-FF
SportCar Motion’s EG Civic took home first place in the Modified-FF class with a time of 1:32.884. This high speed course suited the big power and aero package SportCar Motion prepared for this course. Driver Renzo Marsano beat the second place finisher by over 3 seconds. See the video below for one of Renzo’s laps.

Enthusiast-FF
Mike C. of Evasive Motorsports took home the class win in Enthusiast-FF class with a time of 1:38.941. Mike sits atop the overall points and is the strong favorite for the National Championship. Mike has driven the 2008 Civic Si Sedan to 4 class wins in 4 events. What makes that record even more amazing is that it is done with only a few key modifications. Mike’s Civic is using a revalved set of Mono FLEX dampers which we have been working with him on over the season.

Visit the Octane Report for full event coverage.

Photos courtesy of Duane Uyeda and Arthur Guo of the Octane Report and Loi Song of SportCar Motion.

Rally Scion xD Video

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Video from 0-60 Magazine. All footage was taken at the Oregon Trail Rally held on May 14-16.

Rally Scion xD is using TEIN HG coilovers made using our Specialized Damper program. You can see in the video that it easily absorbs the rough conditions and even a jump. Throughout the three day event the suspension worked perfectly and after a little cleaning it will be ready for the next event.