We recently read this post Speedhunters put up on Andrew Comrie-Picard, driver of the TEIN sponsored Sparco Rally xD. Any follower of Rally America, or of the Rally xD team, know just how great of an addition “ACP” has been to the team.
ACP’s experience driving for several teams, different vehicle platforms and racing formats, and ability to perform well under pressure only adds to the experience the Rally xD team has gained over their tenure as rally competitors.
Without a doubt, the team at Rally xD know how to build a competitive car. They enlist the assistance of only the top names in the aftermarket industry and turn to skilled fabricators and mechanics with racing know-how to take an otherwise plain-Jane econo car into a gravel spitting monster capable of taking the abuse that off-road driving offers as ill reward. They’ve got some serious brainpower working inside of that garage.
But without an operator fully committed to pilot that fabricated chunk of steel and turbocharged madness, it’s simply an awesome looking stationary billboard. Clearly not what would be intended for these guys. But so is not the case when you add ACP to the mix.
Instead, we get a front-wheel drive monster (no, that is not an oxymoron), hurling through the woods and dirt at nerve wracking speeds. Currently, his “full-speed ahead” mentality has netted the team a 2nd place in class in Rally America.
As for now, ACP and team have completed a great exhibition run at the Pikes Peak Int’l Hill Climb. Now it’s time to prep for the final Rally America event for this season. With this in mind, I imagine this guy won’t be lifting off the throttle AT ALL.
Check out the Speedhunters article when you have the chance
Recently, the boys at Sparco Rally xD have been in the middle of prepping their rally car for tarmac duty in preparation of the annual Pikes Peak Hill Climb in Pikes Peak, CO. Although it was originally scheduled to run in July, a wildfire broke out, postponing the event which is now tentatively set for August 12.
But this didn’t stop the Rally xD boys from getting their car ready. As I posted previously, they had a rear beam axle failure. Fortunately, not much was damaged and a new beam was put in (after they reinforced the new beam, that is) along with some rear cosmetic work. Other than that, the car is back to normal!
I must say, this car looks plenty tough in this configuration- 18″ Volk TE37’s on a lowered suspension we’ve helped set up specifically for this tarmac event.
More on the event- The Pikes Peak Int’l Hill Climb is in its 90th year. That’s right. People have been crazy enough to race vehicles up the 14,100 ft elevation, all while risking the the potential of falling over the ledge (there isn’t much in the way of barriers, except for some select sections of road) and sent tumbling down since the first World War. This all in a quest to clock the lowest elapsed time up the hill. It’s essentially Time Attack, but on a 13 mile road course and with the aforementioned hazard.
Old timey racing.
New for this year is a completely paved course. In previous runs, it was a mixture of pavement and hard packed dirt. So, as you can imagine, one vehicle setup had to serve dual purpose for these dual road conditions. Not an easy feat. The current record to the top is 9:51:278 in a Suzuki SX4. A Suzuki SX4 that resembles very little of the commuter car we can see on local roads.
This race car sports a 910bhp, turbocharged v6 engine with all that power going to all four tires. And that aero looks like it was jacked straight out of Lockheed Martin’s Skunk Works program, just mounted upside down for road-shoving downforce. So, while it really isn’t a mirror image of an SX4, it’s definitely for the better.
High altitude racing is far from easy. For any of you that have been to areas of high elevation, you probably notice how out of breath you are, even for just a simple walk. Trying to work out in high elevation is even tougher! So imagine a car in which the engine breathes in air to make power does the same thing. Only this time, as the car approaches the 12,000 ft elevation mark, it is down on power by about 30%. This is the effect of elevation- the higher up you go, the less dense the air is. And that lower density air carries less of the power producing oxygen we and our cars need to keep a’moving.
So that explains the big turbocharged horsepower figures. The more air (and fuel) you can force into the engine, the better the chances of it surviving any major loss in power the higher up in altitude it goes.
Good thing the Rally xD is turbocharged, then. It may not be in the 900 bhp mark, but any little bit helps the somewhat tiny 1.8 liter four cylinder.
As always, we hope the Rally xD boys do a great job at this event. By the time you’ve read this, they had already completed the New England Forest Rally (July 13-14), then prep for Pikes Peak again, then back to gravel setup for the Olympus Rally (Sept. 22-23). Daaaaaang, yo! Get some rest somewhere in between all of that, PLEASE!!!
Needless to say, we are very happy to see Mr. Gittin grace the Formula D podium once again! THAT’S TWO IN A ROW!!! Great work, Vaughn. And great job, Autosport Dynamics.
Obivously, we think that pairing is one of the best on the Formula D grid. We’re very fortunate to have our association with both Autosport Dynamics and Vaughn Gittin Jr., as well as Justin Pawlak- part of the Falken Tires-backed drivers using a custom set of our very own Super Racing dampers!
It’s been a series of ups and downs for the Falken boys. As you can imagine, the field is getting tougher, setups getting crazier, and the amount of dedication to handle the horsepower levels this generation of Formula D puts out (average of about 600 hp) getting more demanding than ever, and you’ll know that these guys don’t have it so easy. That being said, it is great to see how level the playing field is. It makes for an exciting race season, and it also gives fans the opportunity to see their favorite drivers take some of the top spots of the podium. I’ll tell you this- it’s much more exciting than seeing one driver continually win, event after event. Kinda like watching Sebastien Loeb win WRC events, or even Michael Schumacher win his 7 Formula One championship titles. No offense to those guys. They are awesome! Quite obviously, it’s every race team and driver’s intention to bring home the victories. But it just.gets.so.boring……
Seeing different drivers take the top steps just lets you know that everyone has a chance at winning, and that’s how evenly matched the teams are becoming year after year.
But, to be honest, I’d like to see Vaughn’s car take win after win. For one, his Mustang is rad. 2) the Mustang has more than a few hints of green (my favorite color), 3) it’s backed by Monster Energy drinks (an energy drink that tastes awesome), and 4) his car number is 25 (one of my favorite/lucky numbers)!!! It’s like this car is meant to be mine one day!!!! Yeah right. I’m sure Vaughn would never part from this car. It’s too nice to give away! Oh, let’s not forget that Vaughn is clearly a great driver. We can’t leave that last element out of the winning equation.
Also, it’s a lot of fun getting to work with the Autosport Dynamics (ASD) guys in getting the Falken Mustangs set up. They’ve been a group that is easy to work with. They clearly know what they’re doing, and they have an outstanding record in motorsports.
So with The Wall and Evergreen Speedway 2012 in the books, Vaughn and his crew look towards another great victory at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
As this Formula D season gets close to closing out, we wish the best for both Vaughn and Justin, as well as the crew at Autosport Dynamics. They’ve made another year even more exciting than the last. Best of luck for this season! Let’s see the last two races as podium finishes!
Pics sourced from Formula D (www.formulad.com) and Speedhunters (www.speedhunters.com)
It has been almost over a month since this years hottest sports car, Scion FR-S and Subaru BRZ came out to the market.
TEIN USA has been developing products for these two cars to deliver our products to the customer as soon as possible.
I have been wondering what is the difference between FR-S and BRZ?
Exterior dimension, interior, engine, transmission, chassis and tire sizes are the same in between these cars.
But, when I drove BRZ that came in for development, I felt a big difference!
BRZ’s suspension are set as a mild setup, if you push harder it simply understeers and will not take you to oversteer motion.
But, the FR-S has an opposite character than the BRZ.
The FR-S has stiffer damper with softer spring. And if you know how to push hard, this simple, less electronically controlled device (compare to newer higher performance car) and fun to drive machine, it’s just pure fun to drive!
My conclusion is FR-S and BRZ are totally diffent set-ups
If you want to get pure driving pleasure go with FR-S, and if you want affordable yet nice, well-designed coupe go with BRZ.
And I will leave damper dyno chart (in .pdf format) for FR-S and BRZ for comparison.
Last month we had reported that the Rally xD had run into some…complications.
With the hard work of the Rally xD Team and all others involved the xD was up and running and ready to race in no time at all.
The latest race took the Rally xD Team to the New England Forest Rally, where after much effort they were able to finish in 3rd place, despite some initial set backs.
The Rally xD Team’s next challenge will be the upcoming Pikes Peak Hill Climb. Look forward to more on the Rally xD’s exploits.
Well hello there world. This month I want the spotlight to focus on Rob Symonds’ S13.
Rob contacted us around mid May for an overhaul + revalving for his TEIN HE dampers. We got the job done and satisfied our customers expectation. After everything was said and done he shoots us an email that makes me fall out of my seat! Yeah I’ve seen s13’s driving around and in car shows but this one I must say is at the top of my list.
His request sounded easy enough. But Rob was also pretty specific with what he wanted. This didn’t turn out to be a standard damper rebuild for us. Then again, Rob isn’t your regular ‘ol car guy. He knows exactly what he wants. To get the most out of a damper revalve, we ask a gamut of questions about the car, the setup, the types of road courses it races on, etc. Sometimes we get more information than we need, but Rob didn’t talk up a storm about his engine modifications- in fact, his motor is a stock, naturally aspirated KA24. It was previously a turbocharged motor, detuned for simplicity and reliability’s sake (did we mention that Rob is an engineer at Garrett? He definitely knows his way around a motor!), Roll cage, or vented fiber glass hood. Not once did he mentioned his 17 inch Enkei RPF1 wheels, Hoosier A6 slick tires, or HAWK DTC-60 brake pads. He also did not tell us about his long list of sponsors or 5 minutes of fame on this years January edition of Modified Magazine. Then again, some details are better left unsaid. Maybe not! We wanted to hear more!
Rob is simply a race enthusiast. He spends time building his car to get the setup right, just like many of you out there, all in a quest for the quickest time around the track! We appreciate guys just like Rob!
Check out the images and video below to get the corner panels point of view of this 240 on the track.
As we previously mentioned, the Sparco Rally xD team had a rear twist beam axle failure during the last event, Susquehannock Trail Rally in PA. Once they got the car back down to California, they dropped off the rear dampers to us for inspection/repair.
Like we stated before, we knew that the dampers had some damage and broke the piston shafts. Here’s a look at the carnage
Remote hose was ripped right off. The shell case took a few hard impacts causing some dents. Now onto the piston shafts
The above picture shows the top of the shell case where the ring nut seals off the damper. The piston shaft broke midway and the remaining pieces recessed into the damper with oil coming out this ring nut portion. The top portion of the piston shaft was still attached to the shock tower.
This pic below shows the piston shaft broken towards the top, snapping right off after the twist beam axle gave way.
But after a full teardown, we saw that the inner tube (where the piston is inside of) was still intact. The outer shell case took a hit, but the inner tube was unscathed during this violent axle breakage. Here’s a pic showing the dent
The second pic from the top shows the other indentation on the shell case.
On a mono tube damper, this wouldn’t fare so well with that type of dent. Since the piston would reside right against the inner lining of the shell case of a mono tube damper any imperfection to the case will make it either impossible to function properly, or to be field stripped, or both. This is what I meant as testament to the durability of the twin tube damper structure and this case shows it well!
If you’re wondering why we would make a twin tube damper for a rally car, there’s a bit more to it than just the damage that could be inflicted to it physically. Our HG twin tube structure isn’t like a normal damper.
In a standard twin tube damper, there is still an inner tube that contains the piston shaft and piston. This area is fully submersed in damper oil. From the bottom of the damper and through the base valve controlling oil flow into the outside of the inner tube (inside of the shell case) is where there is some oil and the nitrogen gas charge. This charge is important in sufficiently providing rebound force to the damper.
What we do with the HG is fill the inner and outer tube with damper oil.
But wait. If you fill a damper full of incompressible oil and no compressible gas like nitrogen, then technically the piston shaft will never recess into the damper and it wouldn’t function at all.
That is true. But this is also why we utilize an external reservoir to keep the nitrogen charge separate. With this, we can eliminate any chance of aeration (nitrogen gas mixing with damper oil, causing it to froth, decreasing damping effectiveness) while still being able to secure sufficient rebound. The twin tube structure also allows ample stroke length for a given shell case size compared to a similarly built mono tube damper.
So why not utilize this design into all rally suspension? Mono tube dampers still have many great benefits- they dissipate heat better; when inverted, they decrease unsprung weight (you can technically invert our HG damper, btw); they allow a larger piston size; overall damper oil volume can be much higher. They also allow for us to use our Group N.technologies, which aren’t readily applicable to twin tube dampers
But mono tube rally dampers are a much higher investment as development costs are quite high. Also, they are physically much larger in length and body diameter. the pistons used in them are much larger too, which is key for precise damping control.
So in the end, the HG is still very capable and also very durable at a much more reasonable price!
Anyway, enough ranting. We went right to work getting it rebuilt with new shafts and internal seals. this time, we stuck with our shorter length reservoir hose, still giving the team the freedom to reposition the external tank for their needs.
Awwww. Looking as spiffy as it will ever be! Ready for more abuse!!!
Speaking of which, here’s a video the Rally xD team posted from their blog showing the twist beam axle breakage
If you’ve been following the Sparco Rally xD team as much as we have, then you know that they have consistently placed podium finishes. As of the Oregon Trail Rally (May 4-6), they temporarily held 1st in championship points under the 2wd class. Good stuff! That’s not an easy task, mind you!
Consistency is key. If you follow these dudes on Facebook and/or Twitter, you’ll see that they completely rework the car after every event, going down their laundry list of items to check, making sure that all components are good to go or replaced if needed well before the next race. I must add that they run a very tight ship- only a handful of guys working on this car. They not only serve as pit crew and transportation, but I’m guessing also as entertainment for their driver and co-driver Andrew Comrie-Picard and Andrew Wimpey. Geez. That’s a lot of work!
After every three or four events, they normally send their custom HG dampers to us for inspection. In some cases, they go longer without inspection, especially when they quickly have to prep for the next event. As with anything rally, these parts take a beating! In our case, it’s normally exterior coatings that get blasted off by dirt and gravel. Minor concern, i suppose.
Before the Oregon Trail Rally on May 4th-6th, Crew Chief Philip Chase brought in the dampers for a quick check. Surprisingly, nothing to really change on the front dampers.
Jon a.k.a. Sir Smiles-A-Lot Inspects The Front Dampers.
But for the rear, he requested remote reservoir mounting (tank detached from damper body), rather than the external mounting (tank attached to damper body) to give them freedom to reposition the external tank and add some needed clearance in the wheel well. Since that kind of work requires complete damper tear down, we overhauled the rear dampers for them. Now they have the reservoir attached by way of a braided steel hose, allowing them to reconfigure reservoir arrangement (they still keep the reservoir close to the damper body, just upside down and a few degrees in towards the chassis).
Still, even with all this preparation and constant rebuilding, something is bound to go wrong in the world of rally. Case in point- the Susquehannock Trail Rally (June 1-3) proved to be the breaking point for the Rally xD. This time, a fatigued rear twist beam axle gave way, pulling apart the axle and the damper assemblies. Ouch! Seven consecutive events can easily do this to a car and its parts. But seven events is also a long time of service! Seems the xD ain’t no cheapo box, afterall!
Susquehannock is no joke. check out this video showing the driving conditions they face
Fortunately, the break was at the beam. So it looks like they’ll be able to repair the car in time for the next event. Also, it seems that our customized HG rear dampers may be able to be repaired, too! That’s testament to the strong twin tube structure of the dampers that can take a good amount of punishment!
Next up is preparation for Pikes Peak, then off to New England Forest Rally (NEFR). They’ve got some time to knock out repairs.
I wish them the best this season, as these hard-working guys continue to do a great job time and again. On our end, we’ll continue to do the best we can to make sure their TEIN HG dampers are in top working order!
Keep it up, guys!
For an econobox, this Rally xD is one tough shoe!.
There’s some good recap of the events at Rally America’s website
www.rally-america.com
And of course, the dudes at Sparco Rally xD keep their blog up-to-date!
www.rallyxd.com
You can also follow them on Facebook (Rally xD) and Twitter (@RallyxD)! Oh, and you can follow us on Facebook, too (TEIN USA, Inc.)!
P.S.- if you were to look up the Finnish term “Sisu”, I’m almost positive that you’d find a picture of the Rally xD team. Look it up!
Working here at TEIN USA, I’m usually getting picked on because I would rather drive American muscle vs. a Japanese import. Now don’t get me wrong, Japanese import vehicles are reliable cars that can be tuned to perfection. But I’m more of a supercharged, convertible Roush Mustang with a Dual Flowmaster exhaust system type of guy. The 2012 Monster energy/ Falken Tire sponsored Mustang is a very good example of what I’m talking about. It has a roaring 800 horsepower 6.7-liter V8 engine. It also sports a set of Azenis RT615K tires and HRE Wheels Competition Series C21. I bet you guys are wondering, “OK, it’s a beast of a car, but what does it have to do with TEIN”, right? Well of course I wouldn’t be blogging about this beauty just because of its performance tuning and RTR body kit if it did not sport our TEIN 2-way adjustable coil overs with dual EDFC custom made to maneuver this pony 🙂
Shortly thereafter we posted that TEIN was once again collaborating with Toyota Motorsports on a New Development Project.
Here are a few more shots on what we were working on.
(These are a one-off set of dampers specially made for this project.)
(Here is the OE front suspension in comparison to our damper)
(The OE rear suspension in comparison to our damper and spring.)
(One of our engineers at work, making sure the dampers will work without issue in a race-use environment)
For those of you attended the Long Beach Grand Prix on April 14th and 15th, you might have seen this vehicle parked next to the Camry Pace Cars.
(A group shot of the Camry Pace Cars that have been fitted with customized Super Street Dampers, ready for action on the streets of Long Beach and anywhere else that their use is needed.)
