Tag Archives: Falken Tire

Formula D Rd. 7 at House of Drift

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This past weekend turned out to be one of the biggest and best turnouts for the Formula D series for 2011. As with past Formula D events, the Irwindale, CA event is a special one- It’s the last event for the year! So most spectators expect teams and drivers to go all out, because they know that for the driver, going home with the win is a big deal.

This year’s finale for Formula D was a sold out event. Again, there are normally some high expectations for this round. And, anyone who was following the series points knows how tight a race for season championship it really was. Drivers such as Justin “JTP” Pawlak, Daijiro Yoshihara, Chris Forsberg, and Darren “D-Mac” McNamara looked to be all in contention for the championship. Talk about keeping competition tight!

But this year, the event win goes to Tyler McQuarrie in the Falken 350z. A big congratulations to him, as well as to the crew at Autosport Dynamics (ASD) who prep and maintain his car. These guys are truly a hardworking team!

Photo courtesy of Formula D

Also, another big congratulations goes out to Daijiro Yoshihara for his season championship! Everyone who’s followed Formula D since its infancy knows that “Dai” has been there from the beginning. After putting in over 8 years into this, I’m sure the title of “champion” makes it all worthwhile. Our hats off to him and the Falken/Discount Tire S13 team!

Photo courtesy of Formula D

Let’s all look forward to an even better season for 2012!

Formula D Rd.1

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Only our engineer attended Friday’s practice and qualify. A few of us here in the office watched qualifying from live stream on various websites. We were disappointed that not all our sponsored vehicles qualified for the event but I guess that is how it goes. Part of what makes it exciting to watch. “Any Given Sunday.”

After Friday’s Qualify
DMac qualified the highest amongst TEIN users in 6th position.

Tyler McQuarrie qualified two spots behind in 8th.

JTP got the 11th spot.

Charles Ng qualified 20th.

2010 Champion Vaughn Gittin Jr unfortunately did not qualify. Hopefully JR tears it up at Rd. 2 in Atlanta.

Found another competitor, Guthrie on TEIN Super Racing coilovers. Guthrie unfortunately did not qualify but his FD3S looks pretty buff. Might remember this car from HERE.

Saturday’s Main Event
The weather was awesome with clear skies and a nice cool ocean breeze. Spectators filled all the stands around the track and between rounds there was plenty to see. Full vendor area, race pits, car show and of course food.

The stands were packed with spectators.

The vendor area had both products and vehicles on display.

Found a twin turbo Mustang from HESS Motorsports which we sponsor in the Exedy booth.

Lots of high quality cars on display for the FATLACE show.

Cruising through the car show area I found Abe K.’s Lexus on display. He is rocking FLEX Sedan coilovers and a Platnium VIP cup kit.

I was fortunate to get a VIP wristband from a friend at NOS who had a hospitality tent and their own section of bleachers. Here is the view from their bleachers.

CONGRATULATIONS to JTP, Falken Tire and ASD. TEIN Coilovers for the WIN!

Some photos taken from Formula D and ASD.

2010 Season Champion

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Congratulations to Vaughn Gittin of the Falken Drift Team for winning the 2010 Formula Drift Championship.

TEIN is a proud sponsor of the Falken Tire/ Monster Energy Ford Mustang as well as Falken Sky (D-Mac), 350Z (Tyler) and Mustang (JTP). These four vehicles are built and maintained by new Authorized TEIN Dealer, Autosport Dyanmics (ASD) out of North Carolina.

TEIN has supported various cars on the Falken Drift team since the days of Koguchi and Yamamoto. Great to see that one of the biggest teams in professional drifting has taken home the title.

Various TEIN USA staff members were at the House Of Drift both in the stands and in vendor alley. The championship fight was exciting, and to witness Vaughn clinch the top spot at the final event was awesome.

Ryan throwin up the Ws. Two other TEIN USA staff in the background who came to watch the action

Can’t wait until next year as the cars and drivers just get better and better. The entry speed, angle and distance between cars/ objects is amazing.

Images from DriftFotos.com (Larry Chen) and TEIN USA staff.

Formula Drift Rd.1 Winner Vaughn Gittin Jr.

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TEIN would like to congratulate JR Gittin for winning Rd. 1 of the 2010 Formula Drift Championship. Even more impressive is that this was the debut event for JR’s new ride which is the Monster Energy/ Falken Tire 2011 Ford Mustang built by ASD and featuring TEIN 2-way coilovers with dual EDFC.

JR unveiled this car on Thursday night at a special Falken FD pre-party at Rod Dyrdek’s Fantasy Factory in Downtown Los Angeles.

TEIN does not produce an off-the-shelf 2-way kit for the Mustang so the kits on JR and JTP cars’ are from our Specialized Damper program (SPD). The SPD program allows any customer purchase a made to order kit from our Yokohama, Japan factory.

TEIN was out at Rd. 1 in Long Beach with a small booth. Thank you to all the people that stopped by to say hello and purchase some TEIN goods.

Special thanks to Marc M. of Auto-Tech Interiors for the action pics of JR’s Mustang.

A look back at US Drifting – Part 2

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From 2003 to 2009 TEIN USA supported the following cars/drivers:

TEIN 350Z – Murao                                                              TEIN/ OS Giken S14 – Murao

TEIN JDMRice S13 – Murao                                                  DRFT FD3S – Utsumi

DRFT S13 – Utsumi                                                              Team Falken S13 – Koguchi

Team Falken S14 – Yamamoto                                            Team Rotora S13 – Ken Gushi

Team Rotora S13 – Ernie Fixmer                                         Team Falken S13 – Gittin

Team Falken/ Discount Tires – Young                                 Team Falken EF – Hatakeyama

Team Falken Camaro – Hampton                                         Team Falken FD3S – Yamamoto

Team Falken FD3S – Angelo                                                Team Falken G35 – Wan

Team Falken Mustang – Gittin                                              Team Falken S15 – Forsberg

Star Girl Racing S13 – Mei                                                   Team X Mustang – Beckford

Honda R&D Element – n/a                                                    Milano Auto – Kregorian

Team Falken/ Discount Tire IS300 – Sumida                       Team Falken/ NTB RX-8 – Yamamoto

Team Falken/ Boso Garage S13 – Petty                              Team Falken Sky – McNamara

Team Falken 350Z Convertible – McQuarrie                       Team Falken 2010 Mustang – Pawlak

Monster/ Team Falken  2011 Mustang – Gittin

Ross Petty’s ride back in 2007 which used custom valved Super Drift coilovers.

Falken IS300 from 2007 which was driven by Hiro Sumida. Utilized mono tube TEIN coilovers and EDFC.

2008 Falken Sky driven by D-Mac. Using TEIN Super Street coilovers and EDFC.

2009 Falken 350Z convertible driven by Tyler who finished third overall in FD last year. Utilizes a Super Racing coilover kit with custom valving and dual EDFC.

2010 bodied Ford Mustang driven by JR in 2009. TEIN 2-way coilovers and dual EDFC.

For the 2010 FD season TEIN will be used on 4 Falken drift cars which include:

Falken Sky driven by D-Mac

Falken 350Z Convertible driven by Tyler

Falken 2010 Mustang driven by JTP

Monster Engery/ Falken Tire 2011 Mustang driven by JR

Falken Tire Drift Sky Testing

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Falken Tires recently posted a video of D-Mac practicing with his newly modified Sky which is now producing 800HP. The video speaks for itself.

You can see the dual EDFC controllers in the dash board which Darren adjusts at the 53 second mark.

TEIN has been a proud sponsor of the Falken Drift program since 2003. In 2010 we will be supporting 4 Falken Drift cars. More on this at a later date.