Tag Archives: Scion

Another Great Season for Rally xD!

Posted on by

As you may have read from our previous posts on the Sparco Rally xD team, they held a good lead on their competitors for most of this season. But no good season is without its own ups and downs. Like any team, the Rally xD crew hit their own set of hurdles to overcome. And as always, they persevered. The final tally brought them a Second Place finish in the 2wd class for Rally America.

Big congratulations to the team for their hard work in getting the car as reliable as it can be!

As I’ve mentioned before, rally racing isn’t easy. This has to be the best, and most brutal form, of automotive parts testing. Many man hours go into prepping a commuter car into a racing platform, ready to take the abuse mother nature can dish out. I’ve seen the beating this xD has taken over this one season, and to say it is an incredible feat to keep it running is an understatement.

It takes a passionate team to keep a car competitive. These guys have spent every opportunity to keep this car going to good use. And I imagine many late weeknights, and some weekends, which would otherwise be spent with family and friends, went right into this xD.

But, as you can see, persistence pays off. BIG TIME. This isn’t just a hobby. This is work. And these guys work hard to get that win.

It doesn’t mean that they can’t have fun, though!

I know I blog about this car a lot. It really is incredible what this small team has done and continues to do. Without a doubt, the next season will be even better. Be prepared for big things from this team to come. I’m referring to you, the reader, to be prepared. Because these guys are clearly ready for the next season!

pics sourced from Scion Racing’s Facebook page.

FR-S or BRZ?

Posted on by

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.

 

OEM BRZ & FRS Front

OEM BRZ & FRS Rear

Back In The Game

Posted on by

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.

Toyota 86 & Scion FR-S, Brothers from other Mothers!

Posted on by

 

Hey Everyone! Japan’s 86 and the U.S.’s FR-S do look similar in design but would have some subtle differences. Let’s take a look at some of the differences Toyota 86 and Scion FR-S .

Toyota 86 Front View

 You can see the differences on the headlights and bumper lights. The headlights of the 86 have a Daytime Running light LED strip on the top section of the headlight while the FR-S does not offer that option as shown on the picture below. The bumper lamp design also is different having two set on the 86 where as the FR-S only has one set.

Scion FR-S Front View

 

Let’s move to the rear of the cars.

Toyota 86 Rear View

 Taking a look at the rear of the vehicle, you can see that the exhausts are different in size from one another. The tail lights also are slightly different in that the 86 doesn’t use the side reflector where as the FR-S does.

Scion FR-S Rear View

 

Let’s check out what the side view shows us.

The side badge and side markers are both slightly different in color.

 A closer look at the badge you can see they kept the same overall style of the badge for both just a small color change on the 86 model.

 

Those are the common differences between the Japanese 86 and U.S. FR-S model. Of course there is the differences of the vehicles being either left hand drive or right hand drive, but that’s more interior related which I will hopefully follow up with in the near future.

 

Since the Toyota 86/ Scion FR-S is the current topic, we do now offer product for the for both applications. For those of you looking for suspension kits, we do currently offer the Type Flex and High Tech lowering springs, please see some details below. In the near future we are looking to release the S.Tech, Monoflex, Street Basis, and Street Advance kits.

Part Number – DSQ54-61SS1

MSRP – $1790

Part Number – SKSA0-G1B00

MSRP $310

For further details of these products please visit our website Model and Price page.

http://www.tein.com/price/scion.html

 

FR-S Release Party at Penske Toyota

Posted on by

From Left to Right (FR-S First owner. Troy and Young from 5 Axis)

Penske Toyota in Downey, CA had a Release party for the New Scion FR-S and for the First Penske Scion FR-S Owner. We happened to be there since it’s not to far from our warehouse and we have actually been testing the Scion FR-S that 5 Axis let us borrow.


This is the FR-S we have been testing on it looks good on our S-Tech lowering springs that we have been developing for the US models. Ride height drop is approximately -35mm front and -30mm rear, giving the car a great stance, especially with plus-sized wheels.

 

It was good seeing that not only did they have the FR-S to show, but they had multiple Toyota/ Scion vehicles, some being 5 Axis customers and others being Toyota enthusiasts of new and old. This evening’s event also included a raffle, showroom models of FR-S’s to check out, a DJ, and also some barbecue for attendees.

To date, we have officially release the following parts

S.Tech Lowering springs
lowers -35mm front and -30mm rear
part number SKQ54-AUB00, msrp $280

High Tech lowering springs
lowers -25mm front and -20mm rear
part number SKSA0-G1B00, msrp $310

Type Flex damper kit
preload & height adjustable (-55mm – +5mm front, -45mm – +5mm rear)
damping adjustable (16-way)
Incl. Pillowball upper mounts (camber adjustable front mount)
EDFC Compatible (sold separately)
part number DSQ54-61SS1, msrp $1790

FR-S madness

Posted on by

As we had wrote the previous entry before, we have been testing our product for Scion FR-S.

Usually, we spend about a week to test fit and take data for each product.

But, since Scion FR-S will be an ultra hot vehicle in the market for this year and some new FR-S owners are already getting delivery of their vehicles, TEIN USA boosted up the speed of the development schedule for Scion FR-S!

Yes, TEIN USA R&D dept worked hard past week to develop product for Scion FR-S as soon as possible to send out to everyone! As Jon had mentioned in his previous post, we have tested S.Tech and High Tech lowering springs and Type Flex dampers, with more product to come later this year. In fact, a few dealers have already pre-ordered sets of High Tech lowering springs, which are set to arrive towards the end of June! In case you want to order, the part number is SKSA0-G1B00. This will give the FR-S a -25mm front and -20mm rear drop. Great for owners that may eventually plus-size their wheels!

High Tech, S.Tech, and Flex products ready for fitment.

By this point, we've probably spent as much time under the hood as Scion R&D!!!

Fortunately the Type Flex dampers bolted up fine for our first test! And the handling is great, btw 😉

Our tests include highway driving...

...and also some local road driving. Or, in this case, very boring traffic.

Stay tuned as springs and damper-kits are soon to be out for everybody!! Up next is testing on the Subaru BRZ! We’ll keep you up-to-date on that testing!

 

To Whet Your Appetite

Posted on by

Lately there has been a lot of buzz, hoots, hollers, tweets, status updates, tumblr post, you name it, regarding the soon to be FR-S and BRZ.

We’ve recently updated that Tein Japan has some products for those cars now available.

And now to stimulate your already insatiable hunger for more things FR-S/BRZ we announce that testing has commenced stateside, and probably by the time you read this we will have finished with the preliminary testing.

We were able to test Flex Dampers and some S.Tech and High Tech springs this time around.


Stay tuned for some more information regarding the ride height drop with the products we tested this time around.
Also Tein Japan plans to release some Mono Tube Dampers as well, which we will soon be testing.
A lot of exciting things are happening.

 

Toyota FT-86 aka Scion FR-S and Subaru BRZ

Posted on by

TEIN Japan has been hard at work testing and developing the following items for the Toyota FT-86 aka the Scion FR-S, which will share a similar suspension platform as the Subaru BRZ, since both companies had full development with the vehicle.

Currently TEIN Japan will not be offering any S-Tech lowering springs due to the reason below.

**For vehicles manufactured on or after January 1st, 2006 in JAPAN, if the lower edge of the fog light is less than 250mm from the ground when lowered, it may not comply with Japan’s vehicle safety regulations.
Please adjust the ride height to secure the minimum 250mm clearance. For details on inspection standards, please contact the nearest National Agency of Vehicle Inspection.**
 
Of course we have regulations here in the States as well, but they vary from state to state. Please look up the regulations in your state before lowering your vehicle.
 
We will be developing the S-Tech lowering springs for the U.S. models but will begin testing on the vehicles in June. We will also develop the  Street Advance coil-over specific to the U.S. market as the kit offered in Japan will not give much of a ride height adjustment range due to the aforementioned reason.
 
 
If you would like to purchase a suspension kit from Japan as a Special Order for the Scion FR-S or the Subaru BRZ for the U.S. market,  we recommend going with either the Flex, Mono Flex, or Super Racing coil-over kits as these coil-overs are full length adjustable and will be able to lower the ride height without affecting spring preload.
 
 
Please visit the following links for an online catalog of the products offered for the Subaru BRZ and the Toyota FT-86 in Japan.
 
Toyota FT-86 http://issuu.com/teinglobal-fanclub/docs/86_leaflet
 
Subaru BRZ http://issuu.com/teinglobal-fanclub/docs/brz_leaflet
 

2nd Place Win for The Rally xD TEAM!

Posted on by

Congratulations to the Rally xD Team pulling a 2nd place win just beating 3rd place by a few seconds!

Even though the teams were faced with a portion of blindness  due to high speeds and dry weather, which combined created major dust clouds affecting some of the teams on day one of  The Rally of the 100 Acre Woods in Salem, Missouri which forced the Rally xD to fifth place on Day 1.

They eventually managed a second place finish but not without battling their way through the ranks.

Nice shot of their custom TEIN Suspension.

Good Luck on their next event! Keep up the Good Work Rally xD Team!

Rally xD Sno*Drift 2012

Posted on by

January 27th 2012 saw the start of the Rally America Championship series, and the TEIN sponsored Sparco Rally xD is off to a great start.

The Rally xD team managed to nab a 2nd in class win in spite of the frigid temperatures of Atlanta, Michigan and the subsequent snowy/icy/slushy road conditions they faced.

Andrew-Comrie Picard and Jeremy Wimpey returned once again as driver/ co-driver, piloting the xD expertly against the likes of Fiestas and Focuses, and even some Evo’s and STi’s.

 

After the event was finished and the team returned to sunny SoCal, the Specialized HG Dampers were removed from the xD and brought to us for a tear down and refresh before the next event.
Close, in-house repairs are definitely an advantage when you need your products back ASAP.

The next Rally America event will be February 24-25th in Salem, Missouri.

Check back for more coverage and results of the TEIN sponsored Sparco Rally xD in future Rally America events.

(Pictures via rallyxd.com & scion.com)