Interview taken at TEIN headquarters in Southern California.
Monthly Archives: May 2010
Did you know?
Did you know that TEIN was established by two rally racing enthusiasts, a driver and co-driver. TEIN was not established to make tons of money and take over the world of suspension. It was actually started because the founders could not find a high performance suspension for use in their rally car.
2nd generation Isuzu Gemini. Driver, Fujimoto. Co-Driver, Ichino
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The co-driver is TEIN Inc. President, Mr. Hakaru Ichino, and the driver is Managing Director, Mr. Yoshio Fujimoto. Mr. Fujimoto later went on to become a works driver for TTE (Toyota Team Europe) in the WRC.
The ST185 Celica Fujitmoto drove to win the Safari Rally in 1995 on display at the Toyota History Garage in Tokyo.
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TEIN Inc. had our own in-house rally team from 1994- 1999. The team was comprised of three vehicles and a full support crew of TEIN Engineers.
WRC spec Toyota Corolla piloted by TEIN Managing Director, Yoshio Fujimoto. 1998 Asia Pacific Rally Champion.
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TEIN is still active in motorsports throughout the world especially in rally. For P-WRC support TEIN created two 20ft. service containers and now owns 3 services trucks. Motorsports support is where TEIN develops, tests and perfects our new products and product features.
TEIN’s Europe based service truck at Rally Finland to support TEIN product users in P-WRC competition.
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2010 marks TEIN’s 25 year anniversary. First established in 1985 outside of Yokohama, Japan. All our coilovers are still made in-house in Yokohama Japan. In 2004 TEIN invited magazine editors from US, Canada and UK to our factory and in 2008 Ricky Chu of then Riceboy TV stopped by as well.
Revue hosted by 5Axis and Scion Evolution
Attended the Revue event at Five Axis over the weekend (May 1st). The event was held at Five Axis in Huntington Beach, CA and organized by both Five Axis and Scion Evolution. The weather was perfect, the atmosphere was laid back and there was a great mix of cars.
The event included giveaways, raffle, vendor area, food trucks and of course cars.
Typical Southern California beach city weather. Gathering of mainly Scions and Lexus with a little bit of everything else mixed in including Porsche GT3, Aston Martin, Vette ZR1…
The Scion xB DJ 2.0 which was blasting tunes all day long.
RAFFLE RAFFLE RAFFLE. Proceeds went to a great cause, JDRF – research leader for type 1 diabetes.
We represented with an EVO 9 and provided a few items for giveaway which went into “The Claw” xD.
TEIN Sponsored EVO 9 SE complete with SRC coilovers, Voltex body kit, Diamond Black TE-37s, Carbing Flip Up Tow Hook and Mini Dampachi Doll.
Aston Martin with a Veilside Bodykit. This thing sounded awesome.
Vendor area which included booths from Auto Fashion, Island Motorsports, ARK, Greddy, Bowls and many more…
Troy of Five Axis also opened up his facility so people could check out their many demos cars, his personal vehicles, garage sale items and his 5-axis CNC machine.
From left to right – xD, Prius, xB, tC and IS250. Most of these cars are outfitted with TEIN coilovers as Troy has been a supporter for a few years now. (The tC which is actually turbo charged is actually for sale – contact Five Axis for details).
5-Axis CNC Machine. This is one of the reasons why Five Axis products and vehicles always have perfect fitment. Off to the side of this machine was a mold of an entire compact car.
Lexus GS-F that debuted at SEMA 2008. The matte paint is awesome.
Garage Sale area which is usually where cars are assembled and dis-assembled. The natural light and overhead lighting ensures you can see everything perfectly.
For lunch or an afternoon snack the organizers arranged for the Kogi truck and The Shrimp Guys to come. The line was about 30mins for the Kogi truck.
TheShrimpGuys serving up variations of garlic shrimp and rice plus Hawaiian style fruit punch.
Thank you to Troy, all the guys at Five Axis and Scion Evolution for putting on a great event.