Monthly Archives: March 2012

Falken Tires’ New Commercials!

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Falken has made a new commercial for 2012 focusing on their participation in AMA and ALMS. But they also put in some nice clips of their Formula D cars in action!

Falken has built up a nice history in motorsports Stateside over the past few years, making a mark not only in drifting, but in American Le Mans and the aforementioned AMA. They don’t seem to be slowing down their pace, either.

As some of you may know, we get to work side by side with Falken’s drift car builders Autosport Dynamics. I can say, with certainty, that Falken is fully vested in making competitive vehicles with the sole purpose of winning. I’m sure this directly translates into developing a great product readily available to the consumer. We are more than glad to get to work with such a company in their Formula D program.

When you have time, check out their website, they have a great page detailing their motorsports side and some information on their drivers and their cars. Not to mention, some great info on their ALMS Porsche GT3 RSR car. OH MY…..

New Development Project

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After we wrote our “NASCAR Anyone?” entry, TEIN USA has started another project with Toyota Motorsports.

I believe many of our readers are big fans of motorsports.

And you know it’s time for one of the largest motorsports events in Long Beach, CA next month, which is Toyota Grand Prix in Long Beach!

At the Toyota Grand Prix, there are several race such as Indycar, ALMS, Celebrity race, Drifting challenge, and World challenge.

It’s definitely an exciting weekend for motorsports enthusiasts.

And we are currently preparing our specialized damper for one of the vehicles to be used in the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach this year.

Here are a few pics of previous Pace Cars we’ve made suspension for

Stay tune and guess which car has Tein damper on it!!

March Madness!!

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No, this is not your typical NCAA March Madness. But it is March Madness in our
warehouse department! I recently went to deliver to Options Auto Salon, our
local authorized distributor, with the box truck full of pallets, including springs
and dampers in the passenger side of the cab!

The box truck can hold a total of 8 pallets. But since the order was so
massive, I didn’t have enough room in the back. So we just simply filled up
the cab. It has been very busy here at TEIN with other massive orders we had shipped
out this week, not to mention receiving our second container from TEIN Japan this month to help fulfill the rest of the orders we have pending. We hope we get many more of these “March Madness’s” this year (how about an April Madness?!)!

Though the cab was filled with product, safety precautions were of course taken to
avoid any accidents such as mirror visibility and the product
arrangement. Strange that for some reason the product was arranged in such a
manner that it stayed solid and in place even while driving.

As we get busier this year, we will do our best to make sure our dealers and customers have the products they’re looking for readily available and delivered as soon as possible!

The New Defi Advance Control Unit

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Hey everyone! Back again with some news about one of our product lines. Defi has just announced that the current Advance Control Unit (part number DF07701) is no longer in production. However, the item is still available for purchase in the U.S.. Once the item is no longer available, we will begin offering the updated Advance Control Unit.

This new Advance Control Unit (part number DF07703) which was released in February of this year is going to be the same with just a few new features.

–          The unit can be distinguished apart from the other by a small “03” on the lower right section of the unit.

 

–          Both minimum and maximum values of the oil pressure and fuel pressure can be displayed in peak modes using this new control unit.

 

–          Illumination is automatically switched on or off if the Advance ZD display is installed.

 

These few changes did impact the price of the unit from $192.00 MSRP for the DF07701, to $210.00 MSRP for the new DF07703. Unfortunately at this time we don’t have a release date for the new unit for the U.S. but we will notify everyone with the expected release date on our website hopefully within the next couple of months.

Japanese Spec Vs. US Spec Coil-overs

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Recently I have noticed that a lot of consumers and dealers of ours inquire about the differences between a Japanese-spec coilover kit and a U.S.-spec coilover kit. Relax, grab a cup of coffee, and let me do some explaining. It’s actually quite simple.

One of the main differences between these kits is the valving and in some cases spring rates. The U.S.-spec coilover kit comes with a more aggressive valving. The reason behind this is because consumers in the U.S. prefer a slightly more aggressive coilover in comparison to consumers in Japan. U.S. vehicle’s may also have some manufacturing differences opposed to the ones released overseas.

But as mentioned earlier, another factor is the spring rates. Some of the U.S.-spec coilover’s come with a stiffer spring to match the aggressive valving of the dampers. Of course there are other differences between the dampers besides the valving and spring rate. Damper designs may vary from U.S. to Japanese kits such as damper mounting points, damper body and stroke lengths, and required OEM parts.

As a side note- some U.S. applications may be compatible with Japanese dampers with no modifications whatsoever. But we recommended to verify with TEIN prior to purchasing these kits.

In conclusion, regardless if the coilover kit is Japanese or US spec they both come down to one thing- they both cater to different markets which is a matter of consumer preference. However, TEIN is able to assist with customization of your TEIN dampers through our Overhaul and Revalving service available Stateside through our in-house service departments in the East Coast and West Coast facilities. As a performance suspension manufacturer for a global market, we realize it is difficult to appease all customers. But we can definitely assist our customers in dialing in their suspension for their specific needs, all of which is for your driving pleasure!

Using Racing Harnesses

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I’d like to approach this topic by first stating that racing harnesses are not suitable for daily driving. When used properly, a good harness system keeps you relatively firm in place, minimizing your body movements critical during quick maneuvers on track. The idea is to keep you planted into the car and reduce any excessive body motions that just add hysteresis to your hand and foot inputs.

With racing harnesses, proper head and neck restraint systems should also be used. Obviously, helmets are for head protection, but you should also use a neck brace (or a HANS device, if you have the money) when using a helmet and racing harness in conjunction. It would be pointless to use a harness that keeps you pretty firm in your seat while your next could pivot around in a nice axis. In a frontal impact, your neck can easily swing forward in an unsafe manner. Add the weight of the helmet you’re wearing, and that just adds to the trauma.

Another important notice- the angle of the racing harness must be set properly. If the shoulder straps use a very low anchoring point (like right behind your seat and towards the ground), that can cause serious bodily damage (paralysis, or even death) due to the compression of your spine in a frontal impact. Mounting or setting the angle of the shoulder straps horizontal to your shoulders (+/- 20 degrees) can help prevent that. One of the safest ways is by using a harness bar. But they aren’t available for every vehicle. So you would have to find a secure, roughly horizontal (again, +/- 20 degrees) anchoring point for the shoulder straps to secure on to.

The picture above shows the suitable angles for mounting the shoulder straps.

The use of the harness bar allows the anchoring point to be placed low behind the front seats since the bar’s angle relative to the shoulder height is horizontal. So in a frontal collision, there wouldn’t be any compressive forces pushing down on your shoulders. Instead, the harness bar would take the vertical load as your body attempts to move forward in an impact.


Harnesses mounted without a bar. Assuming the seat’s backrest can take the vertical load rather than your shoulders, and the anchoring angle set within an acceptable range, this is okay. I’d prefer a harness bar, though.


Anchoring the harness using the bolt holes from the OE mounting is more than sufficient and secure for eye ring bolts included with some harness sets like Takata.

Regarding neck support (HANS, specifically), this is just as important as you can see in these photos with & without HANS


Fortunately, I was able to find much of this necessary information on Takata Racing’s website

http://www.takataracingproducts.com/guide.html

but I also looked up some images online and pulled up some interesting information.

By now it must sound like safety equipment is a very expensive proposition. But this shouldn’t be a factor that you decide to skimp on when preparing a vehicle for racing.

The Takata harnesses we sell include most of the necessary hardware to use factory belt mounting points. But optional longer eye bolts and mounting plates are available if you decide to make your own mounting point.

Also, if looping to a harness bar, a 3 bar adjuster will be needed. Pegasus Racing sells such adjusters from their website

https://www.pegasusautoracing.com/productdetails.asp?RecID=627

The Octane Report also did a great write up on how to install harnesses to a harness bar

http://octanereport.com/gallery-how-to-takata-safety-harness-loop

I hope this gives you some great insight on safety equipment, and what is necessary for setting it up correctly. Just remember, your safety is the most important aspect to consider.

NASCAR anyone?

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Rally. Gymkhana. Autocross. Drift. Touring. Gravel. Super Taikyu.
These and many more are different forms of motorsports that TEIN is synonymous with.
However, when you think of TEIN, NASCAR is probably not one of your first thoughts.

A little known fact though, TEIN has been involved with NASCAR through Toyota Motorsports for the past 4 years and counting.

Since 2008 the Toyota Camry has been used as a pace car at NASCAR events.
And ever since it’s induction as an official pace car, TEIN, in conjunction with Toyota Motorsports, has been providing the pace car’s suspension.

With the unveiling of the new 2012 Camry pace car, Toyota Motorsports once again approached TEIN for their suspension needs.

The 2012 Camry Pace car utilizes specialized dampers that have been custom valved and modified by that US R&D Staff.

Look forward to more exciting ventures into the motorsports world with TEIN.

2nd Place Win for The Rally xD TEAM!

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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!