Monthly Archives: December 2016

TEIN USA Opened after Christmas and New Years

Posted on by

As we approach the final few days of 2016, we know that a lot of your, our customers, will be on vacation for Christmas and New Years. And it’s probably more of a convenience for you to finally get a chance to give us a call with any questions you have, whether it’s about new products or technical support.

So, with that said, TEIN USA will be opened the week following Christmas- December 27-30, and after New Years- January 3-6 (since Christmas and New Years lands on a Sunday, we technically take Monday off as a bank holiday).

Feel free to reach out to us during those days. Questions about new products you’re thinking of purchasing for your car, how-to troubleshooting… Who knows, it might be really lonely for us in the office those weeks (who the hell works during back-to-back holidays?!?!). We’ll probably start feeling like the Maytag repair man……

maytag

 

 

Keep us some company!!!!

2016 Continental Tire Show Car Shootout

Posted on by

Typically following the SEMA Show in Las Vegas is a few race events that we look forward to. One of them is Global Time Attack’s Super Lap Battle at Buttonwillow Raceway Park. The second one, one which we weren’t too familiar with, was the Continental Tires Show Car Shootout, which was run by Super Street Magazine. All we did know was that our friends at Sportcar Motion were bringing their K24 powered Honda S2000 to the event.

2016-continental-tire-show-car-shootout-sportcar-motion-s2000-3

This S2000 is one of Loi Song’s, owner of Sportcar Motion, personal vehicles. When he picked up a set of our MONO SPORT coilovers for this car, we thought it was basically just one of his street cars, something to drive to and from work. Eventually, this ended up becoming yet another track car to the many in his stable, with a built K24 motor replacing the F22 usually sitting in the engine bay. Other than that change, the car looks like many tuned S2000’s you’ll find on the street or at the occassional track day.

2016-continental-tire-show-car-shootout-sportcar-motion-s2000

Super Street finally published the results of this event, which included a dyno session then a track day at Streets of Willow at Willowsprings Raceway. End result- last in power on the dyno (235hp/193lb-ft), third (among 10 competitors) around the track with a 1:24.619 lap. Hmmmm. Interesting result considering field this car was competing against. The fastest car of the day was a BMW 135i with a v8 swap (unspecified engine, unspecified power). That car did a 1:23.327. Second place was an Acura NSX which was also near the bottom in power (321hp/238lb-ft) and stopping the timer at 1:23.786. Other cars in the field included an R32 Skyline, another AP2 S2000, 370Z, Hyundai Genesis Coupe, GRF Sti, and a pair of CZ4A Evo’s. Not a bad field.

2016-continental-tire-show-car-shootout-sportcar-motion-s2000-2

Goes to show that power isn’t the only part of the race car equation to consider. It’s a balance of well-tuned suspension (which I might add is an out-of-the-box setup), mild aero front and rear, good tires (Continental UHP ExtremeContact Sport tires were used on all cars for this event) and brakes. This all has to work together well. So, for a “show car”, nice job, Sportcar Motion!!!!

2016-continental-tire-show-car-shootout-drivers

 

Read more about the Super Street hosted event here.

Test Cars Needed at TEIN USA!

Posted on by

Since we’ve been working hard to release the latest suspension kits for 2016, we’ll always run into one hurdle in trying to get the newest products out to the consumer. Finding the correct vehicle for testing is one of those hurdles.

We (TEIN USA) have always done our product development in our Downey, CA. facility for products destined for the U.S. market. The fact that all of our tools and testing equipment are in this facility, and also because our relative distance from TEIN Japan, makes it easier to communicate with our engineers overseas on a daily basis.

However, this type of convenience makes it difficult to locate local vehicles since we’re working in a relatively isolated area. Some times the vehicle we need is more popular in the Northwest region, or even the East coast region. Some times the vehicle we need has been out of production for a number of years already, so finding one type of vehicle can have its challenges.

So this is where we turn to our customers for help!

If you are in or near the L.A. county, and can leave your car with us for a few days of product testing/developing, it would be greatly appreciated! This type of assistance from you doesn’t go without some type of reimbursement. Of course, we want your car to look and handle great, which is probably why you’re reading our blog right now. So, we typically give our customers free product for the inconvenience of leaving them without a car (assuming you only have the one car) for our testing purposes.

If you have any of the vehicles listed below, and want to work with TEIN in developing suspension, please give us a call! We’d love to work with you!

 

 

Vehicle requirements:

-Must retain OEM body (no widebody kits, aftermarket fenders, bumpers, side skirts, extended bumper lips).

-Must retain factory interior. There may be exceptions for some aftermarket interior parts.

-OEM wheels (and tire size) preferred. Plus sized wheel and tires may be fine, depending on size. No aggressive widths and offsets. Contact us if you have aftermarket plus sized wheels.

-Must retain OEM suspension (stock springs, shocks, upper mount assemblies, bushings, swaybars, endlinks, etc.). There may be exceptions for some aftermarket suspension components.

-Must have valid registration and tags, and proof of insurance.

*consult with TEIN staff if your vehicle may have questionable modifications/parts.

 

Loan requirements:

-Vehicle testing schedule may be from 3-5 business days. In other words, the car will need to be left with us during the scheduled/agreed time frame.

– Vehicle must be dropped off with a full tank of gas. We will be return vehicle with a full tank of gas.

 

Give us a call at 562-861-9161!
Or, if email is more convenient, send your inquiry to tus_sales@tein.com