Category Archives: Random

Tein Overalls

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Just recently, over here in Southern California, the summer has begun showing it’s true face.

It may not be as hot as other summers have been in recent years *Knock on wood*.

However, it’s still hot enough to break a sweat doing the simplest of motions while working on cars.

Normally we here in the R&D and Warehouse section are wearing coveralls, but as you can imagine from the name coverALL it gets really hot wearing those.

 

That’s where the Tein Overalls come in.

On a warm summer day the Tein Overalls have a cool refreshing feel to them, much like a convertible.

But the usefulness of the overalls doesn’t stop at just keeping you cool and your clothes clean while working.

Another feature is the big pocket up in the front.

It can be loaded with small tools such as pens and rulers for easy access while working on cars.

Also, the knees have a padding sewn into the fabric that helps a lot when kneeling to work on your car’s suspension.

So if the heat is getting to you while working on your car, your friend’s car, or anyone else’s car at that, and you don’t want to get your clothes dirty, give us a call and inquire about the Tein Overalls.

Sunday was a Funday

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This is not one of our normal posts but these are some of the staff at TEIN USA – West.

The staff here at TEIN USA try to have a Summer BBQ at least once a year. Yesterday was our out of the office funday. There was grilling, eating, 3 on 3 basketball, kids running around and more eating.

 

Our Operations asst. manager, Paul, hosted and served as grill master.

Our BBQ included current and ex-staff members. I think everyone was most impressed by the diversity in food which included:
Korean short ribs, Ribeye steak, Pork Belly, Asian style BBQ chicken, Portuguese sausage, Ceviche, 2 kinds of Enchiladas, assorted rice balls, Chicken Adobo, Lumpia, Pancit, mixed green salad, Japanese cucumber salad, homemade guacamole, spinach Empanadas, baked donuts, assorted fresh fruits, and multi-layer cake.

 

Air Marc. He’s from Hawaii so he does everything in slippers.

Brian, also with slippers. It was like 90 degrees so flipflops were the footwear of choice.

Our accountant, Hirayoshi playing some catch. Both these guys are from Japan where American football is not a popular sport. I think this was the first time Hirayoshi had thrown a football.

The boss and his wife playing some catch.

The kids even got in on the sports. Jaydean here is taking it in for a touchdown!

One of our operations staff doubles as a Yokohama Globe Trotter.

Our accounting assistant, Mirelle, putting it up and in.

Hirayoshi playing some basketball. He said the last time he played was about 20 yrs ago. He is actually a good surfer and downhill mountain biker.

Our engineer, TK, taking our accountant off the dribble.

Paul driving to the hoop.

Sergio, aka Gonzo, going up for the easy 2.

Some of the staff enjoying the sun and some cool dessert.

Taking a break and enjoying the day.

Good times were had by all.

RedBull Soapbox Racer

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Over the past few weeks I have been helping to build a soapbox cart chassis. The project all started about 5 weeks ago when Import Tuner magazine decided it would be cool to enter into the 2011 Redbull Soapbox race in Downtown LA. Import Tuner mag wanted something that represented the import aftermarket car/parts industry and still be appealing to the masses. After some debate, it was decided, a Choro-Q or penny racer. It would be fun, not too serious and the dimensions fit the rules. I made the initial drawing to get the ball rolling.

Other than the Import Tuner mag and Source Interlink staff. Gary from Design Craft fabrication jumped on board to build a chassis and Troy of Five Axis was in to build a body.  Import Tuner convinced Dai Yoshihara to pilot the cart and I volunteered to help do whatever.

Most of the team members. From Left. Scott  of Import Tuner, Dai the Pro Driver, Me, Troy of Five Axis, Elliott of Source Interlink and Gary of Design Craft. There were a lot more people who helped and they are greatly appreciated.

The end result is a cool double A-arm chassis with push rod suspension, disc brakes and many man hours. The body is just as ridiculous. Scion FR-S concept turned cartoon racer.

The real Scion FR-S concept car at the New York auto show.

Choro-Q inspired FR-S next to chassis at Five Axis.

With everyone having CRAZY schedules we were able to test the chassis 2 nights before the event. Dai got to get behind the wheel 2 hrs before the event registration.

Testing right before the event. Dai had just flown in from Japan. He went from LAX straight to our test hill.

The event is more than a race. It compasses a 10’x10′ display at the event, a 30-second skit performed by the team members and of course the downhill race. The combined scores produce a winner. In case you did not already know – we did not win BUT I think we had the best looking soapbox racer ever built.

Our 10’x10′ booth display was comprised of stereotypical Japanese items.

Dai taking the banked turn right under the judges.

Right after the race all the people involved in this cart were talking about what improvements would be needed to win and what theme would be fun. The Redbull event was definitely a blast. Our cart probably had more money in it than any other but we worked just as hard to build it. In the end, it was fun and we would all definitely do it again.

Special thanks to Troy S., Elliott M., Carter J., Gary C. and Joey L. for the images.

Gauges, Gauges, ZD

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Gone are the days when our gauge clusters were filled with gauges of this and gauges of that to tell you every little thing going on with the engine.

Just looking at the clusters of my old AW11 MR2 & FC RX7 I got the basic gist of what was going on underneath the hood.


(Pictured: Gauge clusters of cars from the 80’s that tell me more than most modern cars)

But, I’ve since moved onto newer cars, the most recent of which is the Evo X.
Now don’t get me wrong I think the car is great, it does everything that I need it to do.
However, I have no idea what’s going on with my engine, and I’ll probably never know until it’s a little too late.

Nowadays in order to keep up with the times and the styling of the times a lot of the gauges we used to have have been thrown out the window by the manufacturers; and instead we now have simplicity, we have more aesthetically pleasing “gauges” that require little to no effort to decipher. Blue means cold, red means hot, no bars and that blinking light that looks like a gas pump means go get gas now, and full bars means you have a full tank.

(Pictured: Go Get Gas Now)

That’s all great and such, until you start maintaining and modifying your own car; subsequently walking that thin line of paranoia.
And everyone who does work on their own car, knows that paranoia of driving down the street, suddenly hearing a clunk and wondering “Did my _________ just fall off/break?!”; or wondering if that smell of burning motor oil is coming from your car because you didn’t do your oil change properly and you have no way of knowing since you don’t have an oil pressure gauge, or maybe it’s just that old clunker puttering down the road in front of you.

For the former I can’t help you out, but for the latter there is a solution.
Defi Gauges, made to monitor all sorts of things that go on underneath your hood.

Now I know gauges have been covered many times, but maybe, just like me, you don’t want your entire dash and A-pillar bombarded with gauges.
So, I present to you the Advance ZD.
The ZD is a multi-gauge, in a small OLED display it can tell you a whole lot about your car without taking up a whole lot of space.

I recently installed it into my Evo X because I wanted to know the Oil Pressure & Temperature and a precise Water Temperature without the clutter.


(Pictured: No clutter)

You’ll notice that the majority of my Tach is covered by a Boost Gauge (installed because the one thing that the ZD cannot display is boost), but not to worry because the ZD also has a Tach option and there’s a Sequential Indicator consisting of 8 LEDs along the top of the display that are synced with the engine rpm and now one LED lights up every 500RPM I go passed 3000RPM.

The only part of installing the ZD that I dreaded was the tearing apart of my dash to route the wires.


(Pictured: A new car owner’s nightmare)

For those that want to add other things to monitor such as Exhaust Temperature and Fuel Pressure, they too can be monitored on the ZD.

If you want to save some money look into the ADVANCE ZD SPORT PACKAGE. That will get you started in the right direction.

So far the ZD has given me great peace of mind.
Now when I pull up to a stop and smell burning motor oil I can look at the ZD and see that I’m not losing oil pressure, then I can look over and think to myself that the owner of that old clunker needs to fix those oil leaks.

Track Day

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Two weeks ago I took my EVO 9 to a Speed Ventures track event for a fun day with friends. I had not driven on a track for almost 8 months. In fact, I had not driven my car more than 100 miles in the past 8 months.

I took the car to Tint Factory on Saturday to get a 3M clear bra installed to protect my newly acquired C-West hood. Special thanks to Garrett and Frank at Tint Factory. Packed up various tools and my car was ready by Saturday 9PM. Left to the track on Sunday at 5AM.

Arrived at ButtonWillow raceway and met up with a few buddies including Joey L. (ex-Sport Compact Car Chief Editor), Jay C. (ex-Sport Compact Car Technical Editor), Wes H. (Honda employee and Time Attack racer) plus a few new friends.

Jay’s Turbo KA S14.

The config. was 13 CCW which is a layout I had not driven in 3-4 yrs. My first session was kind of a rust remover session. I had not driven on track in awhile, the car had not be driven and the course layout almost seemed foreign. Before my next session I went out with Joey in his almost all stock EVO X GSR. That was a blast since Joey is a great driver and the EVO X is an awesomely fun car.

Joey’s EVO X GSR.

My next session out was much cleaner and I pushed a little harder. I was still only driving at partial throttle, super early braking and only bursts of full throttle at certain areas. When entering a corner at high speed a few too many thoughts race through my mind like:
If I go off, what will get damaged and more importantly how much will that cost me.
I wonder if my car will be able to get on a flat bed if I need to get towed home.

After I cleared those thoughts from my mind I began to push a little harder but still keeping it very chill. After all this was just supposed to be a fun day at the track. No timing, no competition. Just driving. I probably drove at 6 or 7/10th and still had lots of fun.

My EVO 9 SE

Next track event I will push harder and start to dial-in the suspension.

After arriving home and parking the car I thought about what needed to be done:
A good car wash to remove the 50+ dead bugs on the front of my car
All fluids change including engine oil, trans fluid, center diff., rear diff. and brake/ clutch fluid.
Rotate Tires, re-torque various bolts and a thorough inspection of brakes, suspension, etc…

SPECIAL THANKS to Wes H. for the photos.

I-spy TEIN

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While make my daily rounds through car industry blogs, I came across this sexy beast. Spoon Sports NSX-R featured on Speedhunters blog.

Photo from www.speedhunters.com
Coming from mainly a Honda background, of course anything Spoon catches my attention. This high revving, naturally aspirated and track ready NA2 looks like a blast to drive.

Photo from www.speedhunters.com
Whats this?! Yep this vehicle is running our Aluminum N1 Coilovers. This full length, mono tube suspension offers separate 20 x 20 way compression and rebound adjustment (available in either aluminum or steel construction). The stroke and valving have been specifically designed for circuit racing conditions to provide maximum grip. *For Race Use Only

Photo from www.speedhunters.com
For this full feature and many more, please follow the Speed Hunters Blog

Disaster Relief Donations

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We would like to give our greatest condolences to those who have lost love ones and family members in the horrible accident in Japan. It has been almost a month since the earth quake/tsunami, and would like to thank everyone that has donated or helped the people of Japan. It will not be an easy task for many people in Japan to get back to there normal lives but I’m sure that they will be thankful for all the help and support from around the world.

TEIN Inc has donated a total of 3,000,000 yen to the Red Cross Association

TEIN Employees and overseas fund-raising netted a donation of 874,785 yen

TEIN’s Domestic and Overseas Customers have donated 2,305,362 yen

Giving a Grand Total donation of 6,180,147 yen (approx. $74,000 USD)

If possible please continue your support and donations to the disaster relief efforts.

How low can you go?

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We get a lot questions about what is the lowest a vehicle can go. It has been a tough question to answer since at one time the cops would actually measure from the center of your headlight to the floor. We were unable find out any information to back this up. This last weekend I had a fun 8 hour traffic school class that was able to shed some light on the California State law regarding the legal ride height.

The law states (Cut & pasted from the California DMV website):

V C Section 24008 Modification of Vehicles

It is unlawful to operate any passenger vehicle, or commercial vehicle under 6,000 pounds, which has been modified from the original design so that any portion of the vehicle, other than the wheels, has less clearance from the surface of a level roadway than the clearance between the roadway and the lowermost portion of any rim of any wheel in contact with the roadway.

Basically not any part of your vehicle can be lower than the measurement of the lowest part of your rim to the ground. Makes sense right? Just in case if a tire blows out, your not Fred Flintstone-ing with a Fast and Furious floor board on the road.

This law is only confirmed for the State of California. Please check with your state for the current law regarding minimum ride height.

Exhaust Design

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Now, I’m not about to bore you with technical information on exhaust designs since there is already a plethora of information and opinions on the benefits and downsides of each type of design. But exhausts play an important role in power production for our cars. I cannot say outright that it is an area most people tend to overlook. However, it is a factor that is often overlooked when it comes to the expectations we have. There are so many exhaust brands out there, and all of them follow their own tuning style.

For most of us, our cars are our daily drivers. And maintaining drivability is a very important aspect. I don’t know about you, but I like keeping the powerband nice and smooth, as well as accessible from the 2500 to 4000 rpm range. I definitely don’t spend a bunch of time motoring at redline. No thanks.

But really, it seems that we are all convinced by advertisements and forum posts (if you follow those) that show that bigger piping size is better. Is it, though?

When we had an engineer from Fujitsubo stay with us in the U.S. to develop exhausts specifically for the North American market, we learned a bit more into exhaust design and what makes Fujitsubo exhausts unique. Of course a main factor would be to make more power. Second was material selection for their Stainless Steel and Titanium exhausts. Third was reduced weight over factory exhausts. And lastly, a combination of great sounds and great looks.

Taking a look at the RM-01A I have on my car (part number FJ 190-63055), I never knew how much attention to detail Fujitsubo had put into it. They really do stand by their quality.

Inside diameter is 76.3mm, but it retains the donut-type flange from the downpipe, which matches my aftermarket downpipe (as well as stock) perfectly. Even though this means there is a slight step in piping diameter at the flange (63.5mm), it also means less stress at the flange where the two pipes meet. The rear canister also has a reducer of the same size. This helps to reduce decibel levels to a very low 86dB. Fujitsubo does sound tests using SAE J1169 standards.

Weight reduction comes in the form of 1.0mm thick SUS304 for the piping, resonators, and cansiter. Also, hollow hangers are used, as well as stamped 1.5mm thick gusset flanges (Fujitsubo’s SuperEX exhaust manifolds use Lost Wax formed flanges).

Minimal bends in piping also help to reduce restriction, and the rear canister is slighly canted. Fujitsubo even paid attention to ground clearance, and create an exhaust package that fits factory mounting points as precisely in the stock location as possible.

Overall, I am quite happy with the performance and sound. As I had mentioned, I like a very drivable range of power at relatively low to mid rpm range. I kinda threw that out the window with my turbo selection (a bit laggy for a 2 liter). But with this exhaust, I have regained good midrange power. Torque is nice and flat from 2800-6000 rpm and the motor pulls nicely up until 6500 rpm, at which point my injectors begin to max out. But again, I keep it low rpm on the street. Afterall, that’s where it spends most of its time. The RM-01A is aimed towards users that want good mid to high end power gains, which more or less suits my needs. Since I asked my tuner for a conservative tune, I feel like I was able to achieve what I was looking for, even with the extra lag my turbo gives.

So, while I won’t be needing max power right now, this setup seems to be a great match. As a consumer, you have a lot of resources to find what will suit you best. So do your research.

I suppose there will be a day when I’ll want a crazy high horsepower, flame-spitter of a car. When that day comes, I’ll be doing this

Imagine being able to spit out shock diamonds like this!!! I’m a nerd.

Bye bye

A lil FUN @ the office

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Thanks to Troy from Five Axis everyone at the office gets to have a little fun.

One of our Authorized Dealers, Five Axis, just happened to drop by to pick up some TEIN Product and had a little surprise. It seems that HPI Racing manufactures a RC car copy of the Scion xB with Five Axis lip kit and wheels. The original vehicle that Five Axis produced had our Basic Coilovers.

Everyone wanted to play with it the first day and I had opened it and unpack it. It felt like Christmas morning all over again. I was excited to actually take it out for a spin but unfortunately the AA batteries for the controller were not included and I could not find any in the office. 🙁 eeeerrr I had to wait one more day to have a little fun.

Thanks to our Marketing Manager we got batteries the next day (thanks Phil). Everyone got a chance to have a few laughs and enjoy the RC car.

I unfortunately did not have great control of the car and was accidentally crashing the poor car into poles and pallets in the warehouse, thankfully no damage was done to the vehicle. I will practice to get better handling the RC car. I think we are planning to make a time attack course in the warehouse or parking lot.

We had a good time with the car we even put it on a Dyno….lol, sort of.