Tag Archives: Falken

Formula Drift Finals!

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The Formula Drift season will soon come to a close. On October 11-12, Irwindale Speedway will be hosting the final race for the season (Round 7, Final Fight)

We will attend this year’s last event for the season, as we normally do.  Last year we also attended the first and last event. I can’t deny we got a little overwhelmed with how many spectators attended and stopped by our booth.  This year we expect nothing less.

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So get your cash ready and stop by our booth. We will have all kinds of TEIN goods, and several other products for sale. Along with knowledgeable TEIN staff to answer any product or technical questions you may have.

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http://formulad.com/

Hope to see you there!!!

2013 Formula Drift

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If you didn’t get a chance to be at the Long Beach Formula Drift event this past weekend, then wow you missed a great start to the season.

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As most of you know, we will try to make an appearance to all the local events. This was the first one of the season, and let’s say it was a good turn out and a good start as shown in the pictures below.

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Although it was a drifting event, I like the fact that they have a Car Show for the slammed vehicles.

For those who attended our booth and purchased some of our discounted item, such as shirts, key chains, and other goods, thank you for all your support!

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Majority of the Vehicles on display were the New BRZ and FR-S models, but they all have there unique styles.

 

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Check out this awesome 240Sx showing off their TEIN Flex!

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Formula Drift 2012

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The last event for Formula Drift 2012 was this past Saturday, October 13th. Luckily I attended the event not only as a spectator but also an employee of TEIN, as we had our own booth.  Unfortunately I only got glimpses of the actual drift event as most of my time was spent behind the counter. It was a very busy, busy, busy event I must say.  However I did get a chance to walk around and take a look at all the hard working models (wink wink) and attending show cars.

Customers came in by our booth throughout the day. It was nice to meet and speak with many of our customers.

It seems as though everywhere I looked there was a lowered FRS/BRZ plastered with sponsor stickers, body kit, and/or graphic designs. Of course there were other vehicles like Fords, Honda’s, Mitsubishi Evo’s , Mazda’s, Toyota’s, etc., you name it.  One car that stood out to me the most was our very own United States Air force project car. This Dodge Challenger was more beefed up than a plate of sloppy joes, with a double cheeseburger, and a side of carne asada. Ill spare detailing the modification as I’m sure most of you can look that up.

United States Air Force built this Challenger. Looked and sounded mean.

In a nut shell the event was great. Daigo Saito and his Lexus SC430 were crowned the winner of this season. Unfortunately Vaughn Gittin Jr. and his Mustang (rocking our coilover’s) came in second. Still, a great season for Vaughn.

One mean looking ride- Vaughn Gittin Jr.’s Monster Mustang.

Justin”JTP” Pawlak also had a good race this past weekend, taking second place for the closing race of the season.

Justin Pawlak in the Falken Mustang. This guy, as well as all the Falken backed drivers, are crazy talented in what they do!

Nevertheless the turn out was exactly as we anticipated (sold out). It was a great day for us and we look forward to attending next year’s season.

Just a small view of the sold out event. The grandstands were literally packed with fans. Pretty crazy to experience that!

 

HRE Wheels had a nice display, showing an old school Toyota 86 next to the new school 86 (Scion FR-S).

 

Brian from Mackin Industries (Distributor of Volk Racing and Advan Wheels) Scion FR-S. He uses TEIN Flex dampers on this setup.

To all the fans, drivers, teams, and organizers for Formula Drift, thank you for another great season! See you all next year.

 

*some pictures sourced from Speedhunters.com

 

 

 

 

 

 

Vaughn Gittin Jr. Holds on to Formula Drift #1 Spot

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As the final race for the Formula Drift season approaches, we should be prepping ourselves for one great season finale!

As it currently stands, Vaughn Gittin Jr. holds first place with a 25.5 points lead over second place Daigo Saito. And just 44.75 points back sits Rhys Millen, the winner of this past weekend’s Formula Drift in Las Vegas. I find myself growing more and more white hairs on my head than ever before just thinking about how many close battles there are in competition, whatever the sport. And Formula Drift is no different. This has been one of the best seasons so far. Just a little stressful to watch, I suppose!

As aforementioned, Rhys Millen in the Red Bull Hyundai Genesis Coupe, took the win this past weekend. Remaining podium spots were filled with Fredric Aasbo in the Team Need For Speed Scion tC and Vaughn Gittin Jr. in his Monster Falken Mustang.

Great work, Vaughn! We look forward to catching another exciting race at the season closer!

Pics sourced from Speedhunters.com

Back to Back Wins for Vaughn Gittin Jr.!!!

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Needless to say, we are very happy to see Mr. Gittin grace the Formula D podium once again! THAT’S TWO IN A ROW!!! Great work, Vaughn. And great job, Autosport Dynamics.

Obivously, we think that pairing is one of the best on the Formula D grid. We’re very fortunate to have our association with both Autosport Dynamics and Vaughn Gittin Jr., as well as Justin Pawlak- part of the Falken Tires-backed drivers using a custom set of our very own Super Racing dampers!

It’s been a series of ups and downs for the Falken boys. As you can imagine, the field is getting tougher, setups getting crazier, and the amount of dedication to handle the horsepower levels this generation of Formula D puts out (average of about 600 hp) getting more demanding than ever, and you’ll know that these guys don’t have it so easy. That being said, it is great to see how level the playing field is. It makes for an exciting race season, and it also gives fans the opportunity to see their favorite drivers take some of the top spots of the podium. I’ll tell you this- it’s much more exciting than seeing one driver continually win, event after event. Kinda like watching Sebastien Loeb win WRC events, or even Michael Schumacher win his 7 Formula One championship titles. No offense to those guys. They are awesome! Quite obviously, it’s every race team and driver’s intention to bring home the victories. But it just.gets.so.boring……

Seeing different drivers take the top steps just lets you know that everyone has a chance at winning, and that’s how evenly matched the teams are becoming year after year.

But, to be honest, I’d like to see Vaughn’s car take win after win. For one, his Mustang is rad. 2) the Mustang has more than a few hints of green (my favorite color), 3) it’s backed by Monster Energy drinks (an energy drink that tastes awesome), and 4) his car number is 25 (one of my favorite/lucky numbers)!!! It’s like this car is meant to be mine one day!!!! Yeah right. I’m sure Vaughn would never part from this car. It’s too nice to give away! Oh, let’s not forget that Vaughn is clearly a great driver. We can’t leave that last element out of the winning equation.

Also, it’s a lot of fun getting to work with the Autosport Dynamics (ASD) guys in getting the Falken Mustangs set up. They’ve been a group that is easy to work with. They clearly know what they’re doing, and they have an outstanding record in motorsports.

So with The Wall and Evergreen Speedway 2012 in the books, Vaughn and his crew look towards another great victory at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

As this Formula D season gets close to closing out, we wish the best for both Vaughn and Justin, as well as the crew at Autosport Dynamics. They’ve made another year even more exciting than the last. Best of luck for this season! Let’s see the last two races as podium finishes!

Pics sourced from Formula D (www.formulad.com) and Speedhunters (www.speedhunters.com)

Monster Falken 2012 Mustang

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Working here at TEIN USA, I’m usually getting picked on because I would rather drive American muscle vs. a Japanese import. Now don’t get me wrong, Japanese import vehicles are reliable cars that can be tuned to perfection. But I’m more of a supercharged, convertible Roush Mustang with a Dual Flowmaster exhaust system type of guy. The 2012 Monster energy/ Falken Tire sponsored Mustang is a very good example of what I’m talking about. It has a roaring 800 horsepower 6.7-liter V8 engine. It also sports a set of Azenis RT615K tires and HRE Wheels Competition Series C21. I bet you guys are wondering, “OK, it’s a beast of a car, but what does it have to do with TEIN”, right? Well of course I wouldn’t be blogging about this beauty just because of its performance tuning and RTR body kit if it did not sport our TEIN 2-way adjustable coil overs with dual EDFC custom made to maneuver this pony 🙂

 

 

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…..

Congratulations To Falken For Their WIN!

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Congratulations to Falken  Tire for there Formula Drift Round 3 Podium Sweep in Palm Beach, FL.

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Justin Pawlak takes the Victory and the Lead in the Championship.

Congratulations also go to Vaughn Gittin Jr. for his Second Place finish and Darren McNamara for taking 3rd.

All of the Falken Tire vehicles prepared by ASD run custom TEIN coilovers. Some kits are from our normal offerings while others are custom. Each kit is then tailored to the ASD chassis setup and driver.

Tyler in his Falken Tire Nissan 350Z vs. Jeff Jones

 

Mustang (JTP) vs. Mustang (JR)

 

Falken (JTP) vs Falken (D-Mac)

 

Congratulations to all the drivers. The event looked like a lot of fun in the sun.

Photos taken from: www.speedhunters.com

Autosport Dynamics Inc.

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To those of you who follow the drifting scene, particularly the Formula D series that has been receiving nationwide and international coverage, many of you may already be familiar with the Falken and Monster Energy Falken Tire livery. We are very fortunate to be the suspension suppliers for quite a few of their vehicles, such as their Saturn Sky driven Darren Macnamara, Nissan 350z driven by Tyler Mcquarrie, and the Ford Mustang’s of Justin Pawlak and Vaughn Gittin Jr.

Ever since Falken’s entry into Formula D, they’ve been placing themselves quite high among most contenders in this series, claiming many 1st place victories, as well as a championship title. But their full-fledged attack came about with the enlistment of Autosport Dynamics, Inc. (ASD) who handle all the vehicle builds for the aforementioned cars, as well as all vehicle maintenance.

Mind you, Autosport Dynamics expertise goes well beyond their experience with Formula D. They’ve also had their hands in NASCAR, SCORE, F1, SCCA, NASA, and British F3.  That’s quite a resume for a company that started in the 1980’s. And, these services aren’t limited to teams, either. Yes, they offer their services to the public!

Check them out on their site

http://www.autosportdynamics.com/about.html

They also keep a great up-to-date blog on the Formula D series, filled with pictures and videos from both races and test sessions. Pretty cool.

http://www.thejackstand.com/

Vaughn Gittin Jr. in the Monster Energy Falken Tire Mustang

Darren Macnamara in the Saturn Sky

Falken Team Video

2011 Falken Formula Drift Test from Falken Tire on Vimeo.

And, as if that wasn’t enough to keep their hands full, they operate a retail site, www.asdmotorsports.com

Geez. All work and no play makes Autosport Dynamics a,,,,, wait, their work is THEIR play! Forget it.