Build it "A" Style

Well here's a topic that I've been meaning to cover for quite some time now. You'll often times hear me refer to "levels of enthusiasm" in regards to love for automotive tuning, building, preparation and lifestyle. Essentially I believe that once you reach a very high level of automotive enthusiasm, things become less about what country built the car or which manufacturer assembled the parts, engine, or the like. What it comes down to is the time, effort, ingenuity and care that was taken to ensure that the end product is what you see in front of you. Baisically you can appreciate things that are outside of your realm. I'm a perfect example. I used to be very into Japanese and American cars, until I started learning more and more about European vehicles and their racing heritage. Then I learned a little about hot rods and their culture, low riders and their culture; you get the picture. I'm at the point now where I really can go to just about any automotive cultural phenomenon gathering and have a good time, and at least be somewhat familiar with what is being presented. I've opened myself to new things. Sure I still have my tastes in things, but learning about other styles of enthusiasm can help you with what you do to your car. This brings me to the main focus of this post.

I've met and interacted with tons of Japanese car enthusiasts that have very closed minds when it comes to part selection and shop discrimination. Specifically I'm talking about only using Japanese manufactured parts or using a Japanese shop to do building, tuning and assembly. I'll be the first to say that I do admire lots of Japanese part manufacturers, but I've also learned that they are definatly not the highest quality when it comes to certain parts. Ignorant people however will only buy parts that are from specific manufacturers and won't give others a thought, only because of their country's origin. This mainly applies to people who build street machines/show car guys from what I can see anyhow, because I guess the rarity of the parts is more important than their functionality.

My point is this: other countries build "import" cars with their own domestic parts, so why shouldnt' you? You'll notice I placed the Red Hot BMW CSL M3 at the top of my post because A)I absolutely love this car, and B) it totally embodies the subject matter that i want to tackle. Here's another shot, because the car is phenomenal:

This car exemplifies what I'm talking about because its a foreign vehicle to the Japanese market (being German) yet they use their domestic highly sought after race manufacturers to build it. Sure, they could have used the standard German fare, but instead they used what has been proven to them in their home country on their domestic vehicles. Take notice of the Volk racing wheels (I believe in track guise they even use TE-37's! How hot is that?). Since Rays Engineering has been a staple of Japanese motor sports of so long, its only natural to use them. Also the car uses a set of Project Mu brake pads, an OS Giken twin plate clutch and Super-Lock LSD, Japanese made Dixis coilovers and exhaust header. The car also uses Defi gauges as well as Dixis brand aero components.

All of these components come together to build a car that has unique flavor and really does stand out in the sea of clones. This particular formula has proven itself to work well, as they placed at the top of their class at the Super Street Super Lap Battle a few years ago, and was the only European vehicle to really bring the thunder.

Here's another vehicle that exemplifies my point:

Thanks to Speedhunters for getting me started on this by posted up their article on this European built AE86 that competed in the SPA 24 hour race. Notice first off the definitive European race car look livery.....its simple and to the point. Definately a far cry from the heavily graphic influenced Japanese style or the home product sponsor American style. The wheels are also a dead giveaway that this isn't a Japanese built race car, as the offset is fairly unaggressive, and its got those crazy turbine style inducers!

"The car has adjustable camber plates (I wonder what brand they are???) which don't look like they were Japanese-made, and it also has a Cusco OS-style strut bar, but I doubt it was made by Cusco because I don't think Cusco parts were readily available in Europe at the time this car was racing."

Again, the author notes the products used that probably aren't Japanese. As a matter of fact, there's maybe even a good chance some of the stuff was custom one-offed parts since at the time, Japanese parts probably weren't readily available in Europe. Looking even closer, you notice this:

The author notes a "Formuling France" steering wheel. How euro does that sound? Also the car is equipped with perhaps Europe's most famous gauge company (VDO) and also a staple in their safety field, OMP who supplied the fiberglass race bucket.

My last example, is perhaps the one most of you can identify with since its a Japanese car totally utilizing American parts: the Skunk2 TA Civic SI

This was THE original car that really got me thinking about this train of thought. This vehicle was built years ago to compete in an SI tuner challenge for some magazines. Even though it wasn't the most powerful vehicle, it to me was simply the most stunning, and was closest to what I'd envision how I'd like to have the vehicle built. The car uses what is essentially the entire Skunk2 catalog, including all of their engine internal components (which I believed when assembled, was somewhere around the 250hp mark, which was pretty exemplary back in those days) remote reservoir road race shocks with Skunk's own springs and perches, and their exhaust and related components. It proved to be a beast of a car, but failed due to misc reasons which go in question as some people say it was purely driver error, others say a weak gearbox. Anyhow the vehicle to me embodies the soul of what can be accomplished with this train of thought. If other foreign builders are using domestic parts on their cars, why shouldn't we? We can build it "American", or "A" style.

Many of you that know me already understand that I practice what I preach. On my personal AE86, I tend to use race proven American parts where ever I can. Some things are unavoidable, so I of course use the best of what Japan has to offer, but most of the time I'll opt for the American parts. Such is the reason I chose Crower for my valvetrain, and Arias for my pistons. Such is the reason I only use Battle Version suspension products because I know that they are simply the strongest best developed domestically made parts for the AE86 chassis. Sometimes you have to reach a little further, but in the end its well worth it. In my case I found that Porterfield offers Raybestos, yes, THAT Raybestos brand brake pads that are full race compounds. Apparently they have been offering race pads for quite a while, but only sold them to race teams. Recently, they began selling them to the public. I've tried Project Mu, TRD, and a few other brands, but nothing comes close to these pads. The Porterfield specialist actually recommended these pads to me (Compound 43) as he uses them personally and tested them at the 25 hours of Thunderhill race. When a guy like that recommends something like that to you, you listen.

I'm not telling you to hate on Japanese parts, I'm not telling you to build a crazy USA only machine, but I'm just advising that sometimes its useful and beneficial to use domestically tested and produced parts. In the race world, you use what you know and what works best, so take some of that and apply it to your street cars!