A friend of mine got this info from the February issue of JDM News. I just thought i would share it with you guys. My friend is part of another forum. Its not the entire interview, just the parts about the K20A. Enjoy!

What are some of your upcoming product releases?

We are very excited about our new line up of K20A products (USA RSX Type-S). Honda has done an excellent job with this new power plant, and it's one of their best engines yet! We have a new exhaust manifold and camshaft design for the S2000, and NSX products are on their way. In the long term we'll be developing products for the new Nissan Z350.

Would you care to go into more detail with relation to the K20 Releases?

The K20A has been in development at TODA for the past 18 months. An advantage TODA has over other "tuner" companies is that we are a racing company while our competitors are tuners of streetcars. We develop racing engines first, and then apply the technology to streetcars (our competitors modify street cars). The amount of developing that goes into race engine development far surpasses street engine tuning. The consumer benefits greatly from this approach, as pure race products must adhere to a greater level of quality and performance compared to street tuner parts. Another testament to TODA quality is that many other teams use our engines, while our competitor's engines are only used in their own racecars.

We currently supply racing versions of the K20A to a variety of teams in the Japanese endurance racing series. The most well known is the 5Zigen DC5 which races in the N+ racing series. In the past 18 months we've learned a great deal about the K20A and all this experience and knowledge is being applied to our K20A products. Valve springs and a lightweight flywheel are currently available. In the coming months we'll be releasing our high-anticipated camshafts. Other products will follow including pistons, head gaskets, VTC Killer cam pulleys, and our FIGHTEX coil over suspension.

You have had a long range of project cars in your stables - what made you go with the RSX as your next choice as opposed to the Civic Si?

The RSX was a logical choice as we were already developing K20A products.

Would you like to talk a little about what's been done to the RSX-S? Are you featuring any of your upcoming products for the K20?

The RSX is used to fully test our products on a street application before releasing them to the consumer. A lot of companies out there test prototypes and early versions of products on consumer's cars, but we always purchase cars (straight from the dealership) to test our products. This is an expensive step in the product development process for any company, but in our opinion it's a very necessary step to ensure that the product the consumers purchase is fully tested. Countless times we hear horror stories of our competitor's camshafts going flat, breaking, cam gears slipping, valve springs snapping, etc. This is due to poor product testing where the products weren't fully tested in real world conditions.

The RSX currently has our camshafts, valve springs, ECU, flywheel, clutch kit, exhaust manifold, and FIGHTEX suspension.

Eric's Racing has provided a lot of excellent publicity for Toda. How important are these relationships?

It's very important to choose a professional race team that is technically proficient to work with. Erick is one of the most gifted and talented B-Series engine builders out there and that's one of the reasons we work together.



[Modified by MJ23FE, 3:03 AM 3/8/2003]

 

Nice!!

 

I think he is trying to say that Toda's main purpose from the get go was to provide full fledged raceing parts. They design and tune them only for race and their R&D was initially for the sole purpose of making sure it will not break in racing situations and could stay consistant in the long run. They made their parts for race cars and went from that to also producing parts for street cars, so their quality has been tested and proven in the toughest situations. I think he is trying to say that the smaller "tuner" companies do not have the same experience as Toda does, and also their product will not be as good because of Toda's expertise. "They" tune the street engines, as Toda tunes race engines and provides engines to racing teams, and also provides parts to street cars that are made from the same quality as their race parts.
Yeah well, i cannot really explain it alot better than the guy did in the interview. Sorry!

 

I think its sidetracking in my personal view. I think they are tryin to steer off many of the "smaller companies" although George was right when he said that Spoon and Mugen are both racing teams.

I just want to see what they do with the k20. Hopefully it will be good.

Keep us updated on any info you get or find out from them.

 

What you must realise is that this is the American arm of Toda - not the Japanese. So when they make statements like that, they refer to the American market - in particular the big players.

And yes, it's too broader a statement to be 100% correct. I'm sure it's not intended to be misleading, a company like TODA would know better than that, so lets not bag them on something as minor as this.

 

I mean look what we have here as "Tunners" besides Skunk2 and some of the respectable places.

Ovcorse i dont believe anything is better than APC. Gotta give the props to a company that makes such parts to add more "flava" to such a scene. JK

 

id like the flywheel!!!!! on my car oh man that be pimp

 

I wonder if TODA is going to have stuff for the USDM EP3...

 

I've called over there after I read that interview in JDM News to talk to them about this interview. He said he was NOT refering to Mugen. He said TODA and MUGEN work closely together on different projects. An example he gave is that MUGEN Formula 4 cars all use TODA engines and TODA F3 cars use a modified version of the MUGEN engine. And they make prototype camshafts for MUGEN. He said in the states they work with King Motorsports, all in all, he spoke very highly of MUGEN and said both companies highly respect each other.

When I asked about Spoon, he said something like Spoon is an excellent marketing company that really doesn't manufacture any of their own products besides welding up exhaust systems (mufflers are made by someone else). He said that TODA makes the cam gears for Spoon, but I don't know if that's true. He said the difference between TODA and Spoon is this; Spoon is very business and marketing oriented, while TODA is 100% engineering driven, that's why you don't see any TODA shift *****, pedals, etc. Then he said that a true testement to any race engines quality and performance is if OTHER race teams use their motors, and no one besides Spoon uses Spoon engines, while TODA engines are used by over 10 different race teams.

Hope that clears it up.

 

Me and my friend's Spoon long block started to burn oil big time after around 10000km, if you ask me, I wouldn't use a Spoon engine in my car again too.

But then, some Spoon products are OK.


[Modified by mafay2, 3:17 AM 3/10/2003]

 

Thanks for the clarification - I'd always give companies like TODA and Mugen the benefit of the doubt in these circumstances. They are too long in the tooth to mislead anyone, and the profit from this would be far less than the PR loss.

As for the EP3 products, we'll be highlighting this very soon in JDM-News.


[Modified by Mac, 12:35 AM 3/10/2003]

 

If I'm not mistaken, King/Mugen and AKH/Toda are sponsors of the ITR expo and AKH/Toda has donated parts to be given away? Just out of curiosity, has Spoon sponsored the ITR expo by giving parts to be raffled off?

 

Who are you addressing here George?


[Modified by Mac, 11:27 AM 3/10/2003]

 

No individual throttle bodies?!?!?!?!? Come on now.

 

IMO, the biggest competitor for Toda will be JUN. JUN is another big company in Japan who can R&D and manufacture their own parts. Does anyone know Honda Japan is working with JUN for race parts development this year (2003)?

 

Ok, can I venture a guess and say that now since JUN USA is out of business, A&J will be distributing JUN parts? That would explain your post since A&J usually pushes their products very hard on these forums.

I'd also like to know which program Honda is sourcing out to JUN since JUN couldn't even supply enough parts to the U.S. (that's why JUN USA went out of business). I currently work for American Honda in Torrance and have never heard of any involvement with JUN through us or Honda Japan.

 

We're one step ahead of you, we talk to AJ racing this month and also feature Alans Spooned EK. Answers for these questions are covered

 

good stuff mike!....your doing a good job there. Your site is looking fine. Nice content.

 

Did I ever pushes hard on JUN products ? Sorry I must have bad memory

About JUN and Honda, I think you will find out later. I have no comments why JUN USA is closing their business. I have talked to Mr. JUN and he said there were not parts supplying problem.