Toda Interview
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From: I taint rich, NJ, USA
Toda Interview
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. Here is the entire interview he sent me. Enjoy!
Toda is well known throughout the Honda world for killer Vtec products, excellent reliability and awesome racing products. How do you manage to maintain this reputation when there is so much competition out there?
I think the most important thing is not to change our current product development process. Our development process (compared to other tuners) is more lengthy and expensive, but it allows us to offer products that surpass our competition in terms or quality and performance. Each year we invest heavily into new R&D and manufacturing tools to stay ahead of our competitors. For product design and development we use the IBM CATIA CAD system. This is high end CAD system is also used by the likes of Honda Motor Co., Porsche, and even Boeing Aircraft Company.
With regards to racing, where does Toda see itself in 5 years time?
While we cannot elaborate in detail on what our exact plans are, we will still be campaigning our own Formula 3 team as well as supplying race engines to Formula 3, Formula 4, N1, N+, and JGTC.
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.
Do you think we are ever going to see the likes of the JGTC make its way to America in some form?
In my opinion, not anytime soon. Although, it's very promising that The Speed Channel is airing JGTC on Monday nights. After the failure of NATCC (North American Touring Car Championships), investors and race sponsors are very hesitant.
With regards to engine tuning - what's the future in the Honda line? Is it staying with tried and tested platforms like the B series engines, or the better flowing heads of the K series, or any other possibilities?
The B-Series will always be a great and popular engine to build on. Countless times, it's been referred to as the small block Chevy of the 1990's. The K20A has a very promising future, but it'll take a few years of development for the K20A to approach the same level of high power output in a racing application like the B-series. In our opinion both are great engines with a lot of possibilities, and unlike other Japanese tuners, we have no plans of abandoning the B-Series fans by discontinuing our B-Series product lineup.
What's your thoughts on 'watered down' versions of the Japanese Domestic Market vehicles that make it to America and Canada's shore?
That's an unfortunate reality, but Honda and other Japanese companies are in it for profits and they do a lot of market research and product planning before deciding which cars to offer cars in this market. They plan cars for the mass market because it's a smart and safe business move. Unfortunately that type of thinking rules out the enthusiast type models that aren't very profitable and more geared for a specific type of consumer (smaller market size). American Honda in particular is VERY conservative, and we were actually surprised that the DC2 Type-R was offered in the states.
What kind of tuning theories should your followers look up to? All power and no control? A good balance?
A good balance is like a good an around athlete.
There's always a lot of talk when products are coming up for release. How do you deal with the rumors and nonsense that comes your way?
We try to limit the amount of mis-information as much as possible, but some people on the Internet forums have wild imaginations!
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.
A lot of your products have evolved into some of the most technically advanced and highest quality parts in their respective ranges. Was this part of an evolution or an aim from the beginning?
As with any professional race program, whether it's Formula 1 or Formula 4, the products must evolve to stay competitive. But if your products set the benchmark from the beginning, other must try to evolve to stay competitive against us. Our extensive product development programs ensure that our products set the benchmark and don't require constant change and updating to stay competitive. Our Spec B camshafts are one of the most popular camshafts for the B-Series engine, but this is a 1996 design! No changes have been made to its design since 1996, but it still outperforms our competitor's 2002 products in terms of quality and performance.
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.
Are we going to see any unique products from Toda in the not so distant future?
We have a lot of cool products in development, but we can't comment in detail at this point. The product we can comment on were mentioned in my previous answers
A lot of tuners around the world have shifted to automated and computer aided design processes. How have you made this adjustment and how has it helped with regards to your products?
TODA has been using the IBM CATIA CAD system since 1982, before most of our competitors were in business! We've been using computer-aided design for the past 20 years.
These are 2 good links for your readers to check out:
http://www.todaracing.com/topics/articles/ibm.html - It's an article from IBM about TODA Racing.
http://www.todaracing.com/topics/art..._dynamics.html - Fluid dynamics software TODA uses.
How can we find out more about Toda parts?
Check out our web site http://www.todaracing.com or send us an e-mail toda@todaracing.com
Thanks!
[Modified by MJ23FE, 4:08 AM 3/9/2003]
Toda is well known throughout the Honda world for killer Vtec products, excellent reliability and awesome racing products. How do you manage to maintain this reputation when there is so much competition out there?
I think the most important thing is not to change our current product development process. Our development process (compared to other tuners) is more lengthy and expensive, but it allows us to offer products that surpass our competition in terms or quality and performance. Each year we invest heavily into new R&D and manufacturing tools to stay ahead of our competitors. For product design and development we use the IBM CATIA CAD system. This is high end CAD system is also used by the likes of Honda Motor Co., Porsche, and even Boeing Aircraft Company.
With regards to racing, where does Toda see itself in 5 years time?
While we cannot elaborate in detail on what our exact plans are, we will still be campaigning our own Formula 3 team as well as supplying race engines to Formula 3, Formula 4, N1, N+, and JGTC.
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.
Do you think we are ever going to see the likes of the JGTC make its way to America in some form?
In my opinion, not anytime soon. Although, it's very promising that The Speed Channel is airing JGTC on Monday nights. After the failure of NATCC (North American Touring Car Championships), investors and race sponsors are very hesitant.
With regards to engine tuning - what's the future in the Honda line? Is it staying with tried and tested platforms like the B series engines, or the better flowing heads of the K series, or any other possibilities?
The B-Series will always be a great and popular engine to build on. Countless times, it's been referred to as the small block Chevy of the 1990's. The K20A has a very promising future, but it'll take a few years of development for the K20A to approach the same level of high power output in a racing application like the B-series. In our opinion both are great engines with a lot of possibilities, and unlike other Japanese tuners, we have no plans of abandoning the B-Series fans by discontinuing our B-Series product lineup.
What's your thoughts on 'watered down' versions of the Japanese Domestic Market vehicles that make it to America and Canada's shore?
That's an unfortunate reality, but Honda and other Japanese companies are in it for profits and they do a lot of market research and product planning before deciding which cars to offer cars in this market. They plan cars for the mass market because it's a smart and safe business move. Unfortunately that type of thinking rules out the enthusiast type models that aren't very profitable and more geared for a specific type of consumer (smaller market size). American Honda in particular is VERY conservative, and we were actually surprised that the DC2 Type-R was offered in the states.
What kind of tuning theories should your followers look up to? All power and no control? A good balance?
A good balance is like a good an around athlete.
There's always a lot of talk when products are coming up for release. How do you deal with the rumors and nonsense that comes your way?
We try to limit the amount of mis-information as much as possible, but some people on the Internet forums have wild imaginations!
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.
A lot of your products have evolved into some of the most technically advanced and highest quality parts in their respective ranges. Was this part of an evolution or an aim from the beginning?
As with any professional race program, whether it's Formula 1 or Formula 4, the products must evolve to stay competitive. But if your products set the benchmark from the beginning, other must try to evolve to stay competitive against us. Our extensive product development programs ensure that our products set the benchmark and don't require constant change and updating to stay competitive. Our Spec B camshafts are one of the most popular camshafts for the B-Series engine, but this is a 1996 design! No changes have been made to its design since 1996, but it still outperforms our competitor's 2002 products in terms of quality and performance.
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.
Are we going to see any unique products from Toda in the not so distant future?
We have a lot of cool products in development, but we can't comment in detail at this point. The product we can comment on were mentioned in my previous answers
A lot of tuners around the world have shifted to automated and computer aided design processes. How have you made this adjustment and how has it helped with regards to your products?
TODA has been using the IBM CATIA CAD system since 1982, before most of our competitors were in business! We've been using computer-aided design for the past 20 years.
These are 2 good links for your readers to check out:
http://www.todaracing.com/topics/articles/ibm.html - It's an article from IBM about TODA Racing.
http://www.todaracing.com/topics/art..._dynamics.html - Fluid dynamics software TODA uses.
How can we find out more about Toda parts?
Check out our web site http://www.todaracing.com or send us an e-mail toda@todaracing.com
Thanks!
[Modified by MJ23FE, 4:08 AM 3/9/2003]
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