KYB Corporation in Japan has started a rally team as a project initiative. It is competing in the Japanese Rally Championship to train development engineers, increase the motivation of company employees, and to develop new products.
The team is called ‘Kayaba Rally Team’ and the vehicle uses the old KYB logo because the design is based on the concept of “returning to origin”. The team is assembled of members who responded to an open call, and under project leader Mr. Matsushita (engineer, KYB Motor Sports Department), the engineers and mechanics are sharpening their skills. The vehicle is a Toyota GR Yaris, 1.6 litre turbo, and it is using KYB shock absorbers.
The All Japan Rally Championship (AJRC) is the highest level of a domestic rally in the country and is certified as an FIA Regional Championship. Drivers and co-drivers / navigators battle it out across countless different road surfaces and weather conditions to try and win the trophy. Stages are held all over the country, from Hokkaido in the north to Kyushu in the south.
So far the team has learnt a lot and during each race has faced but then overcome a number of challenges. The final race of the season is 13th – 15th October in Takayama, Japan. For more information on the team and the vehicle visit the KYB Sport website: http://l.ead.me/kayaba-rally.
Testing shock absorbers in a motorsports environment is an important part of innovative product development. For example, KYB Prosmooth™ was born from a series of driving experiments with up to 600 different combinations of oil and components to gather huge amounts of data, alongside the evaluation reports of our skilled testing engineers. They prepared shock absorber hydraulic fluid and sliding parts with different characteristics, exchanging components a huge number of times, physically evaluating vehicles. This raised the performance of racing shock absorbers and gave our engineers the insight to improve cutting-edge product even more. This Prosmooth™ technology is now being introduced worldwide in OE shock absorbers.