The term “track day” around here is always surrounded with a certain level of enthusiasm. We’re all aware of the extra labor that goes into a trip to Raceway Park in Englishtown, NJ, but everyone involved is more than willing to pitch in for the chance to see our RS thrashed around the track. Think of it like one of those field trips you would take in middle school. Sure, there would be a test on everything seen that day, but that was a small price to pay for a day out of the classroom. After spending almost a week … Continue Reading ››
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: paying attention to details is a crucial part of life. Leading professionals are gurus at doing so in their respective fields. A good chef can wade through the already heavy seasoning in something like a gumbo and tell if there is too much or too little garlic by doing a simple taste test. A good fabricator can easily tell a MIG from a TIG weld by simply watching the arc on the metal (with the proper eyewear of course). And a good tuner can tell if something as elusive as timing … Continue Reading ››
The mood for the past few days here at the Mishimoto office has been a little giddy. Scrawled on our calendar in one of our project manager’s less than impeccable handwriting are the words “Focus RS track testing”. There’s a lot of hard work being done, but underneath it all lies a childlike wonder for what’s going to happen in the next week.
We’ve spent countless hours street testing over the past several weeks, trying to learn more about the relationship between the PTU, ECU, and RDU. We’ve learned a lot from this … Continue Reading ››
I told you this project was going to move fast. In the last update, we laid down our design plans for how we will give this RS coolant expansion tank some sprucing up. Not only did we make the tank more pleasing to look at, we also increased the capacity and added a neat sight tube so you can check your levels with ease. You guys have been asking for it, so let’s get up close and personal.
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Anyone with a car older than 15 years or so likely has a coolant expansion tank with the structural integrity of wet toilet paper. These tanks rarely get aesthetic love in the factory vehicle design. They are usually plastic, look weird and can start cracking given enough time. After 20 years, the expansion tank in my 1995 Nissan 240SX project car will literally begin crumbling around your finger if any sort of pressure is applied. We don’t want that happening to your RS/ST a decade or two from now, so we decided to design a sweet looking expansion tank that … Continue Reading ››
An inside look at the engineering of Mishimoto products.