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Sneak
Peek: Daigo Saito's Achilles Tire SC430
By Mike Kojima
After two years of rumors and plenty of gossip, it finally happened,
Daigo Saito, reportedly the best drift driver in the world arrived on
our shores with not just a splash but a bang. Daigo, 2008 D1GP champ
and 2011 Formula D Asia Champ came out of the gates hard at the Long
Beach season opener with a third place. Daigo has fought hard on
foreign soil maintaining a solid second place in Formula D standings for
much of the year.
There are many rumors surrounding Daigo's car which has been reported
as having as much as 1300 hp. The fact that Daigo and his crew don't
speak English and that they are somewhat secretive about their car, has
kept many fans wondering about what makes it tick. We don't directly
know all of the car's specs either, but we have photos and I will
attempt to give you a technical tour around the car. It is an
interesting blend of both Japanese and American Technology.
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Daigo took the old guard of US drifting by
storm with surprisingly strong performances.
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Daigo sometimes runs the SC430 with the hard
top on if it is raining or to shield him from smoke.
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Perhaps the best
follow driver in the world, Daigo's aggressive, super close proximity,
in your face driving style has angered some drivers like Luke Lonberger
and Justin Pawlak. A lot of Daigo's controversial driving tricks are
probably due to the differences between what is acceptable in D1 vs FD
in part and the fact that he is a rookie and just getting to learn some
of the courses that many other drivers have been driving for years.
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2011 FD champ Dai Yoshihara has been able to
defeat Daigo with each encounter in the 2012 season so far.
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| Conrad Grunewald has had more battles with
Daigo than any other driver, fighting numerous one more time bouts from
road Atlanta to New Jersey. The battles have been controversial and
have resulted in some motions by FD to more clearly define scoring and
DQ criteria for the season. |
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| This is the most powerful engine on the
Formula Drift Circuit by far. The engine that
strikes fear in the hearts of LS swapped drift cars everywhere. Daigo's
SC430 is powered by a 2JZ rumored to have as much as 1300 hp.
Personally we think 900-1000 hp is much more realistic but there is no
doubt that Daigo's car is very powerful. Daigo's engine uses a Brian
Crower 3.4 liter stroker kit which has a billet 94mm stroke crank and
87mm JE pistons using a 2618 alloy
asymmetrical forging with a contoured undercrown, hung on
BC 5.59 center to center H beam rods. |
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| The engine uses a 2JZGE cylinder head,
presumably to take advantage of the VVT-i variable cam timing system on
the intake cam. This can give needed faster spool and a wider
powerband, we think as much as 100 lb/ft in some parts of the
powerband. Daigo uses Brian Crower cams and HKS timing gears with all
the related valve springs by Brian Crower as well. A heavy duty HKS
timing belt is also used. The heads are probably mildly ported with a
good valve job. |
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The engine has a rear mounted radiator so
the layout of the plumbing for the engine's front mounted Greddy core
tube and fin intercooler can be very simple and straightforward for
minimal volume while still being large diameter for good flow. All
couplers and hoses are burst resistant 4-ply HPS silicone parts. HPS
also supplied all of the postive locking stainless T-Bolt clamps as
well.
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| The secret behind Daigo's awesome power is a
Garrett GTX4294R turbo. It uses a billet compressor wheel with better
aero and maximum compressor efficiency with a ball bearing CHRA for
faster spool. It has an exhaust A/R of 1.2 with a divided housing to
speed spool time with a pulse converter exhaust manifold. The turbo can
provide enough airflow for over 1100 hp. |
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| A fabricated intake manifold with a large
surge tank is used to feed the big stroker engine. An enlarged throttle
body feeds the big plenum. |
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An HKS GT50 wastegate is used to regulate
boost pressure. The exhaust manifold is an HKS tubular stainless piece
designed for pulse conversion with a twin scroll exhaust housing on the
turbo. This speeds spool by over 500 rpm.
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| The unusual stainless mesh air filter is
made by Blitz. It filters better than you might think and has very low
restriction. |
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| A Greddy RZ 40mm blow off valve helps reduce
turbo compressor surge. |
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| Greddy also supplied the oil cooler
adaptor. The adaptor has ports for oil pressure and temperature sending
units for the Racepak dash. |
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The exhaust is a large 4" in diameter
stainless part. To flow enough gasses for mega power you need a big
exhaust!
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Yes, Daigo's car has nitrous. It's probably
the reason why the rumors of 1300 hp started. The 10 lb bottle has a
heater and one bottle lasts a FD weekend. We think that the nitrous is
only used to spool the turbo quickly and shuts off once a certain boost
pressure is reached. Daigo typically does not use the nitrous in an
event's early practice sessions and you can really hear the difference
in exhaust note and how fast his engine responds when he turns it on in
later sessions once he learns the basics of each track. The nitrous is
the key factor in levelling the playing field against the V8's. With
nitrous, you can have the low end power of a big V8 with the tremendous
top end power of a turbo. Daigo's power is one of the key factors in
his success this year.
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Under the dash, Daigo's car has typical
Japanese style engine management which is a somewhat confusing bundle of
magic tuning boxes. The basic fuel, spark and cam control maps are
controlled by the large gold box which is an HKS V-Pro stand alone ECU.
The next box is an HKS part that converts the stock waste spark ignition
system to an individual coil direct fire system and the final box is a
Greddy Profec boost controller. There is another box we think it's a
Racepak multiplexor for data logging. Bulkhead terminations for the
wiring and plumbing would be safer as well.
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The rear of Daigo's car is almost more
interesting than the engine! In the interest of having as much weight
rearward as possible, nearly every moveable component is relocated to
the rear of the car. This offsets the forward weight bias of the long
2JZ.
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| The back of the car contains the heat
exchangers for coolant, and oil as well as their attendant surge tanks.
The fuel cell, nitrous bottle, rear wing supports, battery and
reservoir for the interooler and radiator sprayer are also located back
here. |
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| The whole back of the car is supported by a
delicate, super light bird cage arrangement of small diameter aluminum
tubes bolted to the frame rails. Although the construction is
exquisite, we feel that this is much too fragile for the rough and
tumble world of pro drifting and it leaves many critical components
exposed to potentially crippling damage. Most typical FD cars use
larger diameter seamless or chromoly tubing for the front and rear
fabricated subframes. |
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The critical heat exchangers are also the
most rear mounted components and prone to damage. A good hit can cause
the car to be taken out of action. Koyo makes the radiator and oil
cooler and you can see the electric Davies Craig water pump back here as
well. Don't get us wrong, this is beautifully made, super trick stuff
but it makes the car less robust in a semi contact motorsport.
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| The cooling fans are located under the car.
The screen was added after Long Beach as it was found that debris could
easily fly up and hole the radiator. |
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An Odyssey dry cell battery provides power
for the car's systems in a safe lightweight package.
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| This fabricated aluminum tank is the water
reservoir for the intercooler and radiator sprayer. |
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| A high pressure AEM water injection pump is
used for spraying the radiator and intercooler. |
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| Water is added every round to the rear
mounted tank to help keep things cool. |
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Daigo's car runs on VP C16 fuel. C16 is
really good turbo and nitrous fuel. The fuel is transferred from the
fuel cell to the engine via twin Bosch 044 fuel pumps.
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Like the rear of the car, the front has a
beautifully fabricated aluminum sub structure. We feel that this is
easy to damage. Fortunately since the radiator is in the back, it can
crush quite a bit before it gets into critical components. On most
drift cars this structure is made of seamless mild steel or 4130
chrommoly for better impact resistance. This lightness of construction
probably contributed to the car's heavy damage suffered in the Las Vegas
round.
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The roll cage is Formula D compliant and is
sort of minimalistic. Many Japanese drift teams feel that the cage
should be flexible to help the car find traction. This is the opposite
of what many of the better American teams feel who build stiffer cages
with more triangulation.
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The cage is minimalistic lacking the
triangulation seen in many of the top US cars. This is an area where a
lot of US built cars are triangulated.
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The pedal system is very simple as it is
just using modified stock Toyota components. This is very different
from most US drift car that use racing pedal boxes with dual brake
master cylinders and balance bars to adjust brake proportioning fully.
Daigo's car uses a stock master cylinder and power brake booster. The
lightweight clutch pedal operates a Spec twin disc clutch using metal
discs and a lightweight flywheel.
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| Daigo can adjust his brake bias to some
degree with this hydraulic proportioning valve. Unlike dual master
cylinders and a balance bar where you have full control of the brake
bias, the valve can only adjust the slope of the rear brake pressure
curve after the knee point. |
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Daigo uses a driver controlled drift brake
operated by this lever attached to a Willwood master cylinder. The
shifter goes to an exotic sequentially shifted Holinger dog type, close
ratio, six speed transmission from a GT300 JGTC car. The close ratio
six speed reduces the need for a quick change rear end like many US
drift cars run. US thinking is to use a strong and light 4 speed NASCAR
style gearbox with fine tuning of the final drive ratio via a quick
change rear end.
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| The rear brakes and the drift brake are
Wilwood Dynapro 4 piston calipers. We were looking at the offset in the
rear brake rotor hat and are pretty surprised that the cars track was
widened so far by spacers. This puts a lot of strain on suspension
components and wheel bearings. A wave type, solid sprint car rotor is
used. On a sprint car this helps clear dirt from the brakes but we
suspect that Daigo uses these rotors for lighter weight and looks. |
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The front brakes use a 6 piston Wilwood
Dynapro caliper with a solid wave rotor. When using the stock master
cylinder, careful attention has to be spent on caliper fluid capacity
and the ratio of caliper piston sizes. It is interesting that this
works out Ok.
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| Daigo's office is very straightforward, all
RHD using the stock Toyota dash shell and carbon panels. Note how the
cage does not extend past the dash. This is not good for stiffness or
footwell intrusion protection but is consistent with the JDM chassis
flexibility line of thought. |
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| The switch panel contains the master cut off
switch, ignition kill, start button, dash, lights, nitrous system and
fuel pump switches. it also has a nitrous bottle pressure gauge and a
Blitz boost controller. The Blitz boost controller is the primary boost
control and the Greddy Profec under the dash is a back up boost
control. We are uncertain as to why the team feels that two boost
controllers are needed. |
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| A PLX Devices M-300 wide band a/f ratio gage
is used. |
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| This is the arming switch and sprayer button
for the intercooler and radiator water spray. |
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| A deeply dished Prodrive steering wheel is
mounted to he stock steering column. A Racepak digital dash and data
logger is also used. The red T-handle is the activation lever for the
Safecraft fire system. |
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The Safecraft fire system employs FE36
extinguishing agent. FE36 is the replacement for Halon 1211. It does
not damage the ozone layer like Halon and is less toxic while still
extinguishing better.
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A Seibon dry carbon hood saves a bunch of
weight and has functional vents that help keep the 2JZ cool. The hood
has survived some pretty decent impacts without breaking! The front
fascia, rear bumper, fenders and side skirts are also Seibon dry carbon.
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Daigo sometimes runs the gutted out stock
top. On some occasions this is for rain and on others to reduce the
amount of smoke in the cabin. The doors are lightweight and strong
Seibon dry carbon fiber parts that save about 80 lbs off the total
weight of the car.
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A huge rear wing
is run, presumably to help contain the massive power the engine
produces. Sturdy mounts for the wing attach directly to the rear
support structure not the trunk. The trunk lid is a Seibon superlight
dry carbon part. Seibon parts take around 150 plus lbs off of the
SC430.
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| The stock configuration diff is run, not a
quick change like US drift cars typically use. An OS Giken LSD splits
the power. Daigo runs a 3.7 final drive. An oval section exhaust flows
enough for all the power while maintaining ground clearance. |
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| Ikeya Formula adjustable links are used in
the rear suspension. These links are fully adjustable and replace the
squishy rubber bushings with bearings. The rubber bushings in the
uprights are pressed out and replaced with spherical bearings as well.
Stock Supra axles are run and they hold up well. |
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| DG 5 adjustable coilovers are used with
Swift Springs. The stock rear antisway bar is run. The rear
crossmember bushings are locked in place with aluminum top inserts.
Note that the motion ratio of the coilovers can be adjusted as can the
position of the swaybar end links. Also note the full seam welding
treatment that has been performed on the unibody. |
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Look at the extreme wheel spacing used to
fill out the widebody. This puts a lot of stress on the wheel bearings
and suspension. The Ikeya Formula lower arm is adjustable for length on
the inboard end and has an additional eccentric on the outboard end for
adjusting camber. Cool stuff!
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Currently Daigo's car runs super sticky and
super smoky Achilles 123S tires in 265/35-18 in the front with the
Achilles ATR Sport 2 also in 265/35-18 in the rear. The Achilles 123S
is a really grippy tire and we are looking forward to evaluating it on
some of our project cars.
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The front suspension also runs adjustable
Ikeya Formula arms. A Cusco non adjustable front sway bar is used. The
stock Lexus electric over hydraulic power steering is used.
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To get more steering angle, the lower part
of the spindle is replaced with a shorter piece to increase the steering
ratio. What's cool is that this part unbolts from the upright part of
the spindle making getting more angle a simple job. A DG-5 front
coilover is used with a Swift spring. The front hub uses a thick spacer
to space the wheel out to fill the widebody. Unfortunately this really
increases the scrub radius which affects turn in. From the look of
things, the rear steer rack position is set up for minimal Ackerman.
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Increasing the track can increase rear grip
while sliding sideways by reducing weight transfer to the outside
wheel. When the tires sizes are restricted like they are in Formula D,
this is a trick that helps. The Achilles 123 is currently only
available in a 265 width but we think the car can probably run a 275 or
wider under the FD tire width to weight rule. When wider sizes of the
123S come out, the car will get faster!
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| Lightweight Prodrive forged wheels are used. |
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| Currently Daigo is in second place in
Formula D points heading into the last event at Irwindale. Daigo's
performance this year has been amazing. Just wait until next year now
that he has experience with the US circuit and knows the tracks. |
We have shown that Daigo's Achilles Tire SC430 is an interesting mix
of JDM and US technology. The car's stellar performance is the result
of tremendous power provided by the Garrett boosted, Brian Crower large
displacement, nitroused 2JZ and grip of the Achilles 123S tire.
Combined with Daigos suburb driving skill, the Achilles team has been
very competitive in their inaugural season and we expect that to
increase as the team becomes more experienced with US tracks and driving
protocol.
We can't wait to see what Daigo has in store next year, especially
now that he is more familiar with the Formula D circuit
Sources
Achilles Tire
Design
Craft Fabrication
Bridges
Racing |
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