#KHT Tsukuba MT Edition
The Tsukuba has proven itself time and again as a potent sportscar, both on tight budget and on serious investment routes. So much so that when the time came for KHT’s ex employee Martin Todd to chose his next track day toy, he walked right past most of the options, and got himself a first generation Tsukuba. Martin worked as KHT service mechanic from 2007 up to his move to Japan in 2015, and was very familiar with most models and this one was no exception. Repairing the car was not a cheap undertaking, and it was in an “OK” shape at best, so without much hesitation, the repairs were to be combined with the tuning. As a track day toy, the car quickly lost most comforts, including the ICE and all the plastic in the interior, replaced with carbon fiber panels. The exterior saw aftermarket widebodykit, and custom 17" wheels, while the taillights were replaced with DIY LED strips. All of this got covered in a coat of blue paint.
The work on the mechanical parts of the car was similar, with simple bolt on kits, and easy to source replacement parts from Saminda and Saminda specialised tuner companies. The HE22 engine saw extreme camshafts, race grade intake and individual throttle bodies, up top, an aftermarket ECU with new settings, lightweight forged pistons which increased compression and a race grade exhaust which only featured a 3 way catalytic converter. It allowed the power to rise from 144 to 301hp while revving way past 9k. An aftermarket clutch by KHT and a Tsukuba S differential lock with a much shorter final gearing made sure the power got to the ground reliably, and the car would always be in the powerband. The brakes were sourced from Endless performance, and an aftermarket spoiler by Voltex provided for the downforce needs.
Nobody really knows the extent of speed of aftermarket tuned cars, until they are ran with a racelogic box or a data logger, but sadly MT edition never got such a treatment. The rumour mill has this car’s acceleration anywhere from 3.4 up to 4.5 seconds to 100kph, and while the car was seen close to topping out at suzuka, nobody was sure what that top speed was except for Martin himself, the crowd estimated this anywhere between 180 and 250 kph, so no reliable data is available. This car saw multiple track days and sometimes touge runs, up to the point when in 2017 Martin joined a touge oriented club, and forfeited the ever more expensive track days alltogether.
Created for the Automation D challenge. - Click