In the showroom of JUn Auto in Iruma-shi, deep in the saitama prefecture, I sit next to model-turned-translator-who is pretty much as JDm as it gets-Eri moriyama. there we wait for the legendary koyama-san to finish lighting his cigarette. having met him for the first time at Auto salon just four days prior, I really only know him by reputation and what a reputation it is: what Angelina Jolie does for starving third world children is pale in comparison to what JUn and koyama-san have done for tuning.
Two hundred sixty-one miles per hour at bonneville? check. sub-sixty seconds at tsukuba? take your pick from Jun's stable. Eight-second quarter-mile run? If you're talking stock-body class, you're so '98. D1 championship? Think orange, as in team Orange. so if koyama-san wants to light up in front of a non-smoking interviewer-cough, me, cough-who am I to stop him? It's only after koyama-san finishes a deep, slow drag of his cigarette, settles back in his seat and grunts to Eri, what I can only assume is "I'm ready" in Japanese, do I click the recorder on.
[cough] so uh, how did JUn get its start?
Jun branched off in 1980 as the tuning division of tanaka Industrial, a 60-year-old company that built motors for bicycles and machined engines. At tanaka, some of the engines we worked on were the toyota 2t-G, nissan L twenty-series; in fact one of the first 2t-Gs I worked on part-time at tanaka won at a drag race and a time attack.
When did you get into tuning?
I went to a technical high school for three years specializing in automobiles. After I graduated, I worked at a toyota dealer as a technician for four years. As a hobby, I started working on my kE25 corolla; coincidentally I sent my motor to tanaka Industrial for their services. In my last year at toyota, I ended up working part-time at tanaka and eventually working for them full-time helping to open Jun Auto.
Were you involved in any racing?
I was involved in dirt trial and raced at fuji speedway for fun.
Does JUN have a philosophy when it comes to tuning cars?
We believe in testing and making everything for the engine in-house. from the crankshaft, connecting rods and camshafts-everything is done at JUn. for parts we can't manufacture, we design and spec, like our valvesprings or the forged pistons.
Are there any differences that you see in the U.s. and Japanese market?
In America, the priority is on price first, then quality. Americans don't seem to care whether a product works or is real. In Japan, it's the exact opposite. I find American companies copying our cam designs and selling them as their own, doing absolutely no r&D. some U.s. magazines have unknowingly tested our product along with imitations and the results were skewed, which I found astounding. The fake products should have performed identical or worse. personally, I don't know how comfortable I'd feel buying fake products instead of the real thing.
Are there any American tuners that you respect?
I haven't really kept up with the U.s. market. I've been concentrating more on Jun and our own accomplishments.
What are some of JUn's significant accomplishments?
We have many. some notable examples are setting a class land speed record of 261 mph at the bonneville salts with a nissan 300Zx, running a motor I assembled, setup and drove in 1991. when honda and drag racing were popular in the U.s., I built an s14 nissan silvia. I personally ran an 8.88-second quarter-mile in the stock-body class in new Jersey in 1998. At the tsukuba circuit in 2002, we ran 55.97 seconds in a mitsubishi EVO 5 we built. the car is in china now and still competing in circuits against ferraris and porsches. In 2006, we finally won D1 with kumakubo and the team Orange Impreza.
Very impressive. Out of all those accomplishments, which would you say was the most difficult to accomplish?
Each one was difficult in its own way. with the high speed pass at bonneville in the Z32, the engine and tires were key. tires can burn in high speeds. In drag racing, engine, suspension and traction are important. I stayed in the U.s. for six weeks to break into the eights. I raced in Los Angeles, sacramento, pomona, texas and finally in new Jersey, I did it. In pomona, I ran a 9.002. It was the last .002 seconds that was the most difficult. my boss Junichi tanaka, said "no run eights, no return" [laughs].
[Laughing] scary!
No, it was just a part of my job, we were starting in the U.s. market and it was important for JUn's image.
How about the last two, circuit and drift?
In the circuit, driver, engine, suspension, tire condition and ambient temperature all come into play. In drifting, the driver, crew, tuning and sponsors have to synchronize. teamwork is key, which is what happened with kumakubo's Impreza and will hopefully happen with the EVO x. we are doing a whole lot of testing on our yellow JUn EVO x to work the kinks out.
Why did you build an EVO x for tokyo Auto salon instead of the Impreza?
Because the Impreza is all-wheel drive and subaru frowns on modifying the new Impreza to rear-wheel drive-also, they don't really sponsor. mitsubishi, on the other hand, is giving a lot of support, they have changed their views on marketing at Auto salon and with the EVO x, it showed.
What do you think of the new 4b11 motor?
honestly, I don't know yet. In the 4G63, I knew the weak points and strong points, but I haven't had the time to discover them on the 4b11. but that's what our yellow EVO is for. The new EVO makes 280ps stock, but after a boost controller, muffl er and EcU, it makes 380ps, so the potential is there. my plan is to increase the displacement to 2.4L or 2.5L on ours.
By Carter Jung
Enjoyed this Post? Subscribe to our RSS Feed, or use your favorite social media to recommend us to friends and colleagues!