The Art of Aftermarket Tuning: A Journey to the Top

As we delve into the world of high-performance cars, it's impossible not to feel a sense of awe and admiration for those who dare to push the limits of what's possible. For many enthusiasts, there's nothing more thrilling than the prospect of unlocking more power from their vehicle, and the aftermarket tuning industry has risen to meet this demand.

The Origins of Aftermarket Tuning

In the 1970s, a young engineer named Hiroyuki Hasegawa was working for Yamaha as a pioneer in the field of high-performance engines. It was during this time that he began experimenting with bolt-on turbo kits for Skylines, which marked the beginning of aftermarket tuning as we know it today. As Hasegawa's passion and expertise grew, so did his vision for creating high-performance vehicles that could compete with the best on the road.

The Birth of HKS

In 1973, Hiroyuki Hasegawa co-founded HKS (High Power Systems) at the base of Mount Fuji, where it has remained to this day. This humble beginning was a result of Hasegawa's dedication to his craft and his unwavering commitment to innovation. Under his leadership, HKS quickly established itself as a leader in the aftermarket tuning industry, creating high-performance parts for some of the most iconic cars of the time.

The Rise of Carbon Fiber Altezza

As the years went by, HKS continued to push the boundaries of what was possible with performance engineering. One notable example is the legendary Carbon Fiber Altezza, which has become a symbol of speed and sophistication on the road. For car enthusiasts, this vehicle represents the ultimate expression of HKS' expertise in creating high-performance parts that deliver unparalleled results.

The Influence of Keeps

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Getting Ready to Take Action

As we delve deeper into the world of aftermarket tuning, it's essential to acknowledge the importance of prioritizing one's health. For many of us, this includes maintaining a healthy mane of hair. Thanks to Keeps, you can now visit a doctor online and receive hair loss medication delivered right to your doorstep. Whether you're ready to take action or simply seeking advice, we invite you to explore Keeps' innovative solutions.

The Legacy of Hiroyuki Hasegawa

As we look back on the journey of aftermarket tuning, it's clear that Hiroyuki Hasegawa played a pivotal role in shaping this industry into what it is today. From his early days working for Yamaha to the founding of HKS, Hasegawa's passion and expertise have inspired countless enthusiasts around the world. His legacy continues to inspire new generations of car enthusiasts and engineers, who strive to push the boundaries of what's possible with performance engineering.

Chapter One: Fuji Milk

As we explore the history of HKS, it's essential to understand the significance of Mount Fuji in their story. The company's headquarters sits at the base of this iconic mountain, where Hiroyuki Hasegawa began his journey as a young engineer. The name "Fuji milk" has become synonymous with high-performance parts and innovative engineering solutions, solidifying HKS' reputation as a leader in the aftermarket tuning industry.

Today, we're going to explore why HKS stands out from other tuners and meet the legend responsible for creating this phenomenon. Stay tuned as we delve into the world of aftermarket tuning and uncover the secrets behind HKS' success.

WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: en(car engine roars)- What do you do if you want more powerthan anything that youcan buy at the dealership?Well, if you're these guys,you invent aftermarket tuning, of course,from bolt on turbo kitsfor Skylines in the 70s,to full Carbon Fiber Altezzasthat I had on a posteron my wall in high school,the original JDM more power baby company.(car engine roars)Oh, I love the smell of morepower baby in the morning.This is everything you needto know to get up to speedon HKS.(upbeat music)Big old thanks to Keeps forsponsoring this episode.I know right now I've gotthese luscious, luscious locks.But for some dudes my age,that's not always the case.In fact, two out of athree of you guys watchingwill have some sort ofmale-pattern baldnessby the time you are 35.But good news,Keeps makes it easy to prevent hair loss.You don't even have to go toa freaking doctor anymore.Thanks to Keeps, you canvisit a doctor onlineand get hair loss medication deliveredright to your freaking door.And if you're ready to takeaction and prevent hair loss,go to keeps.com/uptospeed50or click the link in the description belowto receive 50% off of your first order,that's K-E-E-P-S.comm/uptospeed50.Today, we're gonna findout why these three lettersare more sick race cars and project-buildthan any other tuner,how they basicallyinvented aftermarket tuningand meet the legendresponsible for it all.Chapter one, Fuji milk.HKS headquarters sits atthe base of Mount Fujiand that's where they've livedever since they startedoperations in 1973.The story starts with a young manby the name of Hiroyuki Hasegawa.Now Hiroyuki was working for Yamahaas an engineer in the early1970s, when he was like,"I freaking love racecars and I love enginesand they make pretty goodstuff here at Yamaha,but I'm pretty sure thatI can make a better engineif I just freaking do it myself."And so, Hiroyuki left Yamaha and teamed upwith his good friend, GoichiKitagawa to do just that.They were able to secure some fundingfrom a company called Sigma Automotive,and thus, HKS was born.H for Hasegawa,K for Kitagawa,and S for Sigma.They bought an old milk shedon the base of Mount Fujiand set up shop.How freaking cool is that?That's literally Nolan's Cream Dream.HKS has had an innovative idea,build high-performance aftermarketengines and engine partsthat weren't offered bythe original manufacturer.But, they didn't wannajust make a fast engine.Hiroyuki end goal was to makethe number one racing enginein the entire world.If HKS could pull it off,they could make a name for themselvesand maybe even change the world of racing.Building an engine fromthe ground up is expensive.They didn't have enough fundingto put it into production.So, they started developingthe next best thing,a turbo.(car engine roars)Chapter two , the birth of the turbo era.In July of 1974,just under a year after thecompany was established,the first HKS aftermarketturbo came out, the FET.The FET.This wooshy boy was made specificallyfor the Nissan L20 enginein a little car calledthe Ken Mary Skyline.If you're a fan of the Skyline,check out the two episodes of Up To Speedthat we made about it.I'll put a link in the description below.I cry at the end.Hit that subscribe buttonand the notification bellfor your chance to see me weep.Anyway, ever since the Skyline debuted,it was a favorite tuning carfor young car enthusiasts.And now, they couldeasily install this kitthat significantly, significantlybumped up the power baby.(car engine roars)A stock Ken Mary Skylinemade 114 hrsepwers,but with the HKS kit on it,the engine made 158 buff hrsepwers.That's an increase of 40%.A 40% increase in power fromone aftermarket part nowadaysis relatively unthinkable.HKS's timing couldn'thave been any better.The company de buddedtheir first turbo kitjust as the gas crisiswas starting to wane.In other parts of the world,big cars with big engines were sufferingdue to environmental restrictions.Car owners were looking fora way to get more power babyfrom smaller engines.And the world's firstaftermarket turbocharger kitfor a passenger car was a huge success,but like most greatengineers, Hiroyuki and Goichisaw room for improvement,and they look to an unlikelysource for inspiration.It was actually American manufacturerswho were the first put turbosin production vehicles.The Chevy Corvair Monzaand the Oldsmobile Jetfire.Our boys over at HKS gottheir milky little handson one of these American-madeturbos and took it apart.They used it as a model fortheir next two releases,turbo kits for Celica's 18R-G engineand an upgraded versionfor the L20 in the Skyline.When these kits came out in 1977,HKS was known as the bolton turbocharger brandand their reputation was growing boy.In 1981, HKS USA was established.Now, who says we don'tget any of the cool stuff?You do, in literally almostevery freaking video.I don't say it all the time.I'm just saying you are literally the guywho says we don't get any cool stuff.No, I don't.There's a video every day at Donutand I'd be surprised thatthey don't mention itin every single video.It's kind of a tenet of the company.Dude, shut up.You made a whole episodeof the D-list about it.Yeah, okay.Yeah, I guess I did do that.Maybe this would be a betterconversation for offline,you have a video to do.At the start of the 1980s,things like fuel injectionand other electronicallycontrolled technologystarted becoming mainstream.Now, HKS saw the waythe industry was movingand developed electronic control devices.Some of the most popular devices they madewere the turbo timer,keep your oil from ruining your turbo,and the electronic valve control.Now, the tuning market is abajillion-dollar industry.But back then, this stuffwas brand spanking new.Now, HKS clearly understoodthe place they now occupiedin the aftermarket.And like any good business,they capitalized on it,but they never forgot what theyhad initial D set out to do,build the best race engine in the world.Chapter Three, keep it 300 baby.A brand new scene was formedin Japan in the early days.Elicit high-speed runs were all the rage,we cover a lot of it in ourepisode of Past Gas podcaston the Mid Night Club.All the tuning shopsin Japan were battlingto be the first team to hit300 kilometers per hour.Speed running was incredibly dangerous.As Daijiro Inada, a speed run driverthat would later go on tostart Option magazine said,"I was risking my lifewhile the people told methat the car isn't fastbecause Dai is scaredto hit the gas pedal.In reality, I was on the gaslike I had a death wish."Cool.What a cool freaking quote.He's super bad (beep)and I'm pretty sure that theydidn't let him in that club.The first tuner to breachthe 300 kph barrierwas ABR, short for Air Breathing Research.ABR hit 307.69 in theirhighly-modified De Tomaso Paneraat the Yatabe high speedtesting circuit in 1981.Now, although this wasa great achievement,and it was made possibleby Japanese tuners,it wasn't a Japanese car.The record for breaking 300 in a JDM carwas still up for grabs.So, HKS threw their hat into the ringand began developing ahighly-modified Celica XXcalled the M300.HKS tuned the five M-Gengine in the Celica XX,which outside of Japan was known as the--Is it surpa?Supra.Spper, supper.It's Supra.(mummers)It's freaking Supra, Supra.(mummers)Supra, supra.Supra.Oh, freaking finally, I thoughthe was never gonna get it.So, that means,in addition to being one ofthe first Skyline tuners,HKS can add original Supratuner to their resume.Are you guys starting to understandwhy their sticker is so freaking famous?They stripped weight offthe body of the circuit,dropped two HKS spinning boys in it,added a triple carband some of their controlunits into the mix.The exact specs of thiscar are lost to history,but the point is HKS tuned theever loving heck out of it.By time they finished, theM300 was putting out six hundoseriously yoked Japanese hrses.Introducing the donor mediabuff horses official T-shirt.Guys, I'm so excited aboutthis little piece of kitbecause this thing wasdeveloped on this show,supported by you guys,and now it's on a freaking shirt.I asked you guys to comment buff horsesin the comment sectionenough times to make Jessie--so that Jessie couldn'tsay no to making a shirt,and you know what guys?We did it.Make sure that you getyour buff horses shirtso you can celebrate your milestone.We did this together, thank you so much.And on a cold day in February 1983,the driver of the highly-tuned Celicaripped around the oval until he maxed outat a blistering 301.25 kmhFinally, a Japanese car hadbroken the 300 km/h barrierbefore any other tuning company.This might have been acrowning achievement.But for HKS, they werejust getting sturdy.Chapter four, Hiro dreams of soup speed.1984 was a banner year forHiroyuki Hasegawa and HKS.That year, after more than a decadein the business of makingaftermarket turbos,Hasegawa was about torealize his original dreamof making a race engine,enter the HKS 134E.This purpose-built motorfor rally and drag racingwas completely fabricated by HKS,aside from the Mitsubishi-sourcedG54B engine blockwhich could be found in anythingfrom the Mitsubishi Starionto everyone's favorite car,the Plymouth Fire Arrow.This little bad boy, four banger,made 276 (speaks in foe=reign language)(horse neighs)That means muscular horses in Japan.And that's without a freaking turbo,and that's in 1984.This was at a time when the C4 Corvettewas making 205 hrse pwrs withan engine twice the size.HKS was commissioned byRalliart to put this motorin a Mitsubishi Starion forGroup B rally racing in 1985.But there was an itty bittylittle teeny bit of a problem.The most dominant cars inGroup B were all-wheel drive.The Starion would need to beconverted from rear-wheel driveto all-wheel drive if they ever wantedto stand a chance againstthese two powerhouse pony boys.So, Hasegawa ripped thetransfer case out of a Pajeroand through it in the Starion.For better weight distribution,the engine was moved tothe rear and the resultwas the HKS Starion D404.But sadly, or probably for the best,Group B was canceledbefore the HKS Starioncould race a full season.But, you can still findsome of these enginesin the wild ripping up the drag strip.There's one driven by FelixVega that can do low sevensand hit 191 miles per hour in the quarter.(car engine roars)Chapter five, on a roll.From the late 80s throughout the 90s,HKS really hit their stride.In 1990, they built an 826hrsepwer twin-turbo Suprafor the drag strip that laterran a 7.91 quarter mile.It was another first for the company,being the first sub eightsecond street car in the world.HKS developed and testeda V12 engine for F1that made 670 buff hrses on pump gasand revved up to 13,000 RPMs.But, it never raced.Just the thought of a tuning companyentering Formula One wasconsidered laughable at the time,but HKS was definitely accomplished enoughto roll with the big dogs.In 1991, HKS completed oneof the boldest projectssince Gatorade came out with fierce grape.They were like,"I'm gonna modify an N32 Skyline."And common sense was like,"No, it's such a good car,you can't completelygut the perfect thing.There's no way that youcan make it any better."The boys and HKS took a Nissan R32 Skylineand build a new car from the ground-up,this time choosing to focus on two things;high power and durability.Those seem like prettygood things to focus on.No box was left unchecked.They upgraded the stock turbosto a twin parallel HKS GT turbo system,installed an HKS V cam systemwith variable valve control.And the GT sports turbine kitcan be adjusted to squeeze out591 buff hrsi beries from the RB26.They say don't ruin a good thing,but what if you ruin a good thingby making it a better thing?Is that even still considered ruining it?I don't know, hit me upthe god dang comments.Either way, the result was the Zero R.It was the first full HKShad built from the ground up,and it's truly one of thesickest cars to ever exist.The Zero R proved to be too expensiveto justify producing large numbers of.But this and did make 10 of them,of which only four are still around.I imagine they all gotfreaking wrapped around poles.Now, you can't talk about HKSand not talk about their involvementwith Japanese Touring Car Racing.JTCC was the pinnacle ofracing at the time in Japanand they had very strict guidelines.Many parts were standardizedacross the board for all teamsbut HKS was the only teamthat built their own freaking engine.R32s dominated group A racing,not just in Japan, but inother countries like Australiawhere the Calsonic R32 firstgarnered the Godzilla nicknamebecause a bunch of Australian press guyswere a little bit racistand not super happyabout this Japanese car beating upon all their big V8 dudes.So, Skylines were dominating JTCCand HKSs' was car was one of the best.I mean, this livery is oneof the most iconic liveriesof all time.The green, purple andred on that black body,green headlights.This car is probably the first timemost of us saw the HKS logo.It competed for two years inJTCC, took one pole positionand took first at Sugoracing circuit in 1993.HKS was also involved in Time Attack.In 1995, an HKS-builtR33 broke the lap recordat Sacuba with a time of 58.17 seconds.In the early 2000s, theytook a Toyota Altezza,what we got as the IS300, tuned itand broke the record at Sacubaagain with a time of 55.06.HKS came back in 2006 withtheir tuned Evo eight,the CT230R, are one of thefastest Japanese cars ever built.That's 552 horsepower, and 470 Turks,in a dang Lancer.With all these different types of racingthat HKS been involved with,It's important that wedon't forget drifting,which I think is technicallynot racing, but a motorsport.HKS entered D1 competition in 2002with their Altezza and S15 Hyper Silvianicknamed Turby with a B logo on the side.HKS is revered as oneof the best in drifting,a sport that places a lotof value on performanceand reliability, which is kinda exactlywhat is like the main tenantof this their company.HKS has never restrictedthemselves to one main,one class or even four wheels.In 2016, Hiroyuki has a gala.The legend passed away at the age of 71.He loved everything that went fastand will forever beremembered as a pioneerof aftermarket Japanese tuning.His influence transcendsany one type of motor sport,car scene or enthusiast.I think I speak for everybodywho loves these thingswhen I say thank you.Thank you guys so muchfor watching this episodeof Up To Speed and supportingDonut. I say it all the time,but I can't believe that this is my joband I get to just talkabout really cool carswith you guys every week.You wanna check out a video that we madeon another legendaryJapanese tuning company,check out this episodeof Up To Speed on Spoon.We got 'more power baby'sticker packs availableat the store right now.Get yourself some at donutmedia.com.Follow me on Instagram atJames Pumphrey. I love you