We’re delighted to announce that we’ve teamed up with Time Attack UK to add our name to the burgeoning list of sponsors for the 2020 season.

Luke Sedzikowski, one of the directors of Tegiwa, explains our motivation behind our decision to support the UK Time Attack Championship and highlights Tegiwa’s passion for motorsport and tuning:

“We’re absolutely delighted to be involved with Time Attack this season. Much like the Championship itself, Tegiwa’s origins come from the racetracks of Japan. Consequently, the business has specialised in performance parts for Japanese cars for many years and more recently has expanded into the European market with its sister brand, Tegiwa Euro.

We’re very much motorsport enthusiasts and pride ourselves on the passion we have for it. The flagship cars in our fast-fleet are our BMW M4 GT4 and endurance-spec Honda NSX that you might just see participate in a few rounds too!

A big draw that brings us into the Championship is the variety of cars that we’ve seen compete; from garage builds to supercar creations, there really is something for everyone. With the extensive variety of aftermarket products that we sell; from engine tune-up parts, to motorsport race wear, tyres – and almost everything in between – it’s the perfect championship for us to showcase our extensive catalogue for the vast array of different makes and models we cater for.”

In response, UK Time Attack Championship director Andy Barnes said:

“We extend a warm Time Attack welcome to Luke and the Tegiwa team. It’s great to have such an established and well-respected brand come on board for this season. It’s a sound endorsement of what we can offer businesses when it comes to brand exposure and product promotion to the motorsport and tuning market. It appears that our two operations share many of the same values and therefore, I look forward to us working together and achieving great things.”

Our involvement with the championship commences immediately and our branding and promotional displays will appear at the opening round of the year on July 11th at Oulton Park. Plus, we’ve got another exciting announcement to make for round 1, so stay tuned for that!

For the majority of people in the automotive world, Autosport International marks the start of the automotive calendar for them. Based at the enormous National Exhibition Centre in Birmingham, it’s primarily a motorsport trade show for us at Tegiwa but also features plenty of performance and modified cars too.

Let’s start with a look around our trade stand. Our NSX unsurprisingly made the trip to Autosport with us and sat pride of place in the corner of the stand. Many of you guys came and saw it and checked out it’s Skunk2 K24 power plant in person, along with its new fluorescent yellow cam cover.

We had a selection of wheels on display from WedsSport, Enkei, Apex and Titan7.

A case of stopping power products featured from PBS, Pagid, Motul, Ferodo and AP Racing.

Our steering wheels also caught the attention of many passers-by, credit to Personal and Nardi for that.

The stand simply wouldn’t be complete without showing off the Yellow Speed Racing range. From our ever-popular Dynamic Pro Sports all the way up to the Advanced Pro Plus Racing coilovers and one of our big brake kits too, it was good to see so many people engaging with the products and brand.

It was mega to be able to put a face to the names of people that we regularly chat to over the internet and likewise meet so many new customers and dealers too. We had a few meetings over the duration of the show with some exciting brands that we’re keen to be able to offer. Although we won’t say too much about what or who these new brands are (we’re still to finalising the details) you can rest assured that our brands page will be growing stronger and stronger this year. Make sure you like our social media pages to keep up to date for announcements on new brands!

The cars

ASI features a vast array of different cars, from classic F1 cars, to Liberty Walk supercars and home-built machines, there truly is something for everybody to enjoy. Here’s a bit of a journey through the show through the lens of my camera, cherry-picking the cars that caught my eye.

If you’re a big fan of the BTCC, then there’s tonnes of stuff here for you. From the classics to the modern day era and the latest driver announcements, the halls of the NEC are scattered with BTCC goodness.

There was also this awesome Calsonic Group A R32 Nissan Skyline, that still competes today!

The latest build for the upcoming Type R Trophy season was on display on the 750 Motor Club stand, courtesy of Rob Baker at Area Motorsport. Although we’ve not seen it in action yet, it sure does look pretty fast with it’s new livery!

Into rally cars? There were a couple of Colin McRae’s old cars knocking about too as well as a classic 555 Impreza!

Or maybe Formula 1 is your thing? Well, there was plenty of highlights on that front too.

If you want to see the rest of the gallery, then make sure you check out the gallery below!

Earlier last week we dropped the bomb about an additional car joining the ranks of the Tegiwa Fast Fleet. Although we didn’t reveal what the car was, we did put a silhouette of it on our social media and invited you guys to guess what you thought it might be.

The most popular answer that we came across was the Toyota Supra, closely followed by a Porsche of some description and not to mention a Honda S2000 being thrown around a few times too! Although, the new Supra would be a good shout as it ties in with both our Import and Euro businesses, we can confirm that it isn’t one of those (although some of the guys in the office are hoping we can one day introduce one into the fleet).

We can, confirm that a few of you guys did knock the nail on the head, especially those that said BMW. Ladies and gentlemen, may we present to you our M4 GT4.

A Closer Look

You might be wondering how this is different to the current M4, as on the surface of things they do look pretty similar. However, both of these cars started their lives on the standard BMW assembly line. Both being supplied with the S55 twin-turbo straight six and seven speed DCT gearbox but then their paths differ shortly afterwards.

The GT4 then gets pulled off the assembly line by the BMW M team to hand-assemble the car. It’s then laden with carbon fibre parts from the bonnet to the doors to all the go faster bits like the spoiler, canards and front splitter. They then install super strong Lexan windows, which as you might expect make the car super-hot when the sun is out, but that’s taken care of by an extremely powerful AC system that can blow directly into the drivers face and can cool the seat down too!

There’s little to no resemblance to the road going M4 when it comes to suspension. Spherical bearings and adjustable arms feature on the front and rear, whilst the front hub assembly is tucked inward to make room for the enormous 18×11 front wheel and its 305mm tires. Ohlins are on damping duties with 3-way adjustable coilovers and remote reservoirs.

The braking department is taken care of by AP Racing, with 6-piston calipers and whopping 390mm rotors up front and 4-piston calipers and 355mm discs on the back. These are fitted on motorsport specific axles that connect to a state-of-the-art Drexler LSD with its very own radiator. Brake bias is taken care of in the cockpit of the car.

Speaking of the cockpit, a fixed position bucket seat sits pride of place in the stripped-out interior. Each driver can get themselves into their required position by sliding the carbon fibre pedal box up and down to their desired position.

Now to the trick part, which I find fascinating. The car uses what BMW call “Power Sticks”, which are essentially USB drives that plug into the car to provide five different power levels depending on series rules and regulations. BMW quote that the car is “above 431 bhp”, when it’s utilising the red power stick, which is the lowest available. Stick in the top of the pack black stick, which is probably illegal in most series, but you’re then looking at about the 500bhp mark.

Currently the car resides in a container at the Sepang International Circuit, Malaysia, where the car has just undergone a full shakedown with BMW engineers. It should be shipped over and arrive at Tegiwa HQ at some point during the first week of February.

In the meantime whilst we wait for the M4 to land on UK soil, Luke will be getting as much practice in as possible on his racing simulator. He’s just taken delivery of this Fanatec ClubSport Carbon Steering wheel to help him get accustomed to life behind the wheel of a real life GT4 car!

What are our plans for it?

This is more of an upgrade rather than a total change of scene and it’s much needed for what we’ve got planned in 2020, which brings us nicely to our next surprise we’ve got in store. Wait for it…

The British GT Championship.

Yes, you read that right, we’ll be participating in the  Intelligent Money British GT Championship in 2020. We won’t say too much at this point as we’re still sorting out the finer details, but you’ll be able to see us taking part in one of the world’s foremost domestic GT series! I for one can barely contain my excitement at the prospect of being involved with such a highly recognised championship!

You’d be forgiven for wondering what the hell we’re planning on doing with our current M4 that is sitting pride of place in the workshop at the moment. Well, we’ve found a new owner for it who’ll be collecting it in the next few weeks. It’s seen some hard-fought battles and challenges, but it’s proved that it’s a race winning car and able to compete with whatever stands in its way.

Finally, we’d like to thank our sponsors at MegaLife Batteries for a trouble and stress-free transaction! Make sure you head over to our website and check out their incredible range of batteries.

In what’s been a season that’s had its fair share of ups and downs for us, we headed back to Silverstone for the final round of the Tegiwa Club Enduro Championship. Hoping to head home with the title, we knew that we had to win the race to be in with a real shot of achieving this.

Qualifying

To put us in the best possible position for the race later that afternoon we headed into qualifying hoping that we could claim pole position, but with an incredible 67 cars on the track trying to set the quickest times it just wasn’t to be. Dave’s best lap saw him forever running into traffic, unable to set a proper flying lap. We did end up on the second row of the grid though, with a time of 2.26.79 enough to see us secure third place.

Make or break time

Hopeful to pull off one of his notoriously quick starts and get us into the lead, Luke headed out for the first stint of the race.

Although he didn’t manage to make a move on the Area Motorsport Leon TCR that started in pole position, Luke did manage to get ahead of Joe Taylor’s Elise, which was fantastic for us as we knew we had to finish the race above him to be in with any shout of bringing home the title.

Try as Luke might, there was simply no catching the Area Motorsport team in their Leon. Rob and Carl were putting in decent lap times and built a very healthy lead over the rest of the opposition.

We knew that the race might be won or lost on strategy, so Luke stayed in the car for as long as possible so that we could try and build a good margin over Area as they came into the pits after about an hour. Although we were in the lead for a good amount of time, we knew that both ourselves and Joe still had to make our mandatory 3-minute stop, in which time Area were able to regain the lead.

With Dave now in the M4, he knew that he really needed to push to try and make up the 20 or so second gap between us and first place, all with only about 25 minutes of the race remaining. Add into the mix that his rear-view mirror was full of Joe’s Elise, it was a real mammoth challenge. Although Dave did a great job of keeping Joe at bay for as long as possible, it was inevitable that he was going to find a way past in a car that weighed 600kg less than us.

With Area Motorsport and Joe now in front of us, we could only hope for a safety car to make an appearance in the final stages of the race to bunch the pack up and put us in with a shout of taking the lead. Sadly, it wasn’t to be. The remaining portion of the race was relatively uneventful which left us finishing in third place, 15 seconds behind Area and 10 seconds behind Joe.

Championship Roundup

The results meant that the championship went to Joe, with us missing out narrowly on a second-place finish to Area Motorsport. Although it was deflating to think of what could have been had we not had 3 DNF’s throughout the season and with a blow-out taking the win from beneath us at Silverstone earlier in the year, finishing third in a very competitive championship isn’t bad at all to say that it was our first year having a stab at it!

Today, it’s back to the drawing board as we look at an action plan for next year to see how we can come bigger and better than ever. Whatever we decide to do, there’ll be blog updates throughout the course of the winter on our various projects, especially as the NSX gets its new power plant.

Season Recap

Finally, as we wave goodbye to the 2019 750MC Tegiwa Club Enduro Championship, we’ll leave you with season recap! Until next time…

The M4’s first outing, which was also its first win too, back at Donington Park in April.

2 out of 2 for Dave & Luke as we got a taste of victory again at Croft.

A series of bad luck left us without a decent haul of points in rounds 3 & 4 at Spa Francorchamps.

Quite literally a blow-out, tyre problems saw us have the lead snatched from beneath us at Silverstone International.

A DNF at Oulton Park saw us drop another haul of points.

An unfortunate decision on strategy left us back in 6th place at Snetterton in the penultimate round of the season.

The shear pace of the Area Motorsport TCR car proved to be too much for the M4 which left us with a 3rd place finish and 3rd overall in the championship.

Snetterton, the penultimate round of the 2019 Tegiwa Club Enduro Championship. Heading into this weekend we were sat at the top of the table, tied only with Joe Taylor and his Lotus Elise.

Testing

We made the most of Friday by getting involved in the test session and more importantly to find out what sort of difference our Drexler differential had made to the car. Straight away Luke could feel an improvement in FP1, noting that he could clearly feel more grip when heading out of the corners, even though he could only use 70% throttle to help bed it in. However, when Luke came back into the pits after only 4 laps, the team noticed that the diff was leaking.

So, the team took the diff cooler off to rule out that it was that giving us the problem. Sadly, when Dave headed back out onto the track, he had the same feeling and only managed 4 laps before heading in again.

Sure enough the old differential was put back on the M4, ready for FP3 and FP4. The car was feeling great again as they want back out into wet conditions. Luke and Dave managed another 4 laps each in FP4, which was enough for them to get their heads back in the game.

Qualifying

On the Saturday, the guys decided they’d have a stab at the Roadsports qualifying, mainly so that they could get a bit more seat time between them and get used to the difficult conditions. With that being said, they put the car on pole position by over a second. We decided not to enter the Roadsports race later in the afternoon so we could save the car for Club Enduro the following day.

Sunday soon arrived and before we knew it, we were heading back out on track for qualifying. Dave went out first on wet tyres and sat in 2^nd place for most of the session. As more cars headed out onto the track and the rain held off, the track seemed to be drying up. Of course, everyone dived back into the pits to swap to dry tyres. However, when we did get up to pace and got enough temperature in the tyres we’d ran out of laps. We did manage one flying lap right at the very end, but it was hampered due to traffic, so we had to settle with 6^th place.

Racing

Changeable conditions throughout the day meant that the team had to make a call on the race strategy and we opted for wets to begin with as it didn’t look like the track was going to dry out any time soon. Our plan seemed to be working out, as Luke had worked his way up from 6^th up to 1^st by Hamilton, the fifth corner of the track. We then led for a few laps but as soon as Joe, our championship rival that we mentioned earlier, got his Nankang’s up to temperature, he came past us and built up a decent advantage. We knew we had to do something, so we came into the pits, put on our dry tyres and swapped drivers.

With Dave now in the M4 he was showing some quick pace and we thought we might have been making some progress. That was however, until a safety car came out meaning that all of our closest rivals pitted. This then gained them a lap up on us due to the length of the safety car lap being slower and cars getting back out in-front of it. Never one to throw in the towel, Dave kept his toe down and got us back up to 4^th place and we were only a tenth of a second of the overall fastest lap.

Heading into the final round of the season at Silverstone GP on the 27^th of this month we sit 4 points behind Joe and 3 points ahead of Area Motorsport in their TCR car. For the neutral it makes for a very exciting finale, we’re just hoping that we can bring you some good news in our next blog update!

Carbon goodness

Although the Club Enduro season is coming to a close, that doesn’t mean we’ve given up on improvements for the trusty M4. Today, we had a delivery from the guys at Eventuri in the form of this beautiful carbon fibre intake kit. Eventuri took every detail into account to ensure that they created a flagship intake that set a new benchmark for the F series platform. For the scoops to the intake tubes, they developed a complete solution to ensure a smooth intel track with cold air saturation. Speaking of details, the carbon weave even matches the OEM M performance carbon.

Once Motion Motorsport had fitted the intake we dyno tested it to ensure it didn’t push our peak power above our Club Enduro limit, which it didn’t. However, we did see a little more in the mid-range and should deal with our heat soak issue that we tend to suffer with during races.

Oulton Park, our home race of the 750MC Club Enduro Championship season and obviously we were hoping that we could take another decent haul of points as we head towards the tail end of the season.

With only a second splitting ourselves and pole position we found ourselves back in 5^th position heading into the race. Neither Dave or Luke managed to get a clean lap in which was frustrating as we knew we had the pace from the test day. This wasn’t a real issue in the end though as Luke had managed to work his way into the lead by the very first corner and was able to concentrate on building a gap to put the M4 comfortably ahead.

In what should have been a pretty comfortable win, had everything gone to plan, it was yet again disappointment that was to follow. We were leading the race for the first 4 laps, and then a minor coming together at Shell Oils Corner saw the other cars aero kit pierce the back of our radiator, which sits in the wheel arch. Over the next 6 laps we had coolant spraying onto our tyre and it was only when we got a high temperature warning on the dash that we had to retire the car on lap 11.

Fortunately for us, every competitor that starts the race gets awarded with 1 point. Which means we now sit in joint first place with Joe Taylor and his Lotus Elise heading into the final 2 rounds of the championship. So, it’s still all to play for in what promises to look like an exciting finale!

Go faster bits!

Meanwhile, back at Tegiwa HQ, the M4 is set for some new go faster bits. Firstly, in the shape of a GT4 inspired carbon fibre bonnet. Not only will this give us a 2kg weight saving over OEM but the GT4 vent will allow for hot air inside the engine bay to escape, and in turn reducing overall temperatures. Teamed up with the carbon GT4 style splitter and canards, this really does add to the overall aggression of the front end of our M4. Before you say it, we know it looks ridiculous on its space saver wheels, you’ll just have to take our word for it…

Next up, we have some suspension component upgrades courtesy of SPL Parts who have provided us with their tension rods and bump steer adjustable tie rods. The tension rods will allow us more room for front caster adjustment which means we can have a more precise alignment for optimal turn-in response. The tie rod ends will complement the tension rods perfectly as we’ll be running modified caster, it will correct bump steer and hopefully we can see a reduction in lap times. These awesome parts will be for sale soon on Tegiwa Euro, so keep your eyes peeled for them!

Finally, a Drexler Automotive differential will be making its way onto the M4. This will allow for more precise handling by reducing the slip on the inside wheel whilst also improving overall traction under acceleration and braking.

Photo Credit @ Oulton Park: All Killer Media

Although the car felt great, it seemed to be struggling with understeer throughout the day. The rest of the field also had the same complaint though, which did give us some reassurance and we actually managed to dial it out by the last session which put us in great stead for qualifying on the Saturday.

With 4 rounds now under our belt, we were pretty used to claiming one of the first two spaces on the grid when it came to qualifying, but Luke and Dave simply couldn’t find the space out on track to put a hot lap together. We ended up in 4th place, which is by no means the end of the world, and after studying the data that both drivers had acquired through their VBOX Motorsport on-board recording equipment, it was easy to see how we could find the extra pace and hopefully make headway in the race.

The race soon came round and it was time to head out onto the track again. Luke made a great start and he soon found himself in 2nd position as he headed around the outside of the GT4 M4 on the first and second corner.

Now the only obstacle that stood in our way was Rob Baker in the Area Motorsport Civic EP3, and yes, his Type R does go as fast as it looks. Rob went defensive down the back straight so Luke went wide as he thought he had a run on him but unfortunately he couldn’t make the move stick. The M4 did make it past as Luke managed to out brake the Civic on the run into Club Corner. Then it was time for Luke to get his head down to try and put as much of a lead together as he could, but it was hard work as the EP3 and the M4 were very much equal and carried similar pace.

Check out the video below of the on-board footage showing how we climbed from 4th to 1st in under one lap!

Just over an hour into the race, we’d managed to build a reasonably healthy 15 second lead over 2nd place and a 44 second lead over 3rd. However, that was soon about to change. The M4’s front left tyre blew out around Abbey, and as this was the first corner after the pits it meant that we had to limp it all the way round the track at 30mph which caused us to lose 45 seconds on the in lap.

Whilst the car was in the pits for a replacement tyre, Luke made way for Dave to do his stint. With a monster effort from Dave, he’d managed to get us back up the pecking order into 3rd place with 22 minutes to go. Again, our luck took another turn for the worse on the penultimate lap and we suffered another blow out on the front left heading around Stowe corner. Dave brought the car straight back into the pits but by the time we had changed the tyre the race was over and we found ourselves back in 4th.

Although it was another frustrating weekend, we have to take the ‘glass is half full’ mentality and be happy that we’re still leading the championship by 5 points. Things are really starting to get tight now which must make great viewing for the neutral. Let’s just hope that our luck improves next month as we make our way to Oulton Park for Round 6.

Finally, a big shout out to Matthew Hall, who managed to capture some brilliant shots of the M4. Head over to his Flickr page here, and check out all of his photos from the weekends action.