Japan Trip : Part Two – Cusco

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For the second half of my trip to Japan, I’d scheduled some testing at Cusco’s R&D facility in Takasaki. Located in central Gunma, getting to Takasaki is an easy one hour ride from Tokyo station on a bullet train (shinkansen). Once there, I was immediately greeted by Keith of Nukabe who hurried me off to Cusco’s facility to begin our tests. Nukabe is one of our distributors in Japan and due to their close relationship with Cusco, we’ve been given the opportunity to work with them to supply the AccessPORT to the Japanese market.

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Once I was able to successfully test Cusco’s version of the AccessPORT, we took a quick break and ran over to the local Mitsubishi dealership to inspect a new EVO X. Currently, only the 5-speed models are available as the SST model has been delayed. As such, the car I had planned on test driving was not yet available and this particular car was about to be delivery to its new owner. It was still nice to get an up-close look at the new EVO X and ask a few questions of some of the highly knowledgeable technicians. Earlier in the week I had an opportunity to look through the EVO X service manual (in Japanese) and it’s scary how many computers run everything. Well, exciting for a company like ours but… I don’t think the way the market in America has historically ‘tuned’ EVOs will work on the X. Or maybe it’ll just be the SST models that get shunned for their ‘inability’ to be tuned. Perhaps I’m wrong, we’ll see when we get our hands on it in the States.

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Done for the day, I met up for dinner with T.Nishida-san and Keith-san from Nukaba and Nagase-san and Hara-san from Cusco at a traditional style Japanese restaurant. I’m a big fan of Japanese food, particularly the experience of trying something you can’t or don’t normally find here in the States. Needless to say, it was a great meal and great company!

The next day, I headed out with Keith to one of Cusco’s manufacturing facilities located approximately 50km west of Takasaki in a quiet, rural area of Gunma. This part of Japan is one of my favorites; beautiful scenery, nature, mountains, and peaceful. Reminds be a bit of Utah, though a bit more green. 🙂

My reason for coming all this way is to do some work and testing on Cusco’s new STI. After reading some ECU data performing some testing, I was given a full tour of the factory by Hara-san. I left more impressed with Cusco than before I came. Unlike many Japanese tuning brands, they actually MAKE their own parts. Not just design, not just market… they actually MAKE their own stuff. A LOT of other company’s parts as well. It was refreshing to see.

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After the factory visit, it was back to Takasaki in order to train Cusco’s sales staff about the new AccessPORT. Training went extremely well, and I had a great time meeting with Cusco’s staff and showing them what the AccessPORT did. I felt they were impressed, and I know I certainly was proud of our guys for all the hard work they’ve put in to get us to where we’re at.

While at Cusco’s sales office, I took the opportunity to check out some of the goodies they had in their showroom. The JGTC/SuperGT car is always great to see, but personally I’ve been a fan of their Dirt Trial car for yeeeaaarrrss. Seeing it in person, I was beyond excited. Oh yeah, and they had one of those Flat-12 Subaru F1 engines… Did I mention the Dirt Trial car has a rear mounted twin-turbo EG33? 🙂

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Thanks again to everyone at Nukabe, Cusco, and Prova for a great and successful trip to Japan. See you all again soon in January!


One response to “Japan Trip : Part Two – Cusco”

  1. OH that 08 sti looks so nice!! This is very intresting “Earlier in the week I had an opportunity to look through the EVO X service manual (in Japanese) and it’s scary how many computers run everything. Well, exciting for a company like ours but… I don’t think the way the market in America has historically ‘tuned’ EVOs will work on the X. Or maybe it’ll just be the SST models that get shunned for their ‘inability’ to be tuned. Perhaps I’m wrong, we’ll see when we get our hands on it in the States.” I guess we will have to wait and see. How does that STI drive???

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