ST Wangan - Car Racing Specialist & JDM Performance Center

	What is Tomei’s company plan and direction for the coming few years?
	Well, to begin with, our company has been specializing in developing engine components as well as complete engines for the Japanese sports car market for a very long time now. At one point of time about 15 – 20 years ago, we also ventured into making some accessories like chassis bars and gauges but have stopped since then. Our main focus in Tomei as our tagline implies, “The Engine Specialist” is what we go by and we’ll stick with this focus. What we have in mind for the coming years is to expand our range of engine makes, engine parts and components as we strive to look into overseas markets. We are also into developing full-titanium exhaust systems to complete our range and compliment the enhancements we make on the engines.
	What is the product development and tuning philosophy for Tomei?
	We always strive to achieve a balance and best performance between, quality, reliability and customer satisfaction. Our aim is to improve from the car manufacturer's base engines without sacrificing drivability and reliability. Our racing heritage is our pride and we aim to stick very closely to this credo and we use it as our policy and philosophy while developing our engines and engine parts. That is the reason why we spend years upon years of research to find the perfect balance within tolerance levels. ECU tuning is also very critical for us as we have to find the right balance of power and torque for all our engines.
	How is Tomei coping with the economic slowdown affecting the world right now?
	In these times we have to stay focused and adhere to our company’s set direction very closely and not diversify into other areas. We also have to take a step forward to move to other countries to introduce Tomei products to the world. We also have to persevere and continue making products of very high quality and not skim and compromise on our workmanship and product quality just because economic times are hard. A lot of aftermarket parts manufacturers have diverted from their core business to developing accessories which is something Tomei would not venture into. Its easy to manufacture accessories, but the real challenge is in maintaining the core direction of the company and take the challenge to develop new parts for newer car models.
	Would you say that the Tomei market is still a growing market internationally?
	Well, in these few years we have started to look at markets out of Japan and we’ve begun by expanding to the United States and other parts of the world. In Japan itself, the trend for car modifications among the younger generation is shrinking unlike what it was 20 years ago when everyone was into motor racing. We had touge showdowns in the mountains and drag battles by the bay area where we’d attract a huge crowd of youngsters to view us in action. We aim to be more of a global company at this point of time. So far in terms of strength, we’ve been quite strong in Asia, especially, Hong Kong and Singapore. We’re still growing and doing our utmost in making a name for ourselves in the US. We’re also quite strong in the Australian and New Zealand car tuning scene. We are now looking into penetrating the European market and we’ve had some very big orders for parts and engines from countries like Norway and Ukraine which is a pleasant surprise. The Subaru Imprezas' and Mitsubishi Evolutions' are getting quite popular in these countries. South America is another interesting market for us. We’ve gotten a good number of enquiries from the section especially Brazil.
	How would you rate Tomei’s product awareness in SEA compared to other countries like HK and USA?
	Well, the Malaysian market is definitely an interesting market for us to tap into. We definitely see the potential for growth here. Singapore has got quite a good following as the brand and product awareness has been built up by the local distributor ST Powered. We offer the flexibility and leave it up to the local distributor for each country to market the Tomei brand to their own country’s tuning scene. We constantly work with the distributors to get feedback from them on the current trends of popular engine and cars and we work to develop and / or fine tune our products to suit the tuning scene.
	How do you foresee the future trend of the JDM sports car market?
	Its definitely coming back, slowly but surely. Most manufacturers like Honda and Toyota held back their car launches due to the economic slowdown. However most Japanese Domestic Model sports cars nowadays are targeted at the high-end market with the likes of the Nissan R35 GT-R and the Lexus LF-A. So, it will be back but it will take quite a while to re-introduce Japanese sports cars to the newer generation once more. Toyota and Subaru are in the works for developing the replacement model to the venerable AE86 Trueno Sprinter where its price bracket is aimed for the mass market For Tomei, we took a big step into the latest JDM performance car market by developing high cams for the Nissan R35 GT-R. On another note a lot of Japanese performance tuning houses have started development for parts for the Hyundai Genesis Coupe as it is similar in terms of performance and class (Front engine, Rear-wheel drive, Turbo) to the S15 Silvia.
	To what extent does Tomei cater for its customer needs? Does Tomei make custom parts based on customer’s requirements?
	Yes we do. We like to work closely with our customers and also our distributors to get feedback from their respective countries’ tuning scene and we can manufacture parts for their scene to their own specifications. Of course, we do not do one-off manufacturing as the cost will be very high. So we normally manufacture for a bulk order.
	Does Tomei work closely with car manufacturers during parts development?
	I’d say that due to our racing heritage with the Datsun Sunny, we are very closely linked with Nismo (Nissan Motorsports). We normally do information sharing and discussions when we’re doing Research & Development and product development so that we can refine our products for the market.
	I understand there are some very good developments between ST Wangan and Tomei?
	ST Wangan’s been doing a very good job so far with us. We are in constant contact to get feedback from Kenneth and we always prefer personal interaction from the local distributor so that it helps us better understand the market. We aim to support the distributor's local market by developing more products for the popular engines and makes in that particular country. For example; we’ve developed the high cams for the Proton Satria 4G93P.
	Well, I believe that about covers the interview session for today. Sasaki-san and Mihara-san, thank you very much for taking the time from your busy schedule to grace Spyder-Net.com for an interview. Spyder-Net.com wishes TOMEI POWERED all the best for the present and the future. Ganbaru Yo!
	Oh, you're most welcome and thank you very much as well. We hope to have given enough insight to your users about Tomei Powered's company direction and business philosophy.