We interview Kenji Sumino, President of GReddy in California and the man behind our bespoke exhaust made for #iMProject16.
The name Kenji Sumino should sound familiar. Not only is he the crew leader of Ken Gushi’s drift team, he’s also a two-time winner of the prestigious Gran Turismo award for Best Asian Import at the SEMA Show for Ken’s FR-S Prototype and most recently, for collaborating with Fast & the Furious star Sung Kang and his “Fugu Z”. When it came down to finding a partner to help build us an exhaust for #iMProject16, we knew Kenji would be our guy. While we had his attention, we decided to ask him about the process at GReddy and his involvement with Scion Racing.
Let’s cover the basics. For some of our readers who may not have heard of you, please introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today.
My Name is Kenji Sumino, President here at GReddy Performance Products, Inc. (GPP). I started working for GPP in 1995 in the Research and Development department. Until 2005, I was in charge of the R&D department, responsible for new product development and building project cars to promote GReddy performance products as the R&D manager. From 2006, I started handling more administrative duties while managing R&D, and in 2008, I became president of GPP. I am still very much involved with product development and also our motorsport program with Scion Racing with Ken Gushi in the Formula D series.
Also, I change tires for Ken at the racetrack… Seriously, I really do…. Hahaha…
So how did GReddy get involved with Scion Racing?
Ever since Toyota introduced the Scion brand back in 2003, we have been involved with Scion building their SEMA display vehicles starting with the Super Street x GReddy turbocharged xB. Our partnership with Scion grew from there and we continued to build SEMA display vehicles for all of the new models (tC and 2nd gen xB) that followed. These projects were all “street car” concepts to promote the lifestyle image targeting the Gen Y consumer.
When the 2nd gen tC was introduced, we got the opportunity to build a “track-inspired street car” for Scion’s 2010 SEMA display car. Originally, there were no plans to race this car, but we recognized the potential of the tC platform and proposed to campaign this car in the Redline Time Attack series. This was the beginning of our involvement with Scion Racing but our eyes were already set on the FR-S. At the same time the 2011 Scion tC was released, Scion introduced the FR-S Concept to the world. We felt that the Time Attack project was the stepping-stone for us to be considered for campaigning the FR-S for the Formula D Series in 2012. We needed to show our capability of preparing a racecar and running a motorsport program. And with a successful season with the tC, and a little bit of luck being at the right place at the right time, we were commissioned to prepare the not yet released FR-S street car that was displayed at the North American FR-S unveiling event in LA and a race prepped FR-S that was debuted at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit in 2012. And the rest, as they say is history.
Well it looks like we caught you at the right time again! We really appreciate you helping us with #iMProject16. Can you share a little bit about how you and your team get started designing an exhaust system?
It's a great pleasure for us to work with #iMProject16! Because we have such close relationship with Scion since its launch, we get excited every time a new Scion vehicle is released, so thank you for the opportunity!
When designing an exhaust system on any car, we look at the factory system spec and layout first and figure out where we can improve for more performance and enhance the sound for a “Sport” exhaust system. Then we figure out the piping and muffler size based on the engine displacement and clearance. The last step is finding a way to make it look as cool as possible from the back.
So what did you decide on for #iMProject16?
We routed the new piping to make it more smooth, and made sure to keep good clearance with the chassis/underbody and other components under the car by using stainless mandrel bent tubing and used less sharper turns for a good flowing system.
Thanks we appreciate the effort! But what we all really want to know, will this add power to the car?
While we were not able to put this car on the dyno to measure the power gains, based on our experience with the normally aspirated system, you’re looking at 3-5% power increase.
Excellent! So tell us, now that you’ve prototyped an exhaust for the iM, can we see a production model to come in the future?
Definitely, we’ve already sent the prototype back to our factory. The first sample is due anytime now and we expect to have the production systems available for sale by late spring.
That’s awesome! Thanks so much for the chat Kenji. We can’t wait to see you, Ken Gushi and the rest of the GReddy team at Formula Drift Canada’s World Round in July. Is there anything else you’d like to add?
Thank you and YES!! We can’t wait to go out to Canada’s in July and have Ken Gushi spray you guys down with champagne from the top of the podium! We’ll see you guys soon!
Catch up on the #iMProject16 build on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter, by following @ScionCanada.
Photography: Josh Chow, Justin Pagtalunan, Takuya TK Akiyama.
