Kei Cars in Depth - Vol. Six : Kei Cars in Motorsport #blogpost

I’m back again with another Kei Cars in Depth, and this week I’m discussing about kei cars in the motorsport world. In Japan, kei cars are not only known for being small and possibly fun. Some tuners all over Japan have tuned these tiny cars to the fullest, battling against cars above its size, and win against some. There are even events that are specifically made for kei cars, which is dominated mostly by the trinity + Copen and S660. Some cars even reached rally stages in Japan and out of Japan.

Why Kei Cars

People often choose kei cars for motorsport due to its nature; small, light, and agile. Despite being underpowered with just 660cc ( and probably a bit over that ) to use, kei cars can just make up the time with their lightness. In some time attack stages, some kei cars made their way into a class which is dominated with cars with three or four times the displacement and twice the power. Surely, it won’t win, but it can just about keep up with the big boys, with results good enough for the class. It’s really about how far a kei car can actually get.

Kei cars among other kei cars

In Japan, there time attacks made specifically for kei cars, called K-CAR Meeting, battling kei cars from stock-ish to heavily modded, N/A to turbo, and there are even classes specifically made for S660 and Copen, I don’t even know why, but it’s quite a class to be in. These races are dominated by tuners who specifically tune kei cars ( yes, they exist ), such as TAKEOFF and KC-Technica, and the tuners who are just good at tuning kei cars, like HALFWAY and D-Sport. While some cars retain its original power, some have been heavily boosted up to 220hp, which is a bit crazy for something that small and light.

While in tarmac kei car racing is dominated by the coupe and roadsters, in rallying, kei cars are dominated by the sightings of the hot hatches. But while some in tarmac reach 3 digits of horsepower, most rally kei cars remain the 63hp output. Nevertheless,they got weight reduction and some kits to put most of the power on the dirt. The era of kei car rallying was back in the 90s, and the job was done by cars like the Daihatsu Mira X4-R, Suzuki Alto Works RS/R, Subaru Vivio RX-R, and the Mitsubishi Dangan.

Against the big boys

The are 2 stages of tuned kei cars, the first is those who just want to compete against cars a bit above its class, such as the Honda Fit and Mazda 2. And well, kei cars wins! In this class, most kei cars only gain a bit of extra displacement, about 50 extra cc to use. Combine that with extra boost, some cars can just pump about 140hp, which is perfect to race against mildly tuned superminis.

The next stage is for those who don’t give a crap, taking kei cars way above its level. In this stage of tuning, kei cars are made to compete against cars like the Lancer Evo, Mazda RX-7, Nissan S-Series, and even the Godzilla, with some making 500hp+. While the kei car, well only makes around the bad side of the 200hp mark. But combined with a 500kg weight advantage and tiny size, they can still put a statement in the class.

The Cars

Let’s get to the cars that went to the motorsport stage, whether it’s on asphalt or dirt.

1. Daihatsu Mira X4-R L210S

First is the Daihatsu Mira X4-R, a track-prepared version of the Mira TR-XX X4. As it is made for the track, the X4-R gets lots of weight reduction and lots of drivetrain works. But after chassis strengthening, the car’s weight actually remains the same as the road car. The car was tuned by DRS ( think of it as Daihatsu’s TRD ), and it doesn’t get any more powerful. On the other hand, it gets new gears along with LSD at both front and rear axle. For the exterior the bumpers were replaced with the base model bumpers, even though TR-XX X4 bumpers are avaiable as an option. The car appeared in All Japan Rally Championship, racing against the Alto RS/R and Subaru Vivio RX-R.

2. TAKEOFF x R-Mechanical Daihatsu Copen

So, this is probably the craziest copen out there. Powered by the original JB-DET, which has been bored and stroked from 659cc to 822cc. Combine that with a modified turbo which gives 25 psi of boost, the TAKEOFF Copen pumps out 220hp. And the tuning doesn’t stop there. They managed to strip out 230kg from a car that already weighs less than 850kg.

On the track, the TAKEOFF Copen fights with cars like the R32 GTR, Lancer Evo, Silvia S13, and other time attack-prepped cars. It doesn’t win many TA events, but it can surely keep up with cars making twice the power, and it shows just how far a kei car can get.

3. Subaru Vivio RX-R and Super KK

Subaru Vivio RX-R, the kei car that tried to match its big brother, the Subaru Impreza STI. Released in the early 90s, the Vivio RX-R gets Subaru’s supercharged EN07X, making 64hp and 106 Nm of torque. The RX-R races in the same league as the X4-R in the All Japan Rally Championship. But unlike its rivals, the Vivio also races outside of Japan.

Getting out of Japan, the Vivio entered tha Paris-Beijing marathon in 1992, and the car was initially faster than a Mitsubishi Pajero, which isn’t too bad, well, at least until the suspension broke. The Vivio even raced on the Safari Rally with the more powerful Super KK version, which pumps 85hp from the same engine, driven by Colin McRae as his debut to the Safari Rally.

Those are just some example of some of the kei cars being used in the motorsport world. Those cars proved that kei cars are not just cars for the city, they can just knock out the best of race cars out there. That’s about it from me. Next week on Kei Cars in Depth, which will come out a bit later due to my stacking works lately, is the very normal of kei cars. Yeah, I’m going to talk about the most boring ( yet very cool ) kei car models in Japan. Bare with me, they have their own uniqueness.

Just in case you missed, here’s last week’s Kei Cars in Depth, talking about the legendary trinity of Kei Sports, AZ-1, Beat, and Cappuccino.