Tyler McQuarrie

I got back from Charlotte a few days ago and I think I’ve recovered from all the good times! All the ASD Falken drivers would make this first test of the 2010 season, which include me, JR, DMac, and the newest Falken driver JTP. Our main goal was to get our cars ready for Long Beach, but man we had some crazy times away from testing. It defiantly set the tone as teammates for this season, and that tone is going to be CRAZY!

Over the offseason the ASD guys were expanding into a bigger shop, which was good timing since JTP was now driving the 4^th ASD car. The shop is simply AMAZING! It is 14,000 sq ft and split up into different departments. They have 1250 sq. ft retail showroom, 2500 sq. ft race car final assembly area, 1250 sq. ft machine shop area, 2500 sq. ft fabrication area, 1250 sq. ft retail parts storage area above the showroom, 1500 sq. ft race team parts storage facility (second building), 3750 sq. ft (third building) for confidential product development / special projects.

 In addition to running four cars for the Falken Drift team, ASD also provides turn-key capabilities for special project builds, for example the carbon fiber bodied Mustang RTR-C debuted at SEMA 2009 in the Ford Motor Company display. ASD also designs, manufactures, and sells multiple lines of performance automotive components under the ASD Motorsports and many other brands. They do 3D CAD product design and analysis (SolidWorks), manual and CNC machining for prototyping , and full component fabrication services.

 With the additional car, ASD brought on more crew members to deal with the additional work. New to ASD and my car is Rick Lamber Jr. He spent 12 years as a mechanic for the Penske Indy Car Team, has four Indy 500 wins and multiple Indy Car championships under his belt. Clay Stephens returns as my engineer who is a Mechanical Design Engineer (Georgia Tech) and accomplished fabricator and CNC machinist. Last position prior to working at ASD was leading the chassis fabrication department in a well known NASCAR Cup team. Dave Gibson will continue to support all the cars with data collection and engineering support. Ian Stewart, who owns ASD, will also continue to look over all the ASD cars. He has over 25 years of motorsport experience from Australasia to Europe to the United States. Last position prior to establishing the ASD company was management in a well known NASCAR Cup team, overseeing chassis, finish fabrication, body hanging, and paint departments, with an emphasis on overseeing R&D on chassis engineering special projects. And those are the guys just on my car… The team has so much experience. Pretty cool to see the caliber of guys that works for ASD, and they really WANT to be involved in drifting.

The first test day on Monday at Charlotte Motor Speedway was just a shake down for all the cars. Over the offseason my car was stripped down to the chassis. The ASD guys found some more power in my motor, which brought it up to 780hp. I also got a new front bar setup to help deal with the new increase in grip that the RT 615K is giving us. My shake down went awesome and it was so nice getting back in the car because I have not been in it since Irwindale. We had a few things we wanted to try on the car, so we called it a day in order to prep my car for the test on Wednesday.

All the drivers had Tuesday off so we went to visit the MMI office in Mooresville. They manage the DA guys and also look after a lot of NASCAR guys. We spent most of our time on their $40k simulator

Darren and I started to wonder around the building and he took it upon himself to get in Jamie Mcmurry’s race winning car that is on display in the lobby. HAHA he said that he had not seen a Cup car up close so he had to get in. Damn Irish!

We ended our day off with a little in-door karting, which is always fun to punt your teammates into a stack of tires! My favorite part of karting was watching JBrad drive around! Good times.

On Wednesday we were back out at Charlotte Motor Speedway to test the changes we made on the car. My Falken Tire 350z is so much fun to drive. We spent a little time tweaking the car to get a little more lateral grip. The rest of the day I spent just getting seat time and trying different things with my driving. It was so much damn fun and I think we are ready for Long Beach. This will be the first time that I have ever returned with the same car as the previous year.

We then had a team dinner and went out for St. Patrick’s Day. We even had a real life leprechaun (DMAC) with us. I wish I could tell you more about that night… It was insane!!! So many stories from that night.

It’s safe to say that I think all the Falken cars are ready to take on Long Beach. This year is going to be the most exciting year yet in Formula D and I think Team Falken is going to do just fine. We swept the podium in NJ, I wonder if we can make it an all Falken final 4…

The 2010 season starts here! I got to Charlotte on Sunday and made my way over to the ASD shop. They expanded into a much larger shop, which is amazing and I hope to get more pics for you guys to see. But I did get a couple of pics with my GoPro camera.

It was so good to everyone at the shop, but even better to see my car! The ASD boyus made a few little changes to my car. We are trying something to slow down the steering, a new front bar, and more power. Yes more power! My Z went from 730hp to 780hp and thank god we are running the new Falken Tire RT615K to help me get the power down. I couldn’t wait to get back in the car!

All four ASD Falken Cars and drivers, DMac, JR, and JTP went to Charlotte Motor Speedway to shake down our cars. I didn’t like the steering change we made so we went back to what we had last year. Went back out and the car felt awesome and it was so nice to be back in it! My test day was cut short because we found a hair line crack on the diff case, so I watched everyone just kill it! The ASD guys are prepping all the cars today for more testing on Wednesday. Hope to get more pics and video’s up after that.

My new Enkei PF01 wheels just got to the ASD shop in Charlotte. On their way to get a white powdercoat put on. I’ll be running these on the Falken Tire Nissan 350Z in the 2010 Formula D championship. We plan to test these next week since the offsets are a little different. Can’t wait to get back in the car!

I just got back from the Streets of Willow where we conducted a comparison test between the Falken Tire RT 615 and the new and improved RT 615K. We used two cars to help us conduct this test, 2011 Ford Mustang 5.0 and the 2010 Nissan 370Z. Both cars are awesome but so different at the same time, which is why they were perfect for our test

I ran through a set of the RT 615 on the Ford Mustang 5.0 and the Nissan 370Z. I went all out in each car to lay down a bench mark time to compare against the new RT 615K. Both cars were quick but in different areas of the track. We then slapped on the new RT 615K, which look exactly the same as the RT 615 but have an improved compound that retains the 200 UTQG that it had before.
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From the minute I left the pits, I could feel a huge increase in the level of grip. As I started to pick up the pace I noticed that it still had those great features of the RT 615, which is very predictable and user friendly. After I laid down my 3 timed laps in each car I was blown away at the change in grip! It’s pretty cool to see how one variable has such a big effect on the feel and performance of your car.


For those of you that own or have owned a set of RT 615, you will be so impressed with the level of grip that the RT 615K has over the RT 615. If you have never driven on the RT 615, I promise that you will be blown away with the performance of the RT 615K! Stay tuned to www.falkentire.com for a full video and results from our test
A tire test is not complete without some drifting! Can’t wait to use these in the 2010 Formula D Championship!