J.A.S Engineering is Honda enthusiast heaven. It's a place of beauty, teamwork and championship-winning engineering, the place where all of the factory-backed, and many of the privateer Honda production-based racers for the European market are built. Like we said, heaven.
Tiziana Borghi, the sporting manager of J.A.S., was gracious enough to open this very secretive place to our cameras.
But first, a bit of history.
Founded in 1995 by three motorsport-passionate businessmen, Paolo Jasson, Maurizio Ambrogetti and Girgio Schon, J.A.S. Engineering opened its motorsports arm in 1996 to support Alfa Romeo and its crew of wicked 156s in the ITC (International Touring Championship).
In 1998, J.A.S. Engineering took on design and manufacturing for Honda Sport Europe, building the European-spec Accords for Super Touring duty. The J.A.S. Motorsport Accords really started kicking butt in 1999 with 16 podium finishes in the European Super Touring Championship (STC) and the BTCC, and 19 podium finishes in the same two series in 2000.
Former BTCC champ, F1 driver, and official Honda Sport shoe, Gabriele Tarquini, has been a mainstay of the team's driving talent since the inception of J.A.S., and continues to bring home wins. In 2001, J.A.S. Engineering and Honda came in a strong second place to Alfa Romeo in the FIA European Touring Car Championship.
For 2002, however, Honda was without a new Accord to run in Super Touring. No problem; new FIA regulations allow the Civic Type R to compete in Super Production, despite the model being shorter and having only two doors. J.A.S. Engineering will again wrangle with an Accord in 2003 when the new model is launched.
Today, Alessandro Mariani, managing director of J.A.S., guides the business with experience he gained in F1 and the DTM. Although J.A.S. outsources some processes, nearly every step of racecar production, from inception, to design and manufacture to team logistics, is handled in one 27,000 square foot facility located in Cusago, a small industrial town on the outskirts of Milan, in a region rich with suppliers of high technology and old-world craftsmanship. During our visit, we popped over to a very well known coachbuilder-or carrozzeria-where a craftsman was finishing the foam buck on which a carbon-fiber intake and airbox would be laid for the Civic Type R racecar.
J.A.S. has the ability to recreate the stresses of any of the major racing circuits its cars run. This allows the engineers to cycle through the cars' adjustable systems and test the suitability of different setups with each track. J.A.S.' laboratory includes both static and dynamic test rigs for all vehicle components. The engine dyno can handle 600 hp and 14,000 rpm with complete electronic control over variables.
A similar rig is available to test the sequential transmissions used on the touring cars to measure the internal friction of trannies using different fluids. The J.A.S. engineers use a static chassis rig to test the stiffness of chassis and components like anti-roll bars and shock absorbers. Shock dynos, both electromechanical and pneumatic, are used at the shop and can be carried in the rigs to races for development and fine tuning.
A static brake rig is used for basic equipment check and in-depth analysis of brake bias before a vehicle's tires even touch the ground. Cool stuff we didn't even know existed, like viscous coupling dynos, can dynamically test CV joints.
Yes, with a very large check (think nice used Ferrari) you can buy the very same Civic Type R racecar you see here being built for Honda. Hopefully, despite the failed NATCC, exciting production car-based racing will return to our shores and develop a market for J.A.S.'s excellent products here. In the meantime, keep your eye on European Touring Car results and wipe the drool off the magazine.
For more information on J.A.S. Engineering, check out its Web site at www.jasmotorsport.com.