Edit: Sorry for the wall of text lol. Little bored at work.
ALL of the products are made at HKS Japan.
I got to tour the factory once and it's very impressive. They have crazy stuff there, for example in the exhaust factory they have a long isle with every hanger for every exhaust they make in bins on both sides. The Isle is like 100 yards long and the shelves are really high. When they are getting ready to start a production run a guy types in part numbers on a console and a robotic arm slides on a track and goes and retrieves the hangers for that run. There's more cool stuff obviously but that stood out in my mind lol.
In terms of HKS USA how it works is HKS Japan will send over lets say an exhaust for an EVO. HKS USA will test it for fitment and make any modifications necessary, Dyno, decibel test it ect. Once they are happy they send it back and say "make it exactly like this". Sometimes you have JDM cars with shorter bumpers or equipment differences that necessitate USA to change it.
In recent years HKS Japan has wised up and taken more input from it USA counterpart in the design phase, because after all they know more what the car culture here will want and what will sell. Instead of the "here, we made this, this is what is cool in Japan, sell it there" attitude. I don't think it's as much as the USA guys would like but they take what they can get I guess. That being said some parts start the design phase in USA, although not many. For example I believe the Dual Hi-Power exhaust for the 350 was made/tested from scratch here for us by the techs at HKS USA and then made in Japan and shipped back over. Same for the 370 version.
That is why you've seen some posts from guys in other parts of the world saying they have trouble ordering it from their dealer’s in say the UK. It's a part they make for the US only and is not in the international "Good Master" catalog. Also I believe their S/C "kit" was designed here, although the blower design was done in Japan obviously. It makes sense if you think about it. It would be unwise to take parts designed and made off JDM cars and just resell them. If they don't work right on US cars customers get pissed and you ruin your name. I think they've done a pretty good job protecting the brand from that kind of stuff. The fact that certain items are designed here like ECU tunes or other items shouldn’t take any "shine" off their products for the JDM fan boys. The 3 guys that run the R&D at USA are super old school and knowledgeable Japanese guys who really know their stuff, and some sales/tech guys/gals who know the market.
So to answer your question, I think HKS USA may be leading the charge on the forced induction kits for the 370Z and reporting back to Japan. If it gets made, it will be made in Japan with input from them along the way. They sometimes send an Engineer over for certain phases of projects as well.
Anyway I don't live all that close, about 45 mins away in South Orange County. HKS is in LA. I only know all this stuff because like it said in my intro post I worked there for a time (about 8 years ago) and still have a few friends there. I figured I would just try to share whatever I knew for you guys although it wasn't much. I'll see what I can do about a pic but it's whenever they want to let me take it. I have to go back on Monday to pic up my stock exhaust, I'll bring my camera lol. Other than that I don't go there much as it's pretty out of the way for me.
Last edited by G Fo12ce; 01-23-2010 at 01:04 PM.
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