The Tsukuba Circuit is a well known 2 kilometer track in Shimotsuma, a neighbouring city of Tsukuba, Japan. The track is a popular place for time attack (also know as super lap) events; where contents compete for te fastest laptime. It’s also the perfect place for professional tuning companies to show what they can achieve with street tuned cars, wins are the perfect display of their knowledge and craftsmanship. So today we are talking about a project that involves the latest zc33s Suzuki Swift; the TRB-04 project by HKS.
Tsukuba Record Breaker series by HKS
HKS is very familiar tuning company to both time attacks events and Tsukuba circuit. HKS has built multiple project cars named TRB, or Tsukuba Record Breaker which makes very clear what the purpose of each car is. When it comes to Japanese time attack vehicles it’s all too often the same cars. GTR’s, RX7’s, Silvias, GT86’s, Evo’s and Subies. The HKS TRB-04 project by HKS however, has the Suzuki Swift zc33s as a starting point.
TRB-04
When taking a closer look to the TRB-04 you can see there is little remaining of the stock Swift. With a central seating position, carbon roof and rear quarters, little has spared to chase a new lap record. The time to beat for a front engine, front wheel driven car (FF) like the Swift was a 56.546-second lap. This record was set in February 2018 by an EG6 Civic.
After some testruns and engine swaps driver Nobuteru Taniguchi already showed he could break the FF record on 20th of November 2018 with a time of 56.308 (evo engine). After Christmas he put down a time of 57.480, a second slower, but with the Swifts own k14c engine.
On 13 February 2019 Nobuteru Taniguchi shared on his blog the latest results with the TRB-04. Equipped with a 2.0 litre 640BHP 4G63 Evo engine (720BHP with NOS) the fastest time recorded was 55.524 (!). An amazing achievement that shows HKS dedication to break records. Hopefully there will be some testing with the k14c engine still to show its full potential.
zc33s
Now the Swift has it’s first factory model with a Turbo you see a change in how the car is received by the public. Although older Swift models had a couple quality part suppliers in Japan, now more companies start supplying for the Turbo’d zc33s. I really hope that with the TRB-04 project by HKS more interest is generated in the Suzuki Swift. Hopefully this helps opening the eyes of tuning enthusiasts worldwide to consider the Suzuki Swift as a starting point. Which should spark a wider offering by aftermarket manufacturers worldwide.
Below a video of the fastest laps so far with the TRB-04, and what that looks like from the drivers perspective. It’s truly incredible. Enjoy!
Leave a Reply