An electric car race was held on July 21st (Sunday) at the Tsukuba circuit, and one of the participants was a Demio EV, featuring performance tuneups focused on the car's suspension. It successfully completed the full 50-km race.

The noteworthy thing about the Devio EV in Sunday's race was how the car's height had been dramatically reduced. The driver, Kiyoshi Komoda, had this to say after his trial run: “The corning is smooth and there's no vehicle sway. The traction is also good. The tires slipped a bit during turn-in, but the suspension was not as hard as I thought it would be, and the suspension itself worked well with the S tires (Advan 048 195/50R16). The Leaf racers even said 'It looks like a lot of fun to drive!'” High praise indeed! Incidentally, the suspension was made by Aragostra, using tuning know-how taken from the Super Taikyu version of the Nogami Project Demio, and according to the team manager “It did the job perfectly”. The qualifying time was 1 minute 16.959 seconds, for 6th place out of 8 entries. Not a bad time at all compared to the already well-experienced Leafs, which clocked times between 1 minute, twelve and fourteen seconds.

In the race, a big issue was the car's lack of heat and electrical capacity. Komoda noted, “This time the goal was to finish the race”. The car ran the full 25 laps and, at the start, Komoda kept pace with the two Leafs. “It handled lightly and briskly, and it was really interesting to run alongside the struggling Leafs. It kept going with power to spare up until the seventh lap but, since the battery drained quickly, by the time I thought to hold back it was already too late.” And so, by the second half Komoda was forced to run at a slower pace. Ultimately his position fell below that of the car's qualifying position, but as the machine directly ahead ran out of power and did not reach the checkered flag, he was able to finish in 6th.

Komoda commented, “The suspension is fine as it is, if we can just work a little more on the battery by the next event at Sodegaura (October 20th)”. The team will not compete in the next event, at Sugo (September, 16th). We definitely hope they will join the fight for the title at Round 5, to be held at Sodegaura.