TEIN began in Yokohama in 1985. Mr. Hakaru Ichino, who had worked as a mechanic in a rally shop, was the founder and was soon joined by driver Yoshio Fujimoto after leaving his eday job'. A 23.1‡u garage and office was the enterprise's first premises, and soon things took off with the passion and integrity the two had towards the sport of rallying.
They started their rally sports activities along with their endeavor to keep the business running. It started with the Japanese Rally Championship, and after only 2 years, they had moved on to international events including the Hong Kong-Beijing Rally. A further two years later, in 1989, TEIN Sport had reached the WRC, the pinnacle of the sport.
At the end of 1993, Fujimoto moved to Cologne, Germany in pursuit of his career as a factory driver for Toyota TTE. There he honed his skills as he strived to become the world's top driver. Meanwhile, as TEIN Sport had lost their main driver, they invited Hong Kong star Michael Lieu, with Ichino directing him on rally events throughout Oceania. This was a very important period for TEIN Sport, enabling the firm to build its performance potential in rally, while also gaining valuable experience in team management.
In 1995, when Fujimoto became the first Japanese driver to win a WRC event, that year's Safari Rally, he was then able to set up his own TTE satellite team and work differently from just being a factory driver. He subsequently produced amazing results in Indonesia, Hong Kong, Beijing, New Zealand and Australia where the name TEIN Sport was highly respected and the results brought a high level of status to the TEIN Sport name.
Since 1996, he has been involved in a program raising young Japanese drivers. This program appointed Shigeo Konishi and Hide Nakano, and was perhaps the catalyst that encouraged Japanese drivers to contest international rallying. It also led to Takuma Kamada's WRC challenge in a Corolla WRC. The stature of TEIN Sport as a professional rally team was enhanced by the fact that the 1998 Asia Pacific Rally Champion Fujimoto was backing them up. The fact that they were able to work on Group-A rally cars, then state-of-the-art in terms of technical innovation, helped TEIN Sport and TEIN itself to greatly develop its technical ability.
In 2004, Fujimoto participated in the inaugural WRC Rally Japan as driver of the 00 car. One day, he was seen shaking hands with the 0 car driver Tommi Makinen: "Long time no see" both said simultaneously, and neither of them wanted to let go. Makinen is known as a man of very few words, and although verbally he kept silent, they both showed enormous respect for each other ? something that proved very emotional even for the assembled bystanders.
In 2005, Yoshio Fujimoto was back in the WRC field.
This time it wasn't with his TEIN Sport team, but to support young drivers looking for opportunities to see the world and to see the teams bound forward.
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