CUSCO Japan

CUSCO is a Japanese automotive parts company, specializing in car suspension parts. They are most famous for their coilover suspensions, and are a large presence in the Japanese automotive aftermarket in the domestic Japanese market and around the globe.

A notable product of CUSCO is the "E-CON", a coilover suspension set with electronically controlled dampers.

Cusco sponsored a high performance, RWD mid-engined two-door version of the Subaru WRX STI for professional racing.

Company Information

CUSCO Japan is an automotive company that was started in December 1977. As stated above it is a company specializing in car parts specifically suspension and coilover kits. Its company name is actually Carrosser Co. Ltd with Cusco being one of four brands. The four brands are as follows: Cusco, Vacanza, Carrosser, and Safety21. The President of Operations is Tsutomu Nagase and they are a considerably small company, with only 45 active members as of 2011. They have a capital of 10 Million Yen (roughly 100,000 USD). ^[1]

Foreign Expansion and Auto History

Cusco have had a history of providing parts for Rallycross races, and even having a Rallycross car represent them in a race. ^[1] An example would be when they sponsored Subaru. Carrosser is actually the only brand in Japan that has participated in all of the events at the All Japanese Championships.

Brands

The company is divided into 4 separate brands each having a purpose to the company. These brands are Cusco, Vacanza, Carrosser, and Safety21. Each brand plays a part in manufacturing and selling parts for a type of car. Some parts are tested on the track in racing events, and all products are tested in the laboratory.

Cusco

Cusco is the main brand, responsible for selling generic and racing gears.

Vacanza

Vacanza manufactures coilover kits and parts for minivans, SUVs (Sports Utility Vehicles), and station wagons. Designed by Carrosser. ^[1]

Carrosser

The design philosophy of both Cusco and Vacanza lie in the Carrosser brand. Given authority from the JAF (Japanese Automotive Federation) Carrosser is the competition brand of the company. They participate in all the races of the All Japan Championship, and have gotten sponsorship from Japanese automaker Subaru

Safety21

This brand is specifically put into place to manufacture the safety equipment in performance cars. This includes roll cages, bars and guards. They are place through extensive tests both in the laboratory and on the track, to provide the best body and rigidity, ^[1]

Super GT/JGTC

From 1997 until 2008, Cusco Racing participated in the GT300 class of JGTC (renamed Super GT in 2005) with a Subaru Impreza WRX STI. Cusco Racing made their JGTC debut at the 1997 season finale at Sugo. ^[2]

in the GT300 class, the team achieved four pole positions and three race wins, one of which in 2008 saw the Subaru Impreza become the first AWD vehicle to take victory in the championships history. ^[3]

Complete JGTC Results

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Year	Car	Tyres	Class	No.	Drivers	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	Pos	Pts
1997	Subaru Impreza	Y	GT300	77	Katsuo Kobayashi Naohiro Furuya	SUZ	FUJ	SEN	FUJ	MIN	SUG Ret	NC1	NC2		NC	0
1998	Subaru Impreza	Y	GT300	77	Katsuo Kobayashi Hideyuki Tamamoto	SUZ 8	FUJ C	SEN Ret	FUJ 17	MOT 1	MIN Ret	SUG 12	NC1 Ret		10th	23
1999	Subaru Impreza	Y	GT300	77	Katsuo Kobayashi Tatsuya Tanigawa	SUZ Ret	FUJ NC	SUG 4	MIN 8	FUJ 18	OKA 3	MOT 6	NC1 1		8th	31
2000	Subaru Impreza	Y	GT300	77	Katsuo Kobayashi Tatsuya Tanigawa	MOT DNA	FUJ 4	SUG 3	NC1 4	FUJ 5	OKA Ret	MIN 6	SUZ Ret		7th	36
2001	Subaru Impreza	Y	GT300	77	Katsuo Kobayashi Tatsuya Tanigawa	OKA 2	FUJ Ret	SUG 3	NC1 2	FUJ 10	MOT 6	SUZ Ret	MIN Ret		8th	34
2002	Subaru Impreza	Y	GT300	77	Katsuo Kobayashi Tatsuya Tanigawa	OKA 7	FUJ 6	SUG 2	SEP 16	FUJ 5	MOT 2	MIN 7	SUZ Ret		7th	53
2003	Subaru Impreza	Y	GT300	77	Katsuo Kobayashi Tatsuya Tanigawa	OKA 10	FUJ Ret	SUG 6	FUJ 24	FUJ 19	MOT Ret	AUT 9	SUZ Ret		14th	10
2004	Subaru Impreza	Y	GT300	77	Katsuo Kobayashi Tatsuya Tanigawa	OKA 14	SUG 12	SEP 18	TOK 6	MOT 11	AUT 3	SUZ 11	NC1 3	NC2 Ret	9th	17

Note: Non-championship races (NC) do not count towards the championship

Complete Super GT results

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Year [4]	Car	No.	Tyres	Class	Drivers	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	Pos	Points
2005	Subaru Impreza	77	Y	GT300	Katsuo Kobayashi Tatsuya Tanigawa	OKA 12	FUJ 21	SEP 10	SUG 11	MOT 13	FUJ 9	AUT Ret	SUZ 13		14th	3
2006	Subaru Impreza WRX STI	77	Y	GT300	Katsuo Kobayashi Tatsuya Tanigawa Yasushi Kikuchi	SUZ	OKA	FUJ	SEP	SUG Ret	SUZ	MOT 7	AUT 9	FUJ 11	20th	6
2007	Subaru Impreza WRX STI	77	D	GT300	Tetsuya Yamano Takayuki Aoki	SUZ 21	OKA 13	FUJ Ret	SEP 5	SUG Ret	SUZ Ret	MOT 11	AUT 14	FUJ 11	18th	17
2008	Subaru Impreza WRX STI	77	D	GT300	Tetsuya Yamano Kota Sasaki Carlo van Dam	SUZ 6	OKA 3	FUJ 18	SEP 1	SUG 14	SUZ 17	MOT 14	AUT 6	FUJ 3	6th	71

References

1. "About Us". Cusco. Archived from the original on September 19, 2017. Retrieved April 13, 2018.
2. "Subaru in Super GT: The Story So Far | dailysportscar.com". www.dailysportscar.com. November 24, 2021. Retrieved August 20, 2022.
3. Hsu, Ben (December 28, 2017). "MOTORSPORT: A brief history of Cusco Racing". Japanese Nostalgic Car. Retrieved August 20, 2022.
4. "SUPERGT.net | Race Archive". supergt.net. Retrieved August 22, 2022.