Dino DC: The NEW Rays WHEEL Reveal!

Dino DC Video Transcript

Thank you Hey welcome to a new episode today it’s something a little bit different I am at Fuji Speedway and I’ve been invited by Race Engineering for the presentation of the new ce28n plus and it’s kind of a new version of a very legendary wheel and one wheel I’ve been running on my

GTR for close to uh gosh like 20 years and we’re just about to have like a proper presentation and you know find out all the details about the new construction and how they’ve revived this legendary model there in the meantime there’s a lot of other cool

Raise Wheels to look at so they have the lmh version of their Toyota wheels that is used in the FIA Endurance Championship and then the one from the Super GT series you can see how intricate the cutouts are to you know save and shave weight of their forged rims of course

Center lug even though the little drilling here to kind of Center the wheel on the Hub so this is the president of rays checking out the lineup so it’s a really cool event because a bunch of media have been invited a lot of really cool owners of shops tuning

Shops here in Japan that are also present today so everybody’s really interested in you know the new sizing and what they can do with this wheel on their future project cars so this is another prototype version this is the ne24 club sport so this is possibly going to be released later this year

You’ll probably see it in the Nismo one week series with the Fairly disease has been really confirmed yet but one cool wheel to look forward to the regular one here and this is the club sport so potentially lighter construction but we’ll find out all the details during the presentation and of course the

Original this is the t-37 the current version which is called The Saga S Plus you know like most Wheels they’ve just kept improving them and just refining construction a lot of work and kind of thinking is being put into making sure that people don’t copy these things

Because as you know there’s a lot of knockoffs so raise make sure that you know their logos and all the markings like forged made in Japan and the Race Engineering are actually machined into the into the wheel itself and then they have this really special coating that kind of makes it look like

A rainbow effect uh when the light hits it so it’s really hard to recreate so at least that’s the idea so the the ze40 time Attack 3 is another really cool wheel that is used a lot in circuit racing time attack here in Japan because of course it’s very light and it has

That kind of progression to what the the ce28 and started that said they never put the ce28n out of production because it was such a popular wheel and that’s why in 2023 we are here seeing a revamp of it and Keen to hear all about it so

As you can see as the sizing varies it either convex or concave in the spoke design so as you can see from the slightly narrower ones the spokes actually come out they get flutter and then they go inwards when you kind of up the width okay so most media have stolen the other

Wheels but we’ve got this kind of narrower one to just go through the the major changes so basically because of structural improvements the spokes are actually thicker and there’s a little bit of carving out around the edges here and also inside the spoke and you’ll notice that the additional holes that

Are here on the original model the c28 ends are gone and of course there’s no more stickers everything is engraved so the Rays the race and bulk racing logos are engraved as is made in Japan so harder to copy and then of course the the main point of

All these changes is that you know in the last 20 plus years since this wheel has been released so it came out in 1999. cars have you know gone up quite considerably in power and performance tires have improved considerably and of course with that braking grip and

Everything else so there needs to be an additional Improvement in the rigidity and the strength of wheels and this is why the N plus was made now the cool thing is that they’ve actually managed to drop some weight it’s gone up on some models but you know some some sizes have

Actually dropped down to 500 grams less compared to the the original version a big Improvement all around and I think some people may be a little bit disappointed but the anodized coloring is gone it’s being replaced by this shiny kind of like Bronze finish and

Then the silver so this year to 2023 the 18 inch variations are on sale next year 17s and then in two years we’ll be getting the 19-inch lineup so there’s still some rollouts needed to be done and we start with the 18 which is probably like the most popular size to

Go on most cars there you are the all-new CE 28s n Plus Thank you all right so part two of the event we are at Fuji short course now we moved down down the road and the Rays have prepared a nice selection of demo cars for us to get some rides in later on so let’s check out what’s on display here

Starting with this yr Advance super impressive STI and the virus gr Yaris on t37s interesting shade of green very cool check out those massive AP Racing calipers front and back there is a different model to the monoblock front and it’s got a selection of carbon fiber virus parts starting

With this nice diffuser here and the Bonnet in the underside of the skirt to kind of complete that look just a nice simple highlight to the original body there’s a carbon Wing here too carbon extension here and this stock-on fender flares to kind of contain the aggressive offset

Of the wheels of course in Japan to pass a shotgun there’s a certain ratio that you need to maintain so that’s why you see a lot of these strips stuck onto cars and that includes the R34 nismos that have the fender flares attached to Defenders something I actually quite quite hate

And this is quite interesting this is an exedi I think it’s a Gymkhana car I think yeah there it is so it’s driven by tetsuya yamano Yaman is very famous Japanese professional GT driver and he was handling a Super GT Race theme at one

Point and now he does a lot of gym Karma Gymkhana competitions and this is obviously one of the cars that he’s been driving this year Renault Alpine on c28 these are the older models as I mentioned before they’re not available in the matte finish anymore so

You can only get them painted but what a cool card to see modified and used properly I actually drove the Alpine in Anger at a recent event they did who actually was not so recent probably late last year and I got to throw it around some cones

And do some type of gin comma Gymkhana work and it’s a really fun car could do a little bit more power but I enjoyed it a lot all right so I think uh yamano’s coming back with a trust hachiroku we’ll take a look at that car soon but

First I wanted to check out this Golf GTI from Maniacs so these are the guys that actually fit the Bilstein suspension kit to my old Audi RS4 Avant a couple of years back mainly Volkswagen Audi group oriented shop down in Yokohama they do amazing work they’re

Much like a lot of these shops that do German cars here in Japan they’re the masters of offsets and you know slamming a car to make it look its best it’s running the brand new ce28n plus that we just saw the envelope and some Michelin nice to see a bit of variety

It’s not only Japanese cars here today and then from down in Osaka we have Jay’s racing they brought their uh fl5 Civic Type R and it’s running the ca28 and SL so the super laps Albany overs and you can see the new CE 28n plus is ready to be fitted so we can

Do a before and after comparison I feel if we maybe notice the Improvement in rigidity and lightness so I’m not sure if I’m gonna be able to to kind of notice that kind of difference if I’m not driving but we’ll definitely take a ride right over here is the Prova Impreza

Again wearing some virus goodies here’s Mr tamura hello Mr tamura what are you driving today let me guess GTR new one over there okay we’ll go look later and of course Mr tamura has been working with Rays for what 35 plus years now yeah Long relationship right yeah very very high technology yeah yeah so with this and also not so easy ratio sure impossible to adopt our status car which is GTL was he yeah yeah absolutely super high typical criteria they need to fast yeah yeah Japanese champion very high level performance and top

Level forged wins right so that’s why Nissan as well as Nismo always choose phase engineering thank you for chatting to us I’ll see you later so yeah again here’s the Prova Impreza finish in a nice I don’t know if it’s wrapped matte red interesting and the gr-86 so the the driver your

Monosa is currently being interviewed by option magazine and this car has just been fitted with the new c28n pluses I have to say for me the t-37 is amazing but the c28 just I think it wins and that’s the reason I’ve been running those rims of

My GTR for so long I’ve tried different wheels in the in the meantime but I’ve always kept a 19-inch version of c28s for Street use because I think they just look amazing against the Bayside blue so I don’t know you guys tell me in the comments which do you prefer t37s or

C28s or ze40s let me know I’m kind of interested to see what you guys think too right so as Mr tamura said he came with a new GTR so let’s go take a look because these cars have just started deliveries of the regular one the Nismo

One starts in August I believe so a couple of more months to go but aside from the Nissan Gallery in Yokohama and the tokyoto salon earlier this year this is the very first time I see the 2024 GTR out on the street and looks like tamura has been killing some

Bugs on the way down to Fuji today what do you guys think do you like that bumper the daytime running lights this daytime running lights are an interesting addition but basically it looks exactly the same as a t-spec from last year it’s maintained the wheels the braking package from the Nismo and that

Millennium Jade inspired green here which I like so the denomination remains still available for 2024 as a t-spec and a Nismo oh it’s a Jays racing Civic wow that sounds raspy yeah I mean Fuji Fuji short is really awesome to drive but for shooting filming it kind of

Sucks you just basically have the the main straight here Nice and aggressive for a first lap out okay so car that was out before when I went to the pits has returned okay so here’s the z34 rz34 rather that was out before when the hachiroku was in so this car is currently running the brand new c28 ends it smells amazing

As in it’s been properly used for a couple of laps love the smells so a lot of cars are actually running michelins today Pilot Sport fives on the Z the golf is also running michelins and you’ll have to apologize I just can’t get over how cool this Dr Yaris looks

The virus are so good at just highlighting those OEM lines and just injecting a bit more aggression and plus the car is just yeah I want it I want it really bad I’ve been banned from buying more cars we’ve just gotten a new addition to the dino DC garage which

I’ll be introducing in a couple couple of weeks so yeah I’m banned from small cars now you’ll see why soon foreign Loving the number plate if you’ve never heard about this and you come to Fuji Speedway you should definitely visit the short course because if you look up here this is actually the old banked first corner that used to wrap around way way wider than what we have now as a first corner

And kind of disappear up there this is basically a vertical wall you can actually go up there and climb it there’s an access road just after the bridge there and yeah you can climb up and try to make your way up the banking I guarantee you’ll fail probably halfway

I’ve tried it many times just end up slipping and it kind of gives you an idea of what those guys were doing back in the days like you know 60 70 years ago racing that wall at like full power and of course a lot of cars end up

Flying out and a lot of crashes a lot of injuries I’m not sure about that but that’s the reason they got rid of the banked Corner when they renewed Fuji Speedway so the new c28 and pluses have been fitted to the Jays racing fl5 one

Of the drivers is going to take it out foreign Just come off the Civic thoroughly used for a few laps and right behind it here yr advance Impreza is getting it’s set of second Wheels fitted so these SLS are running Toyo triple eight hours and speaking of different I guess it’s one of the press guys it

Was shown up with a lifted Prius on raise ze40s massive Toyota tires over fenders a hybrid with a quad exhaust roof rack okay we have to take a look at them and bull bars something a bit different for your hybrid can never go wrong with a set of

White tees is the S Plus time attack it’s got that red line on the top of the rim so I thought I should point out that there’s a nice Z here in the car park this is from garage Chikara down in Mia and this is their demo car they’ve

Always been Specialists when it comes to Fair Lady Z’s especially the 33 and 34 and I was talking to the owner of the shop and he was mentioning that he’s just fitted the z34 na exhaust and it runs quite well sounds quite nice he revved it for me before and basically

Stock engine he hasn’t done much except a little bit of fiddling around with the ECU and the first thing you did was fit aftermarket wheels and brakes so he’s got an endless brake package of the front and the back and he was telling me that the car really needs it by the way

Top secret carbon Bonnet The Carving really needs it because it’s quite powerful and this is something I’ve experienced when I drove the car he said that in fourth gear in the wet the other day he was overtaking a truck on the highway and the wheel spun and the car

Went a little bit sideways on the highway at like 120 so that engine develops an insane amount of torque and you really have to be careful because the traction control is quite Antiquated in that car it’s not as quick as say like a BMW or Mercedes would be both of

The drivers have had a chance to take every car out and compare it to an older model of race and then to the c28n pluses and now they’re giving their feedback and hopefully after this we can take a ride in the cars okay I didn’t really spot it before because it sits

Kind of inward but uh that’s the reason sfl5 is so raspy nice uh Center exit exhaust from Jay’s racing Recaro buckets their own steering wheel and a shift knob that’s pretty much it that’s what you need in these cars to make them cool I remember driving the

Spoon if you’ve seen the video on that and just thinking how simple tuning modern day cars are they don’t really need much like any media event the selection of open face helmets and I’m sure there it is the head condoms because it’s June and it’s hot and it’s humid

And we sweat okay so I’m all strapped in got my L size helmet got my head condom under here I’m going to be riding in the in the Z and then I get to drive something I’m not sure what yet so we’re gonna have to wait and see so I’m in the

Z now and I’m gonna wait for my driver to arrive and hopefully fix this camera in a position that um we can actually see something being in new Z there’s not much glass available especially with the soccer setup I currently have so I may have to

Hold it so apologies in advance if this is going to be a tad um bouncy okay here’s my driver okay hello hello how are you great how are you thank you for coming thank you for uh the drive okay so we have an automatic version of the rz34 Yeah this is an insane amount of grip that we’re developing here Wow this is so fast this car quite good it’s actually the first time I come out on the automatic version of these cars yeah very fast shifting yeah good on downshifts too I can’t believe the speed well the first Corner oh my gosh me this is insane a little cool down lap wow that was impressive so you are able to feel the difference between the SL and the n-plus yeah very much steering braking uh-huh so there you go I mean

You know as cars get more powerful and more advanced entire technology keeps improving you have to improve every aspect of the car right so wheels are very much included amazing ride thank you very much yeah that was so much fun thank you thank you

Thank you okay so I did just find out I will be driving the Z after all I’m the last guy to jump in so I’ll get a nicely set of scrubbed tires I think you’re running Michelin Pilot Sport fights micheliners four fives stock engine automatic transmission and really fast

As yamano’s son showed me oh my God looking forward to this so we’re gonna wait a little bit and then we can jump in okay here we go here we go so an easy with the automatic transmission and the new rays c28 and pluses plus go here Foreign Right up to the 1.5 g mark on the lateral yeah what a workout so easy to drive with the auto back to the pits we go okay so um that’s it that was my test drive of the Z over um I was very impressed I can’t really

Say if I felt any like you know Improvement I’m not that much of a good driver and I obviously didn’t have a chance to test uh the older version of the wheels but you know anything that reinforces and kind of makes the whole structure more rigid and is catered to

More powerful cars it kind of makes people to tune and modify modern day cars I feel a little bit safer you know you don’t want to have a failure in one of the most important areas of the car so you know massive thank you to raise engineering they put on an amazing event

Here at Fuji Speedway and I hope you enjoyed it let me hear in the comments below if you want to see more of these kind of events All right a really cool car there you can