- Dec 13, 2006
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The Malaysian motor sports scene has always suffered from a want of team sponsors, especially at the grass roots level. Even with the success of the Grass Racing Autosports (GRA) annual auto-cross series founded by Ian Khong since 2005, a majority of the competitors remain privateers at the end of the 2011 season, and not by their own choosing.
It is simply because of the lack of interest or the inability to commit resources to help budding talents to reach greater heights.
Unfortunately, this creates a vicious cycle whereby we stifle our own local talents who could one day compete in FIA-sanctioned races and finish on top of a podium.
The journey to search for willing sponsors is akin to touge-ing with an old-school chopper bicycle – you could pedal till your face turn blue and still get nowhere.
Fortunately for JSSim, the founders of Raydiance Wheels, Raymond, Bryan and David Wong understood the predicament of struggling local talents and is willing to bridge the gap of uncertainty and extend a much-needed helping hand.
From left: David, Raymond & Bryan
And thus, Team Raydiance-Michelin was born less than two weeks before the GRA 2011 season finale that was held on Nov 27 at the PA3 car park of Sepang International Circuit.
Raydiance Wheels
While many people would have heard of Raydiance Autospa due to its impressive track record in auto-detailing competitions, Raydiance Wheels was not as widely known yet.
After a year into providing the basic ride-and-handling solutions for car owners through their extensive range of Michelin tires and ultra-high accuracy alignment services, Raydiance Wheels wanted to do more for their customers.
First up was the decision to import camber nuts specifically made for KIA models, which immediately became a hit for KIA owners.
“There is this minor manufacturing defect that KIA passenger vehicles face – their cars always veer to the left even after doing alignment. Even authorized KIA service centre is unable to solve the problem. This is where we come in. We directly import the camber nuts, which we are the sole importer of, to fix this problem. Raydiance Wheels is quite well-known in the KIA community,” Raymond Wong told ZerotoHundred (ZTH) during an exclusive interview.
According to Raymond, My (KIA) Forte Club members are very happy customers and often introduce their friends to Raydiance Wheels to experience the high-level of services offered.
David: The tolerances for our balancing machine is set at 1lbs, conventional machines ranges from between 5lbs to 8lbs.
“We invested heavily in our operations, getting top-of-the-line and ultra-high accuracy 3D wheel alignment machines and tire balancing machines. The strict tolerances offered by the machines although means a slightly longer time spent at our customer lounge but the outcome of the highly accurate alignment and balancing is worth the wait,” said David Wong.
Bryan: Our foremen all have more than 10 years of experience in all aspects of car maintenance and repairs
“Apart from having high-tech machinery, we also take pride in our staff, by choosing cream-of-the-crop team members in order to provide a holistic experience for our customers. We have three highly experienced foremen from diverse backgrounds – one from an authorized Honda service centre, one from a chassis and engine part assembler and finally an air-conditioning specialist, all of which has more than 10 years of experience in car maintenance and repair. Raydiance Wheels is definitely more than just a tire shop,” Bryan Wong added.
Team Raydiance-Michelin
“We are always looking to improve our own knowledge in vehicle ride-and-handling so that we can better serve our customers so when we heard about Sim, we realized that it would be a good platform for us to further improve on our know-how. As Sim was driving a Proton Wira, a fairly common car on Malaysian roads, we also saw the potential of how our competition experience would be able to benefit our on-the-road customers,” Raymond explained.
Jackson, one of the foreman at Raydiance working on JSSim's competition car
While the extreme setups for GRA competitions would not be replicated for daily driving, the behaviour and handling characteristics of the different settings used in different track layouts provides a wealth of knowledge for the Raydiance team in studying the tire wear patterns and also the pitch and roll of the alignment settings.
They intend to fine-tune their existing services to offer their customers a safer and more comfortable journey on the road.
“We will be experimenting extensively on different setups in a safe and controlled track environment to create our own bible for ride-and-handling fine-tuning. We recognize the skills of Sim and are happy to work with him for this final round and also for the 2012 season. This is how Raydiance Wheels intends to heighten our customer experience through greater satisfaction from a well-setup car,” Raymond said.
Raymond: We will be offering ride and handling products in 2012
When asked what are the plans for the 2012 season, Raymond revealed that they are planning to import ride-and-handling products and parts such as full coilovers and chassis strengthening bars to be sold under the Raydiance brand.
“You will see a lot of Raydiance products for all the major car manufacturers next year. It will be a direct plug-and-play fitment for passenger cars. The products will be fitted into Sim’s competition car to facilitate testing for more room of improvement. We will be actively engaging with our overseas supplier through constant feedback for further product improvement,” he added.
Bryan: Raydiance will be a one-stop car centre for our customers in the future
“Although we are just starting off with ride-and-handling upgrades, we aim to be a one-stop centre like ENEOS in five years time. We will be offering our customers a full range of engine and handling related performance products under our Raydiance brand name. We also intend to have our own boutique in offering FIA-approved full race apparel like racing suits, gloves, shoes, harnesses and helmets in the near future. Although there is still a long way to go but this is our commitment to our customers,” Bryan said.
It is never easy to justify sponsorship in motor sports, let alone at a grass roots level as the exposure is still very much limited.
Raydiance Wheels at Sunway Mentari
Therefore, this speaks volume of the commitment of the founders of Raydiance by investing in a local talent in order to achieve a bigger dream in the future.
Malaysian motor sports scene definitely needs more like-minded sponsors like Raydiance so that our local talents can also look forward to a brighter future.
Raydiance Wheels is located at No. 23-25, Jalan PJS 8/12, Mentari Business Park, 46150 Bandar Sunway, Selangor, Malaysia and is open from Monday to Saturday, 9am to 8pm.
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