2014 Rally Bohemia Legend - Mitsubishi Starion 2000 Turbo

PIAA Corporation is an automobile parts and supplies manufacturer headquartered in Bunkyō, Tokyo,

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

. It is a consolidated subsidiary of

Ichikoh Ichikoh Industries, Ltd. is a Japanese automotive parts manufacturer which mainly produces light and mirrors. It is known for its development of electric wing mirrors (seen, for instance, on the C32 Nissan Laurel). In 2007, it established ...

, which in turn is a subsidiary of

Valeo Valeo is a French global automotive supplier headquartered in France, listed on the Paris Stock Exchange ( CAC-40 Index). It supplies a wide range of products to automakers and the aftermarket. The Group employs 113,600 people in 33 countries wo ...

. Despite the capitalization of its name implying that it is an acronym, it was stated in 2015 and 2019 to actually be onomatopoeia.

History

* 1963 - Ichikoh Industries Co., Ltd.'s general repair parts sales department is separated and independent as Eva Ace Co., Ltd. * 1980 - Started product development under the PIAA brand. * 1981 - Sold door mirrors and became a hit product. * 1982 - Participated in the World Rally Championship and RAC Rally with ADVAN-PIAA Rally Team racing a Lancer Turbo. * 1983 - Launched the car carrier brand Terzo. * 1984 - Changed trade name to PIAA Corporation . * 1986 - Started supporting racing driver Satoru Nakajima . * 1987 - Started selling high-performance aluminum wheels using the world's highest

forging Forging is a manufacturing process involving the shaping of metal using localized compressive forces. The blows are delivered with a hammer (often a power hammer) or a die. Forging is often classified according to the temperature at which i ...

method. * 1989 - Head office moved to Jingumae, Shibuya. * 1991 - Toyota Celica, who supplied lamps at the Safari Rally, won the overall victory. * 1999 - Released the world's first water-repellent silicone wiper. * 2004 - Entered the motorcycle industry and started supporting the Suzuka 8 Hours Endurance Road Race . * 2011 - Changed trade name to PIAA Co., Ltd. Moved the head office to Suido, Bunkyo Ward. Became a wholly owned subsidiary of Ichikoh Industries, Ltd. Partnership with

, a major French auto parts manufacturer. * 2017 - Concluded an official technical partner contract with Toyota Gazoo Racing World Rally Team. Ichikoh Industries became a member of the Valeo Group as a result of becoming an affiliate of Valeo Bayen, and the corporate logo was partially changed. * 2018 - Provided lighting for the movie Over Drive as production cooperation.

Products

Current Product Lines * Light Bulb (HID, LED, Halogen, Incandescent ) * Wiper * Carrier roof box * Cooler * Forged Alloy Wheel * Filters (oil, air, air conditioner, etc.) * Radiator valve * Horn * Repair parts (clutches ,starters/alternators ,air conditioner parts, lamps, etc.)

Motorsports

PIAA is active in supporting

motorsport Motorsport, motorsports or motor sport is a global term used to encompass the group of competitive sporting events which primarily involve the use of motorized vehicles. The terminology can also be used to describe forms of competition of two ...

s. It started by supplying lamps to rally teams in 1982. After that, its customer base gradually expanded, and currently, in addition to racing cars such as rally and

touring cars Touring car racing is a motorsport road racing competition with heavily modified road-going cars. It has both similarities to and significant differences from stock car racing, which is popular in the United States. While the cars do not move ...

(such as in the

Nürburgring 24 Hours The Nürburgring 24 Hours is a 24-hour annual touring car and GT endurance racing event that takes place on a combination of the Nordschleife ("North Loop") and the GP-Strecke ("Grand Prix track") circuits of the Nürburgring in Rhineland-Palat ...

, Spa 24 Hours, and Fuji 24 Hours), the company also supplies

racing motorcycles In sport, racing is a competition of speed, in which competitors try to complete a given task in the shortest amount of time. Typically this involves traversing some distance, but it can be any other task involving speed to reach a specific goa ...

(such as in the

Suzuka 8 Hours The is a motorcycle endurance race held at the Suzuka Circuit in Japan each year. The race runs for eight hours consecutively and entrants are composed of two or more riders who alternate during pitstops. History The race began in 1978 as a ...

and FIM Endurance World Championship). Due to the high quality of its products, many teams use not only its lamps but also its water-repellent wipers, aluminum wheels, etc. for both cars and motorcycles in Japan and overseas. Tyrrell 026 Goodwood 1998

PIAA was the title sponsor in Formula One of the Tyrrell Racing Organisation's entrants for the

1997 File:1997 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The movie set of ''Titanic'', the highest-grossing movie in history at the time; ''Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone'', is published; Comet Hale-Bopp passes by Earth and becomes one of t ...

and

1998 1998 was designated as the ''International Year of the Ocean''. Events January * January 6 – The '' Lunar Prospector'' spacecraft is launched into orbit around the Moon, and later finds evidence for frozen water, in soil in permanently ...

seasons. The PIAA sponsorship livery was displayed on the

Tyrrell 025 The Tyrrell 025 was the car with which the Tyrrell team competed in the 1997 Formula One World Championship. It was driven by Finn Mika Salo, who was in his third season with the team, and Dutchman Jos Verstappen, who moved from Footwork. De ...

driven by Mika Salo and Jos Verstappen, and on the

Tyrrell 026 The Tyrrell 026 was the car with which the Tyrrell Formula One team competed in the 1998 Formula One season, it was the last Tyrrell car to compete in F1. It was driven by Ricardo Rosset and rookie Toranosuke Takagi. This was Tyrrell's last y ...

driven by Ricardo Rosset and Toranosuke Takagi. This helped increase international awareness of the PIAA brand. PIAA had earlier been a minor sponsor of the Tyrrell team during the

1990 File:1990 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1990 FIFA World Cup is played in Italy; The Human Genome Project is launched; Voyager I takes the famous Pale Blue Dot image- speaking on the fragility of Humankind, humanity on Earth, Astroph ...

and

1991 File:1991 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Boris Yeltsin, elected as Russia's first president, waves the new flag of Russia after the 1991 Soviet coup d'état attempt, orchestrated by Soviet hardliners; Mount Pinatubo erupts in the Phil ...

seasons on the

Tyrrell 019 The Tyrrell 019 was a 1990 Formula One racing car, designed by a team led by Harvey Postlethwaite, and built by Tyrrell. It was an evolution of Postlethwaite's first design for Tyrrell, the Tyrrell 018. The 019 marked a significant point in the ...

and

020 020 is the national dialling code for London in the United Kingdom. All subscriber numbers within the area code consist of eight digits and it has capacity for approaching 100 million telephone numbers. The code is used at 170 telephone exch ...

, respectively. Support for former racing driver Satoru Nakajima has been deeply connected since 1986. At the

1991 Japanese Grand Prix The 1991 Japanese Grand Prix (formally the XVII Fuji Television Japanese Grand Prix) was a Formula One motor race held at Suzuka on 20 October 1991. It was the fifteenth round of the 1991 Formula One season. The 53-lap race was won by McLaren dri ...

, which was Nakajima's last race at Suzuka, the Hinomaru support flag of "Thank you Satoru Nakajima" was developed. Even after he retired from active racing, PIAA continued to sponsor his

Nakajima Racing Nakajima Planning Co.,Ltd, racing as Nakajima Racing, is a Super Formula and Super GT team organized and founded by Satoru Nakajima in 1983. The team has fielded four championship winners in the Formula Nippon racing series: Tom Coronel, Toranos ...

team. It withdrew from sponsorship in 2009, but resumed support in 2012. In the WRC, Toyota,

Hyundai Hyundai is a South Korean industrial conglomerate ("chaebol"), which was restructured into the following groups: * Hyundai Group, parts of the former conglomerate which have not been divested ** Hyundai Mobis, Korean car parts company ** Hyundai ...

, and

Citroën Citroën () is a French automobile brand. The "Automobiles Citroën" manufacturing company was founded in March 1919 by André Citroën. Citroën is owned by Stellantis since 2021 and previously was part of the PSA Group after Peugeot acquired ...

are supplied with PIAA lamps (and, for the former, water-repellent wipers).

References

{{Automotive industry in Japan Automotive companies based in Tokyo Manufacturing companies based in Tokyo Auto parts suppliers of Japan Wheel manufacturers Japanese brands Manufacturing companies established in 1963 Japanese companies established in 1963 Bunkyō