Who is Mike Kojima?

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Thus Dai's S13 was born. The team quickly picked up momentum in 2010 and was in the hunt for the championship right up until the last event of the 2010 season.  in 2011 Mike had apparently learned to work with the team and the car to get it to Dai's liking so that he could clinch the 2011 Formula D Championship. An accomplishment that is probably the most challenging yet rewarding of Mike's life in motor sports. He may be quiet and humble about it, but Mike wells with pride at this accomplishment and rightfully so. It is easy to see that Mike played a key role in the 2011 championship as evidenced by him being named the 2011 Formula D Crew Member of the Year.  

Despite the fact that Mike is not in either one of these photo's, do not think for a  second that he isn't present and engineering a way to win.

Mike has had his hand in some of the cleanest and well sorted car builds both in print and on-line. Quite simply he has a disorder for doing everything above what is considered perfect and with his resources I challenge anyone to challenge Mike. Hell, his projects have served as benchmarks and inspiration in my own personal car builds and I have numerous friends and acquaintances that can say the same thing.

If you ask Mike what his favorite car is he will tell you his Evo IX… Why? Balance.

With all of this success as a chassis engineer and setup guy much of the industry is looking at him as the expert in the field… However if you ask Mike he will quickly declare otherwise. He will humbly say he has that reputation because he “sucks less at it than other people do”. You see this is where Mike differs from the rest of us. In this realm he is quite simply “Rain Man” and he sees math and complex movements in a way that most humans never will, in color. Hell, Mike is so good with suspension design that he owns two patents that were put into production on Ellsworth mountain bikes. One thing that makes me respect Mike is that he knows his limitations in experience as he will tell you his skill set for chassis setup is limited to sedan based cars that are not aero dominant. Regardless, he has built a reputation for putting cars in the Winner's circle whether they are his own, his clients, or even his competitors. Mike thrives on challenge and it is his personal goal to see the underdog win, I see that as something that he has not only applied to cars but to himself!

Despite his strong desire for perfection Mike has a great sense of humor… He forgot he had this JDM wig on at the MPTCC finale…

As my words build Mike up and put him on this pedestal I quickly realize that Mike Kojima isn't truly represented by any of the above accomplishments. Mike is defined not by what he has done but what he will do! He never stops working and the instant one project is done the next one begins. I guess we should all be thankful that he has always freely shared his talents and ideas with the public even in the face of adversity and it is perhaps for that that I respect him most.