Enthusia Tasso Tipo J

The **Enthusia Tasso Tipo J** is a GT500 appearing in *MotorStorm: Return to the Wild*. This spec of the Tasso can only be purchased after the Tasso Tipo B has been unlocked, from the Tipo B's unlocking, the player may convert their Tasso Tipo B to GT500 Spec, at a price of $200,000 Dollars.

## Details

Seeing the Tasso's success in both Group 5 and Group B, Enthusia wanted to modify the Tasso once more, before being retired forever. The 24 Hours of LeMans was not an option, due to certain reasons, mainly because as the GT class became more and more specialized from 1992, while Enthusia was still trying to come up with plans for the Tasso's final part of its legendary life, Enthusia had decided to specially modify the Tasso for racing in the Japanese Grand Touring Championship, or the JGTC. Seeing the car was rear wheel drive by default, the drivetrain was barely worked on, despite a new limited slip differential was added, besides that, the drivetrain was barely modified. The car had a 50/50 brake bias.

The engine however, to comply with the JGTC's regulations, the engine was rebuilt and remapped from the default 250 brake horsepower to 350 brake horsepower, with the help of an aspiration conversion from a supercharged engine to a bi-turbo-supercharged engine, while an air filter from the Tasso Tipo S was taken, alongside a few parts from a Group B spec. The engine also had its displacement changed from 2.1 liters to 2.5 liters. In terms of transmission, the five speed manual transmission seen in the other two models of the Tasso was modified to be a six speed, with dog cut gears which gave it an extremely distinctive sound. Seeing the car had two different aspirations at once, the engine had to be extensively overhauled to be able to handle a total of 24 psi.

Upon the day it had hit the track with various specially designed racing machines in 1994 at the Fuji international speedway, the Enthusia was surprisingly able to do relatively well, despite the three drivers of the car explaining that despite it felt like a rocket in straight lines, it was quite terrifying to drive in high speed corners. However, it did not gain a podium, only finishing 14th place in class, out of the 31 other vehicles.

It also managed to race in the 1995 Suzuka 1000km, but did not finish, due to the car's turbos blowing and the transmission failing, much to Enthusia's disappointment and apathy towards repairing the car's engine. The car was then donated to the Mahojin supercar collection in Tochigi, Japan.

Upon hearing of the return of the MotorStorm Festival in 2019, Enthusia commissioned Advantage to build five replicas of the Tasso Tipo J, which were completed in time for the festival to take place. Two of the cars were driven by factory-backed drivers for Enthusia, while the three others were kept as replacement cars should the two others end up being wrecked or have mechanical problems. However, Advantage extensively modified the Tipo J's engine to properly be able to handle the 35 psi of boost that was desired, and managed to cause the Tipo J to produce 540 brake horsepower instead of 350. With that, the people at Advantage had put more openings for better air flow to the engine to allow it to drive at higher RPMs for longer periods of time, all while enhancing the stroke from 2.5 liters to 3.2 liters.

## Trivia

* The Tasso Tipo J is based upon a specially modified Lancia 037 that participated for one race in the Japanese Grand Touring Championship, however, the car failed miserably due to it being severely underpowered compared to the other cars in its class.
* The Tasso Tipo J has a few aesthetic differences compared to the other Tasso models, which are that it has a much bulkier aero kit, as well as the headlights of a 1989 BMW M5, and the taillights of a 1982 Toyota Supra, while the front wheels have slightly negative camber.
* It is interesting to note that the Tasso Tipo J, like certain vehicles in every class has its own unique sound, which sounds like a low displacement V8 with a distinctive supercharger and transmission whine, alongside the swishing sound of two turbochargers.