An introduction to Hancha Group
 

In a world where decisions are made at the bottom line, quality and customer satisfaction have taken a back seat. We choose to be different. Hancha is fully committed to designing the best possible products it can, benchmarked against the highest standards. We are dedicated to delivering products of the highest quality, with an unmatched attention to detail. If it bears the Hancha name, you are assured it will always work, saving you time, money, and reducing waste to make the world a better place.
This is the Hancha Guaranteed Promise of Quality.

Hi everyone, my name is Earl Han (earlqhan) and I wanted to introduce Hancha Group. To give you all a little background about Hancha Group, my friend Paul Lucas (pwlucas) and I formed the company late last year when I received a grant from the Purdue School of Engineering to continue researching my patent pending fluid flow alteration system. Paul and I are both graduates of the Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) Motorsports Engineering program where we learned what it takes to build and operate a race team from professors experienced in SCCA, IMSA GTP, IndyCar, Champ Car, ALMS, and Formula 1. (For those who want to pursue motorsports engineering as a career path, I highly recommend the program). To test the fluid flow alteration system, we used the stock FR-S as the baseline for doing our CFD work, which is how we ended up here.

Due to happenstance we are now developing products for the BRZ/FR-S/GT86. We have a lot of exciting ideas for developing products for these cars, some of which are unlike anything else available on the market right now. We do not think of ourselves as an aftermarket manufacturer, we think of ourselves as an engineering firm that happens to make aftermarket products.

In a past life I had worked with many vendors on here at a personal and professional level. That gave me a lot of insight into how parts are developed, made, and sold. There are a lot of manufacturers and vendors out there that only worry about the bottom line and the next sale. We are here to cut through the BS and operate professionally and ethically.

Priority #1 is safety. Everything is engineered, designed, and simulated before the first prototype is even made. Then we test. To ensure quality we produce all Hancha products in the USA by the properly quality certified manufacturers. We use high quality aerospace materials from fully traceable sources. This is as expensive as it sounds, but our responsibility is to those who come into contact with our products, not our own pockets. We would rather go belly up and broke than to do business in any other fashion.

We look forward to doing business with the FT86 community and hope we can work together to develop the platform to its fullest potential.

Hi fellow car lovers, I am Paul. I am the other side of Hancha Group. I do all the aerodynamic development. Like Earl said, we are more than just a parts company, we are an engineering group. I thought I would pop in and show a little of what we can offer on the aerodynamic development side of things.

Our aerodynamic development is done using CFD. To do this, modeling is done using Creo Parametric (formally called Pro-Engineer). This is where the car model and various other aero bits are modeled. After this, the analysis is set up and solved. We use OpenFOAM as our cfd software which is ran off of Linux. All of our work is completely open to the customer.

We have already began some aero development on the BRZ/FRS/FT86. We have designed a single element wing (currently getting quoted). This work is shown below.

http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/...ps9e4c3a18.jpg
Rear Wing Render

http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/...psa316c1b2.png
An idea of the placement on the car (exact placement has now changed a little based on our CFD analysis)

http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/...ps78738e83.png
Data of the wing

http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/...psa0a68308.jpg
CFD postprocessing

http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/...ps5dc159a1.png
One of the first cfd analysis of the wing on the frs model


We can do more than just this also...

We have experience with development on race cars including open wheel cars, dragsters, and production based cars. Besides just race cars, we also have done some work with semis.

http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/...psce64da4b.jpg
Open Wheel analysis

http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/...ps3833297f.jpg
Dragster analysis

http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/...ps3e2b4eb3.jpg
Semi analysis

http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/...ps957b354a.jpg
Semi analysis

If you have any questions or a quote on some work, feel free to let us know.

Cheers,
Paul

GREAT introduction!!

I have my doubts that I'll be able to play in the dollar arena that you guys will be selling in, but if I can, you'll be top of the list to contact.

I do have to admit that I'm really wondering what your "patent pending fluid flow alteration system" is about. When I read that the first thoughts that came to mind were about process control valves but given the back ground you listed that doesn't really seem to fit.

Seems like lots of potential here. Great to see you guys in the community!

It's a fancy schmancy technical name for a passive DRS ;) (Drag Reduction System). It's to exploit loopholes in the forms of racing that do not allow active aero, but make no mention of moving aero. Based on the downforce the wing is generating (so speed and air density dependent) you can tune the wing to reduce it's angle of attack to shed drag on long straights. A very simple idea at the heart of it. It is currently patent pending. We're also working on getting design patents for some of Paul's proprietary wing profiles.

We want to continually innovate so we raise the level of competition between companies and forces them to improve or die. This only helps the consumer. Our products will be very high quality, but we understand we need to compete at a reasonable price point, so we explore all options before we put anything into production. Don't worry though, we're working with another company to bring a more street-friendly and price-oriented product, but you can be sure we'll put the same level of detail into development. :) So please be patient if price is holding you back.

Thank you, we're just at the tip of the iceberg. We have a whole lot more in store for you guys if you guys are willing to support us.

I think I get what you're trying to do. Sneaky. I like it.

Open, transparent development has been supported here so far. Hopefully the trend continues.

You guys aren't working on a KERS system are you!? :p

I'm subscribed to this thread. Should I follow your blog (reading now) for the quickest info on product releases and updates? I also noticed you guys are out of Chicago...even more awesome.

Not anytime soon. :thumbdown: I may defer grad school (Cranfield's Advanced Motorsports Engineering in England) but when I was interviewing they told me they did development work for Flybrid last year. I would've loved to have been on that development team. Hopefully the rumors are true and Toyota will put KERS into the FR-S/GT86.

As for the blog, it is the easiest place to stay updated on developments since it's all there and you don't have to search subforums for info. Thanks for showing interest in Hancha!

Earl

We are pleased to publicly announce our warranty policy. We believe we offer some of the best products available and we stand behind our claim.

We are offering a three (3) year warranty on all our products to be free from manufacturer's defects.

Hancha Racing Products will be covered under warranty for some forms of motorsports as well! We do not say our products are intended for motorsport use, then void our warranty when they are used as intended.

Our warranty is also transferable. So if you happen to buy our products second-handed, we can still honor the original warranty.

For full details, please check out our terms of sale

If you have any questions about our warranty policy, please PM or email us.

Now on Facebook. https://www.facebook.com/HanchaGroup

Great intro! I would love to do automotive engineering. Lost a chance in interning at McLaren, but would have loved to do the things you are doing! Hope to see more of your product ideas!

Thanks Matt. It's a tough career choice, but it can be exciting and rewarding. Best of luck to you.

Dear FT86ers,

Over the last few days, there was a series of incidents where I, Earl (earlqhan), overstepped my bounds and put my nose where it didn't belong. This matter has really been gnawing away at me. In my over eagerness to defend our engineering principles, I unintentionally sparked a wild and raucous argument. It caused other vendors to become involved, and to the vendors involved, I apologize. I really am embarrassed that this happened. It raised questions about other vendors' products and their design, engineering, and manufacturing, when I was never questioning that in the first place. I feel I unknowingly and unintentionally slighted them. For that I apologize as well. In defending our product designs, I may have come across as elitist and trying to make our product seem superior and others inferior, and so for that I apologize as well.

My intention was to help inform consumers. We, as manufacturers, have to make compromises each time we create a product, based on our niche market. Hancha has chosen to try and be on the cutting edge. Does this make our products better? No, our products will always be in uncharted territory, meaning there is more risk involved. This is why I wanted so badly to defend our engineering principles, to put potential consumers' minds at ease. That I have thought out details that most consumers never even question. However, our product is outside the reach of the average consumer's budget. I'm sorry our products are not meant for the average user and that some may never get to see our designs and quality, but this is how we have to price our products to survive.

Now does this mean our products are better than other manufacturers? Does it mean product from Brand A through Brand X are less valid? No, absolutely not. I want consumers to buy the product that they are most comfortable with. Whether that decision is based on outright performance or lowest price or somewhere in between. There is no such thing as a perfect product, if there was, we'd all be making the same thing. We, as manufacturers, all make compromises based on our intended market. We have chosen to sacrifice cost and durability, to create a lighter and stiffer part. Others may chose to sacrifice ease of adjustment for cost, or weight for strength, or stiffness for durability. I do not know, nor do I claim to know how manufacturers make their decisions. Just know, there is a reason behind the decisions we make: to try and earn your business.

I want to tell you that I'm sorry for my behavior and if you felt it compromised my integrity. I hope to one day earn your trust and hopefully, your business. My goal here is to help inform consumers so they understand what goes into manufacturing a product so they can better make purchasing decisions. Armed with information, you can demand a better product from us, the manufacturers.

Sincerely,

Earl Han
President

Have you guys considered making JDM like underpanels? If you can make them for less then getting JDM panels here I think you would get lots of interest.