2025 CTCC Shaoxing | From Dead Last to Class Champions: How Our 1.5T "Giant-Killer" FK7 Won on Brakes
How do you win a professional touring car race when you are down 500cc on the entire field? You are in a 1.5T Honda Civic FK7, lined up against a grid of 2.0T TCR-spec monsters. Now, add a catastrophic failure in qualifying that forces you to start dead last (P21).
Logically, you shouldn't win. But at the recent CTCC (China Touring Car Championship) round in Ningbo, the TTSPORT & YITRON team achieved the impossible. In a race defined by chaos, extreme heat, and sudden rain, our 1.5T "Red-Eyed Demon" proved that when you are outgunned on horsepower, you win in the braking zones.
The "Red-Eyed Demon" vs. The Field
This race marked the debut of our new livery. The aggressive graffiti style and signature red headlights earned the car its nickname: the "Red-Eyed Demon." But looks don't win races.
The deck was stacked against us. The TCS class is dominated by 2.0T engines. We were the only 1.5T car on the grid. In a 55-minute endurance race, we had less power, smaller tires, and a significant disadvantage on the long straights of Ningbo International Speedpark.
Disaster: The "Live Hack" in the Pits
Before we even set a lap time, disaster struck. On the warm-up lap, the steering rack failed, leaving the car with zero feedback. The team scrambled to source a replacement part, but there was a catch: the new rack was electronically incompatible with the race car's ECU.
With minutes ticking down, our driver Wang Wenbin and the team's programmers had to live-hack the ECU in the pit lane, writing new code on the fly to force the car to accept the new steering rack.
They succeeded, but the cost was huge: we missed the entire qualifying session. We would start the race from P21. Dead last.
The Race: Winning in the Braking Zones
The race conditions were a nightmare. Track temperatures hit nearly 60°C (140°F)—conditions that usually boil brake fluid and cook pads. To make matters worse, a monsoon hit halfway through the race, turning the hot track into a slippery river.
This is where our disadvantage became our advantage. While the heavier, more powerful 2.0T cars struggled with heat management and traction, our lightweight 1.5T setup—anchored by TTSPORT Race-Spec Forged Calipers—allowed our drivers to brake deeper and later.
Lap after lap, we reeled them in. The brake consistency gave drivers Sun Zheng and Wang Wenbin the confidence to attack wet corners while others were sliding off track.
From P21 to P1: The Championship Win
In a race defined by attrition and chaos, the "Red-Eyed Demon" was a precision instrument. We carved through the entire field, moving from last place to cross the line P1, securing the TCS Class Championship win.
This victory validates our core engineering philosophy: A balanced chassis with a superior, fade-proof braking system will always beat raw power in a true driver's race.
Race Tech FAQ
1. Did you use special "race only" brakes?
The calipers used on the "Red-Eyed Demon" share the same forged monoblock architecture and metallurgy as our consumer Pro-Series kits. We use racing to torture-test our seals, pistons, and alloy structures to ensure the products we sell for the street can handle anything you throw at them.
2. How did the 1.5T keep up with 2.0T cars?
On the straights, we didn't. They pulled away. We made up the time by braking 10-20 meters later into every corner. Over a 55-minute endurance race, those fractions of a second add up to minutes gained.
3. What happened with the steering rack?
The replacement rack was from a different Honda specification. The car's computer initially rejected it, locking the steering. By manually rewriting the handshake code in the ECU, our team "tricked" the car into accepting the part, allowing us to race.
Race-Proven Tech. Street-Ready Performance.
The same thermal management engineering that survived the 140°F heat at Ningbo is built into every kit we sell.