User:Donnie Park/Akira Kogawa

Akira Kogawa (粉川 章) (born 1962, Toyoake, Aichi) is a radio-controlled car designer, notable for his employment at Kyosho and Hobby Products International and his car designs within his employment. He began his career with Kyosho following graduation from high school where he helped to design some of its notable models including the Scorpion, Optima and Ultima, the former two was noteworthy for being the first buggy dedicated for serious racing use and the four-wheel drive buggy respectively. Seeking an opportunity to work in the United States, he resumed his design career where he designed the Baja 5B.

Biography
To maintain his expensive hobby whilst at high school, Kogawa worked in gas stations and delivered papers, he had to work for a week to be able to raise money for new tires. When he graduated from high school, Kogawa used his connections he made from racing to gain employment at Auto Model, who designed cars for Kyosho. After some persistence, Kogawa was accepted by its president, Naohiko Otsuki in 1981 aged 18, one of his first role was to assist Yuji Taki on the designs of the 20 Fantom, a 1:8 scale pan car. His first major design was a novelty radio-controlled model, called the Blizzard, a snowplow which unexpectedly sold well and thereafter shifted his focus on electric car models that he followed it with the Scorpion, an 1:10 scale off-road buggy. The car was considered innovative as there was not much alternative then and it led the way for R/C off-road racing as more off-road circuits was built to accomodate. Kogawa later designed the Optima, a 4WD car, to fulfill the needs of a serious competition off-road car and later the Ultima in 1987 to fulfill the 2WD class. Kogawa drove the prototype Ultima in the 1986 JMRCA All-Japan Off-Road 2WD Championship but as a heavily modified form, it won the IFMAR 1:10 Off-Road 2WD World Championship in 1987 driven by Joel Johnson.

In 1988, he left Kyosho to emigrate to the United States to work for HPI where he continued his employment with. Toward the end of his tenature at Kyosho, he designed the MP-1 Burns, remarkable for its build quality a far contrast to European Garagistas cars available on the market at the time. Yuichi Kanai, who assisted Kogawa in the design, drove one to earn a Top Qualifier spot at the 1988 IFMAR 1:8 IC Off-Road World Championship. He took over Kogawa's role in the work of 1:8 off-road cars following his departure.

Competition career
Aside the 1986 All-Japan Championships, Kogawa also competed in the 1987 IFMAR 1:10 Off-Road World Championship, driving an Ultima and a Optima MID that he also designed. He finished 54th in the 2WD class and 68th in 4WD.

Designs

 * Kyosho Blizzard
 * Kyosho Scorpion (1982)
 * Kyosho Beetle (1983)
 * Kyosho Tomahawk
 * Kyosho Turbo Scorpion
 * Kyosho Plazma
 * Kyosho Fantom EP
 * Kyosho Optima (1985)
 * Kyosho Javelin
 * Kyosho Turbo Optima (1986)
 * Kyosho Optima Pro (1987)
 * Kyosho Turbo Optima Mid (1988)
 * Kyosho Turbo Optima Mid Special (1988)
 * Kyosho Ultima (1987)
 * Kyosho Turbo Ultima (1988)
 * Kyosho Maxxum FF (1988)
 * Kyosho MP-1 Burns (1988)
 * HPI RS4
 * HPI Micro-RS4
 * HPI Baja 5B
 * HPI 10L