HKS (company)

 is a publicly traded company headquartered in Fujinomiya, Shizuoka Prefecture, Japan specializing in the production and sales of aftermarket and accessory automotive parts and components.
History.
HKS was formed in 1973 by Hiroyuki Hasegawa, a former engineer for Yamaha Motor Company, and his partner Goichi Kitagawa, while the start up capital was supplied by Sigma Automotive (hence the name HKS). The company began operations by tuning gasoline-powered engines in a dairy-farming shed at the foot of Mount Fuji in Japan. Their goal was to design and build high performance engines and components that major original equipment manufacturers could not, or would not, produce. In July 1974, Hasegawa engineered and built the first commercialized turbocharger kit for passenger automobiles, since then developing turbocharger upgrades and bolt-on turbocharger kits that subsequently became the core business of HKS. Hasegawa also created the first commercially available electronic turbo timer and boost controller.
HKS is a publicly traded company with an international sales and distribution network spanning Asia, Europe, Australia and the Americas to support its customer base. The company remains near Mt. Fuji with its main manufacturing and R&D facility in Fujinomiya City, Shizuoka Prefecture. Subsidiary companies have been established in Cambridgeshire, England (HKS Europe), Bangkok, Thailand (HKS Thailand). HKS USA was established in 1982 but shut down operations in 2011 with HKS electing instead to use wholesale distributors to handle their supply chain in the USA instead. Motovicity Distribution was selected as the North American warehouse and in In May 2020, Motovicity Distribution's assets were acquired by Turn 14 Distribution who currently handles authorized distribution of HKS's products in the United States.
Products.
HKS offers Japanese domestic model cars a wide variety of aftermarket parts ranging from engine internals such as connecting rods and camshafts to external parts such as blow off valves, intercooler kits, full exhaust systems, turbo kits, engine management systems and other performance electronics.
The company also produced the HKS 700E aircraft engine, under its subsidiary, "HKS Aviation", but the subsidiary has since stopped ceased operations.
Motorsport.
In 1984 HKS supported the Fj20et engined 'HKS WORLD TRADE SILVIA S12' competing in the JSS (Japan supersports) championship with driver Seiichi Sodeyama . 
Since the late 1980s, HKS then competed in many forms of motorsports including drag racing, JTCC, JGTC, F3, D1 Grand Prix, Superbikes, plus many others. They also sponsor many racers to carry the HKS name and to become part of the HKS team. In the past, they notably used the likes of Anthony Reid (Supertouring/JTCC), Tetsuya Kawasaki (drag racing), Nobuteru Taniguchi (D1 Grand Prix and Time Attack), Akira Iida (Time Attack) to drive for their in-house team.
In popular culture.
HKS-tuned cars have been featured in video game series such as Need for Speed and Gran Turismo.