Japanese Auto Racer Keeps Plans on Track : Hiroyuki Matsushita is building a facility in San Clemente to manufacture race cars.

The toughest job for Hiroyuki Matsushita these days is to sit back and watch other people work.

The 31-year-old race-car driver, who last year became the first Japanese to qualify for the Indianapolis 500, is hobbled by a cast on his right leg--the result of a car crash during a May Indy 500 practice run. With help from crutches, though, he manages to get around in his jet-black ZR-1 Corvette, which he says can reach 60 miles an hour in just under five seconds.

While recuperating, he is focusing on a project that combines his passion for fast cars with his entrepreneurial spirit. Matsushita, a scion of the Japanese electronics empire, is building a multimillion-dollar, state-of-the-art research and development facility in San Clemente to manufacture race cars and to provide high-tech engineering services to car makers worldwide.

His Mission Viejo real estate development firm, Matsushita International Corp., acquired the assets and business of Swift Engineering Inc. in San Clemente a year ago for an undisclosed sum. Since then, he has bought a four-acre site at Rancho San Clemente Business Park, where he plans to construct two buildings to serve as his headquarters for consolidating the Swift operations.

One of the structures will be a 13,900-square-foot test facility that will house a soundproof wind tunnel. The tunnel will have a rolling road that will simulate highway surface for the testing of prototype vehicles. The wind tunnel, which Matsushita says is the most sophisticated of its kind in North America, will test the wind resistance and aerodynamic forces generated by a moving vehicle. Engineers will be able to predict vehicles’ speed and performance based on the drag and downward force created by the airflow on a speeding car.

The other facility--a two-story, 46,000-square-foot building--will house offices and a manufacturing center, said Wes Hamasaki, an architect with McLarand, Vasquez & Partners Inc., which is designing the facility.

The new headquarters will enable the company to produce faster and more sophisticated race cars. That could more than double its manufacturing capacity from the current annual output of 45 cars, which bring in revenue of less than $5 million, said Alexander D. Cross, Swift’s executive vice president.

Matsushita expects revenue to rise when the new facility becomes operational early next year. He said the facility will not only test Swift race cars, it will also rent out the wind tunnel to other auto makers for vehicle testing. The facility will also provide engineering and other services under contract from other car makers.

“The point is we don’t plan to make just more cars,” said Cross, who was one of four race-car enthusiasts who started Swift in 1983. “We want to make more sophisticated race cars that will be a showcase of our engineering know-how.”

Matsushita said that Swift’s 25 employees will continue to build each car by hand to meet the specifications of international racing organizations. Once the new facility is up and running, he plans to hire more engineers and expand his staff to about 100 people.

“We want to stay small and to intensely concentrate on research and development,” Matsushita said. That will allow Swift to focus on each project, he said, and “that is the only way you win.”

Looking to the future, he said, he would consider selling shares to the public if Swift becomes “very profitable.”

Matsushita has been involved with road racing since 1977, when, at the age of 16, he joined the motorcycle circuit in Kobe, Japan. He graduated to auto racing six years later and placed third in the Japan National Rally in his first year. Since moving to the United States in 1986, Matsushita had been active in auto racing until his May crash into the first turn wall during a practice run for the Indy 500.

Like most race-car drivers, Matsushita has corporate sponsors. His car, helmet, clothes and gloves proclaim the names of his Japanese backers: Sega Enterprises Ltd., a rival of electronic game maker Nintendo, and Panasonic, a brand name of Matsushita Electric Corp. of America.

For the racing season--March through October--sponsors typically pay a two-car team about $10 million and half that amount to a single-car team. Top race-car teams--those in the Formula One category--can command more than $100 million a year from sponsors, Matsushita said.

Since 1983, Swift has produced six race-car models, said R. Jim Chapman, vice president of manufacturing. The company now makes three: Formula Atlantic, Formula Ford 2000 and Sports 2000. Though they vary in power, performance and speed, he said, all meet international race-car regulations.

Matsushita, meanwhile, is spending time with his wife, Akiko, and their 2-year-old son, Takayuki, while recovering from his injuries. But he is eager to get back on the track. Watching others race is not for him, he said.

“I feel like an injured basketball player who has to condition himself physically and mentally for a game,” Matsushita said. “If I’m physically fit, I can be ready in two or three weeks.”