"RS" in Japanese parts makers' names?

[NotableGuest]

Hi- I was curious why so many Japanese shops and manufacturers (Active, Factory Stage, Watanabe, etc) include the letters "RS" in the English translation of their names? I wonder what it stands for or why it was a trend?

[— fwdtamiya —]

RS Active is Racing Sports, RS Watanabe is Racing Service, RS Factory Stage is Roadster Technical. I assume the moniker is taken from common older cars used for racing purposes, such as the Rallye Sport chevys, and altered to fit any number of other brands without copyright issues or complete brand confusion.

[— freedomgli —]

As fwdtamiya said, it's actual meaning differs slightly depending on who is using it. But in essence it's meant to convey a certain raciness. We all know certain letter and alphanumeric combinations are more racy than others and nothing is more racy than the letters R and/or S (followed by M, X and Z). Generations of marketing wizards have paid for their kids' orthodontics by coming up with all sorts of racy combinations like GSX-R, ZXR-750RR, RS*R, R1, RS4, Type R.

[NotableGuest]

Thanks guys. Curiosity quenched.

[atlex]

For Japanese tuners/parts makers

Race/Racing - Shop/Studio/Service

RS-Aizawa
RS*R
RS Watanabe

(I have an NA with parts from all the above)

on car models...

Race/Rallye - Sport/Spec

Ford RS200 (look it up if you haven't ever heard of it..)
911 GT3 RS

both of which I wish I had.

[Pfunk]

Of course, for those of us who've dropped orders of magnitude more cash on our cars than we could ever get back in a sale, the "RS" stands for "real suckers".