This was my first off season not working for a publication full time, and I have to say, it was a relief. What many don't realize is how difficult it can be to fill content for a publication during the off season. This year, however, there were a lot of exciting things happening, including the development of the Scion tC drift car that I am sure many of you have already heard about.
It is interesting that Scion is getting involved with the sport of drifting. Sure, it raises brand awareness, and gets another group of potential consumers interested in Scions, but does this mean that they will be producing a RWD sports coupe? With their continued support in all facets of the industry, however, I can only hope other manufacturers take notes and realizes that the aftermarket industry is here to stay.
This past weekend was the Formula D season opener, as well as the Battle of the Imports season opener. Battle of the Imports is making a statement this year, capturing the attention of many pro teams and doing a full blown schedule supporting the racers. They've gotten many sponsors on board, and it's important this year that drag racing picks up some steam and continues to grow.
This year will be interesting for the sport compact crowd. We have Time Attack events taking the West Coast by storm, and it will be nice to see all facets of sport compact motorsports working together to help the industry as a whole grow. Unfortunately (or fortunately!) for me, I won't be traveling much this year, but I'm always keeping my eyes on the forums to see what's going on. Race weekends are always exciting watching my favorite forums update with live results.
To compete in this year's US Grand Prix Professional Drift events, drift tuners RS*R cooked up this fantastic 400 hp rear-wheel drive Scion tC drift car. The RWD conversion was made a lot easier by the fact that the tC shares its platform with the Avensis and Caldina, Toyota's JDM 4WD and AWD offerings. The tC's stock transverse-mounted 2.4 L 4-cylinder was replaced with a turbocharged, longitudinally-set 3SGE Beams motor. Aftermarket goodies include a HKS GT3037 turbo and intercooler, an AEM EMS engine management system, a G-Force 5-speed sequential trans, a Tolton triple carbon clutch, Project Mu brakes, RS-R coilovers, and Enkei wheels. You'll first be able to see this little monster scorch those nice new Toyos on April 12 at Formula Drift's Round 1 in Long Beach, CA, which'll be broadcast nationally on ESPN2. But unfortunately, there's no plan to produce a RWD tC for the domestic or international market. See more pics after the jump!
Continue reading "For Drift Use Only: RWD Scion tC" »
Show season is starting, there's no doubt about that. CarDomain has already started dropping hot pics from great shows like Dub Detroit and Daytona Spring Break Nationals. Have you checked out our upcoming show list? If you think there's a show we should check out that's not on the list, make sure you let us know! We'd hate to miss anything good! Just like I bet you'd hate to miss all this great news from SoundDomain!
- We've got pretty comprehensive coverage of Spring Break Nationals, but not all the photos made into our coverage. One of the non-car events the SBN guys had for show attendees was a pizza eating contest. Have you ever seen a show model eat a pizza without her hands? She was hanging with the big boys no problem!
- Themed show cars are nothing new to the scene, but this Spiderman-themed xB really caught my attention at the show in Daytona. It looked particularly hot in the dark at the NiteGlow competition!
- This on "I Want That" Al & Ed's Mr. Mobile discusses the Audiovox MOvies-2-Go 7" headrest LCD/DVD systems. There's also a chance to win a set for yourself. Check out the video!
Last month Automotive News published an article titled "Toyota's perky youth brand is adding dealers but losing sales as 2nd-generation models struggle" (we can't link to the article, cause Automotive News doesn't let non-subscribers read their stuff, but someone at VWVortex cut and pasted he full text into the forum.) Then this past weekend the New York Times ran an article called "Cars So Hip That It Hurts." The writer, Ezra Dyer, seemed to feel that the evolution of the xB reflects the change to the brand as a whole:
The old xB was like a newly arrived Japanese exchange student who dresses like Max Headroom and pulls live sea urchins out of his lunch bag, blissfully naïve about his lack of assimilation. The new xB is like the same kid six months later, still unquestionably the product of a different culture, but now self-conscious of that fact and beginning to temper his perceived eccentricities with trips to the Hollister store and the occasional McRib sandwich for lunch. He’s tailoring his persona, but to what end? Is it better to have a smaller group of fiercely loyal friends, or a wide swath of indifferent acquaintances? Is it worse to be polemic or forgettable? That’s what Scion has to figure out.
So is this much ado about nothing, or is there a real issue here? Is Scion having an identity crisis and losing sales as a result?
Scion always has great displays, and their New York spread is no exception. And I was glad to see that they had already rolled out the Hako concept front and center this morning. Two more pics after the jump.
Oh, and I see there is a lot of hate on the Hako concept. I agree that the windshield is a bit absurd, but it is a pretty cool little car.
Continue reading "Scion in New York" »
Developed by the Tokyo Design Devision, the Hako Concept Coupe is like a hot rodder's dream of the xB. It looks hot in orange, too. Let's hope they end up making something like it. Check out the light show during the unveil. I had to fight photographers to get close to the thing. Two more shots after the jump.
Continue reading "Hako Coupe Concept Unveil" »
Scion just release this teaser image of their Hako concept, which will be unveiled at the New York Auto Show later this month. It will mostly take the Fuse concept one step closer to production, and could very well be the replacement for the tC coupe. Press release after the jump.
Hey Ari, would you trade in your tC for this?
Continue reading "Scion Hako Concept: tC Replacement?" »
I saw this badass Scion in the March issue of Hot Rod and got in touch with Rick, the owner, who kindly built a ride page for it on our site. Yep, it's a RWD xB with a stroked 350 putting out 400 hp. Other than the Weld Draglites (which look killer on this car IMO) it's a total sleeper. Click through to the ride page for more pics. The car is the paint shop now, and Rick plans to have it finished by April--we'll definitely keep you posted.
Coolest freebie of Monday goes to Scion, who fitted the hatch of the Five Axis concept (an extensively modified xD) with one of those crane games you find in a video arcade. And video screens, courtesy of Pioneer. I counted seven, with two in the rear hatch glass (it lifted to reveal the game), one in each rear hatch glass, and more up front, where the occupants might actually see them. No quarters here, just lots of plush toy Scions. I love toys, I love toys, and I love toy cars even more. I snagged two, a yellow xB and an orange tC, one for each of my little car nuts at home.
Our little SEMA Scion has come back to us! Yesterday John and I watched it get unloaded from the car-hauler, then made sure it was tucked in safe and sound at the CarDomain garage. It was of course little worse for wear following its run-in with an armchair, but hey, that's not going to be our problem too much longer. Hehe, right Jonathon? (Just kidding, we're getting it fixed up pronto.) Check out the video of the unloading below, and go the CarDomain Video for more clips of the arrival!
We had over 1,300 people enter our Trade For Our Scion contest and there were a ton of cool cars to choose from (though not everyone managed to follow directions, so quite a few were disqualified right out of the gate). So why did we pick Jonathon's AE86? Well, for one, we like AE86s. Plus, he's got a great ride page with an impressive list of mods. And it definitely helped that he's a CarDomain regular (and member since July, 2006). Oh, and he followed the directions. So Jonathon, we hope you have fun with your new Scion. I'm sure we'll have fun with your Corolla!
