Building the widebody, supercharged
garage FR-S Scion
The debut of the production Scion FR-S
rear-wheel-drive sport coupe in 2012 wasn’t so much as expansion of the known
vehicle universe as much as it was an enthusiast milestone. It had been years
since anything of equal excitement had come down the pike, do to say driving
fans and car lovers were eager for the athletic new platform codeveloped with
Toyota and Subaru is an understatement. In fact, when the FR-S first dropped,
demand was so pent up that dealerships could scarcely keep them in stock.
2013
Scion FR-S - Into The Wild Green Yonder
Hoping to get in on the ground floor of the
zeitgeist, tuning mag siblings import Tuner, Super Street, and Modified teamed
up to present GarageFRS.com, a fan site dedicated primarily to the Scion. The
site taps into each publication’s expertise and resources for news and
information about the FR-S and to a lesser degree the Toyota 86/GT-86. Staffer
also leveraged GarageFRS.com to source a project car, one that would eventually
have to find its way to the 2012 SEMA Show.
In reality, the site’s FR-S went through at
least three major revisions. Super Street got assigned interior and wheels,
while Modified took over engine and performance duties, leaving the crew here
at Import Tuner with exterior, braking, and suspension arenas. At the start,
around June 2012 when the magazines took delivery of the Scion, they posted
three different renderings on Facebook penned by Jon Sibal and asked visitors
to let them know via “like” which they dug. After voting ended the clear winner
was a so-called “Japanese Domestic Market (JDM) build” – but the ball didn’t
get rolling on construction until a few other odds and ends were addressed.
New rubber was sourced from Falken Tire to
replace the OEM donuts. Falken’s Azenis RT-615K competition DOT-approved tires
offered a softer compound, stiffer sidewalls, larger blocks of tread, and a
wider contact patch, even when sized the same as the Michelin Primacy HP summer
tires (215/45R17) that come stock. Maybe the comparison is unfair – one is a
street tire, the other essentially a track tire – but the added grip was needed
for circuit work.
2013
Scion FR-S side
Evasive Motorsport mounted and balanced the
new rubber, as well as strapped the car to the rollers of its Mustang
dynamometer to get a baseline (this was with the Michelins). The FR-S reached
peak horsepower of 160.8 at about 7,000rpm. Torque came on early in the rev
range and stuck around until roughly 6,500rpm, peaking with 130.2 lb-ft at just
about 4,850 rpm.
After a couple of weeks, the Garage FR-S
Scion went back to the shop for more upgrades. The team began outside,
installing JDM Toyota headlamps, clear side markers, and red 86 fender badges,
parts all facilitated by Carson Toyota. In particular, the Toyota 86 headlight
come LED and HID equipped, where the U.S. versions do not; the JDM version also
boasts a self-leveling feature, but they chose not to hook it up since it’s set
up for Japanese roads.
JDM lighting specialists Grazio & Co.
customized the rear taillights by only spraying them red on the outer edges.
Finally, for wheels and tires, Garage FR-S decided to go with SSR MS3 mesh
measured 18x9 +37mm. Nitto NT05 tires resided on all four corners, sized at
225/40R18 in front and 235/40R1 in back.
The exterior mods listed up to now are
largely considered a Stage 1 tweak, but for Stage 2 the guys at Garage FR-S
wanted to go big – widebody big. Enter TRA Kyoto, designers of the Rocket Bunny
aero kit for the 86; Greddy was able to nab one for this project and ship it to
the United States from Japan. The kit includes a one-piece front lip spoiler,
side skirts, front and rear over-fenders, bumper trim, one-piece rear under
diffuser, and GT wing, all made in fiber-reinforced plastic (FRP).
2013
Scion FR-S back
As for the color, Import Tuner Editor
Charles Trieu and the guys at The Shop Automotive in Culver City, who performed
the body and paintwork, went back and forth on several iterations before
deciding on this one-off shade of green.
Since the new fender flares are visually
incompatible with the SSR wheel/Nitto tire combination, the running gear was
swapped out again. With the popularity of BBS LM wheels on Japanese cars these
days, they decided to take it a step further with BBS’s motorsport wheel, the
E88. These were custom ordered with a white face with polished lip in 18x11.5.
Adding the cherry on top, optional red BBS centre caps were ordered from Japan.
