SEMA: Hottest Scion tuners challenged

The Specialty Equipment Market Association (SEMA) trade show in Las Vegas has always been about performance and accessories. That hasn’t changed but gradually big-blocks and American muscle brands are giving space to twin cams, turbos and tuner brands.

Scion doesn’t do concepts, but Toyota’s North American youth brand approaches SEMA with a unique twist – the Scion Tuner Challenge.

Scion asked tuners to present ideas for a concept car with the underlined limit of $US15,000 to spend on modifications, using the brand’s small tC coupe as a starting point.

The submissions were culled to three finalists, and those three are handed a cheque for $15,000, a stock 2014 Scion tC donor car and 90 days to get it done. The three concepts are then brought together at SEMA and judged in the metal.

The finalists are Young Tea from Los Angeles, Walter Franco from Seattle and Josh Croll from Mertztown, Pennsylvania, and each concept is as unique as its builder.

Tea went more or less with a Southern California style identified by very clean integration of a rear deck spoiler and fender flares over wider rubber, all set low on air-ride suspension and painted in House of Kolors Lite Teal Pearl.

“The overall idea of each modification was every day, full function,” explained Tea.

With a Garret turbo, Dezod intake with intercooler and recalibrated fuel/ignition mapping, the base power from the 2.5-litre engine went from 133kW to more than 225kW. Toss in a TRD Quick Shift kit and a TRD Big Brake package and the tC is ready to drive.

Seattle-based Franco had an early advantage. He’s a graduate of Art Center College of Design, so he presented digital renderings of a tC concept that played with refined woodgrain and brushed alloy finishes.

“I expected the other guys would go with carbon-fibre. I wanted a luxury theme inspired by brands like Hermes and Chanel,” said Franco, who added a NOS pencil-bottle nitrous kit (all under the bonnet) to get the 2.5-litre engine kicking.

“We do things differently in Pennsylvania,” said Croll. “We’re more traditional.” We don’t quite know what he means because he went radical from the start. Turbocharged to 240kW and painted bright pearl orange, Croll’s tC also featured a steering swap from left to right side.

Tea’s full-function approach and refined body mods took the top prize at this year’s Scion Tuner Challenge, with Franco finishing second and Croll third.

Alongside the Scion Tuner Challenge at SEMA were four similarly modded examples of the Scion FR-S Coupe, which is sold in Australia as the Toyota 86.

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