A hypothetical: Let's say you worked as the director of marketing for a company that dealt with body kits. Not just any peddler of fine fiberglass goods, but a firm that specialized in both the design and manufacturing of their own kits. Now, let's say you came across a sweet deal for one of the hottest compact vehicles on the market. Put two and two (or in this case one and the other) together and you're bound to brew up one mean sum bitch of a show car.
While the above sounds hypothetical, a particular Patrick David who works at a certain AIT Racing out in City of Industry, CA non fictionalizes the story into a case study. Working at AIT for over three years, he's seen all sorts of trends, makes, and models come and go, waiting for the right platform and time to strike. Like the timeless adage, or like a 40-year-oldvirgin, good things, ahem, come to those who wait, and what Patrick was waiting for was the Scion tC.
Launched in '05, the first coupe to flaunt the Scion badge had the perfect blend of style ,performance, and, most importantly, price. And it was for those exact reasons that Patrick pounced on the car quicker than Ashton Kutcher at a MILF-filled PTA meeting. Patrick explains, "I built this vehicle because of the great value and quality the Scion brand is known for, and I felt it would be a great base to work off to produce the next hot tuner car." Little did he realize the new project car couldn't have come at a more opportune time.
SEMA, the greatest show on earth-well,after the Ringling Brothers-just happened to be seven weeks away. The largest automotiveaftermarket tradeshow, Patrick knew he wanted to debut his new pride and joy there in the glitz of Vegas. With an in-house AIT R&D team of six very creative people, Patrick flexed his director of marketing title, set the timer and put themto work (peep the sidebar for the time elapse build-up).
The first thing the AIT team had to come up with was the new look of the tC. Patrick wanted to make something that would accentuate the stock lines while making it look meaner than a hungry Hannibal Lecter stumbling across a fat camp. Going through sketch after sketch, the team spent days integrating diverse styling cues, then altering and tweaking to make them flow with the Scion. What the team eventually came up with is the widebody before you.
From the beginning, the AIT team knew that they wanted use carbon fiber as the basematerial. What they didn't want to use, however, was the common overlaying method, which when improperly done wasn't much stronger thanfiberglass. After some research, Patrick discovered that a vacuum infusion method produced carbon fiber components that were not only stronger, but lighter as well.
Once the design decisions and material Selection were complete, Patrick and crew went to work on shaping and molding the kit. Starting with the front bumper, side skirts, and meticulously working their way to the rear, the AIT crew grinded and sanded till the body kit fit flush to the body like lactose-intolerant Mo'nique's ass on a toilet seat after she done polished off a case of Bon-Bons-shudder. Afterwards, Patrick slapped on a set of AIT carbon door sills, an RS Type carbon trunk spoiler, and TLS Performance carbon B-pillars.
For any show car to make an impact, there has to be enough ice on board to sink the Titanic. Thus Patrick shipped the tC to JLS Mobile Sound, where they replaced, added, and enclosed an Audiobahn multimedia head unit, DVD player, amplifiers, capacitors, and speakers. For auxiliary videooutputs, two Audiobahn monitors were mounted above the rear seats and a 17-inch screen was molded in a custom trunk enclosure alongside a Nitrous Express bottle.