Build a winning show car once and consider yourself lucky. Build a winning show car two years in a row and you're James Lin, founder of Team hybrid, who's won backto- back Scion Tuner challenges, defeating three other teams in the invitation-only competition. This year's winning car was the latest addition to the Scion family, the xD, the all new replacement of the discontinued xA hatchback. imagine the hurdles involved in tuning a car when there aren't any commercially available parts. Another obstacle was the fact that Team hybrid is purely a car club and not a pro-level shop with a garage available 24/7 or warehouses full of inventory. But setbacks rarely stop winners, so James solved the problem by outsourcing the development of parts as one-off pieces and relying on loyal sponsors who were eager to jump aboard the proven winner's ship.
The foundation for the design process was Team hybrid's philosophy of building clean, innovative cars that can win at the race, street, track, or show. James attributes this multidisciplinary approach as the primary reason Team hybrid has become legendary in the tuning industry. "We couldn't build it too JDm, we couldn't build it too tricked out; we wanted to build it to withstand the test of time. We had to build it to appeal to how Scion markets its cars to their customers," said James regarding the strategy involved with assembling the xD. "We want the car to appeal to the mass market, not just one genre of the industry." he cites that he wants an overall winner, whether the car competes at import Showoff, which he feels is more performance-based, or at a hot import Nights event, which James thought was more about looks. A car that is the best of both worlds and can be best of class year-after-year is what James believes makes a Team hybrid-worthy vehicle.
Starting From The Outside In
Starting from the exterior, the team decided to call on house of Kolor to make over the stock paint job using Kandy Apple Green with Gold Pearl. James believed that green was a color that could not be beat. "Last year we went with the color gold, because we wanted to be number one...to win the gold trophy. This year, we went with green because green is the color of money... so this will be the money car." James had ings+1 fabricate the front and rear bumpers along with the side skirts specifically to Team hybrid's specifications for the xD. The Phoenix Yellow headlamps and Bentley Black taillights were supplied by DTm and car Fashion produced the xD's rear spoiler. According to James, the look of the car had to be clean and sleek, not venturing too far away from how Scion would design their cars. The original sketches of the car had flared fenders to house 20" wheels, but a decision was made to stick to more conventional fenders and use 19" wheels by AmE. Behind the wheels, JBT customized a set of the Big Brake Kit with painted calipers to match the rest of the body. Staying true to the multi-genre approach, the xD was fitted with Air Runner struts, lines, a compressor and tank to raise and lower the car at the flick of a switch.
Cars That Go Boom
The biggest attraction to the xD is the massive multimedia system by SoundStream. Four 15" subwoofers mounted upside down powered by the company's amps in a cREATiVE fiberglass enclosure engulf the rear hatch area. SoundStream's Tarantula-series components were fitted into the doors to cover the other end of the musical spectrum. While the primary goal was probably for maximum SPL (sound pressure level) boom, we felt the overall sound was a bit lacking. The bass was loud, but had neither low frequency depth nor definition. But for those who simply want to roll down the street setting off car alarms with bass, this will do it.