Forget if you love or hate Scions. This xB isn’t your typical project car with rims and a body kit. It’s also not some ridiculous showpiece with ten subwoofers or a retractable DJ booth. To keep it real, this ‘used to be’ econo-box fucks shit up. Underneath the hood is a 400whp Supra motor, while hidden underneath the body is a rear-wheel drive conversion. So what’s this mean? Don’t be fooled by its cute blue wheels; this little box will eat you for breakfast, lunch and dinner.
The builder behind this project is none other than Johan Esbenson. Not your average Scion enthusiast, Johan is a lead partner behind DTA/Rogue Status. For the unfashionable folks, Rogue Status has been a popular streetwear company based in Los Angeles since ’05, most recognized by its gun show monogram. It gained global popularity with investors like Travis Barker and Rob Dyrdek, and the brand has continued to push the edge with its adventures into motorsport.
Johan and company have built several cool rides in the past including a VW Fastback, Nissan Silvia, Jeep SRT8, ‘61 GMC Apache and ‘84 El Camino. In recent years, they’ve sprung a relationship with Scion Racing offering some sweet co-branded shirts. To tie the brands together more, Johan came up with the idea to build this sideways-hungry Scion.
This xB has been with Johan for a few years, having competed in the ’08 Gumball 3000 race from San Francisco to Las Vegas. Only outfitted with the stock 2.4-liter and a TRD blower, the car turned heads being one of the first modified second-gen xBs around. But the car didn’t have enough balls in a rally series where more than half the competitors were Italian. “So we came up with the idea of converting an economy car into a drift car that could keep up with the exotics,” explained Johan. History was about to be made and asses were about to be handed to them…
For eight months, the transformation kicked into high gear. In charge of the Supra 2JZ-GTE VVTI engine and drivetrain retrofit would be Papadakis Racing. No stranger to racing, drifting and doing crazy things, Papadakis is also responsible for building the ’11 Formula D Scion tC for Fredric Aasbo which features a 500hp turbo four-cylinder and chassis and drivetrain designed for the drift series.
So with Johan’s box, the team began by pushing the firewall back to make room for the larger inline-six. This even included moving the pedals to fit the new six-speed JZA80 transmission. Before the motor was put in, Papadakis ensured the engine would have some more juice behind it. The twin-turbo setup was ditched for a single GT35R turbo along with upgraded wastegate, intercooler and blow-off valve. The thirstier motor meant more fuel so the Supra fuel pump was carried over, plus uprated injectors and a fuel cell were installed.
With the components finalized, new piping, mounts and months of adjustments were required to get everything happy in the xB. Then the task of setting up the rear-end for the Supra drivetrain became an even a larger headache. This entailed swapping the brakes, suspension, differential and driveshafts.
At the same time, Johan took the liberty of upgrading the suspension to stiffer Tein components. The front brakes were replaced with Wilwood calipers and rotors while the rears received Supra-spec goodies.