You have to hand it to Scion; they really got something going on. The US exclusive arm of Toyota, hatched a mere three years ago, has used marketing muscle and a very strong brand identity to launch straight into the spotlight. The cars that Scion produces (the xA, xB, and tC) have been disappearing off of dealer lots, selling hundreds of thousands of copies and popping up outside every college campus, boba shop, and club parking lot around.
The secret to Scion's success doesn't come from only one place though. Lurking deep beneath their metal skins, Scion's are infused with Toyota DNA, which means they are reliable, assembled well, and make great commuter cars. Some people will argue that an 800 wheel hp, third-generation Mazda RX-7 makes a great commuter car, but I dare you to drive that six-puck beast through traffic in 100-degree heat and THEN try to find some 110 octane to fill up with. Sometimes, a little civility goes a long way. Scion knows this, and instead focused their efforts on producing cars that are great to cruise in, easy to customize, and difficult to blow up. And nobody cares more about customizable cruisers that are hard to implode than Generation Y.
The awkwardly named Generation Y moniker refers to all those young whippersnappers running around that are young adults, knowledgeable about technology, on the cutting edge of hip and cool and generally don't have a stick surgically implanted up their ass. These buyers know what car they want and how they want it to look, fixing up their Scion's with new shift knobs, stereos, wheels, springs, and seats. For them, their Scion represents personal creativity and style.
Apparently, for Andrew Yurcich of Team Illmatic fame, the style of choice is known simply as "all out." Custom wide-bodied, turbocharged, painted, wrapped, and louder than ever, Yurcich's 2005 Scion tC is hardly what you'd call a lesson in restraint. The great thing about this car is that Andrew Yurcich didn't build it for himself; rather it was assembled for his father, Michael Yurcich. Stalking through the city nightlife, even with the carbon flares and massive rims, if you ever spy the 58-year-old elder Yurcich behind the wheel, remember to say "Hi." He does drive the tC around and enjoys every second of it. You have to admit, that's one badass gift for your dad.
The recipe for this Scion buffet began with an attack on the exterior panels. The tC was stretched out with a Kreative Import Technology wide-body kit, with carbon-fiber flares that were manufactured, molded, and painted by M1 Autobody of El Monte, Calif. Hella projectors were custom retrofitted into the stock Scion headlight housings, and a AIT Racing front splitter and rear diffuser add a little touch in the details. A Pro-Fit electronic billet fuel door remains the only other body mod, that is, unless you count the meticulously prepared paint job.
The paint, which isn't your standard coat of white, is actually mixture of Alsa Corp. paints. The completely custom mixed hue began with a combination of white and Alsa's Violet Dreams paint. Flecked with color and pearl, the "special sauce," as Yurcich calls it, was then topped with some of Alsa's Ghost Chrome. Ghost Chrome, flaked with blue and purple pearl in this case, is a metallic coat with the smallest particle makeup on the market today. This gives Ghost Chrome the ability to shine with an aluminum-like reflection, yet remain translucent enough so that the white coat below will still show through. The end result, after weeks of work in the spray booth, was a tC that shines and sparkles unlike any other; pictures do not do it any justice.
Having a badass wide-body kit may be a dream for some, but you'll have to keep in mind, there are a few other things to worry about. With big wheels that stick far out, tucked millimeters below the carbon-fiber flare, what if you hit a hard bump? A million shattered pieces of carbon is enough to make any grown man cry. You'll have to make sure everything is done right, and we mean everything. Yurcich makes use of GFG Visso wheels, sized 19x9 in the front and an absolutely massive 20x10.5 in the rear. You read it right, 10.5-inch wide dubs on the rear of a Scion. The tires for those massive rollers are an equally impressive set of 235/35/19 front and 285/25/20 rear Continental ContiSportContact 2 rubbers. B+G RS2 coilovers are held responsible for keeping the car from crashing through its carbon flares on rough roads, while Hotchkis provides the sway bars and rear camber links.