Neil Tjin is a man of many mysteries. From his selection of paint color on his project cars to his sexual preference, many of us to this date still scratch our heads to these perplexing questions. But I digress; he’s happily married to a very miserable woman and is a fan of ninjas, rather than pirates. This alone gave me enough patience to deal with him to take some snaps, albeit bad ones, of his Scion tC.
Mr Tjin was nice enough to let us get some of the first feature footage of the car since the new face lift. Gone was the bright red paint and riveted widebody kit, replaced with none other than BASF’s Sky Blue shade. The body kit was also molded to the rest of the chassis, all done by David Lightner from Dlight Customs. By now the vast majority of you have seen this tC grace the cover of HCI Magazine, but for those that haven’t – it’s ok, we understand – this is one Tjin edition vehicle that I can stand looking at for more than three minutes. You see, I had the distinct pleasure of growing up in the scene with Neil Tjin. One of his first projects was this ridiculously built yellow Acura TL. To my surprise the guy still daily drives the car, except it has Nissan wheels now. Which by the way is odd, but he also owns a four door Nissan Skyline, so I guess we’ll overlook the minor details on the now defunct TL.
On the exterior, the car has been completely redone with a custom 8-piece wide body kit. The front and the rear have been widened 100mm and molded to match the body. When asked who made the custom body kit for him, all Neil could do was shed a tear and mention a poor little boy by the name of Fortune Shim-Quee: “He slaved away in the heat working with fiberglass for hours on end trying to make it perfect for us. We fed him from time to time, he’s a good boy.” Plenty of carbon fiber goods also adorn the exterior, including a hood and hatch. His wheel selection has changed from Veilside to HRE. His wife told us that the baller spec and ultra wide HRE wheels help make up for something he lacks. We didn’t want anymore information. Knowing that he stepped it up to 19x10.5-inches of pleasure in the front and 19x11-inches of pleasure in the rear was ample. Doused in a custom black center finish, the glossy multi-stepped lip of the HRE wheels arguably make the car what it is today. Wrap those with Falken FK451 rubber and maybe, just maybe, Neil has finally gotten something right.
Underneath the hood, the engine bay was completely overhauled making the motor seems as if it is floating. That detail is hard to miss however, when a gigantic TRD supercharger is staring back at you. Combine that with the carbon fiber valve cover and AEM oil cap and NX Express system and the engine bay has plenty more power than Neil’s arms. By now you’re probably tired of reading this article that honestly will probably only be funny to people that know Neil, so I’ll leave you all be to the photos. But pay attention that behind each HRE wheel is a huge Wilwood big brake upgrade. In the interior are plenty of goods that make any enthusiast drool.
As a parting note though, we want to give Neil a huge thanks for letting us shoot the car and going out of his way and time for helping get it done. We know he’s a really busy guy. His brother however, he makes for a great assistant on photo shoots - you might have heard of him - probably not though, he’s Gene Tjin - he’s worldwide.