The Scion xA, Honda Fit, Toyota Yaris, Nissan Versa, and Chevy Aveo, what do all these cars have in common? They are all known as B-Segment cars and they are all under twenty thousand dollars. We have a strong notion here at HCI that 2007 will be the year of the B-Segment cars, and OEM companies such as Scion, Honda, Toyota, Nissan and GM seem to agree.
With the movement of B-Segment cars making a strong push in 2006, Scion Corporation teamed up with what they considered the top three teams in USA, for a build-off competition. WR Team was selected to represent the North East, Team Jade was selected to represent the South East and Team Hybrid was chosen to represent the West Coast. Jade went out and built a full blown Time Attack xA, Hybrid did what they do best and built a jaw dropping - show stopping xA, and WR Team stepped up to the challenge and built a decked out performance oriented - race themed xA. Each one of these team played towards their strengths and each of these xA's resembled what the team leaders had in mind when they were designing these projects.
After checking out all three of the xA's in person we were truly impressed and blown away by what these three team's did with their xA's. This month it brings us great pleasure to showcase to the world the WR Team Scion xA. This car has all the goodies and one-off fabrication work to truly make it one of the top B-Segment cars in our scene.
This 2006 Scion xA that you see before you is what we like to call the "real deal"! The entire car has been transformed and their aren't many pieces on this ride that haven't been upgraded or modified.
The exterior of the WR xA has been outfitted with a urethane lip kit from JP Aerodynamics, a BBist grille, TC Sportline carbon fiber hood, APR carbon mirrors, Junction Produce badges, Japanese Altezza antenna and sponsor logos which were supplied by Doug Koozer.
Before Dave "Dlight" Lightner was able to respray the stock white Scion xA, he and Kris Troutman opted to shave the front side markers and also the rear bumper lights. Once the bodywork was completed and the JP lip kit was retrofitted to the 2006 bumpers, it was time for Dlight to lay down the custom Raspberry/Fuchsia Kiss of Death paint job. The custom color was concocted out of numerous paint samples and colors. Dlight and Shawn "Money" Baker told us that they mixed more then 20 colors together to get this one-off color. They wouldn't tell us the exact colors and formula used for this concoction, but they did tell us that there is a touch of orange, yellow, blue, purple, red, green, gold, silver, grey, pink, and even brown found in this custom color. Like any true top-notch car, the WR xA's color change not only covers the exterior, but also the engine bay, door jams, and interior. To add some flavor to the mix, the guys decided to paint the roof Sparkles Black and the custom one-off 14pt roll cage and ultra sleek metal door panels Zwarte Flat Gold.
Speaking of the custom roll cage and sheet metal door panels, those aren't the only modification found inside the WR xA. To acquire the race theme that they were going for, the interior of the xA was complete gutted and smoothed out. The 14pt roll cage with attached NX bottles adds to the race appeal and flows perfectly around the black alcantara Status racing seats. Other race inspired goodies include the all metal door panels with built in Lokar billet door handles, MOMO shift knob, three Stewart Warner gauges, NARDI NOB Tamaguchi Limited Edition steering wheel, SPW quick release hub, Impact "lightning" racing harness, and custom center console featuring a slew of Ignited Performance goodies, Blitz supercharger switch, and JIC strut dampening unit.
Even though the guys were going for a race prepped theme, they still wanted to incorporate some of their own flavor into this build. Several of the interior pieces were accented in matching black alcantara suede and Chris Basselgia was personally responsible for hanging the Junction Produce Pretzel Rope and Fuso.
WR Team, especially Ian "Iancredible" Worrall and Peter "Jackson" Colello have always been known for the outrageous audio video set-ups found in their rides. Worrall and the rest of the WR guys wanted to make sure that the WR xA not only looked good, but also sounded great. These guys installed one of the most radical audio video set-ups we have ever seen in a fully gutted car.
The highlight of the audio set-up comes via a custom floating amp rack, which was fabricated under the roll cage in the trunk area. Memphis Audio supplied the WR xA with two amplifiers, two 12v 1farad capacitors, two 12" M1 subwoofers (which were reversed mounted in a custom enclosure), two Msync 8" component speakers, and two sets of Msync 6.5" speakers which were mounted in door panels. An Eclipse AVN 3454 double-din TV, DVD, MP3, and navigation unit was mounted in the custom dash and a Eclipse BEC105 rear camera was installed in the rear headliner inside the hatch. The thing that really makes this audio video set-up unique is the full wire tuck, which hides all the wires underneath the car. Since the car was fully gutted, the guys wanted to make sure that no wires were showing inside the cockpit.
Finishing off this performance themed Scion xA is a pretty impressive engine compartment and a ton of suspension and braking goodies.
Performance goodies that really help this xA move include a fully polished Blitz supercharger, a direct port of Nitrous, JIC Magic Bullet exhaust, Fujita 5 intake, custom spark plug wires, and a Blitz fuel management unit.
WR Team didn't just want to add some extra power to their xA, but they also wanted to make sure that their engine bay was up to par with the rest of the car. Before the bay was covered in its custom raspberry hue, the WR crew partially wired tucked the engine bay and cleaned up all the access pieces that cluttered the bay. After Dlight was finished spraying the bay, the crew installed the freshly polished valve cover, Blitz alternator bracket, oil cap, radiator cap, and custom mounted NX solenoids. Without the help of Jason Deem, the polishing expert, this engine bay would never have the impact that it does with all the polished goodies.
With the xA's new power adders installed it was time for Mike "Crunchy" Hemrick, Manny Oliva, Dave Maurer, Riaz Jeena and the rest of the crew to install the JIC coilovers, front lower brace, Cusco front camber plates, and APR front upper strut bar.
Before they could bolt on their custom drilled 18x8" and 18x9" Junction Produce Scara wheels with ultra sleek polished flat lips, the guys had to install their Wilwood big brake kit. The new big brake kit included larger rotors, calipers, stainless steel brake lines and Valvoline SynPower brake fluid. After the brakes were installed and bled, it was time to install the Specialty Products rear 1.5 degree negative camber shims and H&R 5mm spacers.
After everything was installed it was time to finish this beauty off by bolting on the JP wheels and Falken 452 tires. For those of you wondering what size tires are on the WR xA, the fronts read 215/35r18 tires and the rears are 225/35r18. Money Baker told us that this is the first Scion on US soil to be equipped with JP Scara wheels.
After the photo shoot was completed we asked Money Baker if he and his WR crew were satisfied with the outcome of the build. Baker told us that they have been doing this for a long time, but this was really the team's first group project. He told us that this was definitely a team effort and that WR Team was honored to be chosen by Scion for this build-off. He also told us that without the help of Peter "Jackson" Colello, Fin "Imes" Jutt and Who The Heck Marketing, this project would have never come together under budget. The above mentioned names came together and brought in more then 30 top sponsors to this project. Way to go guys and we can't wait to see what you guys build next.
