In the fall of 2006, Scion handed two of the largest Scion clubs in Southern California an xA apiece and $15,000 each, with one instruction: build something and bring it to Scion Night at Knott’s Berry Farm. One club went the show car route, while Scion Evolution’s SoCal chapter decided the best way to stand out was to build the first fully functional rally xA, and the car that rolled out on October 18, 2006 became the Scion Evolution Rally Team xA, or S.E.R.T. for short. This feature originally ran in the March 2007 issue of HCI Magazine (Hot Compact & Imports), with photos by Gene Tjin.
The build was run on a short clock, with Dave Moulton named project manager and a crew of club members handling most of the labor themselves. The team settled on five things a car needed to read as rally at first glance: a proper roll cage, OZ Racing wheels, a working roof scoop, a light pod, and a full livery. Everything else was built around those.
The cage came from Adam Carpenter at Unique Fabrication in Irvine, California, and it was built to spec rather than for show. The spare tire mount was designed into the cage itself, and Unique also fabricated the seat mounts and aluminum floorboards after the crew gutted the interior. New door panels and rear floorboards were fabricated and installed by club members, and the center console and gauge cluster were handled in-house as well. A full set of Dakota Digital gauges covers oil pressure, oil temperature, water temperature, voltage, tachometer, and a clock and compass, split between the dash and custom clusters.
Sparco supplied most of the rest of the cabin: Competition Evo L seats, harnesses, a steering wheel, a shift knob, and a navigator footrest. The rally electronics include a switchboard, a TerraTrip rally computer, a Varad vision map, and lighting in both the interior and engine bay, with the window and door lock controls relocated to the center console. According to Scion Evolution, the car kept its factory seat belt, air conditioning, and power windows and locks alongside the race hardware, so it remained street driveable.
Under the hood, the 1.5L stayed close to stock, with an AEM cold air intake, an OBX Racing header, and an OBX Racing exhaust. At the time of the original article, OBX was prototyping a turbo kit for the xA using this car, with the expectation that it would be the only turbocharged xA around for a while.
The rolling stock is where the rally spec is most obvious. The car sits on 15×6.5 OZ Racing Superturismo WRC wheels with 205/65R15 Pirelli K4 Rally tires, and swaps to 17-inch white J2 Ver-One wheels for cruise nights. Suspension is TRD throughout, with fully adjustable coilovers, a front upper strut bar, a rear sway bar, and a chassis brace. JBT six-piston big brakes handle stopping.
Outside, the two-tone green paint includes a Kawasaki green hood with a PIAA foglight pod set into the center. A custom Primitive Racing roof scoop is functional, the Scion Sport tuning spoiler was molded into the rear liftgate, and Sparco rally mudguards sit behind each wheel. The livery was designed by Keith Morris and applied by K&R Digital Graphics.
The build crew, beyond Moulton, included Denny Huang, Paul Dabao, Matt Sixt, Nilo J.C. Miranda, Keith Morris, Julian Mondragon, and Rebecca and Carl Feltro. The team credited Jeff Bal at Scion L.A., Verone Pangilinan at Longo Scion, and Scion for backing the project.
GalleryPhotos by Gene Tjin
