[Scion iM News 1]

Episode 4 of the Tuner Challenge is out and here’s the judges lineup!

Keith Charvonia, technical editor for Speedhunters, was part of the winning team last year with a tuned FR-S sporting the iconic Toyota race car stripes. He’ll be keeping an eye out not just for quality but all the details and time the team has spent on their car. Tall order from someone who installed a prototype Cosworth’s Stage 2.0 Power Package in their car.

Samuel Du, editor-in-chief for Super Street Magazine, was in the runner up team and as a judge he’ll be looking at how unique each design is and how well everything flows together. He also seems to be a bit partial to Crooks & Castles because Rob has built a few clean cars in the past and Super Street Magazine was all about cleanliness with their tuned FR-S engine bay.

Taro Koki, predisent of GTChannel, is the final judge of this lineup and he will be expecting to see imaginative and creative cars from both teams. With GTChannel’s strong ties to Japanese drivers and tuning shops, illest could be the forerunner in design since Mark is very inspired by the Japanese lifestyle and the Japanese tuners.

Who do you think the judges will vote for? Also, stay tuned for the next update!

Check out this thread for episodes 2 and 3.

 

[S-Factor]

Sounds like Keith could be the tie breaker if the other 2 already have their own preferences.

 

[SiM]

After hearing what crooks has planned and seeing what they have done as shown it the video, i'm excited to see what their iM will turn out looking like, white on the interior should help to add a level of premiumness the iM could use.

 

[S-Factor]

Haven't heard much about the designs besides the vague initial descriptions of the exterior from the earlier videos. Maybe a few changes will be made under the hood too even if they haven'y said anything about it.

 

[Nick Prescott]

Haven't heard much about the designs besides the vague initial descriptions of the exterior from the earlier videos. Maybe a few changes will be made under the hood too even if they haven'y said anything about it.

The Crooks & Castles Scion iM is supposedly installing some performance parts... in the Episode 5 video you can see they have cut up the stock exhaust and are installing something custom, RSR Coilovers, and they mention they are installing a Nitrous Oxide kit. The exterior is going to be ridiculous, they showed the "before / during" body work for the wide body install. They have the fenders and quarter panels all hacked and cut up, but the video did not show any of the actual kit being installed just the cutting of the body.

The Illest iM is going to be all VIP... "slow and low that is the tempo" ... they're doing an air ride set up, vinyl wrap color change on the whole body, and a fancy pants stereo system, and interior upgrades...

What is confusing me is, I swear I read somewhere that the two companies competing only get $10,000 to work with for their builds... from what I can tell both cars are going to far exceed that.

 

[Patrick.S]

Looking at this at how it will benefit us is it will boost the availability of aftermarket parts along with a great variety of them since there will be that much more owners wanting to do modifications. Just won't see it happen to the scale the FR-S and BRZ had it.

 

[S-Factor]

Both teams will have a budget of $15,000 but that will still go very fast if everything is custom. The diamond stitched leather seat probably cost them a pretty penny too.

 

[ToddMS]

Both teams will have a budget of $15,000 but that will still go very fast if everything is custom. The diamond stitched leather seat probably cost them a pretty penny too.

Unless the suppliers doing the custom work give them a break as advertising. One might say "I wouldn't have gone to them before, but they do the work for C&C so they must be good."

 

[Nick Prescott]

Unless the suppliers doing the custom work give them a break as advertising. One might say "I wouldn't have gone to them before, but they do the work for C&C so they must be good."

LOL agreed, BUT the owner of Illest couldn't remember the name of the shop in the video to name drop them. I'd be pissed if I were the shop doing the upholstery.

 

[Patrick.S]

Both teams will have a budget of $15,000 but that will still go very fast if everything is custom. The diamond stitched leather seat probably cost them a pretty penny too.

It will go fast but they'll get a lot out of that then we can due to their affiliates doing the labor at a reduced cost in hopes of a product on that iM being a form of marketing for them.

Will be cool if they can break down what $15k was spent on.

 

[Shaurin Patel]

thanks for this information.