Drag Racing the Scion
tC Coupe
written by Darren Seeman for scionlife.com
The end of the year is a busy time for everyone, and my life
is no exception. Arranging for holiday vacations while doing your Christmas
shopping while trying to maintain your normal schedule drives anyone a little
batty. Imagine my annoyance when Scion contacted me in mid-November to ask
me to take time out of my busy schedule for their little race. Wait a second,
RACE? I'm there!
Michael Dobrin, of Dobrin PR, asked me if I would fill their last slot for
a special Scion tC press event that was to happen on the first day of December.
He explained that Scion was renting the Pomona Dragstrip in Los Angeles
for the day and that they would be providing company tCs for us to do some
heads-up racing. I checked my TV Guide, set the TiVo, grabbed my driving
gloves and I was ready to roll.
Car Show?
When
I arrived at the racetrack in the morning I was a little taken back at what
I saw. (Well, other than the fact that the Pomona parking lot is a daytime
police training track and there were twenty black-and-whites tearing around
the shuttle van as we pulled in) There were dozens of modified Scions littering
the pit area. It turned out that Scion Evolution was invited to show off
their cars. It was
my first time meeting most of the SE guys and they all seemed genuinely
friendly and enthusiastic. That was one of the high points of the day!
As I walked through the rows of SE cars into the track itself I realized
that Scion had brought in all of their demo cars and concepts. The
three Five Axis cars were there: the white xB limousine, the bright orange
chop-top xB/mobile DJ booth and the bright lime wide-bodied tC Turbo. The
Nitto , Injen, Pioneer, Motegi and GReddy cars were there, along with TRD's
supercharged tC. Nitto's tC is very special,
with a deep House of Colors Candy Blue paint job that makes you look...
and a 2.6L 500Hp turbocharged engine that makes you WANT! Unfortunately
they didn't fire the car up for us, but I hope to hear it soon. With the
mobile DJ xB rumbling the stands we prepared to race.
Sizing up the Competition
Ten similar tCs were driven into the staging lanes as I watched 31 other
journalists sign up to race. I was number seven on the list and a good friend
of mine, Jacob -- a writer for HCI
Magazine, was number twelve. I apologized in advance for having to eliminate
him from the race, but I was pretty confident that I could win this thing.
The top eliminator would take home a set of Motegi Racing wheels in the
style of their choice. (I was already deciding on maybe a nice set of nineteens)
Most of competitors seemed to be professional writers and photographers
and NOT driving enthusiasts. In fact, only a few of us raised our hands
when asked if we'd every driven down the quarter mile before! I had to hide
an evil smile!
As I took a closer look at the cars we were about to drive I recoiled in
horror! One, two, three.... ALL of them were automatics! I quickly realized
that in order for Scion to have ten working cars at the end of the day,
and to even out the odds, they would have to provide slushboxes instead
of manuals. In my head I realized that it would be a lot harder to stay
ahead of the pack once the advantage of the quick shift was removed from
the equation. That's OK. I am sure I will still win.
Warming Up
As
usual the tC invited me to get cozy. The outside temperature was a chilly
49 degrees but the large glass roof had already heated up the car to a comfortable
warmth. I closed the overhead sunshades to keep the car cool and adjusted
the seat so that I would be ready to race. I had never raced an automatic
down the 1320 before, so I wasn't sure if I should try to manually shift
it or just keep it in Drive. For my two test passes I just left the car
in drive so that I would only have to concentrate on my launch and nothing
else. Other racers spilled that they were manually shifting their cars,
but their elapsed times were so close that I don't think there was any advantage.
In fact, a couple admitted that they had bounced against the rev limiter
on a couple of shifts which had actually hurt their times. Leaving it in
Drive seems to be the right choice. We were only going to be racing the
eighth-mile course I learned, so speeds would not be too fast and the chance
of an uneducated racer causing a problem would be lessened. My 1320 feet
turned into 660 feet.
Let's Race!
The
first round of competition involved 32 drivers using ten cars, so after
we raced we had to give our car to the next driver in line. My first race
was against an editor for Automobile magazine. He and I had raced against
each other twice already during our test runs, and I had beat him by a few
tenths of a second each time. Once again understanding how the tree lights
up and the advantage of shallow-staging allowed me to get ahead and I beat
him by almost half a second. He gave me a thumbs up as we slowed down to
the end of the track and I waved him ahead with a grin on my face. My first
race netted me a 0.074 reaction time along with a 10.566 @ 69.06 MPH. That
is a pretty damn good reaction time and was better than my first two test
runs. I was on the right track.
Only sixteen racers remained and I got into a different car for my next
round. This time I was racing against an author for Motor Trend and I was
a little worried that he might have a lot more track experience than I did.
We both got great reaction times and were neck-in-neck down the track. I
ended up just a fender ahead with a three-tenth of a second advantage. I
realized at this point that some of the tCs on the track had TRD exhausts
on them, as well as optional wheels and spoilers. The wheels and spoilers
are actually a negative in this race because of the added weight and unneeded
wind resistance. They car I just raced had the wheels and spoilers, so I
really got lucky. My reaction time was still a respectable 0.169 and my
results were 10.382 @ 69.73 MPH.
Now that we had more cars than racers there was no time to meet my competitor
before the race, so I hopped into the next waiting tC and staged. I glanced
over and couldn't make out who was driving. At this point my heart was starting
to beat louder and my palms were getting sweaty. I am remembering why I
didn't like drag racing, but at least I wasn't risking my car and I hadn't
shelled out hard-earned cash to get onto the track. My brain was aware of
this, but my body seemed just as tense. I kept the RPMs around 3000 as my
left foot held the brake. As the last orange light started to light I released
the brake and focused on the track. Only later would I realized that our
reaction times were only three thousandths of a second apart, with my car
getting the ever-so-slight advantage. Would three-thousands of a second
really make a difference? It turned out that it wouldn't because I took
the race with nearly a three-tenth of a second lead. Because I was shallow-staging
and releasing the brake early I had a slight speed advantage over drivers
that were deep-staged and flooring it on the green. It was a risky move,
but it was working so far. My run ended with a 0.124 reaction time and a
10.490 @ 69.66 MPH.
It was semifinals time! There were only four racers left and I was surprised
to discover that my buddy, Jacob, was still in the race. In fact, I was
a little more surprised that I was going to have to race him (and beat him)
to get into the finals. I was even MORE surprised when I noticed that one
of the other finalists were none other than Chris Rado, the big-time import
drag racer. Can you say ringer? Well, I put on my race face and squinted
my eyes into the sun. The far end of the racetrack shimmered across the
hot track like a distant oasis. Jacob and I slowly and carefully staged
the cars and waited for the countdown. Orange, Orange, Orange... let of
the brake under full throttle... green... the car starts to move... WAIT!
&@%$*!!! That isn't green, it's red! I jumped the gun and disqualified
myself in the semis! Argh! I backed off the throttle and chugged back to
the pits. I could already hear Jacob whooping. The time slip told the story:
I had red-lighted by 0.003. That is the same minuscule margin that I had
wondered about in the last round. Would three-thousands make a difference?
Apparently it will!
Jacob ended up winning the finals against Chris Rado when he jumped the
gun and red-lighted himself. You can hardly blame the guy since he is used
to a the pro lights and our tree was moving so slowly. At least I can say
that I was unseated by the winner, and by a friend. Jacob received a certificate
for a free set of Motegis and an awesome glass trophy with a laser-etched
tC. Congrats!
Afterthoughts
As we sat down to lunch I thought about the tC's potential for serious drag
racing competition. I know that there is at least one team that will be
competing a true drag tC in the 2005 season, possibly more. That is great
and all, but what about the everyday red-light racer? With the number of
turbo kits that I saw at SEMA I think that netting 250Hp will be a relatively
easy task. That will put the tC in a class above and cause some problems
for the Mustang and Honda guys. But will we see many 300+ Hp cars? That
is what it will take to really get the tC noticed. I guess only time will
tell!
Special thanks to:
Michael & Katherine Dobrin, MDPR
Adrian Lazatin, Scion Evolution
