Well, the tC found its way back outside. My house only has 2 stalls and the Land Ark gets priority.

"It's not really a tC without the lip spoiler."

Early in 2008 I finally did it. I bit the bullet and picked up some cheap rims, good tires, and lowered it. More on that, here are the money shots:

I was watching Speed and they were reviewing NAIAS. They showed the "Scion sport compact pre-production model" and as soon as I saw it, I knew I had to have it.
I bought this car with 9 miles on it in September 2004.
Gradually I bought the accessories available for it and finally decided to go big. I added the wheels and suspension upgrades because I lost an eBay auction for a 1996 240sx with 26,000 miles on it. I decided that I didn't need to buy another car, so instead decided to make my tC a little more personal.

This is a daily driver, not a show car (although now I have 2 other daily drivers so the tC sits when it rains). I like that the TRD springs don't lower it too much. I can still drive it. The Toyos made the ride as smooth as the original suspension. I am very happy with the performance now.

Some of the modifications I've done:

Wheels and Suspension:

- 18 x 7.5 Exel Radius wheels
- Toyo Proxes4 225/40ZR18 tires

- Megan strut bar
- TRD red lowering springs and TRD sway bar

Exterior:

- tinted the windows 20% all around
- '08 lower grille (old pic)
- Painted the chrome part of the upper grille flint mica

- painted fiberglass eyelids (I painted them)

- Polarg hyper white parking light bulbs
- Nokya hyper yellow high beam bulbs


- Sylvania Silver Star Ultra low beams and Koito fog light bulbs
- VRD fog lights

 
- AEM gray oil cap
- AEM battery tie

- Polished exhaust manifold cover

- added Scion mud guards   

- Stubby antenna
- Evil Monkey Decal (heh)

- painted tC emblem mat black

- VRD full third brake light
- LED license plate bulbs

- TRD muffler

Interior:

- painted gauge bezel silver

- Optional grey steering wheel
- tC Door Sills

- OBX pedal covers
- Scionpro.com deadpedal

- OBX "Classic Sport" shiftknob
- Fog light switch

- Painted door handle pulls Flint Mica and painted chrome rings mat black

- All Release Series 1.0 seats

Stereo:

The stock setup is great, but I had a lot of equipment laying around that I wanted to use. I added:

- Kenwood EXcelon KDC-x789 CD/MP3 player
- Kenwood 10 gig Music Keg

- Kenwood 10in powered subwoofer
- After 10 years of use, it was time to install a new subwoofer - it's an 800w Pioneer Premier sub installed in the Kenwood enclosure.

At this point, I think I am almost finished.
The only things I am still thinking about doing are:
Dash LED change
TRD shocks
5Axis lip

Misc:

I painted a "recall" Jada tC with the paint I got from PaintScratch.com. Check it out.

Here's what I came out to see on the morning of 7/25/07:


How lucky am I?

God's response: "Not very, jerk."

3 weeks after getting my new wheels and tires:

$45 later:

Some older pictures:

That's about it. It's a great little car, and is one of the best bargains around. If you're looking for speed, of course, get the 5-speed.

My other cars (past and present)

1967 Chevy Impala - "Land Ark" still mine!


2000 Chrysler Sebring Coupe sold 2007


1999 Dodge Dakota R/T - "Artie" sold 2007


1990 Pontiac Sunbird - "Bri's Brd" died 2006


1997 Audi A6 - "Outtie" sold 2004