Winds of Change: Brent's 2014 Scion tC

Prologue (Me Yapping)

This is my first article I've written since 2019 - which is now six years ago. Trying to remember my login for this account has been a difficult task, but worth it nonetheless. I won't act like that was the reason I haven't written though - the real reason is that life just got busy. I have an incredible girlfriend who has now been by my side for three years, I've been working two jobs, graduated from college, among many other things. My love for cars hasn't died though, as I have made pretty significant steps forward with the FR-S build, along with purchasing an E36 M3, and the Scion tC you see before you - but more on that in a second. Life can get busy and things can get hard, but if anything, this is a beacon that you can still do the things that make you happy, you just have to make some time for it.

So you may be wondering, what was the motivation to blow the dust off this site and dedicate something to this Scion tC after all these years? I've been wanting to do something with this car for a long time, but I just haven't had the time or motivation to do so until this past weekend. I recently saw my good friend Adrian (who you may remember from my Miata post years ago) and we were chatting about old times and what we were up to now. He no longer has the Miata, but I was thinking about how cool it was that the Miata is essentially immortalized in a way with the write up. Maybe I'm weird, but my dream when I was getting into cars was having a car cool enough to get posted onto Stancenation, Speedhunters, or other sites. Something cool enough to where someone wants to write about it, and people want to click on it. Something where no matter what happened before, or what happens after, the car in that state is frozen in time. Something where you can look back on it years later with fond memories, or maybe even not so fond memories, and think about different experiences or memories you had at that time. This tC is something special to me, but I feel like it's important to honor the car and memories that Brent, myself, and our friends have had with this car.

Origin Story

This is a dedication post to my tC, but I really still consider it as belonging to one of my best friends - Brent. I don't remember if he bought this car new or not, but I know when he got it, it was completely stock. This thing was his baby for years, and as a matter of fact, the first time I met him, he picked me up in this car to go with him and one of my other best friends Patrick to a car show hosted by Super Street. I still had my EK coupe at that time, and I remember how fast it felt when I was 18 in comparison to my car. I remember how good the factory sound system was, how cool the full glass panoramic roof was, the fact that it had a twin-cam motor, and just how cool it was to me as a whole. I think it's moments like these that are tinted with rose colored glasses, but at the time, this car was truly incredible.

This car has been through several versions, different coilovers, exhaust setups, and wheel setups, as many project cars do. One of my favorite setups was when this car was on a sweet set of white Cosmis XT-005R wheels, and another was the set of grey Aodhan wheels that suited the car really well.

My Ownership

My acquisition of this car began in September of 2023, I was driving to a job that I had a long commute (that also sucked) and I was tired of driving the FR-S all the time. Consumables like tires, gas, etc... get expensive when you buy premium stuff, and wasting it away on driving to work was lame. Brent and I had talked about maybe acquiring the tC, but it had a blown head gasket, and hadn't been driven in quite some time. I finally bit the bullet, and a bottle of head gasket sealer later, I was on my way. However, as with all things that seem too good to be true, the head gasket sealer eventually gave out, and the tC was drinking coolant faster than I could put it in. We eventually pulled the motor, put a new head and head gasket on it, and it hasn't had motor issues since.

My modifications remained relatively light. I added my old Momo Monte Carlo 350mm steering wheel from my FR-S build. It's a small difference, but I liked having that charm from my old build in this one. I also added an AEM OBD2 gauge to monitor coolant temp, as for some reason Toyota decided to gatekeep that information. Major sound deadening was done inside the wheelwells, trunk, doors, and other places to reduce the cabin sound. I also added an inline muffler before the quad exhaust to keep the look, but dampen the sound a hair. Finally, I added the engine cover from the Camry 2AR engine for a more complete look.

Since owning this car, I had this idea of turning it into a something unique. I think the tC is a highly underrated chassis, and is frequently overlooked. Many enthusiasts don't even consider this chassis as an option, and as such, aftermarket parts are far and few between. I wanted to embrace the uniqueness of this chassis, and do something different. I eventually changed out the Avid1 wheels for a set of 18" BRZ Limited wheels, sourced from Brent's current build - a beautiful blue 2023 Subaru BRZ Limited.

After running those for a while, I decided this car would be a good candidate for a stance build. Stance your daily driver, what could go wrong, right?

Stancypants

With this decision in mind, I debated heavily on what wheels to run. I am a strong believer that wheels can make or break a build, and is aesthetically one of the most important choices you can make. I wanted something clean, simple, but good looking and not super common. I browsed countless hours on Facebook marketplace, Offerup, and other sites to try and find something that would work for this car on a budget. Work Meisters, VSKF's, Weds Cerberus, and Volk TE37's were all too expensive, and all the rare, used three piece wheels were in too crazy of specs or too expensive. Then, I remembered a wheel that is relatively obscure on Japanese cars. One that is actually a good looking factory wheel out of Germany. I had wanted to run these wheels on the FR-S, but the offsets were too aggressive. 18" sizing, OEM wheel strength, and aggressive (negative) offsets sounded perfect to me, so after finding the right set, I picked up a set of BMW Style 37 "M-Parallel" wheels.

Quick picture of the M-Parallel's when I first brought them home, along with before and after shots cleaning the barrels.

Since these were a set of 4 front wheels with an 8" width, I picked up a set of 205/40R18 Goodyear Eagle tires for the perfect stretch.

The much smaller 205/40's, stretched perfectly on the BMW wheels. Paired with a light polish, these came out great. Combined with the 15mm adapters, the final offset came out to -2.

You can't have a stance build without going lower though, so out went the old Godspeed coilovers, and in their place went BC coilovers. When installing however, we went ahead and removed two of the three collars that are used to lock and adjust the height, and spun them to below their lowest setting for maximum low. Static stance guys have been using this trick for decades to get the absolute lowest ride height their coilovers can achieve for maximum scrapage and scene points.

The modified, perch deleted BC coilover on the left, compared to the unmodified coilover on the right.

With the new un-adjustable coilovers and BMW wheels installed, the front fitment was really tight and would rub going straight on flat ground. So in went a set of SPC camber bolts, to dial in the front fitment and get me a few degrees of much needed clearance to drive.

Even a single degree more of camber makes a huge difference in terms of clearance.

Driving Impressions

I personally think this car drives about as good as any static, slammed car could drive. I took out a road reflector with the front subframe the other day as I was switching lanes. The speedometer says I'm doing 85 miles per hour when I'm doing less than 70. The frame and exhaust scrape on the most minor dips and imperfections in the road. It doesn't corner well, I can't drive it fast, but these are all self-inflicted issues.

Prior to this with a more minor drop (when I was on the BRZ wheels), this car actually surprised me. It's engine is completely stock, so it still makes the same 179 horsepower and 172 lb/ft of torque at the engine, and I am confident it weighs well over 3,100lbs with all the extra sound deadening it has throughout the car. But honestly, as an all around car, this car actually did pretty well as a daily driver. The factory sound system is great, the car's 2.5 liter engine puts out a decent amount of low end torque due to it's large displacement for a 4 cylinder, and it honestly is a fun little car to drive around town.

As mentioned previously, the interior is pretty nice too. Brent had added a purple NRG Prisma seat, which isn't something I'd normally buy, but it's far more comfortable than the Sparco Evo seat in the FR-S; and surprisingly, I dig it too! The sound system is great, I love the steering wheel, and the dual panoramic sunroof is a nice touch for a street car. The interior has a generous amount of room, and the seats fold down for extra room to haul stuff.

In addition, the hatchback is nice. I've been so used to the miniscule trunk of the FR-S, and to see the behemoth of a hatch open up is such a blessing. I've used this car to bring home my tool box, a full set of wheels and tires, and even an entire FA20 engine. I love the sleek look too, it doesn't necessarily look like a hatch/wagon, but has all the functionality of one.

big trunk club

The End.

Unfortunately, all good things must come to an end. As it turns out, the EB60 manual transmission that came with this car has some issues. The input shaft uses a sealed bearing that is not lubricated by the transmission fluid like on a normal car. While this is fine for short distance driving, it is prone to overheating on long drives. My current job requires me to frequently drive 1-2+ hours each way to visit customers, and ultimately, this transmission has begun to whine with the clutch pedal out, and gets louder as the car warms up due to the bearing nearing the end of it's life. When this bearing gives out, it normally takes the rest of the transmission with it. The only fix is to pull the engine and transmission, disassemble, press the bearing off the input shaft, and replace. There is no OEM or aftermarket upgrade available for the bearing, and there are no manual transmission swaps that are easily attainable, as this was the only manual transmission that Toyota put behind their 2AR-FE motor.

All my homies hate the EB60

Due to this, I have sadly decided to part ways with this car. The fact that there is no fix available, combined with the fact I'm having this issue at only 90k miles, and that other people have had this issue return in under 20k miles after the bearing replacement, this car is no longer a viable option for reliable transport.

Reflections

Sometimes, I feel that the journey is better than the end result. As good or as bad as you may feel that this car is, the memories that my friends and I have had with this car are irreplaceable. At a certain point, an object becomes worth more than the sum of it's parts, and I think that's what attracts many of us to cars in the first place. It's not a status symbol or an "oh look at me" type of flex that most non-car people think; it's truly an embodiment of many different emotions, experiences, and even a time capsule to some. For an example: my FR-S is quick, it's clean, and it's a cool little car. But more importantly, it's the car that I truly learned performance driving in. The car that most of my friends and other people know me for. The car that my entire car Instagram revolves around. The FR-S is the car that I drove everyday to work, to school, late nights, early mornings; heck, it's the car that I drove as I fell in love with my girlfriend. In short, it's the memories, experiences, and the cumulative journey we experience in combination with these machines, and that makes cars so special to so many people.

I think it's these same experiences that have made me so attached to the tC. Is it me wanting to hold onto the old memories all our friends had with the car? Is it me feeling responsible for this car, the same way I'd want someone to take care of my builds? Maybe it's just me holding onto something too hard, not wanting to let Brent or my friends down - or maybe I am just overthinking the whole thing. I've made so many bad decisions with cars, but this was not one of them. I've had so many great experiences with this machine, and no regrets with owning this car whatsoever, and if I could go back in time, I would still buy this car again. No matter what my reasoning is for being so attached to the tC, I want to do right by the car. I feel the right decision is to clean it up, fix as many of the problems as I can, and give it a new lease on life with a new owner, completely stock, just as it was when Brent started his journey with it.

I can't emphasize how grateful I am to have owned this car. It might seem dumb, but to own a friend's former project car is such a unique feeling. All the mods I changed, I always felt as if I wanted to stay true to Brent's original vision with the car, while putting my own flair on it. I hope this build did his old visions justice. I'm so happy I got to own and experience this car, and it means the world to me that I was lucky enough to own it - even if it was only for a short period of time.

Modification List:

Exterior

Morimoto Headlights

Rear Bumper Cut

Custom Quad Exhaust

Extensive sound deadening throughout car

Interior

Harness Bar

Braum 4-Point Harness

NRG Prisma Seat

NRG Short Hub

NRG Quick Release

Momo Monte Carlo - 350mm

Suspension

BC Coilovers - Dual Collar Delete

SPC Front Camber Bolts

AEM Front Strut Bar

15mm 5x114.3 to 5x120 Adapters

18x8 +13 BMW Style 37 "M-Parallel" Wheels (Effective Offset -2)

205/40R18 Goodyear Eagle Tires

Hawk DTC Brake Pads