Last week I headed over to the World Racing shop in Torrance to check with in the guys as they readied Chris Rado's time attack Scion tC for the upcoming season. It turned out the car would actually be seeing some dyno time that day, so the scheduling had worked out perfectly.
Chris Rado's exploits have been featured numerous times on Speedhunters, but for me it was my first visit to the World Racing shop.
Both Rado and his team are known for their bold, unique personalities and this is clearly evident while visiting the shop.
This tough looking dude helps protect the shop...
...as does the shop mascot/part time guard dog, Slick.
After a record-setting season in 2009, Rado's time attack tC has undergone a few upgrades for 2010. One of the changes is a revised turbo manifold setup...more power is never a bad thing, right?
Interestingly, the manifold on the race car is very similar to the one that World Motorsports makes for the street-going tC turbo kit.
After a full year of competition the front end of the car has also been heavily reinforced.
This includes new, stronger mounts for the infamous fwing.
Here we see Mr. Rob Cardona happily demonstrating the strength of the new wing mounts...
As I observed, the guys did some last minute preparations before the dyno session.
Then a few minutes later Mr. Rado himself showed up in his blacked out Sequoia.
Sure he was about to strap his beast onto the dyno, but Chris just seemed just as excited about the new Pelican cases he had just picked up. Crazy dude.
After Chris arrived, it was time to pack up and head to the dyno spot.
It's a little tough to navigate the LA streets with the giant race rig...
...so a simple flatbed tow truck was hired for the job. I'm not sure if the two truck driver was expecting a car like this.
With the car loaded up, we were off to the dyno at SR Motorcars in Gardena, just a few short miles away.
Within a few minutes the car was strapped onto the rollers, and warming up for the first of several runs.
As the car warmed up, Chris worked on his impression of Vin Diesel from the Chronicles of Riddick...
Finally it was time to see what she could put down. First up were a couple runs on lower boost settings. I made the mistake of walking right behind the exhaust pipe after one of the pulls, and my eyes were not liking it. Lesson learned.
When all was said and done, the car laid down 890 WHP and 777 ft lbs of torque at 30 pounds of boost - a number the guys were quite satisfied with. Besides the front-drive car, the engine setup was also being tested for use in the new AWD Scion tC time attack car that will debut later this year.
In less than two weeks the FWD tC will make its 2010 competition debut at the Redline Time Attack season opener at Buttonwillow Raceway.
Thanks to Chris Rado, Rob Cardona, and everyone at World Racing for letting me tag along with them. Can't wait to see what happens at Buttonwillow!
-Mike Garrett
The Chris Rado Driver's Experience