Earlier this summer, Toyota invited a number of tuners to the Torrance, CA, headquarters to weigh and measure the all new Scion FR-S ahead of its official release. With aftermarket heavy hitters AEM, DC Sports, Whiteline, and ACT armed with experienced technicians as well as state-of-the-art tools including an engine bay 3D digital scanner, car enthusiasts discovered that the Scion FR-S was a very tuner-friendly machine despite the small engine and small engine compartment.
Some components including aftermarket suspension and exhaust were just a Subaru compatible test-fit away. However, power-multiplying superchargers and turbochargers were expected to take longer to get right.
Finally, Scion and Toyota in-house performance tuner Toyota Racing Development (TRD) has just unveiled a new FR-S supercharger at the SEMA show this year.
While tuner Accelerated Performance introduced a turbocharging kit for the twin Subaru BRZ, the new TRD supercharger will be the very first factory-backed force-induction system. The supercharger was co-developed between Stout Racing and TRD for the upcoming Pirelli World Challenge Series FR-S. Given the FR-S' requirement to meet regulations in its GTS class, TRD must make the supercharger a hardware available to the public in order for it to be used for competition in the race car. With that in mind, a performance part doesn't get more racing-derived than that.
At this point, TRD has yet to unveil exactly how much power the new supercharger stands to produce. Other TRD hardware upgrades available at SEMA include a new exhaust, lowering springs, intake, and a big-brake kit.
Expect the new TRD supercharger to be available in your nearest Scion dealer by March 2013, the start of the next GTS class World Challenge racing season. For Subaru BRZ owners that are interested in fitting a supercharger as well, we suggest calling Scion to learn more about warranty technicalities.
