Scion's Release Series of cars has really resonated with the growing community that dotes on the Toyota offspring. Beginning with the 2004 xB RS 1.0, Scion created special-run vehicles packaged with exclusive accessories in small quantities. Like any good limited edition, dealerships can't keep the things in stock.

Ben Woolwine, a figure skating coach who hails from Bloomfield Hills, Mich., is among the only 2,600 owners to claim a 2006 Scion tC RS 2.0. The RS2 came in Blue Blitz Mica and featured a number of cosmetic tweaks inside and out, plus a premium audio setup.

While some may consider modding a limited edition to be sacrilege, Woolwine is a guy who definitely follows his own path. "I like to be different and try not to follow trends," he tells us. "Of course sometimes I do, but I only do something to the car if I like it. If someone else doesn't [like it,] I don't really care. It's my car."

Amen to that. As Woolwine climbed aboard the upgrade train, his first stops were for tints and lowering springs, followed by very elementary bolt-ons: intake, header, exhaust, and wheels.

From that point, Woolwine jumped to forced induction, or as he describes it, "the glory that is turbos." Doing his homework, he selected a kit from Turbonetics and instantly fell in love with it, supplementing the turbo with other improvements to support more boost: a clutch, flywheel, and proper tune. Woolwine later sold off the kit and had a custom setup made to his specs, resoundingly pleased with the end result: 340whp, 346 lb.-ft. of torque (and that's with stock internals).

What happened next to the tC shocked us a little bit. We're used to hearing about adversity in project builds, but the story that Woolwine told us just made us sick.

The Detroit area, where Woolwine calls home, is admittedly something of a bastion for domestic automakers, which all have corporate headquarters in the city, and as such has a definite bias for homemade machines. Apparently, a laid-off former employee of one of the Big 3 chose to take out his frustrations about being unemployed on Woolwine's tC (a car that is assembled in Tsutsumi, Japan), leaving some $5,000 in damage with a key. "Every body panel was completely destroyed," he laments.

Woolwine took the badly scratched up Scion to his buddy, painter/body pro Tom Forton, who agreed to take on the project. At first it was simply going to be a re-spray of the original color to keep costs down, but after Forton cut Woolwine a deal the owner decided to go with his favorite color ever, Virde Ithica, otherwise known Lamborghini green. Woolwine says it took three weeks of sanding, painting and wet-sanding to get the RS2 to look as it does now.

A constant inspiration throughout the build has been Woolwine's brother, Bobby. He also has a turbo tC, and the pair have been modding their cars together from Day One, which made the two-year process way more fun.

"We have always been the kind of guys who mod everything we own," Woolwine explains. "We used to race motocross as kids and our bikes were decked out, and we did all the work ourselves. We went from bikes to cars, sold the bikes to help pay for the cars."

Currently Ben's car puts out a little more power, but he admits his bro's a much better driver and can smoke his quarter-mile time. "He runs mid- to high-12's on street tires and my best is a 13.7, both with the same MPH of 112. Let's just say I need some work on my 60 foot [times]!"

Since the body revival, little else has been done to the tC, which today serves primarily as a weekend toy. Woolwine has garnered some acclaim with the Scion, though, primarily first place in both 2007 and '08 Detroit Autorama Extreme, and Best tC in both '07 and '08 at Scion Exposed.

That doesn't mean that Woolwine isn't scheming. A complete motor build is on the horizon, one that will include a drop in compression for more boost pressure to hopefully hit a horsepower target of 500. To rein in them ponies, Woolwine is also looking at big-brake kits.

Woolwine thinks he has a problem "investing so much into a FWD car," but we think his is a noble pursuit in an environment that clearly has risks to owners of Japanese cars. He reports that the few imports he's seen - Evo, STI, 240SX - stand out in the land of American iron, and he likes being part of the crowd that goes against the grain. Besides, he says, "I love this car! I don't think I'll ever sell it!"

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