If you have been following Speedhunters regularly, then you've likely read about Chris Rado and the World Racing team's adventures with their Scion tC time attack car. The team has been hard at work redoing the car for the 2009 time attack season, and I just spoke with Chris a bit about some of the updates they are doing to for the new season. From what he's told me, this car will truly be bringing American-built time attack cars to a whole new level.

Anyone will tell you that a capable time attack car should have a complete balance of horsepower and handling. Horsepower has never been an issue for World Racing, but after pushing the stock Scion chassis components to their limit with the previous setup, the new tC is being significantly beefed up to handle the 800 ft lbs of torque that it's making.

The 2.7+ liter stroker engine will be seeing a slight power increase from last year's car, but again making sure the rest of the car can stand up to the power has been the most important aspect of this build.

It's hard to believe that somewhere under all of that madness is something that has its roots in the engine under the hood of that beige Toyota Camry parked down the street…

If you have read the blog entries Chris made last season, then you know about the transmission troubles that plagued the team last year. With an all new heavy duty Xtrac six-speed sequential transmission, the new setup should be both durable and faster than the normal transmission on the old car. To get things rolling, a standard floor-mounted shifter will be used, but later it will be converted to a steering wheel-mounted setup.

The most significant changes are coming to the body and chassis. Chris says that the new car will be between 400 and 500 pounds lighter than the old one. The stock Scion tC has a glass roof that weighs in 160 pounds, and that has been removed and replaced with a carbon panel that weighs about 10 lbs.

On the previous setup, the wide wheels and tires were putting so much stress on the tC's stock hubs and wheel bearings that Chris would have to pump the brakes before each corner, adding precious seconds to each lap. The new car will feature custom hubs and spindles that should easily handle the 10.5" wide wheels and 275 width Hankook tires.

And finally we have the car's new aero setup. Here you can see the new and improved (and gigantic) wing that's been mounted on the rear. The unlimited class has no rules on aero parts, so you can expect to see some wild-looking parts on the new car. There are also plans for a front spoiler, which I've been trying to visualize in my head. When Chris was talking about the car's new aerodynamics he said "Do you remember the days of the winged Can Am racers? Well, those days are back"…

The car should be completed mechanically in about two weeks and it will undergo some shakedown runs before being disassembled for paint. Chris says the official competition debut for the new car should be at the Redline Time Attack event at Willow Springs in May.

(We apologize about the confusion over the photos in the earlier version of this post)

Check out Chris Rado's Speedhunters blog entries here and here for more info on this project.

Photos from CH Autophoto

-Mike Garrett