The winner of the Scion FR-S Tuner Challenge Contest has been announced. Was it the car you voted for in our forum poll? If you voted for Minty Fresh FR-S by Chris Basselgia, then the judges agreed with you.

FT86CLUB members in attendance at this week’s SEMA show are all invited to join our member meet, tomorrow – Thursday Nov 1 at 7PM. The location will be Raising Cane’s Chicken Fingers.

Please see details INSIDE.

A Japanese test group has just been spotted [photos] at the Nurburgring driving what appears to be a prototype for the Subaru BRZ STI. This Subaru BRZ was being driven by some Japanese drivers, and accompanied by a rather large Japanese contingent off-track.

The car wears most of the BRZ STI parts previewed by Subaru so far – black front splitter and new, lower side-skirts that both wear STI badges. STI badged brakes can also be seen behind new 14-spoke, STI branded wheels. The dual exhaust tips look to be significantly fatter than the standard models, filling the slots in the rear valance. Finally, a large fixed rear wing is bolted onto the rear deck, though it’s slightly different in design than the one seen on the BRZ STI Concept.

What other performance upgrades this model boasts is not yet known, though if it had any sort of turbocharging (rumors), it would possibly have Subaru’s trademark functional hood air scoop in some form.

See the full photo set INSIDE.

Not able to make it to SEMA? No problem. Look vicariously at the FR-S/BRZ builds on display at SEMA via this SEMA 2012 Scion FR-S / Subaru BRZ Live Photos Thread.

There are thousands of customized vehicles at the SEMA show every year, representing the best and most outrageous of the $30 billion aftermarket. Every year there’s nothing more fun than picking the king. To determine which one was the most popular on the show floor, SEMA itself started counting the cars three years ago, giving awards based on sheer numbers. Officials wandered the nearly 2 million square feet of show floor the night before the show opened and started counting. While they won’t release the exact figures, they did say which vehicle was most popular in each of four categories. And the winners are:

— Hottest Sport Compact: Scion FR-S
— Hottest 4×4: Jeep Wrangler
— Hottest Truck: Ford F-series
— Hottest Car: Ford Mustang

See the full directory of SEMA FR-S/BRZ cars @ http://www.ft86club.com/forums/showthread.php?t=20991

This is a comprehensive list of EVERY SINGLE FR-S/BRZ that we have discovered at SEMA.

As we reported earlier, the Scion Tuner Challenge is back, and this time, the tuners in the competition are bringing their skills to the all-new Scion FR-S. All three were given a stock 2013 Scion FR-S, $15,000, and just 3 months to complete their build. The three cars are John Toca from Chicago, Illinois, Daniel Song from Orange County, California, and Chris Basselgia from Lebanon, Pennsylvania.

The finished vehicles will be unveiled in two days – on October 31st at the 2012 SEMA Show in Las Vegas, but HERE is a first look at all three builds. The winner will be determined at SEMA and will go home with a grand prize of $10,000!

Click through for photos of all 3 builds.

TRD Japan has released some race spec parts lineup for the 86/FR-S.

The parts categories include chassis, exterior, vision, safety gear, operation, instrument panel, seat, interior, air conditioning, audio, and others.

Check out the full (translated) catalog inside, along with some photos.