Ken Stout Racing TRD FR-S with TRD Supercharger

[hmong337]

I feel insulted as an owner that I've only just discovered the Ken Stout Racing TRD Scion race car. I believe they had a good learning season. Not bad considering this is Scion's development car and first time comer to the GTS series. Just peel your eyes back and look at what they're racing!!!

Been seeing a lot of shitty threads lately; bashing our cars etc... Here's to that!

...the thought of my Ultramarine capable to the same degree as the KSR race car has me feeling gitty. I LOVE MY FR-S!

A look under the hood at the only TRD Supercharged Scion FR-S in the World. The car is owned by KSR and competes in the Pirelli World Challenge Series GTS class.

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eL51vKHLOg4"]FR-S TRD Supercharger with Eaton TVS Rotor system - YouTube[/ame]
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O3-DVhJ7LHE"]Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach - Lucas Oil KSR Scion FR-S - YouTube[/ame]
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zF2NAl2MjH4"]KSR FR-S WC Indy 200 at Mid-Ohio - YouTube[/ame]

Enjoy

[batmobilefrs]

The Eaton corporation is no joke, they make a whole bunch of stuff including some of the most sensitive electronics equipment that goes into US Navy warships. I have worked with their product for the last 4 years on a Nuclear submarine and i can attest to their quality. Though $26k is a tad expensive, if I'm reading the articles correctly.

[hmong337]

some more visuals:

[cf6mech]

They had a lot of growing pains this year with the FRS, they should do much better next year. It's got to be very hard to compete with a brand new platform like this and being the first to do all the R and D. It would be so much easier to jump into a Boss R mustang or the like that someone else has done all the work on....I applaud them.

[Rampage]

It is a nice looking machine but they did have a lot of technical issues and mechanical failures this year. I believe they only finished a couple races and even then they were not competitive with the front runners.. I just do not understand why Scion choose to run the car in the GTS class instead of putting it in the Continental Challenge Street Tuner class where it seems to be a natural fit running against the BMW 1 and 3 series, Mazda 3, MX-5, Honda Civic, Nissan Altima Coupe, VW GTI etc. Instead they put a $26K supercharger on it and run it against the much more powerful V8 and V6 powered cars in GTS. I believe it would have been competitive in the ST class right out of the gate.

[rice_classic]

Well good for the Stout's. They want to go play with the big cars without a big car and they have the resources and drive to do it. While I think the FRS is a good fit in ST, I think having the Stouts in GTS with it is right for them.

I hope they continue to develop it, make it reliable and we see more if it on TV. The only downside is that PWC get's hardly any air time which is unfortunate since it's a very fun series to watch, especially in person.

I too would like to see others bring the FRS/BRZ into ST, it would be a lot of fun to watch it race there.

[stugray]

Very cool, but having a racecar worth probably $100k but cant afford a HANs device sounds to me like "more money than sense"....

I see the tabs on his helmet, but never see him put it on.

[CircuitJerk]

I was in the Irvine area last April for work. Made it to one of the meets and they showed up. I recall that bit about having the motor torn apart the day before.
They all seemed open and down to earth.
I was happy to have met them, see the car and even smell it..LOL

Thanks OP for sharing the vids

[clayrush]

I got to meet Robert and his crew this summer when they came out to Sanoma raceway. All were pretty nice. Robert was very nice and talked to me a bit. I got to take some up close pix, but his lead mechanic was a bit protective. I let them know I would not upload anything. I'll just say they have a less than usual placement for the radiator.
Rob told me that the car sits higher than stock to allow for more suspension travel. Also said the car lacked the torque to pull them out of some of the sharper turns. Especially the 180 degree.

We have a bunch of the control centers for our equipment from Eaton at the waste water treatment plant I work at.
and they make the supercharger on my celica.

[nonicname returns]

can someone please explain to me why anyone would pay $26k for a supercharger? even a race team. Are these sponsored by TRD or what?
If I had a race team I would use one of the ton other available FI options.
for $26k you can build a nice race car not just add a SC.

if I'm correct you had to buy 2 SCs too.

[cycleboy]

WC is a cool series. Unfortunately they weren't at my home race this year and won't be next year (Laguna).

While I like what KSR is doing with this since I have the "same" car, I wish it looked a bit more like the GT300 BRZ (maybe some of that is the WC rules though). I started following them before I got my car, but with the lack of coverage of WC and their issues with the car, it was hard to follow the progress over the season.

[kevman_101]

The WC series has pretty strict rules I would presume... Especially for the TC and GTS classes. I'm pretty sure they are regulated to run that supercharger as it's probably the only one that is homologated to be used on the FRS. Funny to hear the race car actually has a higher ride height then the stock car .

[Mikem53]

Meh... Nice and all.. But they're just throwing stupid money at this car..
In the real world.. That same money could have bought a used whatever that would be faster and more reliable....
But maybe some of these pricey sponsored components will trickle down to the real world aftermarket and something reasonable and obtainable will come of it.. Until then... Meh...

[cantholdanymore]

So eaton is a/the major sponsor here. Would this be a test mule for the commercial s/c?. Fingers crossed