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| They even found a way to fit the OEM full door panels while having a NASA/MPTCC legal full cage… |
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| However, this is where I have to have a slight gripe in the build. I am not a fan of minimal side impact protection. While I'm sure this simple crossbar allows for ease of egress and to use a full door panel, I'd prefer if it had a better protection than that. After watching that impact Matt Powers had at Wall Speedway last year, I haven't felt comfortable about this type of door bar design. At the potential of having to cut away the door panel, I think a hybrid of a NASCAR door bar and a cross door bar would offer better protection. Matt's new cage is probably a bit more extreme I'd imagine. |
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| I do applaud them on the effort on trying to make this as much of an attainable street car as possible for a race car. Details like making the forward tube go through the dash is nice. It is a very clean and retains most of the OEM dash, too. Though, it does look like they did have to move the power mirror switch because of the downtube. |
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| That's not to say the cage work isn't good, either when I gripe about the door bar. It is a solidly designed cage that does the job we all hope it never has to do. Here you can also see where the rest of the interior is stripped out and sound deadening removed. You can also see the OEM fuel tank and fuel pump location are retained. I believe the Greddy kit does provide a new fuel pump, however. |
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| The last bit of the rear cage, again, there is some detail in here. The second cross tube does provide some stiffening for the rear portion of the car, considering the flex a fastback style hatch can have since there is no rear shelf or back panel to tie the rear body together before you get into the trunk space. Another consideration is the all glass roof of the tC, however that has been removed and replaced with a carbon roof, so the roll cage has some double duty action going on in this tC. |
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| That's pretty much it for this Gruppe-S tC. As far as Michele and her personality goes, this should tell you all you need to know about her; bright, loud, and sharp. She's got a pretty good looking future ahead of her, too. Working together with Scion Racing, she's in a great group of race car drivers that includes Ken Gushi (Greddy FR-S), Tony Angelo (Scion Racing tC), Andrew Comrie-Picard (Sparco Rally xD), Chris Rado (Need for Speed tC), Takeshi Aizawa (Greddy tC), Fredric Aasbo (Need for Speed tC, and Scott Kelly (Scion Bullet xB). |
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| Despite the attitude a racer does need to carry, that confidence and air of 'I know what I'm doing,' Michele is still very humble about her role as a driver. “I'd like to thank NASA for allowing us a safe series to race wheel to wheel in, by accepting the MotoIQ Pacific Tuner Car Challenge into their organization,” she says about the National Auto Sport Association, “it's a great opportunity for any racer to get more experience.” |
Michele would also like to thank the following sponsors:
Hankook
Mishimoto
