Jay Leno Drives 300 HP Speedhunters Scion FR-S

Jay Leno recently took Keith Charvonia’s Supercharged 300 HP Scion FR-S out for spin from his Burbank-based car garage and compiled a video of the experience on his infamous “Jay Leno Garage” series on YouTube.

The “Maximum Attack” 2015 Scion FR-S is an award-winning build that originated under the watchful expertise of up and coming industrial designer Keith Charvonia with significant help from World-renowned Motorsport livery designer Andy Blackmore. 

Commissioned under the rules of Scion’s 2014 Tuner Challenge, this particular build was from start to finish, done in 90 days with a $15 thousand budget. After winning the Scion Tuner Challenge last year at SEMA in Las Vegas, it quickly made its way to the front stage of Scion’s booth at the 2015 Chicago Auto Show.

Truly an underdog story, Keith went up against some of the bigger names in the industry including Super Street and GT Channel. With just a lift and a couple of welders in his own two car garage, Keith handily beat the other more well-equipped competitors.

The Maximum Attack FR-S takes a lot of design language cues from the 1970’s Toyota IMSA Racing cars of old. Keith himself took the time to compile a thorough photo essay of the entire build. It’s worth taking a look at if you have the time.

This wasn’t your typical SEMA build with a simple engine swap and slick paint job. It was a collaboration with some of the world’s best import tuners with custom fabrication from the likes of Rywire and Chasebay’s.

According to a blurb from the folks at the Chicago Auto Show, “The visual standouts are the over fenders as part of a special edition kit designed by Kei Miura, hood mounted JDM fender mirrors, Cosworth Stage 2.0 supercharger, Wilwood big brake kit with 6-pistons front/4-pistons rear, lower suspension and custom Rotiform BLQ 17-Inch golden spoke racing wheels.”

In the video, you could see Jay enjoying his way through 405 freeway traffic and caning it through the mountains of Southern California.

Jay touches on the fact that it’s refreshing to see young designers carrying on the legacy of tuning and fabricating in the modern age.

With the demise of racetracks all over California and millennial trends of choosing automatics over manuals as well as talk of self-driving cars taking over, it’s nice to see that creativity and good old tuning are still alive in a place where some say it all began.