Coupe licensed to thrill

Coupe licensed to thrill
Photos by -Autonet.ca
Andrew Seymour, Ottawa Sun
Published: 31 05 2005

Consider it a home theatre on wheels.

Of course, putting a 43-inch Pioneer plasma TV in the hatchback will do that.

This rolling living room was the creation of California custom car builders Five Axis Models, who transformed a 2005 Scion tC sport coupe into one of the hottest show cars on the floor at this year's Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.

With the latest Pioneer AVIC-N2 navigation system acting as the multimedia head unit and DVD source for the plasma screen, Five Axis president Troy Sumitono and chief designer Heimeng Chan packed in two additional Pioneer 8-inch LCD video screens, three Pioneer 12-inch subwoofers and four pairs of high-end Pioneer speakers in the front and rear doors. They also added five amplifiers -- three mono and two four-channel.

But putting a lot of electronics into a small sport coupe doesn't mean much if the car doesn't look good inside and out. Using a software package called Design by Alias, Chan built the complete aero kit before creating the moulds that would go into the final car.

The moulds were then laminated with fibreglass and carbon fibre to create the final parts.

To give the car more flair, Five Axis put race wings -- which would usually go on top of the car -- underneath to give it a unique look.

From the outside, the casual observer might not notice much save for the Scion's bold coat of custom-mixed Lime Pearl paint. It's once the remote-controlled hatch pops that the show begins with the 43-inch plasma literally folding out of the trunk, flanked by the midrange speakers and subs moving in multiple directions.

"They just freak out when they see that thing come out. They are like, 'Where'd that come from, how did that fit in there?' " says Sumitono, who has been customizing cars for the past 10 years.

The Scion tC is just the latest Five Axis creation to turn heads. A year earlier, Sumitono and his team transformed a 2005 Scion xB into an award-winning widebody bright orange mobile DJ booth complete with turntables that emerged from the back end and an eardrum-busting sound system.

Sumitono said Toyota, which manufactures Scion, came to Five Axis looking for something outrageous that had never been done before.

"We're trying to do something new and fresh. We're not trying to follow other people's leads," he says. "The idea was more of a multimedia experience where a person could use it to interface, do video editing or maybe being out and having the ultimate tailgate party."

Sumitono acknowledges the car -- which would probably cost about $250,000 to trick out -- isn't really practical, but definitely draws a crowd. "Our cars are the extreme of customization. If you want to go all out and go crazy, this is what you can do," he says.

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