You may recall the saga of my old Scion xB: it was the car I bought when my kid was still a baby because the VW Passat wagon I had was a steaming pile and I needed something a bit more modern than my old Beetle to haul my kid around. The xB was one of the only reliable Toyotas I could both afford and not be bored to hot salty tears by. Plus, it was a manual. It proved to be an incredible workhorse, and wildly reliable. Eventually, age and wear made it fall below my wife’s standards for a daily car (you know, actual human standards, not mine) so it got relegated to sitting in the driveway. And then became the Autopian Test Car. And then abandoned. And then, a majestic re-birth.
We’ve written the whole story of the xB and how an Autopian named Tom gave it a wonderful new afterlife already, but these pictures of the xB tearing it up in the mud at a recent Oppo rally really made my chest fill with joy, the special sort of joy one can only get from seeing the same little shitbox they used to haul their offspring around in now going sideways through mud and snow.
And, of course, sporting those fantastic stripes. And all those lights!
Just look at that majestic box! I love the new oversized wheels and tires it’s rocking, and the way they kick up noble sprays of mud and filth.
These pictures absolutely thrill me. This little car is such an unsung hero – I used it to haul washing machines and go on road trips and I once let Tiff Needell whip it around a track and I smacked it into a deer (starting my nasty habit) and put it back together on the cheap – this car and I have been through a lot.
So, knowing the state this thing was in post David and my best-food-to-eat-in-cars experiment, I’m still amazed at the job Tom did getting this thing viable and non-disgusting again.
I know I tend to anthropomorphize cars an awful lot. I can’t help it. But there’s times like these, where I see a loyal car I once owned having what I have to assume is the best possible second- or third life a car can possible wish for, when I’m glad I ascribe emotional qualities to these decidedly non-inert machines, because even if those emotions are just mine and Tom’s and whomever else sees the car and feels something, the car is still the core of it all, the magnet drawing in the iron shavings, the star whose gravity whips those planets around it.
So, again, thank you, Tom, for giving this reliable little box on wheels such a fantastic retirement. I’ve never seen it look happier.
This is fantastic! We can only wish all cars lived so many lives before ending in the junkyard
I currently daily drive one of these (in that color, too!) and while they aren’t great on the highway, they do rip around on gravel very well. The manual is a ton of fun, and if you need it to move a lot of small stuff or one Big Thing then it’ll happily do the job. Mine’s almost at 200,000 miles and I plan on keeping it forever.
By the time I had to sell my ’06 Prius it was in the following condition: 300k miles, second HV battery, cracked windshield, broken water pump that sort of worked, overheated so warped head, clear coat peeling, slight mismatch paint on front bumper, filthy interior, would fail smog in CA, and probably more, but still drove. Guess I underpriced it at $1000, as first caller jumped on it. Told me a cousin was upmodding several such Prius to a luxury vehicle (huh?) in Arizona. I checked on the VIN a few times over about a year, but never saw it pop up. It was a great car until I failed to check the oil one too many times.
You LOVE to see it, great read as always.
For the first two years or so after I bought my track bike, I’d send him the ocassional picture showing that she was still tearin’ it up around the track.
Yay Tom! Yay Oppo!
I need to make it to the next one if they do this again.
I’m sure they’ll make it happen…
As someone who was at the RallyX, I can attest firsthand that the xB is living its best life. It was one of the quickest of the (admittedly, mostly shitty) cars there, and Tom drove the hell out of it.
This is excellent,
“these pictures of the xB tearing it up in the mud at a recent Oppo rally really made my chest fill with joy”
Glad it was not blood, like when you had that “minor issue”.
It is always good to see things that we used to love being in a good shape and being used as they should. To any car lover, they are more than appliances, specially ours.
This is what makes us different from normal people: we can see love where people only see a machine.
This exactly why I’ve never run a CarFax on any of my old cars. In my head this is what they’re all doing and I don’t want to learn otherwise.
This is the car equivalent of a dog actually going to a farm to run and play all day…
The dribble of mud by the turn signal kinda looks like happy crying.
This makes me so happy. I remember when the idea for stripes was first kicked around on Discord. I’m glad it’s been given a new lease on life. I always loved the xB, mostly because it looked like a baby Brinks truck.
It really does look good with the stripes and those fat wheels doesn’t it?
Not as good as the MS paint mockups but still pretty good. Haha.
I went down a rabbit hole of posting sunset stripes and a few days later it had them. I’m still surprised by how well it works
I think a lot of us were surprised. It looks so good.
The photos are great, but I’d really love to see a piece on here detailing this transformation. The first gen xBox occupies a very special place in my heart, and seeing people do cool shit with them (that doesn’t involve giant shift knobs, stickers and ridiculous “stance”) makes me giddy.
There’s a guy named Randall “Randode” West who fabs up lift kits for the xB. The best way to get in touch with him is via the Lifted xBs Facebook group, but be aware that it might take some patience and perseverance. It took about 5 weeks for my lift kit to arrive.
The process is fairly standardized, most people looking to lift their xB go for a 2″ lift front and rear and add a 1″ subframe drop to keep the steering geometry close-ish to stock. You can also add springs from a 2nd gen xB (I did) which helps since the 2nd gen is a little porkier, so you get some additional lift when you put them on the gen 1. If you run gen 2 springs you’ll also want a rear shock extension. You can get all of the lift parts from Randode for a hair under $500, but you’ll have to source your own springs.
Depending on the tire size you may need to do some fender trimming. The tires I’m running are 27×8.5R14 which are too big. I had to beat the hell out of the wheel wells with a sledgehammer to get full steering rotation back, and it still could use some extra clearance in the rear when fully loaded with passengers.
I need a report on how it smells.
Yeah, all these exterior shots are nice, but we all know the real travesty was the interior of that thing.
I rode in the xB for a lap around the dirt course and didn’t smell anything but people pooping their pants because of how fast it was on the knobby tires.
Not reliable enough for the wife, reliable enough to be a rally car.
Was this a case where “reliable” really means “nice”?
I don’t think it was a reliability thing. I think it was NVH, lack of creature comforts, and general wear and tear. I have an old beat up Scion xD with a big pile of miles on it, and my wife similarly wanted something nicer. The Scion is still reliable, but it only gets miles when it’s just me in the car now.
The way Torch said “eventually age and wear” made me wonder if it was little things going wrong here and there or it was just getting ratty, maybe a bit smelly or maybe she was tired of the stick shift. Sally wouldn’t be the first wife/mother to tire of dealing with a stick shift.
Men OTOH regardless of their family status never get tired of playing with their stick shifts.
I’m playing with my stick shift rig- wait, no.
2024 translation: Needs CVT, touchscreen and 98-zone climate control. *SNIFF*
You think someone who needs that in a car would have married Torch?
Maybe he was on his meds then.
I brought my sister along in her Maverick as an insurance policy. I trust this car about as far as I can throw it.
I trust that the air conditioner will work, which is nice.
I don’t trust that it’ll actually move forward when I press the accelerator, which is unreliable.
The sound of (what I assume to be) the throw out bearing is louder than the sound of the AT tires at 70mph, so I completely understand why it was abandoned in an undisclosed auto mfg’s parking lot.
Sometimes the “dog that got sent to the farm” actually is a dog that got sent to the farm. Rest assured that the Scion is happily frolicking in the pasture, chasing sheep and getting into mischief…
It still needs a new clutch though.
On the race course runs a box(er)
Now a fighter by his trade
And he carries the reminders
Of every buck that laid him down
Or food stains that he cried about
In his anger and his shame
“I am pleading, I need speeding”
Now the fighter is remade
I am embarrassed that I read that to the Mumford & Sons version instead of Simon & Garfunkel. F-ing covers!!!
I am one of the organizers of what we dubbed the OppoCross outlaw rallycross. Let me tell you Torch, your boy Tom can wheel that little shit box! It was properly majestic! I got a ride in it for a run, and had a good ole time! What a machine!
It was really cool to see it there, especially in the current rally form! I’m glad it made it through the day undamaged, unlike many of the other vehicles that got out on the course.
The xB has come a long way since the post-food-challenge abandonment, Tom was definitely the right person to become its caretaker. Looking forward to seeing it again at future Autopian meetups, and hopefully Oppo rallycross events.
I’m just glad that noise coming from your front left wheel was just a small rock and nothing important after I had you take me for a ride!
I’ve had enough problems with that front left corner, so I’m also very glad that was the case! It was fun to have someone riding along, I’ll have to see about getting more people in the passenger seat next time.
Sometimes when I let one of my dogs out I watch the absolute joy in her face as she races full tilt through the yard and majestically leaps through the air off the terrace. Somehow that’s the exact same look this car has.
Probably just a trick of the lighting or shadows, but their faces in the last picture look to have, uh, interesting decorations.
Pretty much anything is a rally vehicle if you’re motivated enough. Happy to see the xb enjoying the variable-traction life!
No decorations, we’re just ugly 😛
On 3rd look, it may be reflected trees. Reminds me of the makeup you might see on-stage at a KISS concert 😉
Regardless, looks like you’re having fun—and it’s great that you’re here responding in the comments
<thumbs up>
Does the front end of that xB with that bumper and lights look a lot like the new generation Hyundai Santa Fe, or is that just me?