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Rutledge Wood wins Toyota Pro/Celebrity Race in Long Beach

Rutledge Wood took home the checkered flag at this year's Toyota Pro/Celebrity race at the Grand Prix of Long Beach. The Top Gear USA presenter, Fox Sports commentator and Honda Wagovan owner managed to take pole position in qualifying, but lost his lead early in the race to Mark Steines. Steines has competed in the Pro/Celebrity race four times so far, but the Hallmark channel host of Home and Family couldn't quite hold on to the lead. Wood eventually made up the ground he had lost for the win. This year, all the participants went fender to fender in identically prepared Scion FR-S racers.
Meanwhile, Adam Carolla took first in the Pro category, and Toyota donated $5,000 on behalf of each participant to Racing for Kids. The charity benefits children's hospitals in the Long Beach area, and this year Toyota donated a total of $90,000. Check out the full press release below for more information.

2016 Scion iA First Drive

Leading up to our first test of the 2016 Scion iA, we're actually really excited to drive it. A string of "if A, then B" logic tells us this car ought to be pretty good. We drove the new Mazda CX-3 and loved it. The CX-3 is based on the Mazda2 platform. The Scion iA is a rebadged Mazda2, built in Mexico as part of Toyota and Mazda's joint venture. Following that line of thought, we should like this Scion a lot. And we do – mostly. Parts of the Scion iA experience feel a lot more Toyota than Mazda. Scion executives tell us that Toyota had a lot of influence in the engineering of the Mazda2, since in addition to being the iA in the US, the car will be sold as the Yaris in other markets. Unfortunately, that Toyota-ness comes through in the driving dynamics. The iA uses Mazda's 1.5-liter Skyactiv-G four-cylinder engine with 106 horsepower at 6,000 rpm and 103 pound-feet of torque at 4,000 rpm. On the canyon roads near Malibu, CA, we're putting pedal to the metal; uphill acceleration is unsurprisingly poor for a car with meager output numbers like these. Around town, 106 hp and 103 lb-ft is perfectly fine for the 2,385-pound iA. And it allows the car to return impressive EPA-estimated fuel economy numbers of 33 miles per gallon city, 42 mpg highway, and 37 mpg combined with the six-speed automatic transmission. Should you choose the six-speed manual, those numbers only drop to 31, 41, and 35, respectively. The six-speed stick is all Mazda, and we love it. You should choose the manual, by the way. The six-speed stick is all Mazda, and we love it. Gear throws are short and snappy, and the clutch has a nice weight and crisp action. Driving the manual iA back to back with the six-speed iM really points out that Mazda makes a far better manual transmission than Toyota. Great gearbox aside, on these canyon roads, we're feeling a bit let down. Never mind the acceleration issues, the iA just doesn't feel like a Mazda in the turns. Credit where credit's due: the steering is really nice, with a solid feeling on center and crisp turn-in and lots of feedback throughout the entire range of motion. But we're remembering the solid, planted feeling the CX-3 exhibited when we hustled it along the mountain roads of Arizona. And we aren't feeling it here in the Scion iA.

Scion iA and iM get wide bodies and whitewalls... thanks, SEMA

Scion has a quartet of customized vehicles on the way to this week's SEMA show in Las Vegas, two iM hatchbacks tuned as part of its Annual Scion Tuner Challenge, two iA sedans whipped up by the brand's lifestyle partners. Streetwear brand Crooks & Castles went with the widebody style that Japanese tuners RWB have been grafting onto Porsches and Liberty Walk has been bolting onto exotics for a few years now. Underneath the punched-out flares there's an air suspension that'll put one of those custom mesh wheels in the air, while the iM's insides are draped in black-and-white leather. Fellow streetwear brand illest worked up another iM in the manner of Japanese VIP cars, with 19-inch wheels outside and suede and leather inside. In the other corner, Eddie Huang, he of the TV show Fresh Off the Boat, took the lowrider route with his iA. The Scion boasts a mural-emblazoned metallic yellow paint job and root beer accents, chain-link steering wheel, and gold-dipped wire wheels and grille. Skybound Entertainment, the entertainment company that brings shows like The Walking Dead to life, forsook zombies for demons with its iA, cued off the theme of graphic novelist Robert Kirkman's latest book Outcast. You can read more about all four cars below, and we'll have live images from the SEMA floor soon. SCION SHOWCASES FASHION AND PASSION TORRANCE, Calif. (Oct. 29, 2015) – Creative visions of the Scion iM 5-door hatchback and Scion iA sedan are ready for Las Vegas lights. The cars were previewed in the downtown Los Angeles' Arts District ahead of their debut at the Specialty Equipment Market Association (SEMA) Show in Las Vegas, Nov. 3-6. For the 11th Annual Scion Tuner Challenge, remixed versions of the all-new sporty 2016 iM 5-door hatchback were created by prominent streetwear brands illest and Crooks & Castles. Each received a Scion iM and a $15,000 build budget to put a unique spin on the car. Mark Arcenal, creative director of illest, drew inspiration for his iM concept from the Japanese VIP world, a clear departure from the race-inspired tC he built at the 2008 Scion Tuner Challenge. "With a background in motorsports, I went with familiarity for my previous Scion Tuner Challenge experience. I wanted to push the boundaries even further this time," Arcenal said.