KURENAI

“It’s a daily. I’ll just keep it stock.” A sentiment we’ve heard time and time again. One that may be true for a moment, but by the time the person who uttered it is speaking to us, we know that it couldn’t have remained that way for long.

Like many before him, Jason Helmick went through this phase of ownership when he picked up his 2015 Scion FR-S off the lot in 2015. It didn’t take long before outside forces influenced him to take the plunge. A couple of years into ownership, one of Helmick’s friends connected him with someone who had a spare supercharger kit for the BRZ/FR-S that they weren't planning on using.

As soon as that supercharger entered the picture, it was game on, and Helmick decided he wanted to build something out of this platform that had so much potential. He was introduced to Jared Bradfield, a Subaru specialist of JRod’s Garage, who helped him sort out the potential mods available. Helmick’s build started like many others do: wheels, coilovers, UEL headers, an exhaust, and every single piece of carbon fiber they could find for the FR-S. It had begun, and there was no stopping it now. A bright wrap and some colormatched wheels later, and Helmick was all aboard the show circuit, taking home awards and making connections along the way.

When he was growing up, Helmick’s father was a huge source of inspiration, and the reason he got into car culture was because of his father helping him build his first car at 16 years old, a 1969 Ranchero. When his father passed away in the summer of 2016, it changed Helmick’s life, and he made the ultimate commitment: to build his 2015 Scion FR-S into the best FR-S build on the planet as a tribute to his old man. In October of 2018, after much deliberation and planning, the car was back in JRod’s Garage. They were starting over from the beginning.

It was this life-changing event and subsequent transformation that brought us the FR-S we see before us.