Scott Kelley and his all-motor xB Bullet join Team Scion Racing

There was a time when professional drag racer Scott Kelley used to battle Scion on a pretty regular basis – in particular, the tC of Leslie Armendariz. At the peak of popularity for sport compact drag racing, it was not uncommon for the two fierce all-motor competitors to square off against one another multiple times during the course of a season.

That history is likely why Kelley’s new race car is raising an eyebrow or two. The Scion xB Bullet is set to make its track debut in February, and Kelley is aiming for it to be the fastest naturally-aspirated xB in the world.

The car actually shares quite a bit with Kelley’s last ride, the Toyo Tires Bullet Toyota Corolla XRS. The xB is running the same tube chassis and Toyota Racing Development-built 2.6-liter 3RZ motor from the famous N/A Toyota racer.

When the idea came to campaign the xB, it happened to work out that both Kelley’s Corolla and the Scion have the same wheelbase. Several custom carbon-fiber body panels later, the new Bullet is the spitting image of a run-of-the-mill xB – save for the massive drag racing slicks bolted to the front hubs!

Contrary to what may seem obvious, the boxy xB actually fares well in terms of being aerodynamically efficient. Kelley says relative to the first-generation xB, which was generally boxier and had little rake to the windscreen, the body of the second-gen urban utility vehicle is sufficiently rounded and the angle of the windshield should perform adequately for drag racing.

Kelley has actually been a part of the Toyota family since 2005, when the Corolla Bullet was first conceived. The car debuted in the spring of 2006 and was quickly a force to be reckoned with, propelling Kelley down the drag strip in the 9.5-second range at over 140 miles per hour. As recently as 2008, he was awarded the Battle of the Imports’ Sport Compact Driver of the Year, and his Corolla is the current NHRA national Super Stock EX Class record holder with a 9.68-second pass at 140mph.

Kelley, who is the son of pioneering VW drag racer Larry, first began racing in the 1980s, when he and his father developed the first in the Bullet line, the Fastback Bullet. He made his first professional start in 1994 and won his first national championship in 1999 in the all-VW Pro Racing Association.

That same year Kelley contested his first sport compact events in the Pro All-Motor category. Two years later he had won the class in the inaugural NHRA Sport Compact championship, the second national title of his career, and held the Elapsed Time (E.T.) and Mile per Hour (MPH) records for the All Motor class in both the NHRA and Import Drag Racing Circuit. He quickly realized, however, that the old school VW was not the future of sport compact racing and began examining a switch in platforms.

The Scion xB Bullet makes its track debut February 26 to 28 in the NHRA Division 7 season opener at Firebird International Raceway, competing in the Super Stock EX Class. For more information on Kelley and the Scion xB Bullet, stay tuned to the Scion Racing Facebook page at www.facebook.com/scionracing.

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1. Kelley Racing All Motor 2nd Gen - General Scion xB Discussion - Scion xB Forum - [...] Kelley Racing All Motor 2nd Gen Just saw this surfing the Web. Kelley Racing has a ...

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