Carefully Considered: Tristin's IS300 Sportcross
I have a history with yellow IS300s. I remember seeing them when they were new and I had very little knowledge of cars outside of what certain models were called. An exceptionally nice Solar Yellow IS300 rolled around my small college town and I always liked how it looked, but I just didn’t understand why someone would pay that luxury price for what I thought at the time was a rebadged, rebodied camry. It was an idea I’d let shape my first car purchase years later in 2013. While there was no shortage of IS300s at the time, those thoughts I had as a kid had practically made me forget about them and I regretfully paid a premium and purchased a EP3 Honda Civic Si, ironic. The more I got into cars the more I began to understand IS300s and Altezzas; through friends and events I began to appreciate them as a proper platform that stood at equal measure with its contemporary counterparts.
Fast forward to Simply Clean 11 and I was standing in front of another yellow IS300, but this time I knew what I was looking at. The vibrant 3M bright yellow wrap had me reminiscing on the Solar Yellow IS300 from my childhood, but this was no regular IS300, this was the much rarer, venerated Sportcross. I, like so many others, can’t resist the allure of a wagon. Top it off with a five speed and a lower ride height, provided by a set of Part Shop MAX Coilovers, its already appealing shape became even more so. While I do enjoy the novelty of a wagon, what makes the Sportcross unique to me is just how different it’s designed compared to its sedan counterpart. It shares the same body lines as the standard version, but I think it works better in wagon form. The abruptly cut small trunk is replaced with a slightly altered tail light design and upward sloping rear that meets a much more eloquently sloping c-pillar and quarter glass making for a much stronger design, especially when viewed in profile.
The arguably better Sportcross body is complemented by Tristin’s selection of aero parts and wheels. The vertex front bumper chisels the soft front of an IS300 into a more aggressive shape without being too tastelessly overt and the matching vertex side skirts hide the notoriously high rocker panels of IS300s, helping establish its lowered presence. Black Aerowolf canards and URAS Pro Bowtech vortex generators spackle the lower portion accenting and matching the Enkei PF01EVOs. Following the URAS aero upwards the famous, or infamous if you’d be obliged, “Altezza tails” are covered with body matched tail light covers, which I think works in this Sportcross’ favor. Despite their endless imitation the inverted, entirely too shiny tails have always been too flashy for me and eliminating that with these covers allow the chrome door handles to shine more. The selection of aero here hits me as experimental, but in a good way. While I wouldn’t say any of these parts on their own are too out there of choices, applying them to a Sportcross is nary a common feat.
The chrome handles give way to a rather stock interior, with the exception being one easily discernible red Recaro driver seat and a Personal wheel that matches the yellow and black motif. The engine bay follows the same mostly stock suit, with a GReddy strut tower brace looming over the clean bay, hiding the PSM dampening adjustment dials. Tristin’s Sportcross is an example of less is more. It has a handful of nice parts, aero bits and a clean finish to boot, but nothing is overdone instead everything is thoughtfully placed and it looks the part. I’m certain that Tristin has further plans for his Sportcross, but what’s been achieved so far wasn’t a product of extreme measures, it’s a product of careful consideration and respect to what is an already great starting point of a car. By paying respect to the original design and thoughtfully executing his vision, Tristin has taken an already great car to greater heights and I’m curious to see what he does next.
