Michele Abbate’s Seibon Carbon equipped Scion FR-S defines #TransformationTuesday. Abbate took ownership of the FR-S in February 2014 and in a matter of days gutted the whole thing out to make way for a few performance upgrades.

On the list of performance upgrades were Seibon Carbon’s DV-style hood and OEM-style trunk. These pieces not only added some aggressiveness to build, but also helped shed some weight.
Within a few months and after hours of labor, the FR-S was ready to hit the track.

June 28th and 29th 2014 marked Round 4 of the United States Touring Car Championship series that was held at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca with Competent Motorsports and the Pirelli GT3 Cup Series.
This was Michele Abbate’s debut race in her brand new Scion FR-S; the first Scion and FT86 chassis to ever compete in the series!

New to the series, track, and race car, there was a lot to be learned during the weekend. Crew Chief Mike Abbate and Crew team members Anthony Philleo and Jason Philleo assisted Michele during her weekend.
With rapid lap time improvements after each session on track, Abbate qualified P9 and finished P7 in the race. Crew Chief Mike stated, “Any time you finish higher than you qualify is a major achievement”.

Abbate states, “I am so proud to be the first to represent Scion in collaboration with this amazing chassis to the USTCC professional series. Our car has great potential on track, and this is only the beginning”.
Michele and the Abbate race team won two awards after their performance at Laguna Seca – the Race Ramps award as well as the Specialty Products Company Award.

Abbate stands 10th in points and there are 3 more races for the season – September 13th & 14th at Miller Motorsports Park in Toole, UT and Thunderhill Raceway in Willows, CA on November 15th & 16th.
Check out the video of the race weekend highlights. Be sure to follow Michele Abbate on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram!

Michele’s Scion FR-S runs a Seibon Carbon DV-style hood and OEM trunk.
More Seibon FRS/BRZ parts available here.

About Michele Abbate
Michele Abbate is a 26 year old Las Vegas native that has spent all of her life around many types of motorsports. After some experience of karting at a hobby level, she began competing in autocross at a regional level with the Sports Car Club of America (SCCA) in 2004 at the age of sixteen. Her first national event with the SCCA was in 2007 with a podium finish behind two national champions. In April of 2009 Michele expanded her racing career through several organizations including 600 Racing/INEX, Redline Time Attack, NASA, UMS Tuning Time Attack, and others.

In such a short time Michele has made a name for herself. Some of her accomplishments include:
First Female and Rookie to take the overall win the MotoIQ Pacific Tuner Car Championship Tuner Under Class (November 2012)
First Female to compete and podium in the MotoIQ Pacific Tuner Car Championships (April 2012)
First female to win at a Redline Time Attack event (In‑neon Oct 2010)
Featured driver in Scion’s What Moves You commercial

Learn more about Michele and her race spec Scion FRS here.