(engine roaring) - Gather round, children,
for I'm here today to tell you the tale of an unlikely hero. It's a story of coming from nowhere and beating all the odds. It's the tale of Toyota
Racing Development. How did our hero go from being
an upstart racing division to a global leader in motorsport? This is everything you need to know to get up to speed on TRD. - (sniggers) Turd. (light music) - Big thanks to our friends at eBay motors for sponsoring this episode. Guys, I am constantly looking at cars. It's an obsession that
affects every part of my life. Some might say it fills the
void of searching for my father. Now I've used all the typical sites. Fake's Book Martet Place,
Greg's List, Auto Trainer, but then I was like, yo,
I buy everything on eBay. Why don't I just buy cars on there too? Turns out, eBay is a great
place to buy cars on there too! And they got a new app, so I can look at cars
when I'm on the move. 'Cause I'm constantly on the move. If you're sketched out about
buying a car online, I get it. But eBay offers you the
option to use escrow.com to purchase your new car securely. No more meeting a guy wearing a clown suit at the port at 5am to exchange
a pillowcase full of watches for a low mileage '86 Golf. I mean... We've all been there way
too many times, right? Go download the eBay motors app, click on the link in
the description below. If you end up buying a car
you'll get a $100 gift card. That's enough to buy a shift
knob, or a whole oil change, or a steering wheel hub adapter, and I know that a ton of you guys have a steering wheel on your wall and no way to connect it
to any car that you own. Let's change that. I know I'm guilty of it. Download the app, it lets eBay know that we're doing a good
job, and it allows us to make a lot more videos
for you guys in the future. Chapter one: Tasco Hot Dog. Now, if Toyota Racing
Development is Batman, then their Gotham City is 1950s Japan. After World War Two,
Japan's economy was a mess, and its auto industry was no exception. Demand for anything besides
utilitarian trucks was low, and the few cars that were on the road needed to stay on the road,
because the average car buyer wouldn't be able to afford to replace it. This led Toyota executives of the day to develop Toyota Technocraft. Technocraft was a bodywork
and tuning department with the mission of making
existing cars run well. Motorsports were nowhere near
anyone's mind at this point. One country that was interested in racing, however, was Australia. And honestly, can you blame 'em? It's frickin' flat, it's frickin' dusty, and it's basically one
big off-road course. The biggest event of all was
the Round Australia rally, which circumvented the entire continent. The race was such a hit that
the Australian government approached the Japanese consulate about having Japanese teams enter. Thus, Technocraft set about modding a car for Round Australia, and
this is the part of the story where Batman puts on the
ski mask for the first time, and goes walking around Gotham City trying to find street thugs to punch. This is the beginning of Toyota in racing. Technocraft sees an opportunity in a special division for competitors, some sort of Toyota Racing
Development, if you will. And naturally, it was
called Toyopet Seibi Co Ltd. But it was better known as
Tosco, Toyota Sports Corner. - Welcome back to Toyota
Sports Corner, Sports Corner, I'm your host, Pames
Jumphrey, here to bring you all the highlights from the 1957 Mobilgas Round Australia rally. Weighing in at 3,700 pounds,
and putting out a whopping 48 horsepower, we have the Tosco modified Toyopet Crown Deluxe. After 19 grueling days and
more than 10,000 miles, here it comes now,
amazingly, nothing broke. Now back to James in his in home studio, totally not going crazy and making up friends to talk to during this quarantine. - Thanks, Pames. The next year, Japan would
take a cue from Australia, and introduced the Round Japan rally, and in 1960, the Japanese Grand Prix. Tosco would dominate all of them. Toyota racing had developed. Chapter two: Toyota's First Supercar,
AKA The Dark Knight. By the mid 1960s, Japan's economy
had recovered to the point that a luxury car market
was starting to develop. Toyota was also seeing financial success from its production cars. 1966 saw the introduction of the Corolla, you ever heard of it, it
was a huge fricking hit and continues to be today, but Toyota needed a halo car to start
competing with the big boys. So they turned to Tosco,
which was now called Yamaha. (gasps) Ooh, surprise! You had no idea that whole time when I was talking about Tosco, I was just talking about
Yamaha before it was Yamaha! Hmm? Now Yamaha is the Lucius
Fox of this story. The gadget guy that gives
Batman all of his cool stuff. In 1963, Yamaha was mostly known for building lightweight motorcycles, and some pretty kick (bleep) reed organs. There's more money in luxury
cars than in pianos, though. So Yamaha set out to find a partner to help them develop a sports car. Now this video is about Toyota
Racing Development, so you can guess what Japanese car
company they chose to go with: Nissan. - Another twist. - Yes, Nissan. - I am at the edge of my seat! - The design was originally going to be Nissan's entry into the sports car market, but before they inked
the deal with Yamaha, Nissan instead bought
the Prince Motor Company, which already had a luxury
sports offering in the Skyline. So now, Yamaha had an amazing design, internally codenamed the A5-50X, on their hands, with no one to produce it. So, they took it to Toyota. At the time, Toyota was seen
as something of a boring brand. Can you even frickin' believe that? These guys made the Supra! But for Toyota, Yamaha's design would be exactly what they needed to
make an international splash, and cement their reputation. Toyota and Yamaha rushed the prototype to be ready for the
1965 Toyota Motor Show. Honda and Datsun both had
sports cars in production, and Toyota had its own
44 horsepower Sports 800, but this, this next car
would be a game changer. It wasn't just a sports car. It was Japan's first supercar. - Oh, that's pretty nice,
that's pretty nice, that - whoa, what is that? Oh my lord! What a beautiful, beautiful car. Oh, and it's the 2000GT. - Toyota took the two liter straight-six out of the Toyota Crown, and used Yamaha's aluminum crafters to design a new dual overhead cam head that brought the horsepower up to 150. It had a five speed manual gearbox, a limited slip differential,
and independently mounted suspension, a first for Japan. The two seater super low gleaming fastback had impossibly cool pop-up headlights, and a lacquered rosewood interior from Yamaha's piano department. Have you ever seen piano wood? It's wood that looks like glass. The car's debut at the Tokyo
Motor Show made a splash, but what really got the
car world's attention was when they put the 2000GT on track. They entered it into the
first Fuji 24 hour race, and most famously, the Yatabi
high speed test trials, which - oh, I'm hearing right now, we have a man on the ground, Pames? - That's right James, I'm here at Yatabi in the middle of an actual monsoon. The Tosco team has been racing this yellow and green prototype for 72 consecutive hours,
and 15,000 kilometers. A feat of strength for
men and machine alike, this car is about to shatter
16 endurance records. And... (splashing) It's done it. Can I get an umbrella, please? Back to you, James. - Thanks Pames. The car did whatever the 1965 version of breaking the fricking internet was, and Toyota became that picture of Kim Kardashian with
champagne on her butt. - [Narrator] Up to Speed. - Go download the eBay motors app. Click on the link in
the description below, and if you buy a car,
you get a $100 gift card. That's enough to buy a shift knob, or a little trim piece, or a mirror. A lot of your cars need a lot of stuff that costs less than 100 bucks. Go buy it for it. Please. It called me, your car
called me, and was like "Hey, can we get a frickin'
one of these?" (laughs) - [Narrator] Up to Speed! - Japanese cars weren't
getting international respect because of a short
history, and well, racism. But the 2000GT was breaking
through around the world. Road and Track magazine
compared it to a Porsche 911, and in 1967, it became a Bond car. (brakes squeal)
(engine revs) Chapter three: Pony Race. After success with a
supercar, they decided hey, you know, I think we can all agree that that went pretty awesome. Why don't we make more race cars? So designer Jiro Kawano
drew up the Toyota 7. The prototype used the
straight-six from the 2000GT, but they tracked it with a 3.8 liter V8. It wasn't enough power
to beat the big Chevys of the time though, so the
next gen used a five liter V8, and in 1970, they added a turbo. Making the 7 the first ever
turbo-charged race car. Because of rule changes, the turbo never got to compete, but still! First ever turbo race car? (tuts) Yeah, cool! And then, the gas crisis hit. - For those of you who've been spared the experience so far, we want to share the emotions Americans are
feeling on the gas lines. - Listen, guys, I know that
you're sick of hearing about it, but it's a part of history,
and we're gonna cover it every time it comes up, it's
called the gas crisis tour, and it touched fricking everything. We might have some shirts coming up, so keep your eyes peeled, you'll be the first ones to know about it. And lots of manufacturers pulled back from motorsports because
of the gas crisis. But Toyota, Toyota reinvested in racing. Viewing it as a way to
show off exciting cars that would appeal to a global audience, and change their image as a sleepy brand. An exciting car that appeals
to a global audience, you say? Sounds to me like we're talking about Scotty Kilmer's favorite car. That's right. The Celica was aimed squarely
at American pony cars, if you couldn't tell from the grill alone. They hit big with the Celica 1600GT winning its class at the
Nurburgring six hour race, the Spa 24 hour race, and the
1973 Fuji 1000 kilometer race. And finally, ladies and gentlemen, the time has come, we've reached the Toyota Racing Development part of our Toyota Racing Development story. The iconic orange, red and yellow colorway is making its debut. In 1976, after decades of success, the Toyopet Seibi Co Ltd rebranded from the Toyota Sports Corner to TRD. - Tur-- - Don't even say it. - Turd. - You are in big trouble, mister! After years of being a punchline, Japanese cars were being
taken seriously in the US, so to capitalize on this, in 1979, Toyota incorporated TRD USA. Originally opening as a performance parts importer in California, TRD USA was completely independent
of Toyota Motor Sales USA. As the two entities became
involved, TRD shifted into a competition focus in an attempt to further Americanize the brand, thus launching thousands upon thousands of unfunny turd jokes. - Why are you looking at me? I stand by those jokes. - Chapter four: Is That a Supra? Okay. Time to talk about the Supra. Despite the stellar
reputation that car has now, the Supra spent most of the 80s being kind of mediocre in terms of performance. Thank goodness there was
an official parts importer to offer performance upgrades like LSDs, adjustable suspension,
and headlight washers! Yeah! Cool! And in 1987, Toyota finally
got the engine right in the factory with the 7M-GTE. You just kind of, you know, early boy TJs. The mark three superturbo
became its own variant, with 230 horsepower and a sick spoiler, combined with almost
unlimited tuning capabilities. Supra nuts-ness reached its peak in 1994 with the TRD 3000GT. This was a street legal
version of the Supra entered into the Japanese GT championship. Only 35 were ever made,
and I own four of them. The focus on this car would be on improved dynamics, rather than increasing power. TRD redesigned the splitter, the defuser, and doubled the size of the front intake. The new wing could be adjusted
to six different angles. I got six great angles too. One, two, three, four,
five, blue steel, six. But long before any of
this, in the early 80s, the Supra parted ways from
its cool dad, the Celica. The Celica flipped to
being front wheel drive, but don't let that fool you! (engine roars) In 1983, TRD teamed up
with legend Dan Gurney, and All American Racers
to enter the Celica into IMSA GT Championships. In 1986, they developed a Celica GTO, based on the newly introduced
Celica turbo all track, putting out 450 horsepowers. The Celica GTO won its class
at the Road America 500, and won outright at Watkins Glen, becoming the first Japanese GTO ever to take an IMSA win, another first! Another one! As my friend DJ Kelly
would say, we the best! Now of course, that's
what all the rich boy All American Racers were doing, but what were the real, salt of the earth, home down drifty boys driving in the 80s? The AE86. We did a whole episode on this car. I'll put a link in the description below, check it out after this
if you don't have your sick Toyota fix. Part of what makes this car so legendary is the weight balance,
so performance parts had to be carefully considered
before they got just thrown down a hill in a Hachi-Roku run. Gnarly mountain drifting will always be an important part of
Toyota racing history. (engine roars) (brakes squeal) Chapter five: Baja Blast. By the 1990s, there were as
many Toyota racing efforts as actors who've played Batman. In 1990, TRD designed the 90C-V, which became the flagship
car for Toyota Team Europe. This was a carbon fiber unibody racer with a turbo-charged, 3.2 liter V8. It was low enough and
had a big enough wing that it looked like a Batmobile, which is very fortunate
for the Batman metaphor that I keep forcing into this episode. - Yeah, it's kind of a lazy joke, anyway. Turd. - Back in North America, the 90s meant that Toyota wasn't just racing cars. They were now racing trucks. TRD was off-roading fricking everywhere, including the granddaddy
of all off-road races, the Baja 1000. There's no way to talk about Baja or even racing in the 90s in general without talking about
Ironman Ivan Stewart. This dude is stone cold. A former ironworker, he won Baja with Precision Preparation
Incorporated, or PPI, in 1993, and in 1998, all by himself. That's 20 plus hours behind the wheel, over some of the most punishing terrain in the world, solo. He did it in a T100. Now if you grew up around when I grew up, this is the truck that you picture when you think of off-road racing. His 98 version had a 4.9 liter V8 that made 550 horsepowers. Also in 1998, while Ironman was winning Baja all by his lonesome, TRD was going to work on the MR2, offering a wide body conversion, and factory tuning it to
again, just 35 customers. These ultra-rare kitted out
Mr Deuces would be known as the TRD 2000GT, and
they were fricking sick! Kerb weight was just 2,400 pounds, and TRD let customers
choose whatever tuning specs they wanted, so in some cases,
that got paired with MR2s that put out almost 500 horsepower. Talk about snap oversteer! Would this be the last time TRD would pair nutty horsepower with lightweight bodies? (laughs softly) Nah, man. Not even fricking close. Chapter six: Baby Needs Formula. Even though it's much
less bouncy than off-road, TRD has had years of success
in open wheel racing. In 2003, the Penske team won
the gosh dang Indianapolis 500 with a TRD engine. Not long after that departure, Toyota became the first and thus far only Japanese manufacturer
to compete in NASCAR. Camrys, Tundras, and now, Supras? Have been wreaking havoc on the ovals, and have been the biggest
pain in the (bleep) for Chevy. Then, in 2016, TRD snapped
Chevy's 13 season winning streak, by taking the Manufacturer's Cup. Even though it's been a short history, Toyota has invested heavily
in NASCAR, sponsoring events, even starting an academy
for young drivers. This is the same model that soccer teams use to spot developing
talent and sign them early, it's like I always say: let children drive. Chapter seven: So Many
Turds to Choose From. - I knew you'd come around! - For the past few years, TRD production has specialized in off-roaders. The Toyota comes in TRD Sport,
TRD Off-Road, and TRD Pro. The TRD Off-Road trim starts
to really make the Tacoma trail ready, with Bilstein
shocks, a locking rear diff, crawl control, a terrain selector. But if you hate driving on streets, or need to commute to work
by driving through a river, the TRD Pro is your best friend. It has everything the Off-Road
does, plus a quarter-inch skid plate, wider wheels,
a larger sway bar. But what's really interesting, and by interesting I mean a lot of you probably think this is lame, is that you can get TRD
badging and fun stuff on pretty much every single Toyota now. For the first time, Toyota
is releasing TRD badge sedans with the TRD Camry and for
some reason, a TRD Avalon. But in recent years, Toyota has launched, or brought back, I can't
really figure it out, a different motorsports division. I'm talking about Gazoo Racing. First it was Tosco, then TRD, now Gazoo. There's been as many
names for Toyota Racing as there has been Batman movies! - (sighs) It's not working. Give it up. - Now not only is Gazoo
behind many of Toyota's current motorsport efforts,
it's also the factory badge on the coolest cars that they make. Both the Supra and the
86 are GR branded cars, and though tragically not
available in the States, there's even a Yaris GR. (engine roars) Hot hatch that makes 257 horsepower with the most powerful production
3 cylinder in a road car. Will the co-existence of TRD
and Gazoo confuse consumers and ultimately only serve
to water down both brands? Maybe! But throughout its history,
Toyota Racing has evolved, and this heritage means we get access to some pretty cool cars. What are we, Bruce Wayne? (laughs) - That's it. That's it. Excuse me, sorry, excuse me, I'm out. (beep)
- Buff horses sticker pack. (upbeat music) - You get not three, not
four, not six, but five awesome buff horses
sticker to let everybody in traffic know that you will not settle for a skinny little wimpy horse. You only like the most
buffest horses ever. We got this one, it's Donut
made out of horseshoes. We got this one, that's
just a single horseshoe, but it's one of my favorites. We got I love buff horses. We also got this one that says
my other car is a buff horse, to let people know that
whatever you're driving isn't the only buff
stallion in your fleet. And then we got this one
that is not influenced by any sort of Italian car
company, so please don't sue us. I'm really excited about these stickers. I think they came out really, really cool, they're all really high
quality, and the only place that you can get 'em is at donutmedia.com. (upbeat music) I love you.
