TRD was once a legitimate high
performance division of Toyota, creating cars that were huge departures in both
looks and performance from their base models. AND on top of that, creating race cars that
went on to win championship after championship. But now? TRD is a shell of what it once
was; disconnected from racing and creating very little real performance
for you and I to experience. So, what happened? How did Toyota’s own idea of an AMG or BMW M fall into the fractured
mish-mash of teams that they are today? And is the new Gazoo Racing Division finally the
return to Toyota’s legendary motorsports heritage? Let’s talk about that. 1936; Toyota, a Japanese
automated loom manufacturer, launched the model AA, their very
first passenger automobile. The AA, along with many of the first Toyota models,
were just reverse engineered replicas of Fords and Dodges of the time. And these early
Toyotas were, well, they were just okay. Then, war. World War II set planet earth ablaze,
and the Imperial Japanese Army needed trucks. So trucks are what Toyota made, and
all other production was halted in favor of the Toyota KB and KC, military trucks that were
designed solely to carry troops and supplies. By the end of the war, Japan was
economically decimated. And Toyota was on the brink of bankruptcy. The company
really only made it thanks to a bank bailout, followed by the US government ordering 5000
Toyota trucks to deploy in the Korean War. With this new cash influx, Toyota decided
to start expanding their offerings. In 1947, under a sub-brand called Toyopet, Toyota began to
sell smaller cars, starting the ToyoPet SA and SB. These new Toyota offerings were selling
reasonably well, but Seven years later, Toyota realized that they needed to be able to fix all
of these new cars on the road. So they established Toyopet Seibi (say-bee), which was essentially
the first official Toyota repair center. Now, with factories building cars
and an established repair center, it was time for Toyota to bring cars to the
masses, and that meant it was time for sedans. So in 1955, the Toyopet Crown
hit the streets of Japan. The Crown was a huge departure from
Toyota’s of old, with coil springs, double wishbone front suspension, and a lightweight yet
affordable 4-cylinder engine, sending power to the rear wheels. This was an awesome car for the
time, and people genuinely loved it in Japan! Then, in 1956, a couple of the mechanics
at Toyopet Seibi, the repair center, got an idea. Toyota’s experience with
trucks gave the Crown a rugged chassis, and the double wishbones made for a
compliant yet agile suspension setup. Why not take the Crown racing? The Japanese consulate had just asked
if any of the car manufacturers wanted to race in the new MobilGas Rally
Around Australia, so Toyota said okay. This was an excellent marketing
opportunity for Toyota, who wanted to start exporting cars to
Australia and the USA, and what better way to create some buzz than to compete in
a historic race in one of those countries? This wasn’t just any race though, this was
a 19 day, 17,000 kilometer rally around the entire country of Australia. A race that
would put the current Dakar rally to shame, and Toyota decided to enter it, in a basically stock Toyopet Crown. It even had its little
48hp 1.5L engine, completely unmodified. Anyone could see that this was a risky play.
Very few cars could survive this sort of race, and failing here would have put an
internationally recognized blemish on Toyota’s reputation that would
have been impossible to recover from. But Shotaro Kamiya, the then President
of Toyota Motor Sales said, “There will be no progress if you fear failure” and
so Toyota bravely went in head first. Surely then, the drivers must have been dedicated
professionals. A race like this? They HAD to be. Nope, it was two engineers
from the Toyota factory. And after 19 grueling days
driving through insane terrain, covering almost a thousand kilometers a
day, the little Crown finished the race. Out of the 86 cars that entered,
only 52 made it to the finish line, and the plucky Toyota team
finished 47th out of the pack. It wasn’t first place, not even close. But
nobody thought this ragtag team from Japan would have made it to the end of the first
stage, let alone finish the entire race. And that little victory was enough,
Toyota was hooked on racing. The very next year, in 1958, Japan
decided to host their own rally, the Yomiuri Around Japan rally, and Toyota was
ready. Their Toyota Crown won first place overall, marking Toyota’s first race win ever. The first of many to come. By 1961, ToyoPet opened the Tsunashima factory,
which btw later went on to become the Yokohama headquarters. There they were building
Toyopet Crowns, Coronas and Publicas. And our humble ToyoPet Seibi
division were even prepping some race-ready versions of these cars
for the first ever Japanese Grand Prix. The Grand Prix classes were
based off of engine size, like Mario Kart, so Toyota entered a 2 liter
Crown, a 1.6 liter Corona, and a 700cc Publica. They won first in every class. By 1965, Toyopet was growing at such a rate
that they made another factory in Shibaura, and at that factory they set up a special
skunkworks race division. This special team was made up of the same Toyopet Seibi mechanics
that had been dominating the race tracks, but with a new factory came the need
for a new, more universal name, and so Toyopet Seibi became
The Toyota Service Center Co. Their Prime Directive? Build the
ultimate race car for the road. And what they came out with,
was the legendary Toyota 2000GT. Yes, the car that is considered one of the
most beautiful Japanese cars of all time, Toyota’s inspiration for every
sports car moving forward, was made by a backroom, barely-official team
of nerdy engineers who just loved to race cars. But it wasn’t just beautiful, the 2000GT was FAST. It set 3 different automobile world
records, and 13 more international records. And at its freshman race, the
Suzuka 1000KM, it took first place. The car made such an impact, that even Sean Connery drove one as
James Bond in You Only Live Twice. Toyota was now in a worldwide spotlight, so it
was all the more important for them to impress at the racetrack too. And in 1968 it took the
class win at the inaugural Fuji 24hr race. Toyota also created something special
in 1968, the Toyota 7 Race car. This was a full on dedicated racing machine, with a
3.0L 32V twin cam V8 co-designed with Yamaha. And despite a few hiccups through the season,
It won its class at the Japanese Grand Prix. By 1970, Hiromu Naruse, a fiercely passionate
mechanic and test driver at Toyota, helped create Toyota Motorsports, a division based
in Switzerland, that took the Toyota 7 to European tracks like Spa and of course,
the green hell, Nurburgring Nordschleife. That was the same year that the team created
the Turbo Toyota 7. A 5.0L V8, but two garrett turbos strapped to it. Power was up to 800hp, all
in a lightwieght aluminum frame. Needless to say, this thing was going to be the fastest
racecar that Toyota had ever created. But it wasn’t meant to be. On the very same day that Toyota approved
plans to enter the Can-Am Challenge Cup, with future plans even for Le Mans, Minoru Kawai,
one of Toyota’s lead drivers, lost control of the turbocharged Toyota 7 during testing at
Suzuka circuit. The car hit a groove in the grass infield and went airborne. Kawai was launched
from the racecar, and was killed on impact. This was the biggest blow that Toyota’s racing
team had seen in their history. And it shook them. Toyota withdrew from all racing series the
7 was entered in, and in September of 1970, before the Turbo 7 ever saw a real race,
the entire Toyota 7 project was shut down. Things were quiet for the next few years, but
while Toyota may have been out of racing prototype cars on world circuits, they had never actually
stopped racing in the sport that started it all: Rally. In 1972, Toyota partnered with Swedish
Rally driver Ove Anderrson and formed Toyota Team Europe, a team made specifically
for conquering the rally stages of Europe. They entered their Celica 1600GT into the
RAC Rally of Great Britain, and despite the heavy weight of tragedy that loomed over Toyota’s
race teams, they persevered and won their class. This was a HUGE win for Toyota. A
first step in moving forward from where the untimely end of
the 7 project stopped them. It was so big in fact, that Toyota
decided that they wanted the people of the world to be able to share
that rally win with them. And so they started selling genuine aftermarket
parts for the Celica, so you could supe up your Celica at home and feel a bit
like a rally driver on your way to work. This was one of the first instances of Toyota
using their race engineering to bring us, the people, parts that we could install on our own
cars, and it was the beginning of something big. In 1973, Toyota and their Celica
saw their first World Rally Championship race win in Detroit,
and then more wins in 74 and 75. And in 1975, Toyota decided that Toyota Service
Center Co Special Development Department wasn’t exactly the best name for this growing
motorsports based aftermarket parts shop. So they changed it to TOSCO Depot. But, as cute as TOSCO sounds, it
doesn’t exactly exude the razor sharp focus that Toyota had on motorsports.
Clearly, the team at TOSCO agreed, and in 1976 they changed the name a final
time to Toyota Racing Development TRD. TRD partnered with Dan Gurney to race the
Celica in IMSA, where they won Driver’s and Manufacturer’s Championships in 87.
They joined Formula 3 and took 1st, 2nd, and 3rd at the 83 Macau Grand Prix, and then
even raced in Stadium truck racking, where they won 11 manufacturer championships and 9 driver’s
championships with Ivan Steward and Rod Millen.) But let’s not forget Toyota Team Europe. They
won the World Rally Championship Safari in 1984, 85, 87, and then again in 1990 with
the Celica GT-Four. A car which Toyota homologated into road-going form in
the ST165 and ST185 Celica AllTracs. Back home in Japan it was no different, with the TRD AE86 Corolla winning at the
Japan Touring Championship in 1985, and the MkIII Supra Turbo winning the Japan
Touring Car Championship in 1987. And 17 years after that tragic accident in
the Toyota 7, TRD took a triumphant new racing prototype car, the 87C to the checkered
flag at the Suzuka 1000KM, placing first. And When the 1990s rolled around,
Toyota showed no signs of slowing down. Ivan Stewart and Rod Millen, won
nearly every single event they entered. The Baja 500, the Baja 1000, the
Grand National Sports Truck Championship, The Nevada 400, and even the Pikes
Peak International Hill Climb, where Rod Millen won the unlimited
class in 1994, 96, 97, 98, and 99. Toyota wasn’t shy about bringing
these motorsports technologies to us either, with the SW20 MR2 and A80 Supra
hitting dealer showrooms in the early 90s. In 1993, Toyota officially bought
all the assets of Toyota Team Europe and consolidated it into Toyota
Motorsports GmbH. Based out of Germany, they were still separate from TRD, and
continued to manage the rally team. Who btw, won WRC in 93 and 94 with the Celica
GT-Four, which hit the streets as the ST205 Celica AllTrac. One of my favorite all time
cars, which we sadly never got in the states… In 1994, TRD took the then new Supra and showed
off a suped up concept called the TRD3000GT. Based off of the winning GT500 Supra
racecar, this Supra had a full widebody kit, huge dished wheels, and a
very 90s adjustable rear wing. They gave the MR2 the same TRD
treatment and called it the TRD2000GT. Both kits were produced as dealer
add-ons, but TRD also decided to build 35 examples of the TRD3000GT Supra
in-house at their factory, and sell them with their own unique VIN plates. This Supra
technically wasn’t a Toyota, it was a TRD. And if you thought that wasn’t crazy enough,
in 1995 TRD developed a supercharger kit for the XV20 gen V6 Camry. It was good for
247 horsepower and took the Camry to 60 in about 6.3 seconds. Yes, TRD was so deep in the
performance game, it was supercharging CAMRIES. In 1997, TRD USA released the first
TRD Off-Road Package for the Tacoma and started a long line of
factory modified trucks.
At this point in the late 90s, TRD had
something for everyone. sedans, trucks, dedicated sports cars, they all could be tuned
with the help of Toyota Racing Development parts. In 2000, Toyota even joined NASCAR. Yeah, Toyota Racing was in the most red
white and blue racing there was. They started small in the Goody Dash series
and eventually moved up to the big leagues, the Xfinity and Sprint Cup. But I’ll be honest, most people
didn’t even realize that Toyota was making strides in NASCAR, because
in 2002 Toyota had joined Formula 1. And boy, did it all go horribly wrong. Remember Toyota Motorsports GmbH? The
guys that did the rally team? Well, They were banned from rally in 1995
for a year for using illegal parts, and spent a boatload of money in 97
to make the prototype Toyota GT-One, my favorite car in Gran Turismo 3, but they
failed to take a Le Mans win in 98 or 99. So in 1999, they decided to quit everything,
take 3 years to regroup, and enter F1 in 2002 Toyota had the second biggest
budget in F1 that year, with only Ferrari spending more. The
TF102 formula car looked promising, but on the circuit it was plagued with
reliability issues and a poorly managed team. They won just two points in their first year. Two. 2003 they did, better? By the end of
the season they had won 16 points, putting them at a cool 8th
place in the constructors title. In 2004, they finished even worse than 2003. And then Ferrari accused them
of ‘industrial espionage’. They insisted that Toyota had stolen their
files and straight up copied their car. Toyota refused to send their data to Italy because
they claimed Ferrari would steal it. Eventually came to a halt as the evidence was inconclusive,
but man it wasn’t looking good for Toyota. 2005 was Toyota F1’s best season,
with a few 2nd and 3rd place finishes, but overall it wasn’t enough to make a
real showing in the competitive F1 field. And Toyota continued to race in F1 every year
until 2009, where in the middle of the season, they pulled out. Citing huge financial losses, F1 became just too cost-prohibitive
for Toyota and so, they killed it. Over 8 years, Toyota spent over 2
billion dollars on F1, and won nothing. By this point, the expensive F1 saga
had left such a bad taste in Toyota’s mouth that they no longer produced
any road-going sports cars either, with the 2006 model year Celica GTS
being the last sporty Toyota of that era. It was one of Toyota’s biggest racing
fails in its over 50 years competing, riddled with controversy and poor management, and
left a massive blemish on what was a legendary history of racing by Toyota. Even TRD, which was
technically a separate entity, was hit hard. At that point producing little other than sparing
off-road packages for Toyota trucks in America. Interestingly though, in 2007, while
Toyota’s F1 team was treading water, a very unassuming team of engineers took
two Toyota Altezzas to the Nurburgring 24 hour race. One of the two notable members of
the team was Hiromu Naruse. The same Toyota test driver that started the skunkworks race
team that brought us the Toyota 7 in 1970. The other notable member? Akio Toyoda,
the then Vice President of Toyota. Both were racing under fake names,
Naruse was “Cap” and Akio was “Morizo” The team name? Gazoo Racing. Strange. It turns out, this wasn’t just Naruse’s idea. Akio
Toyoda himself saw to it that this backroom racing division came to life. With a minimal budget,
and without the prying eyes of the world on them, Gazoo Racing was created to revive
the sports car spirit within Toyota. Naruse’s philosophy was, "...not to
discuss car-making with words and data, but to actually create things and
touch them, Discuss it with the eyes.” Gazoo Racing wasn’t an ordinary
racing team though, it was an incubator. Engineers were brought in
from various departments around Toyota, and put into the rigorous GR program where they
developed race cars and technologies for the 24-hours of Nurburgring. They served 2-year stints
and then were sent back to their departments, armed with newfound skills and
knowledge forged in the heat of racing. In 2009, Akio Toyoda became
the President of Toyota, and decided that Gazoo Racing was worth
expanding. They began testing the Lexus LFA Prototype, Toyota’s longtime supercar
project, as well as the FT-86 concept mules, a RWD sports car that Toyota was
developing in conjunction with Subaru. On top of that, Gazoo Racing began releasing
dedicated tuned versions of various cars in Japan, starting with the iQ GRMN, which had an upgraded
motor and a 6-speed manual transmission. So, despite the failures of the F1 team,
Toyota was setting up the pieces to make a triumphant recovery when it came
to sports cars and racing. The LFA, my all time dream car btw, was slated to start
production in 2010 and the FT-86 in 2012. The LFA was also set to have an even
quicker version, the Nurburgring Edition, The passion project of Hiromu Naruse himself.
It was slated to come at the end of standard LFA production and would be the pinnacle of
what the LFA was capable of in Naruse’s eyes. He himself saw to testing it at the green hell,
and turned out lap after lap on the Nordschleife. In June 2010, Naruse was at the Nurburgring
testing the LFA. And in the late afternoon he set out in his yellow Nurburgring edition prototype
on a drive of the public streets near the track. On that drive, Naruse’s LFA collided
with a BMW 3 series at speed. And despite even wearing a helmet at the
time, Naruse was killed in the crash. One of the godfathers of Toyota sports cars, who
was the test driver of the Sports 800, the 2000GT, every generation of Celica, the AE86 Corolla, the
1st and 3rd generation MR2s, the Supra, Altezza, and of course the Lexus LFA, was no more. Akio Toyota considered shutting down Gazoo Racing,
the loss of Naruse was just so much to bear. But he eventually decided that Naruse
would want the team to continue. One year later, Gazoo Racing drove
the LFA Nürburgring Edition to the fifth-fastest production-car
record at the Green Hell with a 7:14.46. It beat the Porsche
911 GT2 RS by nearly ten seconds. And of course, the LFA raced
again in the Nürburgring 24 Hours, finishing third in class in 2011
and taking a class win in 2012. And In 2013, Gazoo Racing entered not one,
but 2 LFAs, along with the new Toyota 86 in the Nurburgring 24hr. All three cars
won first in class. And with those wins, Gazoo Racing could finally feel as though
Naruse’s vision had finally been realized. An LFA Race car now lives in the
Toyota Kaikan Museum in Toyota City, still dirty and battered from
its victory at the green hell. And just a few steps away,
in a glass display case, is a black racing suit with “H. Naruse” stitched
onto the belt. Along with his helmet and gloves, and two Nürburgring trophies,
it watches over the car. Now, it’s important to keep in mind that all this while both TRD and Toyota
Motorsports GmbH still existed. TRD was doing alright in NASCAR, and
even in drag racing. On top of that, their trucks were doing great in The Off Road
Championship. Production car wise though, they really weren’t doing much other than
TRD off road packages for their trucks. The German Toyota Motorsports GmbH, decided to
finally get back into racing after the Formula 1 fiasco, this time with a Le Mans Prototype.
They leveraged Toyota’s hybrid technology to make the TS030 Hybrid Endurance Racer.
And while it didn’t do particularly well, the later versions really came into
their stride, with the TS040 winning a manufacturers championship and the TS050
going on to take multiple wins at Le Mans. All the while Gazoo Racing became a
bigger and bigger entity at Toyota, and eventually they decided
they needed to simplify things. So Toyota Motorsports GmbH was absorbed
into the Gazoo Racing umbrella, along with all Toyota racing
internationally, including Rally. This new, expansive Gazoo Racing went on to become
a legitimate performance division for Toyota, creating dedicated sports cars like the
GR Supra in 2019 and the GR Yaris in 2020. They even created special limited edition GRMN (or
Gazoo Racing Meisters of the Nurburgring) versions of a number of existing Toyota cars,
including a supercharged Toyota iQ, a Turbo Vitz, a 6-speed manual
Mark X (which is basically a manual V6 Camry), and even a tuned GRMN
Century, their giant luxury cruiser. These GRMN cars were sold in small numbers in
Japan, but there are rumors that a GRMN Supra, along with a GR Corolla will be hitting US Shores
soon, and further expanding the Gazoo Racing name. So then, if Gazoo Racing is now the
worldwide racing development shop for Toyota, where does that leave TRD? The supposed
Toyota Racing Development Division? Well, at this point, I’m not sure. TRD still exists both in Japan and the USA,
and while the Japanese TRD does occasionally make big brake kits and suspension for
some cars, most of what they sell are expensive carbon fiber body kits. TRD USA?
Well, other than some intakes and exhausts for 86s, they really have just been lifting
Toyota trucks and giving them fun paint colors. Although, I should mention, TRD USA seems to
be trying to do more with the addition of the TRD Camry and TRD Avalon. But, even though
they’re actually reasonably fun with tuned suspension and brakes, it's a far cry from
the manic supercharged Camries of yesteryear. So, with TRD not really
involved in a lot of racing, and not really making much for the Toyota
aftermarket, why does TRD continue to exist? It seems like TRD is just a confusing
remnant of a time that has long gone by. So maybe it’s finally time to lay to
rest the TRD name. The same name that had been emblazoned on Toyota’s
winning race cars since the 70s. And in its place, give us the new name
that stands on LMP and Rally podiums today. The way I see it? TRD is dead. Long live Gazoo Racing.
That was a good documentary, but TRD is certainly not dead. There are TRD packages for 8 different Toyota models in the US alone, and as the creator said they are still racing in NASCAR, NHRA and U.S. Rally.
I do agree that they are not the TRD they used to be, but like how Honda races HPD domestically, and technically Mugen internationally. I think Toyota should keep TRD as an American product because of the strong brand heritage here, and give GR the international spotlight. Whatever they do I just hope they run a factory Baja program again.