Toyota Racing Development has been prepping Toyota’s race cars as well as its street cars for years. Designing and building TRD branded go-fast bits for cars such as the Supra or Celica. However, Toyota has never officially released a vehicle branded under the TRD label. This is set to change with the introduction of the Aurion TRD, which was unveiled yesterday at the Melbourne International Motor Show in Australia. The first time anywhere in the world Toyota is engineering and marketing a car under the TRD banner.
The TRD Aurion, slated for sale from the third quarter of this year, will feature a supercharged 3.5L V6 engine sending at least 235kW to the front wheels. The package also comes with 19in alloys, a sports bodykit, lowered suspension and upgraded brakes. Currently, the car is only planned to be sold in Australia but considering that the Aurion is sold in other markets as the Camry, we may just see blown versions overseas. Toyota also displayed its TRD HiLux SUV-Concept powered by a 4.0L supercharged V6 that’s also scheduled to enter production by the end of the year.
Despite running its own Formula One team, Toyota does not have a true sports model to showcase its motorsport technology. We hope the introduction of this TRD branded model and the new IS-F from Lexus are a sign of things to come.
Motorauthority
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