Toyota Racing Development

Toyota Racing Development or TRD is the in-house tuning shop for all Toyota, Lexus, and Scion cars. "TRD" is responsible both for improving street cars for more performance and supporting Toyota's racing interests around the world. TRD produces various tuning products and accessories, including performance suspension components, superchargers, and wheels. TRD parts are available through Toyota dealers, and are also available as accessories on brand-new Toyotas and Scions. Performance parts for Lexus vehicles are now labeled as "F-Sport" and performance Lexus models are labeled "F" to distinguish Lexus's F division from TRD. TRD is similar to other in-house tuning shops, such as Nismo (Nissan), Mazdaspeed (Mazda), Ralliart (Mitsubishi), STi (Subaru), Honda Factory Performance (Honda), Audi "RS" models, Mercedes' AMG division, or BMW "M" models.

There are currently two official branches of TRD: TRD Japan (aka Toyota Technocraft) and TRD USA. Toyota Team Europe (TTE) evolved into the Toyota Formula One Team (also known as Panasonic Toyota Racing) and is not under the control of TRD. TTE is a completely separate entity, and is responsible for the Formula One team.

TRD Japan's Race Division concentrates on the All Japan Grand Touring Car Championship Series (JGTC), All Japan F3 Championship Series, ESSO Formula Toyota Series, and Netz Cup races (Altezza Series and Vitz Series).

TRD USA's Race Division concentrates on Championship Off Road Racing (CORR), NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series, Grand-Am Cup Sports Touring, National Hot Rod Association (NHRA) Import Drags, and starting in 2007, NASCAR Sprint Cup and Nationwide Series. Former concentrations include the Baja 1000, IMSA, and CART's Championship World Series (from 1996–2002) and Toyota Atlantic Series (from 1990–2005), and most recently the Indy Racing League (from 2003–2005).

Toyota Team Europe, now the Toyota Formula One Team, concentrates on Formula One World Championship Racing (F1). Former concentrations include the World Rally Championship (WRC) with the famous Toyota Celica GT-Four and rally versions of the Toyota Corolla, as well as two attempts (in 1998 and 1999) at the 24 Hours of Le Mans with the GT-One.

Toyota Australia will introduce the TRD division in Australia in either the second or the third quarter of 2007 with the first vehicle being the supercharged Toyota Aurion V6 [ [http://paultan.org/archives/2007/03/03/toyota-aurion-trd-australian-spec/ "Toyota Aurion TRD - Australian Spec"] , paultan.org.] , then followed by a high-performance variant of the 4WD Toyota Hilux [ [http://paultan.org/archives/2007/03/03/australian-toyota-hilux-trd-concept/ "Australian Toyota Hilux TRD Concept"] , paultan.org.] According to Toyota Australia, there will not be a high-performance version of the Toyota Corolla being sold under TRD despite its popularity, instead the third model is likely to be a Toyota RAV4. TRD is aimed to compete with local in-house tuning shops Holden Special Vehicles (HSV) and Ford Performance Vehicles (FPV).

ee also

*Lexus F division

References

External links

*Ja icon [http://www.toyota-ttc.co.jp/trd/ TRD Japan]
* [http://www.trdusa.com TRD USA]
* [http://trd.toyota.com.au/toyota/main/Portal/0,4614,2966_402,00.html TRD Australia]
*Ja icon [http://www.toyota-ttc.co.jp Toyota Technocraft]
* [http://www.tte.de TTE by Toyota Motorsport GmbH]
* [http://www.toyota.com/motorsports/ Toyota Motorsports (USA)]
* [http://www.jayparts.com TRD part licensed dealer]