The TRD insignia on the rear quarter panel of Toyota trucks and SUVs is a recognizable logo, but even those familiar with it might not know it stands for Toyota Racing Development. Recently, though, TRD has touted its performance division heavily with the introduction of its TRD Pro models, which are the most capable and impressive TRD packages offered on its trucks and SUVs to date.
Leading up to this year’s SEMA Show, we actually had the chance to test the new models en route to the show in Las Vegas (check out SEMA: The Hard Way story coming soon), and while our test certainly proved the capability of the TRD Pro Tundra, 4Runner and Tacoma, the TRD team’s ultimate test of its product will come next week as it looks to finish the 2014 SCORE Baja 1000 in a Tundra TRD Pro racetruck.
At Toyota’s press conference today as SEMA, the company highlighted a few keys things, one being a unique “sleeper” Camry fitted with the 5.7-liter V8 found in the Tundra (see our sister site AutoGuide.com for the story). On the off-road side of things, however, Toyota had the Baja 1000 race team on hand, led by team leader and Toyota race legend Ivan “Ironman” Stewart who will help advise the team of racers during next week’s race. Toyota put together a team of experienced drivers for the Baja 1000 that include off-road racers Ryan Millen and Andy Bell, BMX star Jaime Bestwick, and TRD engineer team manager Ted Moncure, while Chief Engineer Mike Sweers will help navigate the team to the finish line.
We had a chance to chat with Moncure after the press conference, who’s a great person to talk to about the upcoming race since he not only helped design the TRD Pro line but has also raced in many SCORE Baja races previously.
“What’s really exciting to me about it is we’re putting our TRD Pro parts to the test. With these chase trucks, we’re showing what the customer can do with a base Tundra and all of these parts are available separately, so that’s exciting for me that we’re in this space and we’re able to help our customers go experience off-road,” Moncure said. “I’m excited to get to drive the racetruck. This is going to be a really tough race, it’s almost 1300 miles this year, so it’s going to be one fo the longest ones ever, and the hurricane really caused a lot of damage to the race course so it’s going to be a great opportunity to show how tough the TRD Pro Tundra is.”
The TRD Pro Tundra will be racing the Stock class for the 1000. The basic parameters for the SCORE Stock Full class means that production vehicles must be used, though there are a few modifications allowed to the vehicles.
“Basically you start with a stock vehicle, and you have to add safety modifications like a roll cage, window nets, race seats, safety fuel cell and things of that nature,” Moncure explained. “You’re allowed to run up to two shock absorbers per wheel, and so the number and the mounting method of those shocks is unlimited, but then the rest of the suspension components must remain stock, so shocks and springs is all you’re allowed to modify. So the uprights, control arms, the bushings, the ball joints, the axle housing, all that stuff, is all stock. You’re allowed to change the gear ratio, but the axles are stock, the bearings are stock. The carriers are stock, the transfer case, driveshaft, all that stuff is stock, so it really is a good durability test.”
One unique setup we noticed about the truck during a recent test session we attended is the use of two different BFGoodrich tires on the Tundra.
“We’re got our TRD wheels, the same ones you can buy at the dealer, and we’ve got a 37-inch KR Baja T/A race tire on the vehicle,” Moncure explained. “So the KR is in front because it has the directional stability, so it helps with steering, and then we have the KR2 in the rear because it’s got the cross-hatching for traction. We tested all of them, and they all work great, but that combination keeps us from having to groove the tires. If you look at a lot of the Trophy Trucks and those guys, they’ll groove radial grooves on the steering tires, and then horizontal, lateral grooves on the traction tires, so this combination just does it for us as an out-of-the-box solution.”