Cardigan Comes Of Toyota..TOYOTA TRD !!

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The fight for the final frontier in Australian motoring has begun with Toyota firing up its special vehicles brand, TRD. It is starting with a TRD Aurion and HiLux at this month's Melbourne motor show. Both will be on sale before the end of the year.

A third model, not a TRD Corolla but probably something in the 4WD family, will follow. Toyota's objective is simple but difficult, even for Australia's No.1 carmaker — it must attack the special vehicles heartland occupied by Holden Special Vehicles and Ford Performance Vehicles.

Toyota Australia says it is not directly aiming at the homegrown heroes with TRD (Toyota Racing Developments), but it's obvious to anyone who knows the car business that the cars will be measured against the V8 hotrods from HSV and FPR.

Toyota is taking a different path with its TRD Aurion and HiLux, partly because it must (they have no V8 engines or rear-drive cars for the job) and partly because it believes it can win a slightly different following by going with supercharged V6 engines, more emphasis on comfort and refinement, and a slightly less obvious styling direction. However, the message is the same.

"This is how we show people we have thrown off the cardigan — forever," TRD corporate manager Greg Gardner says. Gardner leads a team of 15 at TRD, but is able to tap the talent at Toyota Style Australia and will rely on Prodrive, the British company that controls Ford Performance Vehicles, for final assembly of the TRD Aurion and HiLux in Melbourne.

The mechanics of the job are relatively straightforward: V6 engines, bigger wheels and tyres, improved brakes, upgraded seats and cabins, and predictable body bits.

But it is the packaging that is really tough, and doing it without any heritage. Gardner and his team have to win new customers without driving existing owners away.

"We don't want Toyota drivers to think it's too loud, but Toyota buyers must think it's more sporty. The key to attracting people to the Toyota brand is to have something different," he says. TRD has been in the works for more than two years, as has the Aurion. It is the final development of a project started with a supercharged Camry for motor show display and technical testing in engine bay, suspension, brakes, and more.


"The basics are there in the Aurion. It's a good chassis and a good base vehicle," Gardner says. "It is pointing in the right direction. It responds well.

"And the driving has come out well."

On the HiLux front, the TRD model is a double-cab four-wheel-drive with a supercharged 4.0-litre V6 engine.

The final pricing is still being set, together with the TRD presence in Toyota Australia showrooms, but Gardner is aiming for about 1000 cars in total in the first year and much more than that in impact.

"It's not huge volumes. But it is hugely important," he says. "We see this as a brand-building exercise, not incremental sales.

"I will be happy if a TRD car brings someone into a Toyota dealership and they buy something else in the range."

TRD is not talking about price or performance just yet. But the Aurion will have at least 235kW to be fed to the front wheels through its six-speed automatic gearbox. The focus for the HiLux is on torque. The Aurion has 18-inch alloy wheels, special sports seats and a body kit.

The HiLux, meanwhile, gets similar treatment — but with underdone alloys — and is pitched as a work-and-play family hauler.

"The TRD Aurion will be on sale on August 13 and the TRD HiLux on November 12."

Gardner is prepared to hint about Aurion pricing, but without going into details.

He says: "It's going to be more expensive than a Falcon XR6 Turbo or a Commodore SV8 ... but it won't be as expensive as an HSV or FPV car. It will not be priced against the Falcon XR6 turbo, though. It's a lot more than just an engine upgrade."

TRD has been a semi-official hot-up business in Japan since the 1970s, and made a successful transition to the US in the 1980s. The TRD logo has been on racing cars and came to Australia in 2006 on the sides of the championship-winning Corollas campaigned by Neal Bates and Simon Evans in the Australian Rally Championship.

It is also attached to all sorts of go-faster parts for cars throughout the Toyota range.

The chief designer employed on the TRD project certainly knows a bit more than most about special vehicles.

Long before he joined Toyota Australia, Paul Beranger headed Nissan Special Vehicles and was the man who brought the Skyline GT-R to Australian showrooms as a local model.

Herald-Sun