The surprising history of Toyota’s TRD program in the US – Jalopnik

Toyota is known for producing exceptionally reliable, well-built and well-designed cars and trucks, but they often aren’t all that exciting. Toyota does make some cars for enthusiasts, but they usually have a few extra letters to their name: TRD. (And GR now, of course, but today we’re talking TRD.) I recently visited the TRD offices in Costa Mesa, California to learn all about the rich history of Toyota Racing Development in the United States, and came away from the experience with some new knowledge that Jalopnik readers love. TRD isn’t the only intriguing part of Toyota’s history in the United States, however; We recently shared another great piece of Toyota trivia when we investigated how it took over a napalm factory in Long Beach, California to build truck beds and avoid the chicken tax.

The first time the letters TRD graced anything in the United States was actually thanks to a Filipino racing duo that imported TRD parts from the Philippines, completely independent of Toyota. Today, the letters TRD adorn the beds of some of the strongest, most capable and most durable pickup trucks and SUVs on sale today, as well as some special editions and aftermarket performance parts. Perhaps less known: the letters TRD also adorn winning NASCAR teams, lightning-fast Funny Car drag-strip destroyers and Baja-fighting trophy trucks. Here’s how it all started.

In the years following the end of World War II, Japan’s automotive industry, as well as most of the country’s other industries, were in poor shape for obvious reasons, but Australia did just fine. In fact, the Round Australia rally was so successful that the Australian government asked Japanese teams to take part in the grueling race, which saw drivers race more than 10,000 miles across the entire Australian continent, and despite having no previous racing experience, Toyota accepted the challenge.

The faction of the company that developed Toyota’s racing entry was called Toyota Racing Corner, or TOSCO. True to Toyota’s modern reputation for durability and reliability, the race participant ultimately completed the 19-day rally without a single mechanical fault, although he did not win overall. Following this remarkable feat of reliability, Toyota, with the help of its TOSCO division, invested in its own Japanese racing series, resulting in the continuation and growth of Toyota’s racing developments.

By the mid-1960s, the Japanese economy had recovered greatly and Toyota enjoyed great sales success with the American-built Corona in 1965 and the then-new Corolla in 1968. Throughout the 1970s, Toyota’s growth continued, as did Toyota’s presence in racing.

In 1976, Toyota renamed its racing division, so TOSCO was gone and Toyota Racing Development was born. At first, TRD started selling performance parts only to Japanese consumers, but later expanded to other Asian markets, including the Philippines. This all happened at the same time as the oil crisis, when America introduced stricter emissions and safety regulations, so Toyota chose not to export these TRD performance parts to the United States. Fortunately, a Filipino Toyota racing duo of Joel and Joji Luz decided to import TRD parts from the Philippines to the United States, completely independently of Toyota, and formed TRD USA.

TRD USA operated out of a facility in sunny Costa Mesa, California, as a sort of speed shop for Toyotas, and while it was not yet formally affiliated with Toyota Motors North America, it was conveniently located quite close to the Toyota Motor Sales USA office. As the Luz brothers gradually expanded TRD USA’s presence to the point that its parts were available at most Toyota dealers nationwide, Toyota Motor Sales USA took note of America’s warm reception for its TRD performance parts and eventually purchased TRD USA from the Luzes in the early 1980s.

When Toyota acquired TRD and began competing in American racing series, TRD gained increasing visibility as a performance sub-brand, cementing its reputation. A big factor in this increased visibility was one of the most notable names in racing in the 1990s: Ivan “Ironman” Stewart, and his remarkable solo victories in the legendary Baja 1000, racing the iconic yellow, orange and red Toyota desert racing truck developed by TRD. From that fame, Ivan Stewart became the focus of the legendary arcade racing game called “Super Off-Road”, which was the most popular arcade game in the world in 1989 (and remains a Jalopnik favorite). It featured the iconic TRD truck, which wormed its way into the hearts of millions of young gamers. Then Ivan Stewart won the Baja 500, the Baja 1000 and the MINT 400 all in the same year in 1993, making Toyota the first manufacturer to win all three races in one season.

As TRD gained traction in the United States, it continued to expand into uncharted territory, as the faction that helped Toyota become the first import car to compete in the blue-blooded American sport of NASCAR in 2000. Just two years after that, TRD facilitated Toyota’s debut in the hyper-specialized world of NHRA Funny Car drag racing.

Today, TRD USA still operates from its office in Costa Mesa, California, and that is where most of its NASCAR research and development takes place. The TRD Costa Mesa plant produces approximately 450 engines per year, of which approximately 400 are used for NASCAR racing, while others are used for midget car racing, drag racing and other types of racing that TRD supports.

Funnily enough, in addition to the pushrod NASCAR V8 engines, TRD Costa Mesa also houses a large portion of Toyota’s alternative hydrogen fuels business. This includes developing increasingly efficient hydrogen generators that fit into the soil of a tundra and are driven to events to provide zero-emission energy for TRD operations. When I visited the facility on National Taco Day, one of those hydrogen generators provided power for a taco truck so we could properly celebrate.

Logan K. Carter/Jalopnik

And yes, TRD Costa Mesa also produces some specialized components for production TRD models. This facility now designs and manufactures the upper control arms for all TRD Pro Tacomas, Tundras and 4Runners on the road, and it is even where TRD developed a proprietary coating for those components using technology that Toyota Motors North America had never used before. These components are rigorously tested for more than 100 times the industry standard, applying TRD’s 46 years of expertise and excellence to street car components. If you’re wondering why Toyotas, especially the TRD Pro models, hold their value so well over hundreds of thousands of miles, know that there’s a good reason for it.