Toyota Pro/Celebrity Race Winners

You may remember that on April 14 we posted a piece telling you about the Toyota Pro/Celebrity Race, organized as part of the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach this past weekend?

That’s the event in which a group of celebrities competes with a group of racing professionals in race-prepared Scion tCs.

We just thought that in the interest of dotting our I’s and crossing our T’s, we should let you know that Jamie Little, a pit reporter on ESPN and ABC, took both Celebrity and overall victories.

Dancing with Cars

With a title like the one on this post, you might just be thinking of a certain hit television program.

But this is Dancing with the Cars, not Dancing with the Stars, though both concepts offer similar levels of celebrity, action and entertainment.

This Dancing with the Cars features race-prepared Scion tCs that will compete in the 2008 Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach Toyota Pro/Celebrity Race. The cars, seen here during a practice session at Willow Springs Raceway in the California desert, will hurtle around the famous and challenging Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach race course April 19, driven by a volatile mix of 18 celebrities and professional racing drivers.

A Win and a Top-5 Finish

You may have heard that a Toyota won its first NASCAR Sprint Cup points race this week when Kyle Busch wheeled his Camry to victory at the Atlanta Motor Speedway.

That’s good stuff, and we’re thrilled about it. But we’re equally thrilled by a vote of confidence we received from an unexpected source recently – kind of an "attaboy" from the business community. We were ranked fifth in Fortune’s list of the top 20 most admired companies.

Actually, it was even better than that. We were the top-ranked automotive company. Just one other automotive company was included in the top-20 list, but it failed to crack the top 10.

Off-Road Racing Icon Helps Toyota Compete

There’s an old adage in the car business that says, "Win on Sunday, Sell on Monday." What it means is that manufacturers that win on the racetrack on Sunday sell more vehicles on the dealership lot on Monday. It sounds plausible but, in practice, it rarely materializes. The return on an automaker’s investment in racing is typically much less clear than that.

A new partnership between a Toyota racing icon and a Toyota dealership, however, promises to bring the connection into sharper focus. The icon is none other than Ivan "Ironman" Stewart, who established his credentials in the 1970s while taming the wilds of Baja with long, solo stints in an off-road race buggy. His career - and Toyota’s racing reputation - shifted to a much higher level when the two joined forces in 1983. Over the years, Stewart has accumulated 84 career victories and 10 driver's championships. The wins include 17 Baja 500s, eight Mint 400s, four Parker 400s, three Baja 1000s and four SCORE World Championships.

No More Humble Pie: Toyota Will Win in NASCAR 2008

The overriding value at the core of Toyota’s corporate culture is humbleness. Rarely, if ever, does the company toot its own horn. It avoids comparing itself with its competitors. It keeps its head down and focuses on the details, convinced that a never-ending pursuit of small improvements will eventually lead to big accomplishments.

So we were caught a bit off guard when Jim Aust, Toyota Motor Sales’ vice president of motorsports, recently proclaimed to Open Road that there was no question that a NASCAR-spec Camry would win in Sprint (formerly Nextel) Cup in 2008. The only uncertainties, in his mind, were when the first win would occur and how many would follow.

Diabolical Diesel Dually Tundra: Part ‘Mad Max,’ Part Rolls Royce

Though I’ve written a lot about trucks, especially in the two years leading up to the launch of the all-new Tundra, I’ll readily admit that I’m not a truck guy. Now, they sure do come in handy when you’ve got a ton of stuff to move, or some oversized item that needs to get from here to there. But my day-to-day reality is blissfully truck-free and, in all likelihood, always will be.

The same cannot be said for Warren Victor, one of my colleagues here at Toyota Motor Sales. Warren works in the Truck and SUV Marketing Group. He doesn’t just think about trucks or, even, drive them. He actually dreams about them. And, sometimes, he gets to bring those dreams to life.

A massive case in point: the Tundra project truck he's rolling into Toyota’s booth at the Specialty Equipment Manufacturers Association show in Las Vegas Oct. 30-Nov. 2. Warren directed the Toyota Motorsports Technical Group to take a stock Tundra and find a way to shoehorn into it an 8-liter, inline 6-cylinder engine made by Toyota affiliate Hino Motors. They succeeded, but it required radical alterations to pull it off. You see, this is the same engine that’s meant for a 35,000-pound commercial truck, generating enough torque so that, as Warren puts it, the Tundra could climb a wall if requested.

Among the exterior cues befitting this behemoth’s off-the-charts muscle are 22.5-inch wheels custom made by Alcoa, a diamond plate-lined bed and a charcoal gray metallic flat paint treatment. Inside, the truck features hand-sewn chestnut-squash-colored leather seats and suede pillars and headliner.
Warren’s one line description: “It’s ‘Road Warrior’ on the outside and Lexus on the inside.”

Given that a production version of this one-off will never see the light of day, what’s the point? Warren says it’s all about a willingness to set aside convention and try new things—something a company the size of Toyota should do from time to time.

And along the way, who knows? It might even tempt a lifelong car guy like me to appreciate the beauty, and the beast, in trucks.

-- Contributed by Dan Miller, TMS Corporate Communications

Return to Indy – and Victory Lane!

It had been two years since a Toyota competed at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, so it was with renewed excitement that we returned to Indianapolis for the running of two races - the Allstate 400 at The Brickyard and the Kroger 200, which took place at nearby O’Reilly Raceway Park.

A Presence in Pikeville: Toyota Embraces Engagement Marketing

Picture this: you find yourself in Pikeville, KY, one in a series of stops on the AMA Toyota Arenacross Series. You love racing motorcycles, but it doesn’t exactly pay the bills. So dinner, all too often, consists of a low-cost, high-carb paper bag filled at the local Taco Bell drive-thru and consumed while sitting at the wheel of your pickup truck.

   

NASCAR Update - Powered by Toyota!

The recent Coca-Cola 600 in Charlotte is one of the biggest races on the NASCAR schedule, and as it also marks the one-third point of the season, it’s probably a good time to pause and take a look at Toyota’s NASCAR season to date.

We said when Toyota announced plans to enter the Nextel Cup series that we would be facing a huge challenge and it has proven to be just that – and more. All seven Toyota teams are currently outside  the top 35 in car points,    which means they must qualify for every race. With about 50 fully-sponsored teams battling for 43 starting spots, the competitive pressure is fierce. In one race earlier this season, only two Toyota entries started.

But at Charlotte, things started looking a little better.