AIMS: TRD back on track

Toyota's performance arm, TRD, has lifted its sales stop on the supercharged TRD Aurion.

According to Toyota's marketing chief, Dave Buttner, investigations carried out on the failed engine (more here) led the company to believe it was a one-off incident but they have now taken action by reducing the rev range of the supercharged 3.5-litre V6.

"We wouldn't normally stop ship for one engine failure but I am very keen to ensure that in launching the new brand, we did everything we could to protect our customers and to protect the brand," Buttner says.

However, after exhaustive testing, Toyota is still not saying exactly what caused the problem and when asked whether it was due to over revving the engine Buttner was quick to suggest "potential" over revving by the driver thereby avoiding any allocation of blame.

"Naturally we want to eliminate that potential again so we have taken the decision to reduce the rev range.

"We looked at the potential for the vehicle to over-rev, the fuel cut out on this vehicle was set higher than on the naturally aspirated Aurion, and the rev limit has now been set back from 6800rpm to 6500rpm.

Thus with the TRD Aurion back on sale and the second supercharged 4.0-litre TRD HiLux due to arrive about mid-next year, Toyota is back to promoting its new go-fast arm.

A key part of that promotion will be involvement in motorsport with the Aurion set to campaign in the Targa Tasmania tarmac rally next year with rally ace Neal Bates behind the wheel. The Aurion will be competing in the revitalised Showroom Stock category in the event.

TRD backed cars could also contest the Bathurst 12 Hour -- an endurance race for production-based cars -- in February.

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