Toyota takes on NASCAR

Toyota’s Camry is hardly the thing to get pulses racing, but that will change once the big-selling sedan lines up against the best the US has to offer in the hugely popular NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series.

The Japanese manufacturer has announced it will field a Camry in America’s premier tin-top category from 2007 onwards, going to head-to-head with Chevrolet, Dodge and Ford.

Beginning as regional entertainment in the Southeastern US, NASCAR has grown to become the second most popular professional sport in terms of television ratings in the USA, ranking behind only National Football League (gridiron).

Internationally, NASCAR races are broadcast in over 150 countries. It holds 17 of the top 20 attended sporting events in the USA, and has 75 million fans who purchase over $US2 billion in annual licensed product sales.

Though big news, Toyota's arrival is an event with some precedent. The world's richest carmaker has raced a Tundra pick-up (read: ute!) in the Craftsman Truck Series that supports NASCAR. The maker has even built a special NASCAR-legal pushrod OHV V8 for its oval track racers which it has made available to selected privateers as well as its official race teams.

Toyota has clearly seen the value in being part of NASCAR, not only to gain mass exposure, but also to lift its staid brand image. The company has already invested vast sums in its Formula One campaign, but that category doesn’t have a huge following in the USA.

The NASCAR format is essentially a silhouette formula, whereby the contenders wear the same nameplates as production models -- Dodge Charger, Chevrolet Monte Carlo SS and Ford Fusion -- but the similarities are largely limited to cosmetic shaping of the face (ie grille and headlights).

NASCAR is an old-school formula whereby the rules mandate a carburettor-fed 355-cubic-inch (5.8-litre) pushrod V8 that relays power (around 550kW) to the rear wheels via a four-speed manual transmission. They weigh a hefty 1545kg, so they’re not exactly lightweights.

Toyota hasn’t as yet announced technical specs for its NASCAR Camry, but it will obviously need to comply with these basic criteria -- in contrast to the front-drive, four-cylinder/V6 configuration of the production car.

Like Australia's V8 Supercars contenders are required to be home-grown. The Camry qualifies because a version is built in the USA.

The Camry is also built in Australia. Hmmm, V8 Supercars must be Australian-built. V8 Supercars use NASCAR engines (near enough!). Toyota now has a NASCAR engine... Is there a pattern emerging?