Considering the North American market is the single largest market for Toyota (and many other manufactuers for that matter including most from Japan) and that approx 50% of thier profits are derived from the one environment then obviuosly North America is arguably the best market of all to be promoting themselves especially in the form of motorsport not to mention NASCAR is infact the second most popular and viewed sport in the US.

It’s not about the Camry or RWD for that matter, just racing !!

As for names, it’s just that and nothing else so what does it really matter. Wether they call it a Yaris or a Lexus IS-F … does the stickered name make any differance to the actual developed racing product !!!!!!

And before i conclude – considering Toyota had an absolute blinder of season last year (and they did), it sure as hell wouldn’t have done thier image any harm and not just in North America either but around the world and them some bragging rights :

* Toyota beat the American trio at thier own game on thier own soil … Oooch !!!

Toyota certainly got bang for thier buck last year in NASCAR and i believe they will remain competitive for the upcoming season aswell.

Oh yeah, Marcus Ambrose has made the switch to Toyota as of this year.

Toyota Japan do sell a fabulous RWD V8 – the Toyota Crown. I drove it while I was in Tokyo recently. Shame it isn’t sold here. It’s big, powerful, and the interior is more LS than Aurion.

Given that the AS-IF is such a high profile and eagerly anticipated car [by some] I would expect that there have been more than 30 odd articles/reviews written about it
by some of the world’s reputable international motoring journalists [and some not so]

I have read a number of articles on the IS-F and how it compares to the M3… Overall it appears the IS-Fs quite an impressive car which has a number of issues such as the rigid suspension which gives the impression that they’re trying a little too hard to impress.

Just because you haven’t read the same article as Jason myself or anyone else has doesn’t mean that it didn’t happen.

Wasn’t saying that nothing translates to the road cars, I was saying I don’t know what benefit toyota get from it.

They don’t sell a RWD V8 Camry, just as Ford don’t sell a RWD V8 Fusion or Taurus.

I can’t stop myself watching V8 Supercars, but on the other hand, I found NASCAR (all categories) so boring, I switched off. And I’ve been a motor racing tragic for almost 30 years.

Toyota have wasted literally billions in F1; they should have just jumped in NASCAR earlier.

OK, so TRD engineer & build the V8 Camry donks; I stand corrected.

By the way, I’m not very impressed with V8 Supercar at the moment; it’s too contrived, & as you say, therace cars bear no relationship to the road cars.

I’ve been watching Classic Australian Touring Cars on DVD, & have been reminded of how great the racing was in Group A.
Commodore Vs Falcon Vs RX7 Vs Turbo Bluebird Vs BMW 635CSi.

The racing was close, you didn’t really know you’d win each race, & the cars were so much closer to standard compared to todays purpose built chassis.

Bring back Group A rules with safety upgrades, & the racing would be great.

Now Honda, having failed on a huge scale (This time around) in F1, but not as badly as Toyota, are making noises about joining NASCAR…………

God knows why……

NASCAR is infact extremely similar to the V8SC series and that they all operate a controlled chassis and even frame and the only true differance being is what manufactuer teams choose to align with to sources thier powerplants and the Toyota / TRD developed donks were simply producing greater HP to the point Ford, Chevrolet and Dodge teams whinged, swined and carried-on until Toyota had thier output artificially reduced simply because they were dominating the competition.

How typical of the American trio – instead of investing more and working harder to catch up, they take the easy path and have Toyota restricted instead … just as Holden and Ford done in Australia with Nissan.

And what comes of it all, well – it proves the American companies only ever look good when it is just them but as soon as outside competition enters the fray then all of a sudden the American owned companies don’t look so good after all … do they !!

Toyota literally made a mockery of them last year.

As for nothing to translate to road cars … correct me if i am wrong but wether it be F1, NASCAR, V8SC Series, Japanese GT, WRC or drag racing – it is all about expression of automotive engineering not to mention what most forms of racing these days have virtually nothing in common with production models bar a name.

V8SC series all run a single controlled chassis with little more then a Commodore / Falcon resembled frame attached not to mention Ford Australia hasn’t even sold a pushrod V8 for how long ????????

And before i conclude, bare in mind that the nameplates used in NASCAR by each manufactuer – the so called ‘Camry’ is the only car assembled in the US while the others are manufactuered across the US border eg. Mexico
and hasn’t that been raised on a number of accassions by many of the US population.

On a final note, it is infact TRD USA who wholely and solely engineer Toyota NASCAR donks and last year one of the titles they secured was the Craftsman Trucks of which they have now won for 3 consecative years after racing for only 5.

The Nationwide was the other secured Title and achieved in only thier second season (single handedly won 20 from 35 meetings) all while they same so close in grabbing the Sprint Cup aswell.

Oh well … 2 out of 3 is a damn good effort !!

Just doing my homework now, buddy.

Will I have to skip lunch, & stay after school too?

I dunno, I think closely following the car industry for 30+ years at least allows me to express an opinion.

If you don’t agree with any of it, well that’s ok too. Even if I’m wrong on most if not all points, I’m allowed to express my thoughts.

PS I’m with Andrew M. “no toyota kills any equivalent BMW for looks”.

Especially the IS-F looking better than an M3? Not to me.

IS-F? AS-IF!