(November 6, 2019) PLANO, Texas — Appearing at Toyota’s 2019 Specialty Equipment Market Association (SEMA) Show display this week, Toyota’s performance and racing division in America, Toyota Racing Development U.S.A., commemorates 40 years of vehicle tuning and competition for the street and the track.

Toyota Racing Development U.S.A. (TRD) was founded in 1979, and its legacy marches forward not only on the street, but in competition.

“TRD was created to be Toyota’s factory performance division, developing parts and programs for both street-driven vehicles as well as competition vehicles,” said David Wilson, president of TRD. TRD develops products in-house and co-brands products with high-performance aftermarket parts manufacturers. The variety of available parts ranges from wheels, and suspension components to intakes, exhaust systems, and body kits.

Toyota began branding its vehicles with TRD upgrades and badging straight from the factory, indicating a higher level of performance by way of power adders, suspension or both. Vehicles equipped with the TRD package have come to represent the pinnacle of Toyota performance. The Avalon and Camry TRD editions debuted this fall, joining the host of TRD Sport and Pro editions for off-road platforms like the Sequoia, Tundra, Tacoma and 4Runner.



As a tribute to TRD’s 40th anniversary, Toyota and TRD collaborated with longtime partner Dan Gardner Spec (DG-Spec) to design and build a one-off, fully functional street/track car dubbed the Avalon TRD Pro Concept. Based on the Avalon TRD, the Avalon TRD Pro was modified, set up and demonstrated at three different motorsports venues including Formula Drift, NASCAR and Grid Life.

Gardner commented, “We were honored to have the chance to work on an Avalon TRD for 2019. We built the Avalon, first for drifting, and then re-engineered the car to run full-tilt on road courses like Sonoma and beyond.” He continued, “We upgraded the intake and exhaust to increase engine output by 10-percent, but the real magic was our extensive chassis, suspension, aero, differential, and brake work.”

“Over the last 40 years, TRD has competed all over the world, from the dunes of Baja to racetracks across America in CART, Grand Am and Indy Car. TRD’s involvement with racing continues today with racing efforts in NASCAR, NHRA Top Fuel and Funny Car, IMSA, World Challenge, Formula Drift, TORC, USAC and the Off-Road Racing Series. We’ve raced for decades and look forward to racing for many decades more,” said Wilson.