Roots in Racing

At World Toyota of Atlanta, we know you’re looking for the best in cars, SUVs, and trucks. Let us show you why you’ll find these at a premier Toyota dealership like ours. The success of each and every Toyota vehicle has its roots in the world of competitive motorsport.

First in Its Field

In 1957 Toyota stepped up to the challenge of competing in the Round Australia Rally. This secured them the honor of being the first Japanese car manufacturer to race in motorsport competitions.

Toyota Technocraft established a new motorsport branch called Toyota Sports Corner, or Tosco, to design a vehicle for the grueling 17,000 meters, 19-day endurance race that circumvented the entire continent of Australia.

What they came up with was the Toyopet Crown Deluxe. This first-of-its-kind prototype completed the epic journey without any major mechanical problems and finished 47th out of 86.

After this, Tosco entered the inaugural Japanese Grand Prix in 1963 and raced away with three first-place finishes. In 1965, with the help of their Yamaha Motor Corporation subsidiary, they produced the first-ever 2000GT. This vehicle became a legend when it finished third overall on the newly completed Fuji Speedway track.

Making Racing History

Tosco’s vehicles moved on to set the international class and world speed records. Two of their convertibles even had a feature spot in the James Bond film You Only Live Twice. They were well on their way to becoming a major player in the motorsport world.

On their next venture, Tosco and Yamaha teamed up again to engineer the revolutionary 7 Turbo with a V8 twin-turbo 800PS engine. This marvel of modern engineering became the world’s first turbo-engine racing car.

The Birth of Toyota Racing Development

New emissions policies and changing Grand Prix specifications blocked the Toyota 7 Turbo from competitive racing. But, that didn’t stop Tosco from moving forward. To keep up with a changing world they took motorsport technology in a new direction.

Focusing on the touring car field, they began to produce official performance components for the road-car market.

In 1976 Tosco became Toyota Racing Development (TRD) and opened a second base of operations in North America. Called TRD USA, this division operates autonomously, with their own full engine design, development, and assembly facilities.

Putting Race Technology on the Road

Through it all, TRD has maintained an emphasis on sharing their racing division expertise with their road-car division. This elite engineering technology is at the heart of every car, SUV, and truck they build.

Visit us at World Toyota, your premier auto dealer in Atlanta, and test drive a new Camry, Tacoma, or RAV4 hybrid today. We want you to experience the legendary engineering history that’s built into every Toyota model.