2015 Toyota Tundra TRD Pro Ready For Baja 1000
If Toyota seems a little excited about its largest-ever Specialty Equipment Market Association Show display, it has a good reason. On the truck side of its exhibition booth — the only side we think is important — a newly modified TRD Pro Tundra, which is set to run the 47th Tecate SCORE Baja 1000 Stock 4x4 class in November, will be the SEMA display’s centerpiece. The SEMA Show runs Nov. 4-7 in Las Vegas. We had the chance to see the truck at an earlier stage of development, but it is now race-ready. Toyota held a kick-off and reveal party for the trucks and other vehicles they'll be displaying in Las Vegas last week in Los Angeles where we were able to get these photos.
Among the notables on the race team are Tundra chief engineer Mike Sweers as one of several co-pilots and race champion Ivan "Ironman" Stewart as the head coach and off-road endurance race expert. Although the race truck is moderately modified (entrants do need a full roll cage and a beefed-up suspension), the truck has completed several punishing desert test runs and should be ready for the brutal top-to-tip challenge.
The race Tundra will be on display at the SEMA Show in Las Vegas for the first week of November before it heads south for the contest. The Tundra will be surrounded by two TRD chase pickup trucks — a Tundra and a Tacoma — and a driver's support TRD 4Runner, all have been specially modified by the impressive folks at N-Fab (remember the Let's Go Moto Tundra from the 2013 SEMA Show?) and they've done an impressive job.
We'll know and see more when we get to the Las Vegas show and then later find out about the Toyota Team's Baja 1000 race results.
If you want to read the full press release on the three chase trucks, click here.
If you want to read the full press release on the race Tundra and team members, click here.
Manufacturer images; Cars.com photos by Mark Williams
Comments
Nice looking truck, they need one with a diesel though....
@Dave
I guarantee you that vast majority of folks doing any kind of off-road driving are not driving diesel truck.
Why then would Toyota need a diesel truck? Are you speaking of just the normal Tundra needing a diesel? That was yesterdays article.
Some people do want a diesel vehicle for off-roading but most don't. Statistically speaking, those that do are a very small minority.
@HEMI MONSTER,
I do think you'll find diesel is the best engine for off road racing and endurance racing.
Just look at Dakar and Le Mans.
that's the only truck you could wreck and actually make it look lots better.
Noticed the drink cooler in the bed of the truck. Its a bad idea keeping beer in there cause of all the rough off-roading it shakes up the beer so bad when you open it the whole amount explodes out as foam.
Here in my parts we take 2 large coolers, one empty and the other full of beer and a chainsaw in the bed.
They poach a deer with a AK47 then use the chainsaw to cut off the hind quarters and place that in the empty cooler, then when the game warden stops you and asks what's in the cooler you open the one with the beer.
I would put up buddylam's 1984 F-150 up against that TRD Pro Tundra to run on the Baja 500. Any pickup can run a desert flat land for 500 miles.
That doesn't impress me!
I still find it funny that to promote the Turd Pro trim, they decided to take all of the turd pro parts off of it and race it.
I'd be more impressed if the only changes were safety related i.e. roll cage, race seats, fuel cell, lights, and fire system.
There are very few racing series/events at all in which the vehicles remain nearly utterly stock.
In other news, Toyota sweeps the 2014 most reliable manufacturer ratings. However, Fiat had a dominant showing too--they swept the 4 WORST!
https://autos.yahoo.com/news/consumer-reports--2014-car-reliability-survey-finds-japan-on-top-164529371.html
@Dav - your link should be the most important starting point for anyone purchasing a new truck.
What are the durability ratings?
Toyota consistently rates high and FCA consistently sits at the bottom of the pack.
"Fiat-Chrysler sits at the bottom of the pack, with four of its brands—Dodge, Ram, Jeep, and Fiat—sweeping our least-reliable rankings."
"More proof that road test scores don’t match reliability: The updated-for-2014 Jeep Grand Cherokee rates high in Consumer Reports tests. But recent changes, including a new version of Chrysler’s Uconnect infotainment system, put its reliability into a tailspin. The high-scoring Ram pickup also fell below average in reliability. That’s too bad because we really like driving those models."
The pattern for Ford is typical. Their ratings drop when the release new models and then they steadily improve over time.
I am surprised at the very poor ratings for the new GM/Chevy pickups.
I'm not surprise with Ram ratings. My friends 6.4L Power Wagon with less than 1k miles is at the dealer right now waiting for a replacement engine.
@Tom3
Down here we poach deer at night. Spotlight. No beer.
No Russian guns either. If you can't kill it with a Savage .22 repeater better stay at home.
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