“Clearly there’s a gap,” they say.
In the face of the impending Ford Ranger Raptor, it seems that current ute leader Toyota may want to carve out a slice of the lucrative high-performance ute segment for itself. The Volkswagen Amarok V6 is already capturing quite a number of customers on the top end of the spectrum, while the upcoming Ranger promises to be the sports ute that we haven’t had for some time.
Naturally, Toyota’s not happy simply conceding that niche to its competitors, with Australian operations boss Sean Hanley suggesting that there might be a Japanese entrant to the presently German-dominated and American-challenged affair.
“Clearly there’s a gap for us. We don’t have the ‘level four’ [sitting atop the SR5 and TRD]. When you look at the ute market, the Hilux 4x2 and 4x4 is the number one year-to-date, and I expect it’ll finish number one for the year. It’ll possibly be the number-one selling car, again, in our market. However, it’s is clear to us that the demand sits one step above the third level now, which is our SR5. We’ve been able to fill that gap somewhat with our TRD, and we certainly understand that in the future, we’ll have to examine very closely what we’ll do to fill that gap to ensure that our number-one selling car continues to hold that momentum.” — Sean Hanley, VP (National Operations), Toyota Australia
It’s clear that Toyota’s studying the possibility of a range-topping performance variant, though it’s hitherto unclear what shape that’ll take. Perhaps they’ll bolt a supercharger onto one of the brawny petrol motors that the marque already employs in the range, the way they did almost a decade ago with the TRD Hilux 4000S and its supercharged V6. We’ve furnished this article with images of the Hilux Tonka concept from this year in the hopes that Toyota Australia will hear our prayers and make them come true.
What is sure is that the range-topping Hilux will not carry a ‘TRD’ badge, instead going with the newly-minted ‘Gazoo Racing’ (or GR) moniker that’s becoming more commonplace for Toyota’s performance models. While it’s unlikely that the performance Hilux will have the same ‘roided-up looks, it’ll definitely have the go, given Gazoo’s engineering know-how when it comes to making driver-focused vehicles.
“Gazoo stands for a lot more, it’s a lot deeper than just motorsport. Gazoo Racing stands for development, teamwork, and the ability to demonstrate to the world what we can and what we will do. We’re very fortunate that this year, in November, we have the World Rally Championship in Australia, in Coffs Harbour, and we will introduce Gazoo Racing, initially, using that platform. The team will come out here. I can’t confirm future product, but certainly if (GR-tuned models) became available to us, it’s something we’d be deeply interested in.” — Sean Hanley, VP (National Operations), Toyota Australia
Gazoo Racing, the brainchild and pet-project of the motorsports-obsessed Toyota boss Akio Toyoda, is expected to take on an increasingly important role in the future, with GR’s fingers already in multiple pies as we speak. While things like the Yaris GRMN might send us giggling, the idea of a GR-fettled Hilux is riveting stuff, so join us in hoping that Toyota will make it so.
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