Though I’ve written a lot about trucks, especially in the two years leading up to the launch of the all-new Tundra, I’ll readily admit that I’m not a truck guy. Now, they sure do come in handy when you’ve got a ton of stuff to move, or some oversized item that needs to get from here to there. But my day-to-day reality is blissfully truck-free and, in all likelihood, always will be.
The same cannot be said for Warren Victor, one of my colleagues here at Toyota Motor Sales. Warren works in the Truck and SUV Marketing Group. He doesn’t just think about trucks or, even, drive them. He actually dreams about them. And, sometimes, he gets to bring those dreams to life.
A massive case in point: the Tundra project truck he's rolling into Toyota’s booth at the Specialty Equipment Manufacturers Association show in Las Vegas Oct. 30-Nov. 2. Warren directed the Toyota Motorsports Technical Group to take a stock Tundra and find a way to shoehorn into it an 8-liter, inline 6-cylinder engine made by Toyota affiliate Hino Motors. They succeeded, but it required radical alterations to pull it off. You see, this is the same engine that’s meant for a 35,000-pound commercial truck, generating enough torque so that, as Warren puts it, the Tundra could climb a wall if requested.
Among the exterior cues befitting this behemoth’s off-the-charts muscle are 22.5-inch wheels custom made by Alcoa, a diamond plate-lined bed and a charcoal gray metallic flat paint treatment. Inside, the truck features hand-sewn chestnut-squash-colored leather seats and suede pillars and headliner.Warren’s one line description: “It’s ‘Road Warrior’ on the outside and Lexus on the inside.”
Given www.fivestartoyota.com version of this one-off will never see the light of day, what’s the point? Warren says it’s all about a willingness to set aside convention and try new things—something a company the size of Toyota should do from time to time.
And along the way, who knows? It might even tempt a lifelong car guy like me to appreciate the beauty, and the beast, in trucks.
The same cannot be said for Warren Victor, one of my colleagues here at Toyota Motor Sales. Warren works in the Truck and SUV Marketing Group. He doesn’t just think about trucks or, even, drive them. He actually dreams about them. And, sometimes, he gets to bring those dreams to life.
A massive case in point: the Tundra project truck he's rolling into Toyota’s booth at the Specialty Equipment Manufacturers Association show in Las Vegas Oct. 30-Nov. 2. Warren directed the Toyota Motorsports Technical Group to take a stock Tundra and find a way to shoehorn into it an 8-liter, inline 6-cylinder engine made by Toyota affiliate Hino Motors. They succeeded, but it required radical alterations to pull it off. You see, this is the same engine that’s meant for a 35,000-pound commercial truck, generating enough torque so that, as Warren puts it, the Tundra could climb a wall if requested.
Among the exterior cues befitting this behemoth’s off-the-charts muscle are 22.5-inch wheels custom made by Alcoa, a diamond plate-lined bed and a charcoal gray metallic flat paint treatment. Inside, the truck features hand-sewn chestnut-squash-colored leather seats and suede pillars and headliner.Warren’s one line description: “It’s ‘Road Warrior’ on the outside and Lexus on the inside.”
Given www.fivestartoyota.com version of this one-off will never see the light of day, what’s the point? Warren says it’s all about a willingness to set aside convention and try new things—something a company the size of Toyota should do from time to time.
And along the way, who knows? It might even tempt a lifelong car guy like me to appreciate the beauty, and the beast, in trucks.
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