Toyota TRD Matrix

[mistamatrix]

http://www.autoweek.com/article.cms?articleId=8156



Win on Sunday, Sell on Monday: Toyota Blends the Track with the Street
ANDREW LUU
Published Date: 4/5/04
"Toyota wants to make its cars more popular with aftermarket tuners," says Toyota Racing Development senior sales manager Gary Boler. That seems to be the ambition of every automaker nowadays. Just look at Dodge and Saturn. They can't ignore what this enthusiasm has done for companies like Honda. In the end, it simply sells cars. Lots of them.

How does Toyota hope to achieve that? We asked that question and Boler answered with a souped-up Toyota Matrix that started life as a base 130-hp model. Not exactly what we expected, but when it pulled up in front of TRD's office in Tustin, California, we decided to reserve judgment.

First, it sports a bright turquoise-blue paint job, custom interior, carbon fiber hood and a skirt package all around. We glanced at the spec sheet and were surprised none of those upgrades was done by TRD.

It sports 19-inch Rays G-Game wheels with Yokohama AVS tires and gigantic 13-inch TRD slotted rotors with four-pot calipers ($2,200). It is lowered, and a peek into the wheel well revealed TRD springs ($318) and coilover suspension ($1,503).

As we exited TRD and stomped on the throttle, the car shot away. It is supercharged- the whine gave it away. With about six pounds of boost pushing output to 170 hp, it is not a huge gain, but each horse gets put to full use.

This car is about one second faster from 0 to 60 mph than the twin-cam 173-hp version, we're told, and we see no reason to doubt. The midrange is particularly enhanced with a torquey response that only forced induction can give a four-banger.

Power is linear, as expected, with a belt-driven supercharger. It goes rather like a Mini Cooper S, but it isn't blindingly fast. Then again it has to be reliable-all TRD parts, when dealer-installed, come with a five-year/60,000-mile warranty. Plus we know tuner gurus out there will have no problem upping the ante.

After a day of quick switchbacks and curvy on-ramps, we were impressed. But in the end, it simply raised more questions: Why this sudden focus by Toyota on aftermarket performance? We headed back to TRD, found Boler and began the interrogation.

"This Matrix was built to showcase our supercharger and development of new parts at SEMA in 2003. We have moved away from the cosmetic side and are now focusing on functional, performance parts," Boler said. "This is the best way to put our experience to use."

When Boler talks about experience, he means racing. His definition of racing is IRL, NASCAR Trucks, Grand-Am Daytona Proto-types, NHRA and Championship Off Road Racing. Yes, really.



TRD's two Los Angeles-area facilities house all of the R&D for Toyota motorsports programs. We walked past numerous machine rooms, 500-hp Lexus Daytona Prototype V8 powerplants on stands in mid-assembly with another in the engine bay hooked up and ready to be tested.

"The engineering capability for the aftermarket side is immediately available, from electrical to mechanical," Boler said. "We can take advantage of our capability to test components and calibrate them. If we had to shoulder it alone, we'd have to go to outside vendors for much of the development."

As engines are built and tuned, the lessons learned are absorbed and applied on the aftermarket side. Some of the race engineers actually work on the tuner projects. It is more of an indirect relationship. Racing and the aftermarket are vastly different avenues, but having them side by side allows ideas and applications to rub off.

Most people don't realize TRD is really a separate, independent entity with minimal support from Toyota. Expenses such as advertising are dependent on TRD's ability to generate revenue. "Almost all our products are 100 percent engineered by us and not by Toyota Motor Co.," Boler said.



The supercharger will fit the Matrix, Celica and Corolla for $2,995 and four hours labor. If you have the higher-output 1.8-liter inline four in your Celica or Matrix, you will have to wait. Your high-compression engine has proved difficult to tune reliably with a supercharger.

But be patient.

"We don't hate turbos," said Boler, when asked if TRD will return to the Supra and MR2 glory days. "We have a couple of turbo systems under development."

"For what cars?" we asked. Boler would only say, "It's in the works."