Toyota was on one for this year’s SEMA show. Nearly everything shown received positive response from the automotive press, now the famously cautious company just needs to actually take some design cues from these bold builds and bring them to the masses.
Today is probably going to be stressful for the majority of Americans, so it is time to stand in line at your voting place, stare at your phone and let everything Toyota brought to SEMA this year fire up your dopamine receptors.
This is what the GR86 should have been from the beginning: A 300 horsepower all-wheel drive sport coupe that can trace its lineage back to the Celica GT-Four? Toyota can have my bank account information immediately.
Toyota is the official automotive partner of the NFL and, to celebrate that partnership, Toyota turned the Tundra 1794 Edition into the ultimate tailgate machine. The truck has been equipped with five 55-inch flat screen TVs that can show different or the same games all at once. There’s also a 185-square-foot canopy to protect those precious screens. Combine that with a pair of 10-inch subwoofers mounted one top along with an amplifier and a tailgate big enough for a grille, and you probably wouldn’t ever want to watch a football game any other way again.
Rutledge Wood came up with idea to turn his daily-driven Toyota Supra into something special to celebrate “The King,” Richard Petty. Starting life as a Supra 3.0 Premium, the entire car was painted in the signature blue that Petty used on his Superbird NASCAR racer. A hand painted “#43" was added to the roof and doors of the car along with a custom cat-back performance exhaust system, coil over suspension kit and 19-inch, three piece bright blue wheels.
I got the impression from Toyota that this RAV-X Concept was a sort of preview in the direction that Toyota is going in with the next generation of its popular crossover. The basis for the concept is the RAV4 Prime. From there, engineers added things like a long travel suspension, 2.5-inch internal bypass shocks front and rear, underbody skid plats and a front fascia with a Dakar inspired front bumper. If any of this helps Toyota make a more rugged, next gen RAV4, we’ll all be better for it.
Modellista is Toyota’s in-house accessories line that’s based in Japan. This concept showcased some of the brand’s new accessories for the 250 generation of the Land Cruiser. Many of the accessories were painted in a green hue, a signature color of Modellista.
TRD made this Baja race truck to compete in the stock mid-size off-road race class. Aside from the Mudbath exterior paint with Toyota Heritage-colored decals on the outside, its been fitted with Fox internal bypass shocks, skid plates, dedicated fuel cell and a custom roll cage.
This tasteful Land Cruiser concept comes with an exterior colored with heritage colored strips and special 20-inch wheels. Aside from the roof mounted lights, that was pretty much it. This concept showed just how much keeping things simple can work for a concept car.
Pictures don’t do this concept justice. It looks fantastic in person. Toyota really should make a limited run of this model as it would sell every single one.
This was easily one of the stars of the whole exhibit. CALTY says everything was designed with production intent. They were quick to follow that up with the disclaimer that production intent doesn’t equal production plans, but that doesn’t mean we can’t keep our fingers and eyes crossed.
Toyota has yet to say when the new 4Runner will go on sale or how much it’ll cost when it does. That didn’t stop the automaker from showing both a TRD Pro and this 4Runner Trailhunter at SEMA. And from what I saw, they won’t be able to make these things fast enough.
Toyota showed more than a few accessories at SEMA. Among them was this camping setup for the Tundra by ARB. With a tent that high off the ground, that should be helpful in protecting occupants from the elements. Or bears.