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When did Toyota start working with NASCAR, I have heard that they have been collaborating with each other in different championships, can you tell me about it?
Tags: nascar, relationship, Toyota
The relationship between Toyota and NASCAR started with the collaboration of series for compact pickups. Van Cleef, who had been driving Toyotas to road-racing championships, aggressively lobbied to become the part of Toyota Racing Development USA's test program. The compact pickup series was then stillborn, but NASCAR extended its approval of these multicam engines to the Goody's Dash, then during the process of switching to V-6s. Van Cleef, from Huntsville, Alabama, showed his versatility and commitment by scoring the top-five finish in the round of the '99 Goody's Dash driving a Pontiac, and became a development team for the TRD's new engine. TRD faced many challenges in transforming the 5VZ V-6 from the Tacoma and 4Runner into what we think is the first new carbureted (single two-barrel!) distributor-and-points-fired DOHC four-valve racing engine in at least three decades. As rules require a 9.0:1 compression ratio, it's been who knows how long since there's been a low-compression, carbed, DOHC race V-6. Another Dash rule requiring uneven firing order demanded a new crank. This gives the Toyota its gravelly growl: a Piedmont accent for engines.
The engine was a bit short of power in the beginning of the 2000 season, making about 275 horses from 3.8 liters compared to the 300 or so for the series-dominating OHV Pontiacs. Acceleration testing on the banked straightaway of USA International Speedway in Lakeland, Florida, also caused many problems than anyone imagined and resulted in a modest 5.4-second 0-60-mph time. Still, around USA Speedway, a three-quarter-mile, the Dash Toyota was less than 2 seconds a lap slower than Ricky Rudd in the 750-plus horse No. 28 Winston Cup car. The 0-60 mph time of NASCAR Toyota Motorsport is about 5.4 seconds which is subject to change with the specifications and upgrades regarding the transformation of the car.
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