Bazemore / Toyota (2 Viewers)

[yoda]

Do you REALLY think that anyone is stupid enough to think that an 8000 horespower Fuel Dragster is powered by a little rice burning Toyota...? It is quite apparent to me, and anyone else with half-a-brain that it isn't, so I don't see it as misleading....Also, if TOYOTA came up to you and offered YOU $200,000-$300,000 to put their decal on YOUR car, would you tell them, "No....Sorry..I don't agree with cashing this check to put your decal on my racecar...?" C'mon...be serious...!

Jay... Is anyone stupid enough to build an 8000hp ANYTHING based on a stock powerplant? No- and they don't. Fuel motors are designed and engineered to be the monsters that they are- if Toyota or Volkswagen or anyone else decided to go fuel racing, they would be at the same advantage as any other automaker- they get to start from scratch designing their motor to be just like the 50+ years of nitro racing technology that Chrysler has had a head-start in. Which means, that with enough corporate interest and funding, someone like Toyota could, in theory, build one hell of a great fuel motor using the knowledge that great builders like Alan Johnson and Brad Anderson have obtained over the years of working on HEMI motors, and apply what has worked to technology that they have from F1, Indy and rally motors to come up with what might be a serious challange to HEMI supremacy in drag racing. The only holdback from all that would be the sanctioning body and the availability of huge sums of cash- I wouldn't doubt that the engineering is already there, but those companies just don't have an interest in going somewhere that they haven't been invited yet... THat's why I have to applaud the Titan guys- they are making monster power without the use of nitro, but with the technology that is available to them from the brand that they represent.

 

[Mooseman]

I don't think its the fact that toyota is japanese or where what is made that makes people disslike toyota i honestly think its toyotas budget that is scaring people . Teams in drag racing and made by someoen who decided they want to race so they made up a team and found sponsers well if toyota became a factory backer then that would be bad . Toyotas budget in formula 1 is 2 billion a year . If they decided to go drag racing I dont think they would care about how much they spent and I think that scares people . I do an auto course here in new zealand and one of my teachers was a mechanic at a toyota delearship and he told me that the japanese have this belief that when they make something they must allways make it better next time .

 

[Moritz Guy]

Toyota is an associate sponsor for them.

Toyota will power the dragster to the starting line and from the shut down area. LOL

They will have a Sequoya (sp)? and a couple Tundras starting in Pomona.

If Toyota wanted to supply tow vehicles for me, I'd take them.

 

[vegasnitro]

Toyota could, in theory, build one hell of a great fuel motor using the knowledge <snip> and apply what has worked to technology that they have from F1.

WOW ... could you imagine ... a fuel motor with pneumatic valves that revs to 19,000!!!

 

[Mooseman]

WOW ... could you imagine ... a fuel motor with pneumatic valves that revs to 19,000!!!

That would sound um how should I put it different

 

[yoda]

That would sound um how should I put it different

Man, if you think those things sound like a pack of angry bees now, picture that sound on pop... What is the sound I'm looking for???

Oh yeah... would probably sound like if you fired every Jr. car in the country at the same place at the same time. In your living room

 

[Nitrohaulic]

Jay... Is anyone stupid enough to build an 8000hp ANYTHING based on a stock powerplant? No- and they don't. Fuel motors are designed and engineered to be the monsters that they are- if Toyota or Volkswagen or anyone else decided to go fuel racing, they would be at the same advantage as any other automaker- they get to start from scratch designing their motor to be just like the 50+ years of nitro racing technology that Chrysler has had a head-start in. Which means, that with enough corporate interest and funding, someone like Toyota could, in theory, build one hell of a great fuel motor using the knowledge that great builders like Alan Johnson and Brad Anderson have obtained over the years of working on HEMI motors, and apply what has worked to technology that they have from F1, Indy and rally motors to come up with what might be a serious challange to HEMI supremacy in drag racing. The only holdback from all that would be the sanctioning body and the availability of huge sums of cash- I wouldn't doubt that the engineering is already there, but those companies just don't have an interest in going somewhere that they haven't been invited yet... THat's why I have to applaud the Titan guys- they are making monster power without the use of nitro, but with the technology that is available to them from the brand that they represent.

I couldn't help this reminding me of Roger Penske doing the same by applying what had been learned in racing to Detroit Diesel. The other manufacturers sat around with their outdated non-electronic designs well past their time, which left the door open for a sound butt kicking in the market, which they got. Trucks went from 5 MPG to 7 with more power.

 

[nhdriver]

Who knows...with Toyota's NASCAR program, it might be just a matter of time before they develop a 500CI for a Pro Stock prgram....

Although I dread the day that happens, Toyota can certainly afford to finance such an undertaking (a 500 inch P/S motor) With Americans shouveling out millions of $$ every year to Japan with every camry they buy. Americans better change there buying habbits before Ford & GM fold up & blow away. IMO Ford, GM & Mopar can & do make some very GOOD cars, if people would just BUY THEM ! I put my money where my mouth is I own a P/T Cruiser & it is a great car!

 

[D]

GM & Ford are multi national companies just like Toyota and and have been for almost a century. They have outsourced good chunks of their production out of the US (351 Windsor anybody?) and will continue to do so. At least Toyota, Honda, Nissan, BMW etc are employing Americans in America. If Ford fails its because it was run by a bunch of greedy incompetent slobs who thought they could dictate to the American buying public instead of listening to it.

S/F
D

 

[nhdriver]

Ford (& G.M.) for that matter were guilty of what you said, but they are tightening their belts & are now making some very good cars. The American public should give them a try.
Ford & G.M. as well as Chrysler are up against a very unfavorable set of operating conditions (caused by Union operating rules) that most of the Japenese companies do not abide by. Not to mention the heavy burden of health care costs to union members & pensioners. That is the main reason for Fords's bleeding. If they go belly up there will be a pension crisis that the average American tax payer will get stuck paying the bill for.

 

[Mooseman]

I was right it does just say whit bazemore with toyota underneath , not powered by toyota thursday_firebird_trip_tim 298

 

[Ron]

And you can bet your booty that, if Toyota built a pure race motor (in NHRA or NASCRAP), it would be outlawed too.
Criminy, we can't even get fuel injection in Pro-Stock. Can you imagine the squawk if ANYBODY put together a 4 valve / quad cam Pro-Stock OR Top Fuel motor.
All the racing groups (rightly or wrongly may be arguable)want to "level the playing field" and PART of that HAS to be a concern for costs.

BTW: We live in a world economy today - like it or not - we have to deal with it and find what we (as a nation) do best in the big marketplace. I'm glad Toyota makes Trucks and Camrys in Tennessee.

Jim, Toyota makes trucks in Indiana and Texas and Camrys are made in Georgetown, Kentucky. Toyota will also build about 100,000 additional Camry's in Indiana at the Subrua plant in LaFayette, In. beginning in the next few months. Not a Toyota made in Tennessee. That would be the home of Nissan cars. Nissan trucks are made in Mississippi.

Toyota did in fact make a pure race motor for Indy Car's a few years ago and now makes V-8 engines for NASCAR truck and car racing. They also make a V-10 for F-1 racing.

 

[yoda]

.. Can you imagine the squawk if ANYBODY put together a 4 valve / quad cam Pro-Stock OR Top Fuel motor.
..

The funniest part of that statement is that the HAS been a quad-cam T/F motor (Gorr with SMALL money and good friends..). A couple of years ago I stopped into the Glendora office to renew my membership, and right in the lobby on display for all to see was a dragster in Lucas Oil livery with the same Quad cammed motor in the framerails.. I thought it was interesting that they had this kind of technology on display in the same place that they had come down with the rule outlawing it

 

[TJ]

Trivia here....anyone remember who was the first to run the quad Mcgee on fuel?

 

[onfire]

Terry................Would that be Leland Kolb? Saw that car in Pomona during the '77 Winters, I believe.

Late.............................Mitch

 

[TJ]

Rod Hynes in a fuel altered.....made a ton of power. I have some pics of Bernstein testing the motor @ Indy in 87 w/out the body on and Armsrtrong felt the motor was the way to go. Made a ton of power but the NHRA prohibited the number of valves to two, I think. Bernstein still has afew of em as does Hynes. McGees now play/build w/ junior dragster motors.

 

[Nitrohaulic]

Jim, Toyota makes trucks in Indiana and Texas and Camrys are made in Georgetown, Kentucky. Toyota will also build about 100,000 additional Camry's in Indiana at the Subrua plant in LaFayette, In. beginning in the next few months. Not a Toyota made in Tennessee. That would be the home of Nissan cars. Nissan trucks are made in Mississippi.

Toyota did in fact make a pure race motor for Indy Car's a few years ago and now makes V-8 engines for NASCAR truck and car racing. They also make a V-10 for F-1 racing.

I wonder if a Toyota and Ford employees in the US both represent the exact same labor costs to either company? The foreign companies must have started building here because they figured the higher labor costs would be offset by not having the cost of shipping from overseas.

 

[Ron]

I wonder if a Toyota and Ford employees in the US both represent the exact same labor costs to either company? The foreign companies must have started building here because they figured the higher labor costs would be offset by not having the cost of shipping from overseas.

I would guess that the labor cost per car/truck is less for Toyota than Ford due to the Ford workers being represented by a union. The Ford workers probably have higher salaries and better medical/dental benefits due to their union contracts. It seems that most of the foreign manufactures that are building new plants are locating in the south to avoid having to deal with a union. Union workers at the 2 Ford plants in Kentucky have offered to help interested Toyota employees in Georgetown, KY get a union in at the local plant. To date they have not had much luck though they keep trying.

 

[Nitrohaulic]

I actually ASSumed that workers for even the foreign plants in this country were UAW.

 

[None]

I don't think it's that great of a compliment in Force's Ford's case. The reason that Ford floppers use the Chrysler design is that NHRA has outlawed the Ford-based motor.

The only reason they use the Chrysler is they work and always have and probably always will in the real world of drag racing. If Ford's new deal comes about, who is going to spend lots of dollars testing them while not winning? Winning is everything.