By Jim Brennan

UDMan

Well, day two is off and running here at SEMA, so I thought it would be a great time to show how Toyota set up their booth for SEMA. First of all, there were a few manufacturers that skipped SEMA this year, so floor space opened up. The Toyota Booth was large, almost as large as their space at the major auto shows. They also had some cool custom trucks, and some very curious cars.

Continue reading "The Toyota Booth at SEMA: Cool Trucks, Odd Cars" »

Chris’s burly 2007 Tundra made the show today. Watch for it at the four minute mark!

By Mike Musto

AKA Mr. Angry

This matte black Toyota Tundra short bed was just kinda lurking in back of the Toyota booth. The cool part is that this rig is puting down 625hp… AT THE WHEELS! Talk about a sleeper. These are the kind of vehicles that all of us hot rodders want the manufactures to build. On the inside it’s stock Tundra with some little hot rod touches. A triple gauge pod, big ole’ tach and fire extinguisher keep the go fast theme in check while the steels wheels make the its appearance a little more old skool authentic.

Continue reading "Tough Tundra in the SEMA Toyota Booth" »

This burly Tundra will appear alongside the Bentley, GTR, EVO and Studebaker in the Toyo booth at SEMA. Full details from Toyo after the jump.

Continue reading "Toyota Tundra CrewMax SR5 to Appear in Toyo Booth at SEMA" »

The Silverado beat the Tundra by a 3 to 1 margin in our latest Showroom Showdown. That means it gets to face the Ram in our "final" full size truck match up. We’ll hold that next week, so stay tuned.

We’ve have two full size truck Showroom Showdowns (Ram vs F150 and Ram vs. Titan) and the Ram won both. So this showdown will determine which truck we put up against the mighty Dodge in the final round. The Tundra hasn’t gotten a lot of good press recently, and Silverados outnumber Tundras 10 to 1 on CarDomain, so I’m assuming this may be a lopsided contest. But let’s give it a try anyway. So, which would you choose, the Tundra or the Silverado?

A note on the photos. I’ve been trying to use photos from the manufacturer’s sites. Chevy mostly had glam shots of their 4×4 trucks and Toyota had grittier "work" shots of their 4 x 2 trucks. But for the purpose of this showdown, assume you are comparing two similarly priced and equipped trucks.

Seattle is supposed to have clear weather for the weekend. That almost makes me not want to spend so much time inside drinking. Almost. Anyway, here’s the news:

• Toyota was once poised for total global domination, but the Tundra hasn’t really delivered, and for the last two months, Ford has outsold the Japanese heavyweight. This could get interesting. Auto Observer
• Audi is going to be the official car for this year’s Isle of Man TT race. Notice they aren’t calling it a "safety car." There’s nothing safe about this incredible event. World Car Fans
• American Axle is telling it’s suppliers to be ready to rock, but it’s unclear as to whether we’ll see an end to the strike or replacement workers hitting the line. Will this ever end? Automotive News
• In other news, the General is facing a revolt from some of its troops. Two factories are ready to strike, and since one makes the Malibu, it’s making things pretty tense. Freep

Since this Tundra ad is obviously a plug for an individual dealer, it kind of made me wonder if the Toyota brass has veto power over the kinds of spots its affiliates can air. And then I wondered if the powers that be had seen this yet. Because while potty-mouthed editors—like yours truly—may find substituting truck for the world’s best curse word to be pretty funny, I imagine there are plenty of more conservative folks who don’t. Of course, as funny as this is, it still doesn’t have anything on the fictitious—and expletive-laden—ad for Big Jim Hell’s Cars.

Talk about a recovery! After getting pushed into a pretty nasty cartwheel, driver Johnny Greaves gets back in the race—and even manages to finish in the top ten! While some of the credit for the save surely goes to his bullet-proof Toyota Tundra, watch how Greaves coolly looks out the window to check for traffic just before the truck rights itself. Just a walk in the park, huh, man?

• Premium car audio manufacturer Focal gave us the scoop on their new Solid Series amplifiers. These mid-level amplifiers offer great flexibility, small footprints, and uber-clean sound quality. The plain-Jane design is great for flush-mounting, and the amps are available in Wrinkle Black or Wrinkle Red. SoundDomain is the first place you’ll see these audiophile amps, so make sure to check them out and let us know what you think! One thing to point out, Focal’s parent company, home audio manufacturer JM Labs, has a home speaker that sells for over $35,000 EACH. These guys know what they’re doing when it comes to offering the best of the best. What’s in your ride?
• Team Hybrids member Dave Brooks is a World Champion car audio competitor, and last year won the MECA Modex Division National Championship, earned the title of IASCA’s Rookie World Champion, and took first place in the Sound Quality Championship. Dave’s sponsor, Hybrid Audio also wanted to congratulate him for recently achieving the rank of Chief Master Sergeant, and is now the highest ranking enlisted serviceman in the USAF. Congrats to Dave!
• We’ve got another video from Scosche live on the site. In this episode Trevor Kaplan walks you through their iPod auxiliary input for the Toyota Tundra. The AXIPTA interface is extremely easy to use and seamlessly interfaces with the factory radio almost like it was just meant to be.
• Microsoft and Alpine just inked a deal to share technology and patents. This shoudl be a pretty cool partnership since Alpine is pretty much the #1 car audio manufacturer, and Microsoft is the world dominator when it comes to software and their new Sync system is just SICK!