The Toyota steamroller is proceeding to flatten the automobile industry. They are selling more and more cars (and trucks). They are the "green car company" too. There are a few cracks in the empire mostly because they aren't really any more green than, most other companies, and they are having more and more recalls. That's a serious chink in the Toyota reliability armor. But did you know that there is one place in the automotive firmament that Toyota is conspicuously unsuccessful? That's racing.
Toyota has been a late-comer to most racing series. In theory that means they should be able to spend money and steal (well maybe "borrow" is a better term) technology from the other racing teams and with the Toyota thoroughness, become serious winners. That just hasn't happened.
I'm a sports car racing enthusiast primarily. Toyota hasn't been really serious at all about that kind of racing. Yes, they did back a few factory teams to race at Le Mans, the most important being 1998 and 1999. That really was a pretty serious effort at the time, some people considering possible winners, but we shouldn't compare their efforts there to other very serious efforts over the years like Porsche, Jaguar, Aston Martin, Ford, Ferrari, and now Audi. Even BMW-powered McLaren cars won twice in 1995 and 1999. Maybe the most significant comparison here is that the only Japanese manufacturer to win Le Mans is Mazda!
They also have never competed at all as a factory effort in the more "stock" versions of sports car racing like Dodge Vipers and Chevrolet Corvettes recently. They both have won their respective classes at Le Mans several times.
Okay you say, Toyota has won the Indy 500. Yes, I agree they have, in fact, however, they have won just once in 2003. They have built engines for many teams between 1997 and 2004. And they have won other IRL (Indy Racing League) races. But the record at Indy shows Honda winning three times (the caveat there is that Honda was the only IRL engine supplier in 2005 and 2006). Perhaps more significant is that GM engines have won 12 times. They were labeled Chevrolet seven times and Oldsmobile five times. Ford engines have won eight times since 1965.
Why wasn't Toyota more successful in IRL racing? That's a good question. I would have to say that they have never acquired the "racing culture" that, for example, Honda and GM have. The European companies have had it in their blood from the beginning of their existence. Japan does have their own multiple racing series, but apparently competing in Japan isn't the same as competing on an international basis.
Speaking of racing on an international basis, what about Formula 1? That series is acknowledged as the premier racing series world-wide -- except in the United States. We have had one of the races (they schedule just one race per country every year) on and off (mostly on) since World War II. It has never got much attention, other than from racing enthusiasts, though.
Today's array of manufacturers in Formula 1 is BMW, Mercedes-Benz, Ferrari, Renault, Toyota, and Honda. Ford (read Jaguar) was a participant for several years, but with no wins. Ford did back the Cosworth V-8 which powered many independent teams to a great many wins in the sixties through eighties.
Honda began developing their first Formula 1 car in 1962 and entered in 1963. This was an amazing and revolutionary approach at the time. The team was entirely Japanese with just the drivers -- and those were Americans! The car used a very high-revving (for the time) V-8 engine. The team achieved their first win in Mexico City in 1965. Using a partial English chassis, they won again in 1966. They competed in 47 races total in that period.
They came back as an engine-only supplier in 1983 and continued to 1992. The V-6 turbo engines were considered to be the most desirable during that period earning Honda six constructor championships and five driver's championships. Honda-powered cars won 71 races total by the end of 1992.
Oddly, from 1993 to 1999 Honda was an engine supplier via their officially unofficial "Mugen Motorsports". This effort was as unsuccessful as the previous years were successful.
The "factory" emerged again as an official engine supplier to the BAR team (one team only this time) in 2000. In 2001 and 2002, they also supplied engines to another team. They purchased 45% of the team in 2004. There were no wins and just one second place in 2004. In 2005, they purchased the rest of the BAR team. Now it is really the Honda team. They achieved their first pole position in Australia this year and celebrated their first win in Hungary two weeks ago. Not bad at all considering the logistical support all the way from Japan, though the team is housed in England.
Toyota, on the other hand, decided they knew everything about Formula 1 racing much like Honda in 1962. They built their own team from scratch in Germany in 2001. They first entered in 2002. During that time they have achieved zero constructors championships, zero drivers' championships, zero race victories, zero fastest laps, just two pole positions, and their best result was fourth in 2005. Believe me, they have spent lots of money on this effort, estimated to be just shy of $100 million a year.
I'd say they weren't as successful as Honda during that time, though certainly Honda has more of a history in Formula 1. On the other hand, look at the "grand dame" of Formula 1 racing during the period of 2002 to the present: Ferrari. They won both the constructor's and driver's championship in 2002, 2003, and 2004 -- and most of the races too. Yes, they have been competing in Formula 1 since the beginning after World War II, and they (Fiat) spends lots of money too.
Perhaps a better comparison to Toyota's Formula 1 effort would be BMW. They entered the series as an engine supplier to the independent team Williams in 2000. Between 2000 and 2005, the team won ten times, and placed 2nd as a constructor twice. That's pretty successful as newbies. With that experience, BMW bought the Sauber team so they would control the whole team, and have not performed very well -- in fact, about the same as Toyota in 2006.
What about other racing series? In the World Rally Championship, Toyota has competed intermittently. Again, this is the domain of the European manufacturers, most recently French. The two Japanese manufacturers who duked it out and won lots of rallys were Mitsubishi and Subaru. It is lots cheaper to compete here than in Formula 1 and the press covers rallys internationally almost as much as Formula 1. The other advantage is that the cars are much more similar to real road cars. Of course, there is even less press coverage of rallys in the U.S. than there is of Formula 1. Video games, however, has made rallying more popular here.
Last, and not least, is NASCAR. I have said in the past that I don't understand why car manufacturers support NASCAR anymore. Nothing about a NASCAR car remotely resembles the production cars they claim to be, and there is absolutely zero new technology in a NASCAR car. The cars use a solid rear axle (just like the Crown Victoria!), carbureted engines (nobody has used a carburetor in a street car for many years), and pushrod V-8 engines. The big players are Chevrolet, Dodge, and Ford. They have competed for many years as the cars became less and less like production cars. They are now quaking in their shoes with Toyota coming to the party. Toyota has competed, with some success, in the lesser truck series with Tundras. At least the trucks look a little like the production versions.
Toyota has said that they will compete in the main feature, the Nextel Cup, in 2007. It will be a "Camry".
I will make my prediction now. Toyota will have some success. They will not, however, be the same steamroller that they are in the production car and truck arena. But, you say, Toyota started producing cars for America in the 1960s and it took them a long time to get to the position they are in now. It will take a long time in racing to get there too. Maybe, but I doubt that Toyota will have the patience for that here in NASCAR or in Formula 1.
