What happened to TRD? Wasn’t it only three years ago that Toyota Racing Development was making bold moves into the aftermarket, expanding beyond its staple of fully warrantied superchargers for cars and trucks with the introduction of Kazuma race parts and a full line of L-Tuned Lexus products?

Then… nothing.

It seems making non-warrantied parts was deemed a bit beyond the Toyota ideology; finding a distribution channel was also tough. And when the TRD-authorized Toyota dealers found out they were being cut out of some business they said, “Hey, what about us?” On top of that, parts development was way behind product introductions, since TRD was never allowed advanced information about coming vehicles.

So in June 2003, TRD became a wholly owned subsidiary of Toyota Motor Sales U.S.A. Inc., specifically part of the Corporate Accessory Department at TMS. That gave TRD access to better resources for engineering, distribution and sales. You can now get your TRD parts delivered overnight to your local Toyota dealer, for instance. TRD engineers have early access to coming products, too, meaning TRD parts will soon be available at the same time as a particular vehicle launches. And everything TRD sells now comes with a factory warranty.

Will this mean the dumbing down of TRD? It doesn’t appear so. The division still makes race engines for the Indy Racing League, Craftsman Truck, Grand-Am, Championship Off-Road Racing and import drag racing, and offers support for SCCA club racing. So it’s still a racing performance business at heart. And the 400-hp TRD Tacoma Concept Truck on the Toyota stand at the Specialty Equipment Market Association show in Las Vegas bodes well for the future of performance products.

“Our focus is to maintain the performance integrity of the brand and not let the lawyers take over,” said TRD business operations manager Gary Boler.

What will that mean for TRD cars and trucks? First, it will likely mean you can get parts for current Toyota cars and trucks instead of the past models represented in the TRD parts lineup now. Best of all, it could mean an AMG/M/SVT-style vehicles.

“That’s what we’re studying right now,” said Brent Craig, TRD’s national manager. “We’re studying whether it would make sense to develop an SVT-type program. We don’t want to launch that type of a program with just one vehicle. It’s all very early with investigation and exploration.”

But don’t worry. You can still get a TRD windshield header decal for your Corolla even if all you have is a TRD shifter ****. That will never change.