Toyota Racing’s Dream Build Cars Headed to Vegas [2012 SEMA Show]

The SEMA show is all about modifying cars, but usually it is aftermarket tuners or manufacturers who get to have the fun. For the Toyota Racing Dream Build Challenge, Toyota has cut out the middlemen and handed the tools to four of its professional racing drivers to see what monsters they could create. They each choose a car and modified it in their own way. The cars will debut alongside each other at the SEMA show on October 30, and fans will have the opportunity to vote for their favorite car. The winning designer gets a $50,000 check to donate to the charity of their choice. Let’s just see if any of Toyota’s racers have a future in sketching cars.

Antron Brown’s DragQuoia

Coming from a background of Pro Stock motorcycles and Top Fuel dragsters, it’s no surprise that NHRA driver Antron Brown built the fastest car in the Toyota Dream Build, a drag-ready Sequoia dubbed the DragQuoia. Antron’s team started by removing more than 1600 pounds from the SUV, adding monstrous 21.5-inch-wide tires in the back and increasing horsepower to 650 with a TRD-sourced supercharger and nitrous.

The two bucket seats up front and the two bench seats in the rear are tossed in favor of four racing seats, each with their own racing harness. Brown even threw in a fun-sized harness so you can take your kids for quarter-mile runs—one at a time. A full roll cage and rear parachute are added safety measures, and a custom chassis is added to handle the extra stress.

Kyle Busch’s Rowdy Edition Camry

NASCAR driver Kyle Busch took a different approach with his Toyota Camry. Instead of straight-line speed, this Rowdy Edition Camry was created for the track. Detroit Speed & Engineering in Mooresville, North Carolina, supervised by Busch, made the modifications.

A wide-body kit was fitted to the sedan, along with a front splitter, a rear diffuser, and front and rear belly pans; all of which were designed and built specifically for the Rowdy Camry. A true dual exhaust also was installed. The car was done in black, red, and white—the official Rowdy colors—both on the inside and out. (We take this opportunity to point out that in the film Days of Thunder, Tom Cruise’s first nemesis drives a black, red, and white Exxon-sponsored Chevy Lumina. That character’s name was Rowdy Burns.) Black and red leather Lexus IS F bucket seats replace the stock units to add a sportier feel.

Clint Bowyer’s Tekked-Out Prius

Busch’s colleague Clint Bowyer picked the most peculiar car to modify: a Toyota Prius. With the help of RKM Performance Center—also in Mooresville—Bowyer made the Tekked-Out Prius, which, if you can believe it, adds more technology to the Prius’s already tech-heavy environs.

On the inside, a custom 17-inch touch screen with a built-in computer, and two ASUS 12-inch tablets are added. Considering you can’t play with apps on side mirrors, they were replaced by a side-view camera system. A 16-speaker JBL sound system powered by two amplifiers and 45 feet of fiber-optic lighting ensure the greenest and most raucous five-person mobile rave in history. Custom leather and suede upholstery with Electric Blue stitching and German carpeting completes the smorgasbord of an interior. Performance-wise, the Tekked-Out Prius gets racing springs and shocks that bring the hybrid down “lower than a Sprint Cup car,” according to Bowyer.

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• Comparison Tests: 2010 Honda Insight vs. 2010 Toyota Prius, 1998 Chevy Metro
• Instrumented Test: 2012 Toyota Prius C
• First Drive: 2010 Toyota Tundra 4.6 V8

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Alexis DeJoria’s Pre-Runner Tundra

If we had to vote for one of Toyota’s Dream Builders, we’d have to cast our ballot for NHRA Funny Car driver Alexis DeJoria’s Pre-Runner Tundra. The race-ready Pre-Runner, built by Racer Engineering, was designed with the goal of being the best possible off-road vehicle, and much custom fabrication achieves that goal.

The Pre-Runner is motivated by a TRD-supercharged 5.7-liter V-8 that drinks from a custom rear-mounted fuel cell. Custom fabricated long A-arms, trailing arms, and racing shocks allow for 20 inches of wheel travel in front and 24 in the rear. A leather-wrapped roll cage surrounds the driver, and a JBL sound system offers a respite from the conditions this custom Tundra should feel right at home in.

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Bruce Halford Jim Hall Duncan Hamilton Lewis Hamilton David Hampshire