Re: Toyota Named Official Car of NHRA
 

Agreed

Re: Toyota Named Official Car of NHRA
 

My question would be, what is Toyota getting for the dollars spent? How can this be a good investment for them? Once they realize what their ROI is will it continue?

Re: Toyota Named Official Car of NHRA
 

Ford already did the math for them. The sum total of zero.

Re: Toyota Named Official Car of NHRA
 

Ford at least had cars racing and they were trying to sell Mustangs. Maybe we're going to have a class for the Prius.

Re: Toyota Named Official Car of NHRA
 

What does toyota get? Exposure and more sheeple believing toyota is an American company. You can't put a price on acceptance.

Whatever, take the yen and use it to promote dragracing...or in nhra's case, take the yen and blow it on booze and women for management.


Another thing to remember, how many TENS OF MILLIONS did toyota throw at nascar to become "one of the clique" shown on tv every weekend??? This would be pocket change in comparison, or change found under the seat cushion..you know..the one that's recalled because it's catching fire...

Re: Toyota Named Official Car of NHRA
 

I think this is aimed for the professional teams. The big three. We all, or most of us love NHRA as a whole, but they forgot where it all started. Sportsman classes are not at the top of the list. It's all about MONEY, like everything else.

Re: Toyota Named Official Car of NHRA
 

What is "an American company?"

Jim

Re: Toyota Named Official Car of NHRA
 

I think that would be a company that's roots are American unlike toilets, Honda,nisson etc.

Re: Toyota Named Official Car of NHRA
 

Get real Harry.In todays world these Japanese companies are just as much American as the former Big Three.Most of their upper level designers are American.The sad part is that corporate profits go back to Japan.It's like the old cliche,if the American cars were the best most Americans would have bought them.

Re: Toyota Named Official Car of NHRA
 

To me, the definition gets murky sometimes. In the 1980s, I drove a Plymouth that was made in Japan. I sold it and got a Honda that was made in Ohio. I now drive a Toyota that is made in Kentucky and has the highest domestic parts content of any car sold in the USA. On the other hand, Chrysler is an Italian company now. GM and Ford made a large part of their revenue in Europe. Buick is a big seller in China - sells four times as many cars in China as in the USA. Ford and GM build cars in Mexico and Canada, as well as the USA.

It gets confusing.

Re: Toyota Named Official Car of NHRA
 

Get real? Not a chance Bozo. If you think their cars are better then ours maybe you should move there.

Re: Toyota Named Official Car of NHRA
 

It's not confusing at all. I start a company and take it worldwide, I make lots of money employing locals at where ever it is fiscally sound to do so. But I am Canadian and my company and profits go back to Canada.

Here's a little bit of history for you;
After ww2 Ford went to Europe (UK specifically) and built cars (they were before but they increased tremendously after) and they way they did it was convincing everyone they were just as british as british/leyland, land rover, jaguar, Austin, etc, etc. Because of this, from the early 60's to mid 80's Ford outsold everything there and guess what? All the "british" companies went under. Mid 80's Ford decided it cost too much to build there so they...moved to germany (deganham) and other European countries that were cheaper to build in.
A little parting shot is Ford bought out Jag, Rover, Bentley, Volvo(ok volvo's not brit but you get the idea)

Fast forward to 90's in NA, toyota starts the big "we're American" push and convinces the sheep that they're an American company because....you guessed it, THEY GOT THE LOCALS TO BUILD because it was fiscally responsible (for several reasons) for them. "it must be American, my brother works there"

So, is VW or Toyota or any car company that has it's ORIGINAL HOME BASE in a foreign country and sends it's profits there "American"? No!

And yes you can buy toyota stock and keep some profit here, but your doing that in spite of the trend, not because of it.

Rants over, but don't try to convince me a company is local just because they opened plant here.

Re: Toyota Named Official Car of NHRA
 

Their cars were better for quite some time. Nowadays, not so much.

Re: Toyota Named Official Car of NHRA
 

Unfortunately, your right. American cars were not the "best" because they didn't have to be.
The criteria was biggest, fastest, flashiest. When people are buying new cars every year or two, who cares how long they last? From the 50's to the 70's there was only competition in those area's. When the imports came here in the early 70's (some in the 60's) they were JUNK! They were not fast, or good ride, or flashy, or big...they were what people who couldn't afford a real car drove.
Enter the 70's gas crunch and guess what? They were good at something the big three weren't..MILAGE. Then when detroit woke up and started getting more efficient, where did the jap cars go to? The only other thing the big three weren't doing, RELIABILITY.

That is why they succeded, they had higher quality and better milage. Detroit was kind of confused, what is this "quality" thing you speak of? LOL!

Now we have quality,milage, power, etc and it's an AMERICAN company. (well ford and gm are anyway)

Re: Toyota Named Official Car of NHRA
 

This pretty much sums it up.

Re: Toyota Named Official Car of NHRA
 

Jag and Rover are now owned by Tata, an Indian company. Bentley has been part of Volkswagen since 1998. Volvo is owned by Geely Automobile of China.

So where does that leave Chrysler? The original home base is Michigan but the profits now go to Italy.

Jim

Re: Toyota Named Official Car of NHRA
 

Tell that to the guy who called me Bozo.
So Harry,who peed in your oatmeal today?

Re: Toyota Named Official Car of NHRA
 

My stepfather bought my mother a Datsun 510 in 1970 while he drove a new SS Nova. I remember him commenting on how straight and perfect the body panels/seams were on the Datsun...he was not one to heap praise on anything without merit.

Re: Toyota Named Official Car of NHRA
 

This is my thinking and ya know what I DONT OWN A CAR THAT IS MADE TODAY! I drive a 100% MADE IN USA DETROIT STEEL 1978 DODGE MONACO with a 318 and a 2 barrel awesome in winter fits 5 or 6 comfortably still reaaaaaallly kooool ALLLLL AMERICAN and gets 20 mpg if you drive it right! THATS BETTER THAN ANY TOYOTY JAP SOAPBOX ANY DAY!!!!!!

https://sp.yimg.com/ib/th?id=H.49478...83192&pid=15.1

https://scontent-a.xx.fbcdn.net/hpho..._8030270_n.jpg

Re: Toyota Named Official Car of NHRA
 

These threads kind of travel in large circles. The car business is a global business for all the big companies. GM makes more cars in China for the Chinese market than they do in the US. The Ford Fusion is built in Mexico. The Toyota Camry is built in Kentucky, the Honda Accord in Ohio and all the companies source parts from all over the world. All the companies are building good cars now, but that hasn't always been the case. The only way the Japanese could sell the amount of cars they do now is because in the 80's and 90's they were building much better products than their US competitors and their market share grew tremendously. Over the years I have owned German, Japanese and American cars and I can truthfully say that my Ford Flex is the best car I have ever owned.

Re: Toyota Named Official Car of NHRA
 

and now because of auction houses like B-J, unaffordable to mere mortals.
Real racers would race a wheelbarrow full of rocks if that's what they had to race.
Government Motors probably can't, Fiat didn't, Ford got what they wanted and doesn't have to. Toyota stepped up.

Re: Toyota Named Official Car of NHRA
 

Please don't confuse me with the facts!

Re: Toyota Named Official Car of NHRA
 

The gas shortage back in the mid seventies opened the door for foreign car makers.I was a Subaru tech for a few years back then and I can tell you their cars were cheap and poorly constructed.However cheap and good fuel economy were excellent selling points.They did work at correcting the manufacturing deficiencies, but moreover they worked at changing the perception of their product just like Toyota and all the other foreign makers.It forever changed the way the American public buys automobiles and the vehicle choices we see today.I'd like to see more cars built along the lines of a Challenger, Mustang or Camaro, but I don't think the market would support it.

Re: Toyota Named Official Car of NHRA
 

I prefer home made and personally hand built cars (Hot Rods & Muscle cars) Yeah the basic building parts are mostly old worn out America stuff but when everything you get done or do yourself is basically an AMERICAN hand built car like your race cars. Blue printed to the max and built by your own hands. I dislike my 2010 Corvette. It is a piece of electronic junk with 11 (eleven&^%$$ computers in it.) My 35 Chev. coupe was better. It had a carb, A/C, power windows, OD automatic trans, NO friggin metric bolts !. It ALWAYS started, rode great, got 26 MPG with a roller cammed 350 Chev. engine and turned more heads that ANYTHING a rich kid could buy today. Keep your new cars. I don't want them except maybe for parts !

Re: Toyota Named Official Car of NHRA
 

Personally it doesn't bother me who there official vehicle comes from. I am glad they have one so our entry fees didn't increase and our payouts did not go down. I'll still get out in the garage and work on my 1974 duster the same!

Re: Toyota Named Official Car of NHRA
 

When Jack Nasser was running Ford he wanted a "Premium Auto Group", guess what he bought to fill it? Or in other words, who did tata buy jag and rover from? Dickhead nasser went on a spending spree and was buying everything he could and after buying various "premium" companies and dumping Billions with a B into them, Ford sold them off between 2006-2008 before the crunch hit for pennys on the dollar. Rover for example, I forget the numbers now but it was like they paid 100 million for it, dumped in a billion, then sold it for 50 million cause nobody was buying. It sucks but they did what they had to do.
Kudo's for Mulally for righting the ship and kudo's for Bill Ford for recognizing that he couldn't run Ford and swallowing his pride by bringing somebody who could in.

Re: Toyota Named Official Car of NHRA
 

http://youtu.be/ZIwz1KlKXP4

And whole lot more good links in the description box. I'd like to sit down with Mulally to pick his brain and also with Ford about how they decided he was the right guy for the job.

Re: Toyota Named Official Car of NHRA
 

Knew Mulally in his previous career, unbelievable leader with charisma, talent and dedication. I'm sure he was a rude surprise to any executive who didn't know his respective business plan and metrics to manage it. He's the kind of leader who inspires his team to their very best or they find the door. Nobody should ever doubt the power of a single dedicated leader and he illustrates that perfectly.

Re: Toyota Named Official Car of NHRA
 

From the outside looking in, there seems to have been a major culture shift within FoMoCo. I would certainly like to be a team member there.

Re: Toyota Named Official Car of NHRA
 

I like Scotts car too...because it's against the norm However, Alex you had my tummy hurting for laughing so hard!!!!

Seriously though, I've been calling out the import lovers to Stock Eliminator for years, and I'm still waiting! If they (to borrow from Toyota's commercials for their pre-owned vehicles), are "the best new cars, make the best used cars", then they must be THE BEST RACE CARS TOO RIGHT? COME ON OUT AND PROVE IT TOYOTA & HONDA, the BIG THREE (FWD OR RWD), ARE WAITING....I WANT TO BE IN THE FIRST RACE IN THE FIRST ROUND AGAINST ONE OF THEM TOO!!!!

Maybe someone is putting one of them together for the Phoenix national/divisional races? If this is true, me and my fwd Janesville, Ws., (more American than any Tundra out on the road), Cavalier are ready and will be at "Wild Horse Pass Motorsports Park" the weekend of the divisional, and I sure hope I get to race against one of them in round one. By the way, I'm still running the engine put together by Verle Stevens for stocker racing 18yrs ago....oh and most of my engines parts were OEM, which means the same parts that the UAW put in my car 28yrs ago, are still working great (as is Verle's excellent job of engine building)!!!! So much for that theory that back in the '80's and '90's the import guys built better quality cars than we Americans did....funny thing is I seldom see any of those so-called better built imports on the roads here in Phoenix, but I sure see a lot of the big Three's products fwd and rwd...go figure!!!