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Australia launches TRD Aurion with 323 HP

Click image for TRD Aurion gallery. Click here and here for more, too.

A year after it was initially shown in Sydney as the Toyota Aurion Sports Concept, and a few months after a closer-to-production version was displayed in Melbourne, Toyota Australia has officially launched the long-awaited TRD Aurion. While TRD-editions of existing Toyota vehicles have been available in many markets over the years, the TRD Aurion is the first vehicle worldwide to be sold as a TRD -- now established as a new, separate brand under Toyota, like AMG is worldwide for Mercedes, and HSV and FPV are for GM and Ford in Australia.

Viewed as a step up from the Toyota Aurion Sportivo in terms of both equipment, appearance, and performance, the TRD Aurion's greatest asset is its Eaton TVS (Twin Vortices Series) Supercharger, which sees its first production car application here. The blower gives the TRD Aurion over 323 horsepower and a torque peak of 296 lb-ft, which is channeled forward via a six-speed automatic with sequential shift. 0-100km/h (62 mph) takes 6.1 seconds, and the car is limited to a top speed of 155 mph. Neither number is particularly earth-shattering compared to other specialty models, but TRD says that the goal was to achieve all-around balance rather than all-out performance. Combined-cycle fuel economy for the TRD Aurion is 21.5 US MPG.

Follow the jump for more, including multiple press releases from Toyota Australia.

[Source: Toyota Australia]

Gallery: 2007 TRD Aurion (AU)


Gallery: 2007 TRD Aurion 3500S (AU)


Gallery: 2007 TRD Aurion 3500SL (AU)



Continue reading Toyota Australia

wow.. im impressed..
i would seriously pick that S version over the Lexus IS-F...

the SL version is not as hot as a regular IS though..

Uhh..what the hell. Even as Toyota/Lexus enthusiast I honestly have never heard of this vehicle before.

I like it though.

323hp on the front wheels???

Fy, Toyota, FY!

^^It's a ricer, what did you expect?

Torque steer anyone ?

The "Aurion" is an Australian only model. Basically it is a Camry with the V6 engine and a different front and rear end styling, with a more luxerious interior, i think other Asian market get this version of the Camry as well, and they are baged Camry, not Aurion. To make things confusing, Toyota Australia also sells the regular Camry as the Camry. Toyota is trying to sell the Aurion as a large car and compete in the large car segment while the exact same sized Camry is competing in the "medium sized" segment.

Typical Toyota marketing.

As for the car, it looks nice, with a good engine but it has no chance against rear wheel drive competitors in the local market.

I see, thanks for filling me in Derek.

Yep.

I presume you're talking about the Monaro and company? If so, I most certainly agree.

No problem Bruce

Offically Toyota is denying that the new Aurion is competing against the likes of the Holden SSV, Ford XR8 or even the HSV and the FPV (check my aussie muscle car thread for more details). Toyota is saying they are aiming at and I quote " “sophisticated” performance cars, such as the Volkswagen Golf R32 and Subaru Liberty GT" This ofcourse is a lie. I cannot see a Golf R32 or the Liberty GT buyer picking up an Aurion TRD.


More info is here Aurion TRD hints at Toyota excitement - drive.com.au

325hp in a front engined car? hell no.

I like it, very much. This what the Lexus IS-f should look like.

323hp and FWD is no good combination, I hope LSD /diff/ is available?

And against any AWD car with less power.

The problem isn't being front engined, its the front wheel drive

Interesting car. U.S. Toyota execs would never try to sell this car here. I'm surprised by the hp number though in a FWD, surely Toyota knows this is a raggedy combination. Then again maybe they've done something different up front suspension/steering wise?

M

Something tells me that this 323-horsepower FWD car will be bought by Australian soccer moms who'll use it to drive from their home down the block to the local grocery store and will on average only use about 75-horsepower out of those 323-horsepower.

Not at all, soccer moms down here cruise around in pointless, massive 4WD as well, I wish they will buy one of these Toyota so at least I can see where i am going on the road without these fat 4WD blocking my vision.

I have no idea what Toyota is thinking when they were developiog the TRD Aurion. The standard Aurion with the 200Kw engine doesn't handle that well when compare to the local sedans, and I really have no idea how 323hp going through the front wheels appear to be a great idea during their initial developing stage. Does anyone know how much torque does the engine produce?

Same here. Except here most SUV's are at least diesel powered.

Ops, made a mistake.

Toyota Australia Suspends Aurion TRD Sales

Toyota has withdrawn its all-new high-performance sports sedan Aurion TRD from the Australian market due to an engine failure of a dealer vehicle. The top version of the Camry based Aurion was developed by Toyota Racing Developments (TRD) and it’s equipped with a supercharged 3.5-litre V6 engine producing 329 Hp (details & pics here). According to Toyota Australia, the incident that sparked the suspension of sales stemmed from a single Aurion that had an issue in the hands of a dealer salesperson. ''The issue appears unrelated to the supercharger or the engine power output. At the moment, we believe this is a one-off issue”, commented Toyota Australia spokesman Mike Breen.

According to Breen, Toyota Australia has circulated about 150 Aurion TRD’s in dealerships or for marketing purposes. ''We expect it will take about two hours per car, and about one week to run through the process,'' Mr Breen says.

''A handful of cars have already gone out to customers, who we believe have no reason to be concerned. If they would like to speak to their Toyota dealer we encourage that and the dealer will take the appropriate steps.''

[Source: Drive.com]

I saw a silver one in the city 2 days ago, it looks and sounds pretty good. It is a shame that after all that testing and design work, the engineers still could not solve the problem. The Aurion TRD runs a new, more efficient supercharger, which does not require an intercooler to get the sufficient power at the engine, maybe that is the problem.

This machine is a dream of ricers & all they care about is showing, instead working ...!

The car has been indefinetly removed from the market because of an supposed engine problem.... thought you'd like to know

TRD Aurion withdrawn from sale - drive.com.au

The prototype engine survived 100 hour of full throttle testing during the development stage, so the Toyota engineers might feel confident about the engine. Even after all these effort, some unknown engine problem still occur.