I've only driven two pickups in my life. That's how much I hate them. Other than the occasional moving transportation, I want nothing to do with them. Even domestic burnout machines wearing SVT or SRT badges don't do it for me (though I must admit I haven't driven either). Physics and trucks just don't mix. I regarded TRD's 400bhp prototype X-Runner with similar disinterest, until I heard it turned handling numbers that are supposedly better than a 350Z. So it was off to the local racetrack to prove Newton wrong.
At last year's annual SEMA show, the newly-reorganized TRD unveiled a fire-breathing concept of the Toyota X-Runner, tagged the TRD X-Runner. Built on the same chassis as the X-Runner, but with a supercharged version of the 1GR-FE four-liter V6, this truck was TRD's way of showing off its engineering expertise, as well as providing Toyota with a temporary 'hero' vehicle until a long-awaited Supra replacement comes.
In addition to this operational show truck, TRD and the Toyota Technical Center (TTC) engineers also built a blue-duct-tape-and-aluminum mule with the same engine, but sporting further chassis, steering and aero-dynamic refinements to make an even more brutish track destroyer.
Augmenting the heart of the TRD X-Runner is a mid-sized Eaton M90 positive displacement supercharger, stuffed between the banks of the stock displacement V6. Internally, 9.2:1 compression custom CP pistons, Carrillo rods and minor machining to the stock crank are all that separate the 400bhp bottom from the stock 10.5:1 Tundra/Tacoma unit. Even the heads and gaskets are kept stock (with the exception of some minor port matching). TRD also custom-ground 214.5- and 212.5-degree duration intake and exhaust cams featuring more lift on the intake side and less on the exhaust. To accommodate this, the lower manifold beneath the supercharger was replaced with a unit that directly bolts to the blower and also features trumpets tuned for boosted flow.