Toyota skunk works.

Your truck might actually have the rear seat space to accommodate them.

 

No rear seats....soo ya....

 

The Big 3 automakers are content selling V8's for now and paying Tesla carbon credits. that won't be sustainable long term if regulations keep getting tighter but for now it makes sense for them to do that.

 

GM has their medium duty line. I looked at some of the GM stuff yesyerday. The new V8 is goong to be fore light duty trucks and SUV.

These vehicles might not be for public consumption. GM moght be able to sell these V8 to PD fleets, government and other commercial fleets exclusively.

 

I’ll admit that MotorTrend threw ice cold water on my “465lb/ft in a Pro” fantasies when they clocked 0-60 at 7.1sec, but I guess that’s what driving around with several hundred pounds of nickel batteries stored under your rear seat will do…

Dumping the batteries & electric motors and just swapping the Tundra’s 3.4TT and 10spd seems appropriate but will never happen. Toyota knows that, which is why for $65-70k they’ll channel sounds through the speakers so you can pretend you’re going really fast.

Sigh….

 

I think Ford also has 6.2 and 7.3 V8's too.

 

Yes they do in the Super Duties 6.2 is now 6.8 I was close to getting a 6.2 6sp 22 RC 250 last year. Sometimes I regret not going that route.

 

... If I had FU money...

 

Car and Driver got a non-Max OR to go 0-60 in 6.8sec, same as a ZR2. If you want a faster mid-size you'll have to get the R Ranger.

 

Pretty cool whenever you can pay less for more performance plus additional storage. But for an extra $3000+ to get into a Max, you gotta really want those modest mpg gains, considering the added weight, complexity, and reduced practicality. I half expected Toyota to bundle hybrid upgrades with features, but that does not look like the case.

 

I don't think it's top line performance or better MPG that drives demand for the hybrid on a Tacoma. It's the additional torque available down low.

 

Torque is definitely critical in a truck. Lack of torque is why the 3rd gen V6 was so terrible.

The non-hybrid 4th gen delivers fantastic low end torque. The truck is effortless to drive.

 

This coming from a NA 4-cyl owner who purposefully picked the worst power-to-weight ratio of any model in Toyota's lineup?

The Nascar Camry still has a V8?

 

I have to agree with you, b/c there’s no other explanation. If our Gen3’s delivered 317 at 1700 we’d be dancing in the streets right now.

As it is, you can get that 317 in the lighter version of the Gen4 vs a heavier Max, w/o any towing penalties, which is usually a key advantage of additional torque. All that extra weight gobbles up the extra 148ft/lb.

Torque-flation.

 

iforce max achieves 465 @1700 according to Toyota, and I honestly don't think it's possible that the marginal additional hybrid weight is going to offset those gains.

 

Does an extra 400lb make a truck feel noticeably slower? Does your current truck feel a lot slower with two passengers?

 

My truck has heavy ass 35s and hundreds of pounds of steel attached. A few hundred pounds doesn't make a dent at this point.

For perspective the Max adds around 45% more torque and less than 10% more weight. Which one do you think wins out?

 

Just thinking, the torque-boost hybrid treatment on the 3rd gen engine would probably be a peach to drive. And it would remain a low stress engine, and could probably even be tweaked to reduce emissions even more.

I really like the idea of Ram's eTorque V6, even in the full size (everything except the Ram part, lol). That would take care of the 3.5's shortcomings in a truck, and should have been a lot cheaper than developing the new 2.4 turbo.

If an NA ICE paired with an electric motor is acceptable for the Rav4, Highlander, and Sienna, I feel like a slightly larger, but similar package would be good for light truck duties.

 

I'm a lot more concerned about the average weight of women.

A buck seventy??? Yikes.

 

The average truck owner nowdays isn't using their trucks for truck stuff. I know plenty of people with expensive full size "Luxury Pickups" that never tow or haul anything, these people are the reason we have $80K pickups loaded down with useless options. What a joke.

The consumer has fucked up the modern day truck market.