Drag racing is definitely not limited to America. My old friend Jim "Godfather of the Pontiac GTO" Wangers has been to Australia, of all places, two or three times, all-expenses paid, just to hang with the street racing crowd, share his stories and visit a track or two. And he always comes back to the US amazed at how many Goats are down-under, modified to RIGHT-HAND drive, which is the law there ... No right hand drive, no registration allowed in Oz. (Toyota's TRD Aurion Pro-FX entry makes some smoke Down Under).
And Wangers has the stories; they began, sort-of officially, when he was a kid and had a photo taken by a newspaper shooter of him "driving" the first Oldsmobile with the Hydra-Matic automatic transmission (a US industry first), all at the 1938 Chicago Auto Show, even then one of the world's biggest. (A magazine ad for the GTO Judge and, lower, a nice example of Tri-Power, 3 two-barrel Rochester carburetors atop Pontiac's 1964 389 cubic inch V8 ... That's about 6.374 liters ... We'll use any excuse to show cool GTO photos; the "new" and already-gone-from-the-US-market 2004 Pontiac GTO was actually from Australia, where it's known as the Holden Monaro, and GM's Bob Lutz thought it'd be a really great idea to export it to the US ... Keep on dreamin', Bob-o!).
So we're happy to present this information about Toyota's Aurion at an Australia test session 
blowing the doors off, so to speak, the competition. The Aurion is essentially a seventh-generation Camry with revised front- and rear-end treatments, along with some interior changes. The Camry-based Aurion is also sold in the majority of East and Southeast Asia as the Toyota Camry, with the original version of the Camry sold alongside the Aurion in the Middle East and Australasia; and in those last two markets, the car replaced the Avalon model, which can trace its roots back to the early 1990s (and you thought selling cars in different countries was an easy gig, huh?). Avalon is also built and sold in the US and is essentially a Camry with about four more inches of legroom for rear seat passengers, and is still what we've always called "the best Lexus you can get for the money".
The following release comes from Tokyo and Japan's Toyota PR staff:
THE ULTIMATE TRD AURION
Toyota unveiled the TRD Aurion Pro-Factory Xtreme (Pro-FX) drag car at Willowbank Raceway in Queensland today ahead of its debut outing at the biggest event in Australian drag racing, the 2008 Winter nationals.
Run by former Australian champion Tony Wedlock and his Ultimate Motorsport team, the TRD Aurion Pro-
FX has a top speed of more than 350km/h (about 220-mph).
Powered by a turbocharged six-cylinder Toyota engine, the TRD Aurion Pro-FX produces 1300kW (about 1,750 horsepower, we think) and launches from 0-100km/h (0 to 62-mph) in less than one second (and that conversion we're pretty darn sure of).
Wedlock will debut the car at this weekend's Australian National Drag Racing Association (ANDRA) Winternationals - the headline event of the 2008 Australian season.
Toyota Australia motorsport manager Todd Connolly said the TRD Aurion Pro-FX perfectly complemented Toyota Australia's new range of performance-bred TRD-branded road cars.
"Toyota is synonymous with quality, durability and reliability, while TRD has added style, passion and performance to our line-up," Connolly said.
"Today's unveiling of the Ultimate Motorsport TRD Aurion Pro-FX takes us to a whole new level - this car has performance and excitement by the bucket-load.
"We are excited to have Tony Wedlock and the Ultimate Motorsport TRD Aurion Pro-FX spearheading our new drag racing program." (Photo - We have no idea who these two guys are; we guess they're the ones named in the release).
Wedlock (Ed. note - Interesting name, eh?), a former Australian Pro Stock Champion, said the car has been designed and built specifically to run in the new Pro-Factory Xtreme (Pro-FX) category, a class aimed at high-performance six-cylinder vehicles.
The experienced national champion said he was looking forward to debuting the TRD Aurion Pro-FX at Australian drag racing's biggest event.
"We are eager to show that as well as good looks, our Ultimate Motorsports TRD Aurion Pro-FX has performance to match," Wedlock said.
"We are looking to push the performance envelope this weekend."
To celebrate the launch of the TRD Aurion Pro-FX, Willowbank is holding the Toyota Drag Racing Legends Race for Charity that will see four legends of the sport face-off in TRD Aurion road cars.
Run over two heats and a final, the event will showcase the credentials of the TRD Aurion over the quarter-mile, while also raising money for the winner's chosen charity. (End Toyota press release).
Click below for more on the Toyota TRD Aurion ...
This info is from LeftLaneNews.com ... (Photos - Aurions in their best Aussie dress, the TRD blower on top the 3.5-L V6, the neat-o boy racer rear deck, which kinda looks like a 1980s Pontiac with all that 'handsome plastic side-cladding,' don't it, and the interior, and, no, we didn't flop a negative, it's just that they drive on that 'other' side down there).
While TRD-editions of select Toyota vehicles have been available in several markets for years, the TRD Aurion is the first vehicle worldwide to be sold as a TRD, now established as a separate brand under Toyota. This is similar to the setup that Mercedes has with AMG worldwide. The Aurion is based on the Toyota Camry.
In addition to the changes in equipment, appearance, and performance from the Toyota Aurion Sportivo (Ed. 
note - Sportivo?), the TRD version also uses an Eaton TVS (Twin Vortices Series) Supercharger, a first for a production car. Power from the street-version TRD Aurion 3.5 liter V6 is rated at 329 horsepower and 295 lb-ft of torque and is delivered to the front wheels via a six-speed automatic transmission. The result is a 6.1 second sprint from 0-62 and a top speed of 155 mph.
The TRD Aurion will compete against the V8 powered Ford Falcon and Holden Commodore (aka Pontiac G8 in the US), with a price starting around $56,990 (about USD$54,348 -- Hey! A rare bargain these days! Someone go to Oz and order me two!).
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