The Final Toyota V8 Will Soon Disappear Forever
It’s the end of an era. The only Toyota vehicle left with a V8 engine is the 2022 Toyota Sequoia. And for 2023, this fullsize SUV is tossing its V8 in favor of a turbocharged V6.
Does Toyota have a V8 engine?
Toyota has been building the same 5.7-liter i-FORCE V8 since 2006 (the 3UR-FE). This engine has powered the Toyota Tundra and Land Cruiser as well as the Lexus LX 570. Today, it’s only available in the Sequoia, and only until the end of 2022.
Toyota’s UR engine family is a series of V8s. They feature die-cast aluminum blocks and heads. Other technology in the URs includes direct-injection and Toyota’s variable valve timing (VVT-i). This engine family began at 4.6-liters before expanding to 5.0 and finally 5.7.
The third generation of the UR family, the 3UR, offers 5.7-liters of displacement. Toyota began to build the engine in 2007 and by 2008, Toyota Racing Development had already engineered a supercharger option. The resulting Toyota Tundra TRD Supercharged was the world’s fastest truck for over a decade.
Does Toyota have a V8 car?
Off the NASCAR track, there is no V8 Toyota car. The closest you can come is the Lexus RC F. But some notable classic Toyotas featured a V8 engine.
NASCAR fans may be a bit confused by Toyota’s lack of a V8 car. This is because Toyota races a V8 “Camry” stock car on the NASCAR Superspeedways. But Toyota’s NASCAR car is simply a spec chassis with the regulation V8 engine built by TRD. This race car’s Camry badge and grille are more a marketing billboard than a representation of the real car.
The closest vehicle to Toyota’s NASCAR Cup car is the automaker’s Lexus RC F coupe. The RWD 2022 RC F boasts the most powerful V8 in Lexus history: a 5.0-liter powerplant rated at 472 horsepower.
Toyota has built V8 cars in the past. For years, Toyota’s top trim Japanese-market sedan was the Toyota Century. For the 1963 model year, Toyota upgraded this four-door luxury car with the company’s first V8–according to AutoEvolution. It was an aluminum block with hemispherical combustion chambers rated for 114 horsepower.
Long live the Toyota V8!
Is this the end of the Toyota V8? We’ll have to wait and see.
The twin-turbocharged V6 that powers every new Toyota Tundra makes more horsepower, and gets much better fuel mileage, than the outgoing V8. Drivers of the 2023 Sequoia will likely love the new Toyota engine. But if Toyota ever decides to build on the Tundra’s success and offer a medium-duty truck–just like Nissan–it will need a new V8.
In addition, the current Toyota Supra leverages a twin-turbocharged I4. Its top-trim engine is a BMW-sourced I6. But if the V8-powered Lexus RC F does well enough, perhaps Toyota will offer the same engine in its Supra version.
