Toyota is buying a 240,000-square-foot building in Charlotte on a 124-acre plot of land for part of its NASCAR venture, according to NASCAR sources, who report that car owner Chip Ganassi has already gotten a check for $35 million to crank up a Toyota operation. Toyota officials are pushing NASCAR to OK fuel injection and eliminate the old-fashioned carburetors used on these 358 cubic-inch racing engines for many years. Ford also is pushing for fuel injection, in large part because the company has developed – and patented – a solid-fuel injection system for race cars, a system better than anything General Motors or Dodge has. The GM system has a significant delay when drivers try to get off the gas. NASCAR has been so eager to get Toyota involved in stock-car racing that Detroit manufacturers believe that NASCAR might approve fuel injection.( Winston Salem Journal )(3-1-2003) UPDATE: Toyota Motorsports’ plan to field a team of Tundra’s in the NASCAR Craftsman truck series could lead to a major Charlotte-area facility down the road. And Toyota is stressing the down the road part after a report this week in the Winston-Salem Journal quoted NASCAR officials as saying Toyota had written a $35 million check to open a 240,000-square-foot headquarters on 124 acres here. “There’s no truth to that,” says Les Unger, Toyota national motorsports manager. Toyota is much too busy developing an engine and chassis for the truck’s planned 2004 entry to think about a presence in the country’s racing capital, Unger says. Instead the work will be done at a 60,000-square-foot plant in Costa Mesa, Calif., which employs about 250. A Charlotte-area facility may come later, though, Unger acknowledges. “Maybe after the dust settles in five to seven months, we will look for a facility,” he says.( Charlotte Business Journal )(3-10-2003)
