10 Popular Performance Divisions Found In Car Makers

Performance cars are growing in popularity among Kenyan car enthusiasts with a craving for one thing other than looks: speed.

Compared to ordinary vehicles, performance vehicles carry that extra punch such that even the slightest pressure applied to the accelerator turns your vehicle into a rocket bunny speeding down Thika Road before speed guns even have a chance of catching you.

You can buy a car and take it to any number of world-class tuning houses, or you can buy a car that has already been tweaked and tuned by one of the automaker's in-house tuning divisions, giving you an extra edge over your competitors, for example, at a race at the Nyahururu Airstrip.

However, not every automaker has a specific division dedicated to building crazy fast cars, even if it makes high-performance versions of some of its models. You may have, at some point, seen letters such as M, AMG, and TRD among others on performance cars known to turn heads along Kenyan roads.

A Toyota Yaris GR in a showroom in Kenya. /FACEBOOK.CARS WITH BIG BOY TREV

Viral Tea takes a look at performance divisions found among popular sports cars:

STI

Subaru Tecnica International is owned by Subaru’s parent company Fuji Heavy Industries' motorsports division. It was founded in 1988 to promote the company's performance-oriented identity.

Along with British performance outfit Prodrive, which owned the now defunct Ford Performance Vehicles in Australia, it specialises in preparing Subaru cars for the World Rally Championships and producing tuning kits for Subaru road cars including the WRX, Forester and BRZ.

STI was purposed to take over all of Subaru's motorsport activities and participate in the World Rally Championship (WRC). The late Colin McRae won the Safari Rally in 1997 aboard the two-door Subaru Impreza, which is believed to have popularised the Subaru brand across Kenya.

AMG

Taking its names from the initials of its founders, Hans Werner Aufrecht and Erhard Melcher, and their home town of Grossaspach, AMG has added extra performance to Mercedes-Benz vehicles since the 1960s when it modified engines for touring car racing.

Today, AMG is perhaps the most respected high-performance division of any manufacturer, with its products adding extra power, better handling and refinement to cars already renowned for all-around excellence.

BMW M

The “M” stands for “motorsport” – was set up to develop and run the carmaker’s racing program that dominated European touring car championships in the 1960s and ’70s. It was born in May 1972 with just 35 employees as BMW Motorsport.

The first official project was the BMW 3.0 CSL race car and its street-legal homologation special version, but before then special racing models could be found all over the world.

It was incredibly popular, but the first M-badged car was the spectacular but ill-fated M1 supercar revealed in 1978.

The 1979 M535i followed as a high-performance 5 Series, but the legendary 1985 M5 cemented the M badge as a popular pick for car lovers. That was followed by the 1986 M3, which cemented BMW as a performance icon.

The E46 generation followed, and the model M3 became the benchmark of which all compact sports sedans are still judged. BMW now has a full stable of ultra-aggressive M cars and SUVs, not to be confused with the diluted M Sport models.

Toyota Racing Development (TRD)

TRD traces its roots to 1979 when it started off as an aftermarket parts distributor and 'speed shop'.

Other than tuning Toyota and Lexus cars, TRD also backs Toyota's racing interests. It also produces tuning products and accessories, including performance suspension components, superchargers, and wheels, that are offered as accessories on new Toyotas.

These parts can also be bought from Toyota dealers. However, parts for Lexus cars are now labelled as F-Sport while its performance models are labelled F in order to help discern Lexus's F division from TRD.

Currently, two official branches operate under the TRD brand, namely TRD Japan and TRD USA, and each has a tuning division and a race division.

Toyota GR

While Toyota’s history of performance brands is rich (including TRD), a new ‘face’ of performance reigns supreme at the Japanese motoring firm today.

Initially, GR – which stands for Gazoo Racing – took part in the Nürburgring24 Hours in Germany, where Toyota and luxury spin-off Lexus would compete in a bid to develop performance models. Now, it is not only the team name for Toyota’s Le Mans and Rally efforts but also the badge given to numerous performance models, including the reborn Supra.

GR is a known competitor in the World Rally Championship (WRC) Safari Rally, scooping all top 4 positions in the 2022 edition.

It is worth it to note that Chief Justice (CJ) Martha Koome's new Ksh23 million Toyota LandCruiser is part of the GR family.

Nismo