Toyota X-Runner Concept is a Modern Day SVT Lightning (NEEDS to Be Made)
This X-Runner concept was revealed at SEMA 2023 and shows us what a modern Toyota sport truck could look like.
Pickup trucks have evolved over the years and can fill many roles. They can be used as basic work vehicles, luxury family haulers, or rugged off-roaders. But one type of truck seems to have been forgotten: the sport truck. Sport trucks are lowered, powerful, rear-wheel drive machines that put street performance above all else. And they’re, perhaps, best known by Ford’s iconic F-150 SVT Lightnings. (You know, before the Lightning became an EV.) Toyota also offered a sport truck called the X-Runner from 2005 to 2015, which boasted aggressive styling, improved handling, and a unique manual transmission. But it wasn’t exactly fast, given that it used the standard Tacoma V6 as its powerplant.
But that all may be changing if the engineers and designers at Toyota can get enough engagement to bring the X-Runner back in a sportier form. Which is why Toyota’s Calty Design Research just debuted its latest incredible concept at SEMA 2023. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you the X-Runner concept.
Xtra cab with a full 6-foot bed… Twin-turbo Tundra V6 with the new TRD Performance Package upgrade… Tundra brakes… Lowered…. Side-exit exhaust… 21-inch wheels… Michelin Pilot Sport tires…
This is a truck Toyota NEEDS to make. That the world needs to experience.
X-Runner Performance
Under the hood of the X-Runner sits a modified i-FORCE 3.4-liter twin-turbocharged V6 producing 421 horsepower with 479 pound-feet of peak torque. This modified engine will be available in the Tundra in 2024 as part of the TRD Performance Package. “A Tundra solid axle with 4.30:1 final drive and an electronic locking differential splits the torque to the rear wheels, while a custom side exhaust exits just below the rocker panel.” The track width has been increased by over 3 inches and the frame was strengthened. To give the truck the proper stance the Tundra air suspension was used and the upper and lower control arms were modified to match the Tundra’s suspension geometry. (The upper control arm is from the Tundra; the lower is custom.) The springs were stiffened and a set of custom-valved, 2.5-inch Bilstein aluminum bodied shocks with remote reservoirs are at each corner.
A set of custom 21×9.5-inch carbon fiber wheels with forged aluminum centers are wrapped with Michelin Pilot Sport 4 SUV 285/45R21 performance tires.
“There were lots of street trucks in the early 2000s and they all faded, so on the one hand, this was a curiosity check to see if there is any market for street trucks at all, or if the market has entirely shifted to what we see today—tough, rugged, lifted vehicles,” said Adam Rabinowitz chief designer at Toyota’s Calty Design Research, Inc.
X-Runner Exterior Styling
The truck is painted in Speedway Blue as a nod to the original X-Runner that debuted the color when it was introduced at the 2004 Chicago Auto Show. There is also a Matte Black finish on the hood, A-pillars, and roof. Subtle red accents are along the hood lines, scoop, and wheel hubs. In short, it looks fantastic.
X-Runner Interior Styling
Hop inside and the styling changes are more subtle. It retains the standard Tacoma feel but with a more performance-oriented slant. There are custom X-Runner accents and paddle shifters. “There is a Tacoma for everyone, with eight grades in the 2024 Tacoma lineup,” said Mike Tripp, group vice president, Toyota Marketing. “This new X-Runner concept really shows that TRD is about performance, about going fast… It shows the range of the platform and what we could do if we took the Tacoma beyond off-road and everyday capabilities, slammed it, and gave it a little street cred,” Tripp said.
So How Does it Drive?
We don’t know just yet. We spoke at length with Toyota execs about the project (every journalist was drooling over this bright blue turbocharged beast). And it turns out, like many SEMA builds, this was a last-minute project, and some of the parts on this concept are still temporary. As such, they’ve had a little bit of fun, but no track time or any type of measured testing. The goal here, as we understand it, is two-fold. 1) To test the waters on public interest for a two-door hot-rod pickup truck. And 2) to show off the versatility of the TNGA-F platform, which of course the new Tacoma shares with the Tundra, Sequoia, LX, GX, and North American Land Cruiser (aka the Land Cruiser 250). Still, based on this recipe of a smaller truck with more power, a lowered suspension, wider track, and Michelin tires, we have high hopes.
Will Toyota actually stuff a Tundra engine into a Tacoma and will it actually be affordable? We have no idea. But we hope, like the debut of Trailhunter at SEMA 2022, that the X-Runner will return and most of what we see in this concept will reality at a Toyota dealership near you.
Additional Writing & Images: Michael S. Palmer
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