The manual shift lever is not the only shift lever that disappears from the car. With the market-wide introduction of the electronic parking brake also manual hand brakes are largely gone down in history. Toyota has recently revived the handbrake in an unexpected custom car that was built to drift - or, more accurately, slide.

Toyota team member and Paralympic athlete Jarryd Wallace wanted to offer his father Jeff Wallace a surprise experience on Father's Day. Wallace decided to bring pop to the track and send him on a hot lap with drift specialist Ken Gushi. Interestingly, the chosen car was not a Supra or 86 with rear-wheel drive. Instead, it was an Avalon TRD with front-wheel drive.

The Avalon is a special build. Typically, there are two drink holders in addition to the automatic gearshift, but this Avalon has a custom handbrake. After Gushi's experience, the Avalon slide like a puppy on a rink over the sidewalk.

The 2020 Avalon TRD, the first time that the luxury sedan was treated with the Toyota Racing Development, received numerous improvements from the base vehicle, focusing on driving behavior and driving dynamics. The vehicle was lowered slightly and the underbody struts were padded. It also has sports shocks and lighter 19-inch wheels. Another grunt was added with a catback exhaust.

The only important area where the Avalon TRD was not changed was under the hood. The 3.5-liter V6 with 301 hp, which is combined with an eight-speed gearbox, is available for the models XLE and XSE and was transferred untouched. The sport mode and the shift paddles, however, make for a little fun.

The handbrake will not be available as an option to end users, but it was fun to see what the Avalon can do with it. The 2020 Avalon TRD will be available from August 2019, the Camry TRD from September 2019.
[img]https://1.bp..com/-NVUmDjiz2zs/XQ5AC4A0itI/AAAAAAAACTw/9m5HEAAB1AMZGaURf4ReugYf1i78ON05QCLcBGAs/s320/Avalon%2BTRD.jpg[/img]
http://www.eliancars.com/2019/06/toyota-established-avalon-trd-with.html


cc : Lalasticlala, Marpol