In October last year, my wife got a new 2024 Toyota Sienna to replace her old, 150k mile 2015 Sienna...but she didn't want to trade or sell the old van. Instead, having seen photos I took of the HART Alabama Hotrodessey at Road Atlanta in June 2023 and the TRD Sienna R-Tuned, she said she wanted to convert her old Sienna into a track van.
With a teenager who will soon get their permit, a wife who hasn't done much tracking before and a thought to not get too silly from the jump, I decided to skew closer to the TRD Sienna SE+ that did the 2016 OLOA. I thought a vehicle that could do HPDE while still being comfortable on the street would be worthwhile if my wife decided HPDE wasn't for her, or decided she liked DE but wanted a more conventional track car.
Ultimately I decided on the following mods:
Silver's NA Neomax coilovers (8k/9k spring rates)
Konig Heliogram 18x9.5 ET25 wheels (stocks were 17x7 ET35)
Conti ECS02 255/40R18 (stocks were 235/60R17)
G-Loc R8 brake pads & Castrol SRF fluid
The Winning Formula in Louisville KY did the suspension install, lowering it 30mm from stock, setting the coilovers about 2/3 full soft and aligning it with -2.0 front and -1.1 rear camber. The wider wheels/tires tuck nicely, though they're 2" shorter than OEM height making the speedo read about 10% high. Removing the middle row of seats, the van weighed 4300lb (no occupants) on a truck stop CAT scale with a full tank of fuel.
The 9.5 wide wheels and 255s tuck quite nicely after the suspension install, though I would not recommend driving the ECS02 in 3" of snow with track pads installed! Talk about an exercise in energy management...
I drove it back/forth to work for a few weeks, then yesterday we were able to get it down to NCM for touring laps to shake it down prior to the DE season starting this spring.
Helmet not required for touring laps, but it makes for cool pictures:
After she did her touring laps, I hopped in and wanted to push things a little bit more
My fast lap was a 2:50.5, which I think is fairly decent for touring laps when I've never driven any FWD on track and I'm trying to figure out just how well this thing does or does not stop. The Sienna R-Tuned used OEM Sienna calipers & rotors with XP12 pads, and the R8s I used were better than I was expecting - I found I was overbraking pretty much everywhere on track. For a 38F overcast day I was also pleasantly surprised at the ECS02s, I used 32psi to start on track and that seemed okay on such a heavy vehicle and I found I could carry more speed than I was expecting into T5 and T16 sweepers. I really didn't experience a ton of dive under braking, and while there obviously was body roll the firmer suspension made everything surprisingly compliant.
I did find I need to turn TC off prior to a session as the outside brake grabbed once I started taking turns with more speed, and I also found there is a significant lag in upshift when shifting in manual/sport mode...but the transmission will upshift itself around 6200rpm regardless. The 2GR-FE didn't complain too much, but I think 5w30 oil may be in its future instead of the standard 0w20 fill.
I've already cleared the van to run with a handful of DE organizations, so we're gonna try to get my wife's first HPDE day scheduled in March or early April. Outcome of that could be "that was fun but I'm good", "that was fun but get me something smaller and lighter", or "let's strip this thing and put better tires on it", who knows....but that's part of doing the adventure together, right?
