Wow. This thread certainly took off. LMAO.
Guys, seriously, you are going overboard now.
To be fair, The 2AZ seems to be very adept at taking boost. No bullshit there. While IMO it is completely useless to be putting more than 300whp to an FF car, there is no denying that while the AZ engine in my eyes is lacking in stock form, it can be considered a decent base for a tuner engine. Obviously, it is not yet a 3S or 2JZ, but that will come with time. One can only hope the AR is at least as good (if only to pop into the back of a W20
)
Most of Toyota's modern engines have forged cranks, and multi-bolt mains, so virtually all of them are solid. Potential is there for the future.
Conversely, grassroots motorsports brings street cred, not racing heritage, so cut out the bullshit. Racing heritage comes from years at racing in top level motorsports; WRC, F1, LeMans, WTCC, BTCC, GT2/GT1 racing, Dakar, Baja etc. and taking home race wins and/or championship trophies while at it. With few exceptions, Toyota has done that in spades.
Now, I have a lot more dimension to this argument, but seeing as I'm hung over and not in the mood for discourse, I'll leave it at that for now. Maybe I might come back later and elaborate.