I never knew I needed a pickup truck—until now

Anyone that knows me knows that I am a high-horsepower, sports car sort of dude.

Trucks, well, pickups, never really entered the equation for me.

I don’t need one, I’ll never use it, and the fuel economy is terrible—something I found out firsthand after I borrowed a new Ford F-150 "EcoBoost" earlier this year.

(I said it then, and I’ll say it now: you can have "eco" or you can have "boost," but not both, and definitely not at the same time.)

But I digress.

I got a truck.

Well, to be honest, Toyota loaned me a Tundra to help me get ready for the 5th annual kartSTART presented by Toyota tour.

Not that I needed it, but since I got it, I figured I might as well use it—and use it I did.

First up was putting 20 go kart engines in the bed.

Now, because the Tundra I'm driving is outfitted with the 8-foot-1 long bed I didn’t even have to stack them.

And with 381 horsepower and 401 lb.-ft. of torque pumping out of the truck's 5.7-litre i-FORCE V8, the Tundra didn't even know they were back there.

Next up was taking our show car (okay, it’s a race car) to Toronto Motorsports Park for a promo day.

The Tundra is decked out with the proper hitch and light hook-ups, but that is not the best part: The rear view camera allows you to back up to the trailer hitch and line it up perfectly.

With 9,800 lbs. of towing capacity, my loaded 24-foot trailer was no problem for the big Tundra to drag along at highway speeds.

And I still drove more than 400 kilometres on a single tank of gas while towing.

The more I drive the Tundra, the more I like it.

I like the big, spacious seats.

I like the big dials on the dash, and I really like the big side- and rearview mirrors, and because I have the double cab, there is plenty of room in the back.

Because it’s a Toyota, safety is at the forefront, and this one has all the safety features you could want, including the Toyota Star Safety System which comes standard on every Scion, Lexus and Toyota.

For instance, it has a driver and passenger airbag supplemental restraint system (SRS),front seat mounted side airbags, driver and front passenger knee airbags, roll-sensing front head/side curtain airbags, and the list goes on.

Some 7,000 kilometres later, a funny thing happened: I was heading out the door to go out to dinner, my everyday car sitting in the driveway next to the Tundra—and I took the Tundra.

Yes, sports car-loving me actually likes to drive it.

This one has all you would ever want in a pickup, including the SR5 Plus package, which takes it from its $39,770 price tag to an MSRP of just over $43,000.

When I look back over the month or so I have had it, something has occurred to me: In the back of the Tundra I have had at some point or another: go kart engines, tents, an atv, tubing, go karts, sheet metal, a generator, a pressure washer, another atv, wood, tires, more tires, boxes of racing suits, 10,000 plastic cups, and one misplaced raccoon.

It turns out I really do need a truck.