For the past 30 years, Japan has declared a car of the year, an award given to newly released or redesigned vehicles released from November 1st of the previous year to October 1st of the current year. More than 60 jurors composed of Japanese journalists receive an allocation of votes, and the car with the most votes comes away with the crown.
This year the Toyota Prius narrowly edged out the Honda Insight, continuing the recent trend of environmentally-friendly winners. Other notable winners included the new Volkswagen Golf, which was named the Import Car of the Year, the Mitsubishi i-MiEV, which was declared to have the Most Advanced Technology. The Nissan Fairlady Z won the category of Most Fun, and finally the Subaru Legacy took top honors for Best Value.
To celebrate the 30th anniversary of the award, the Tokyo Motor Show also organized a display of past winners, starting with the Mazda Familia 3-door Hatch Back in 1980-1981 and finishing with last year's winner, the Toyota IQ.
Our jaws literally dropped when we spotted this car in the Subaru booth here at the Tokyo Motor Show. The concoction of carbon fiber spoilers, wings and widened fenders seen here is the Legacy B4 GT300 racecar that is set to compete in Japan's Super GT series next year. The car actually made its racing debut at Fuji Speedway last month, and even though previous driveline problems prevented this racer from making an even earlier debut, the B4 GT300 managed 300 trouble-free kilometers to finish a respectable 18th place.
As for specs, the Legacy B4 GT300 features a 2.0-liter turbocharged boxer-four that pumps out more than 300 horsepower. With all-wheel drive, a six-speed sequential transmission, and a curb weight of just over 2800 pounds, we imagine it's an absolute blast to pilot around the track.
Next to the Lexus LFA display at this week's Tokyo Motor Show is a separate room displaying brand-themed art. At first, we didn't bother going in, but we went back here on day two, and we're sure glad we did.
Inside, we found this amazing full-size transparent sculpture of Lexus' new $375,000 LFA supercar that was constructed by Scu Fujimoto, a noted Japanese architect. The sculpture was first displayed at the Milan Design Week earlier this year and is simply stunning to look at. What's most impressive is that details like the seats, instrument panel, engine, suspension, and transaxle can all be seen.
According to Lexus, the sculpture is constructed from transparent acrylic boards that have been sanded and polished.
It would be tempting to call this year's Tokyo Motor Show an entirely domestic affair, but that's not entirely accurate, as a few smaller specialty automakers like Lotus and Alpina took advantage of a surplus of available square footage by nailing down prime floor space for themselves. As a belated addition to the festivities, Caterham, England's merry band of Colin Chapman acolytes marked the occasion with the world debut of its CSR 175.
The new model slots in as a new bottom rung to the CSR franchise, which is paradoxically the marque's premium range. The 175 joins the range's existing trio of variants, the 200 bhp CSR200, the 260bhp CSR260 and the full-house 260 bhp CSR Superlight. If you're paying attention, you can therefore deduce that the new addition possesses 175 bhp. That may not sound like a lot of power, but in a car that weighs as much as an anorexic gnat, we reckon the Ford-sourced 2.3-liter Duratec four-pot will still be plenty entertaining.
Either way, traditional minimalist roadsters like the Se7en have never been about terminal velocity, they've always been predicated on leech-like cornering and giant-kiling acceleration. And given that the 175 shares the CSR family's stiffer spaceframe chassis, updated suspension and refined aerodynamics, Caterham's latest should continue corner like a cat on carpet. And given the vast empty expanses of the stuff here at the show, we'd be tickled if someone handed us the keys for a bit of after-hours fun...
One of the coolest concept cars here at the Tokyo Motor Show isn't even new. In fact, it's almost forty years old. Originally displayed at the Tokyo show in 1970, this Mazda RX-500 Concept features styling similar to the legendary Ferrari 250 GTO Breadvan, gullwing doors that swing forward, and a 491cc rotary engine just behind the seats. Weighing in at just 1873 pounds, the 247-horsepower concept was said to have reached nearly 150 mph on Mazda's test track.
The car was recently restored in partnership with the Hiroshima City Transportation Museum where it has apparently been on display for the last year. Lucky for us, they decided to bring it to the show for us to enjoy as well.
We've always thought that Infiniti's current M35M45 sedan deserved greater consideration from American consumers than it has typically received. With a strong VQ-series powerplant and entertaining rear-wheel drive handling, there has always been a lot to like from behind the wheel, but its restrained styling has seemingly always failed to convey the sort of emotion delivered by the driving experience. Thankfully, judging by its just-introduced Nissan Fuga twin here at the Tokyo Motor Show, anonymous styling figures to be less of an Achilles heel going forward.
Powered in the Japanese market by a pair of VQ-series V6 engines displacing 2.5-liters and 3.7-liters respectively (power figures have not been disclosed), the real emphasis for the next-gen model appears to be on advanced safety and creature comfort technology. We're hoping this focus doesn't result in compromised dynamics, but we are very curious to sample such bits of electronic wizardry as Nissan's "Forest AC" that includes a breeze setting and an aroma atomizer, to say nothing of "Intelligent Pedal," a new system that can actually make braking decisions based on data from the sat-nav unit. In our experience, bearing in mind how often the map data has been wrong in a given vehicle's GPS system, we hope that the system doesn't randomly lock up the binders for a phantom hairpin – especially with someone following a bit too closely behind.
Either way, when the Fuga comes to North America next year, we expect it to once again be powered by either the larger of the two VQ-series V6s or a V8 engine. A hybrid model will hit Japan next autumn, and we hear it's also coming Stateside.
Toyota has rolled out its new Sai hybrid here at the Tokyo Motor Show, and if it looks familiar, that's because you've probably seen something very similar wearing "Lexus" and "HS250h" badges.
The overall aesthetic of the Sai is very similar to that of its premium sibling, but it features different light fixtures front and rear, along with bespoke fascias on both ends as well as a unique hood and trunk lid.
The Nippon-market dedicated gas-electric model utilizes the same 2.4-liter gasoline engine tied to Toyota's latest Hybrid Synergy Drive system, and the luxury compact features things like plant-derived plastics and a radar-based pre-crash safety system.
According to Toyota, "Sai" means "talent" and "coloration" depending on how it is written in Japanese, and the name is meant to combine "advanced talent and multi-color sophistication." Obviously.
The automaker expects 36,000 customers to be wooed by the front-driver's colorful talents each year. No word yet on whether the sedan will cross the Pacific as a more affordable Toyota-badged version of the HS250h.
The concept behind the Suzusho Supasse-V is a good one. Take a lightweight chassis, a Le Mans-inspired body, then stuff it with the turbocharged 2.3-liter inline-4 from the Mazdaspeed3 and a 6-speed transmission. How can that go wrong? Well, we wouldn't say the Supasse-V is a failed attempt at the formula, but it fell short of our expectations from when we first learned about the car a few weeks ago.
In person the Supasse-V looks like...well...a kit car. We don't know why this is a surprise, since Suzusho specializes in Lotus 7 replicas, but the car actually looked pretty good in pictures. Up close we couldn't help but notice the awkwardly shaped and oversized wheel wells or the dated headlight design that always seems to come with kit cars. The interior is spartan but purposeful and reminds us of a Lotus Elise, which isn't necessarily a bad thing. Still, the Supasse-V is far short of cars like the relatively polished Rossion Q1.
![Tokyo 2009: Lexus reveals $375,000 LFA supercar...finally [w/VIDEO]](http://www.niot.net/blog-images/lexus-lfa-tokyo-2009.jpg)
It seems like the Lexus LFA has been around forever. In reality, the first concept version was unveiled at the Detroit Auto Show in 2005, but that's a long time in the automotive world. Additional concepts followed in 2007 and 2008, and the on-off rumors of a production version haven't help. Nevertheless, the production version of the LFA is finally here at the Tokyo Motor Show, and it is glorious. All of which makes it harder to stomach that the car shown here isn't expected to reach customer garages until early 2011.
The specifications of the new rear-drive Lexus supercar are impressive enough: a 4.8-liter V10 with 560 ps (552 bhp), 354 lb-ft torque, a zingy 9,000 rpm redline, six-speed sequential gearbox, 0-62 mph in 3.7 seconds, and a top speed of 202 mph. It looks amazing too, both in pictures and in person.
Of course, we can't help but make comparisons to the current reigning Japanese supercar, the Nissan GT-R. At just 3,263 pounds, the LFA easily has a better power-to-weight ratio, but that hasn't seemed to stop the all-wheel drive juggernaut before. Then there is the small matter of cost to consider. Unlike the GT-R, which is considered a performance bargain, the LFA will be exclusive – and costly. Only 500 units will be produced at a cost of...drum roll please....$375,000. Despite the colossal price tag, we hear that Lexus expects to take a loss on each one.
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There may be a bunch of conspicuously absent automakers missing from this month's Tokyo Motor Show, but the thing about the Japanese show is that a lot of the really neat stuff comes from the hometown guys, anyway. Take Daihatsu, for instance. Rather than try to wow everyone with fairy-dust tech in concepts that will never see the outside of an exhibition hall, The D is keeping things simple, small, and real. Even the concept cars look like they're not that far removed from reality. Let's start there.
The coolest rig at the Daihatsu stand will doubtlessly be the Basket concept, shown above, which lets you get more in touch with nature via a removable hard roof panel and fabric top for the rear seat. We want one. Badly. The Decca Decca concept (shown at right) is described as a "Super Box" by the automaker, with massive swing-out doors on the passenger side that lead to a nifty, multi-configuration interior. The van's driver's side has one standard door only. Aft of that is a solid panel broken up by a high window. Again, very cool.
The e:S concept looks production-ready, and we'd guess something just like it will be in showrooms before long. It's a kei car built on a shortened, existing platform, with a white Mini Cooper-style roof for added flair, plus weight reduction and a stopstart system for increased efficiency. Those three concepts are joined by the Tanto Exe and Exe Custom, which are production-bound, lightweight, restyled variants of the Tanto micro-minivan.
