In less than a week, Bob Lutz will be joined by a few automotive journalists and a handful of regular Joes at the Monticello Motor Club in New York to race some fast sedans around a fast track to see if anything with four doors can outrun a Cadillac CTS-V. Sounds like fun. But, after reading through the preliminary list of applicants The General has accepted, it's looking more and more like the cards are stacked heavily in GM's favor.
The three participating journalists include Jalopnik's Wes Siler, who will be racing Lutz in a Jaguar XFR; Jack Baruth representing The Truth About Cars and freelancer and New York Times contributor Lawrence Ulrich. We have no idea what the latter two journos will be piloting, but we do know that four private car owners will bring along their personal contenders: a BMW M3, a BMW M5, an Audi RS4 and finally, a, um, Cadillac CTS-V.
According to GM's Cadillac Notes Blog, there's room for a couple more contestants... and we're really hoping that someone (preferably someone with track experience) steps up to the plate with a Porsche Panamera and something with AMG written across the decklid to turn this into a proper sampling of potential spoilers.
The Mazda Sky D diesel and Sky G gasoline engines are meant to bring "everlasting blue sky" to oversee "sustainable Zoom-Zoom." Both utilize low-friction engine blocks, direct injection and piezo-electric injectors. The Sky G is fitted with a "highly functional variable valve timing mechanism," and the Sky D gets a 2-stage turbocharger besides.
Together with technologies such as the Sky Drive 6-speed transmission, i-stop, regenerative braking and lighter vehicles, these lumps will form the core of Mazda's goal of a 30% increase in fuel economy in the coming years.
Toyota has revealed its latest plug-in electric concept car here at the Tokyo Motor Show. The FT-EV II is a followup to the iQ-based FT-EV that we saw in Detroit earlier this year but appears to be a ground-up design that takes advantage of the electric drive architecture. The iQ is promoted as a 3+1 layout because the presence of the steering column and instrument cluster force the driver's seat to be further back – limiting the already small rear seat behind it.
The new concept uses a complete drive-by-wire system with joystick-like controls that feature a steam-punk design motif. The result is wide open space in the front, which conspire with the very thin-shell seats to offer decent room inside. The car also has sliding doors on both sides. It's not known if this concept represents a design direction for an urban BEV that Toyota will likely build to meet ZEV mandates in the next five years, but it would seem to make sense for Toyota to do a custom design such as this.
We were frankly astounded that the prospect of a gutted Tokyo Motor Show didn't get any maker, save one, to trot out some of their historical home runs. Even if they didn't want to go in for a nostalgia-fest, a few brands could have at least peppered the show with some of Japan's seminal machinery. After all, if you're not going to give us anything really new and exciting, you could at least let us have some fun with the past.
But no. The only historic machine at an automaker's booth was a vintage Suzuki Alto near the new Alto Concept. Otherwise, nada. The other vintage machinery – a 1917 Mitsubishi A, a Toyota GT HYBD (a Sports 800 gas-turbine hybrid), and a Honda Accord CVCC – were in the "motor lounge" seating area. A big, fat raspberry is all we have to say to that.
When gas prices spiked and automakers began focusing more attention on fuel efficient cars and crossovers, we began wondering if the pickup truck's best days were behind it. The next big blow came when domestic automakers began postponing or canceling development of light-duty diesel engines for their half-ton trucks. Then, when things were at their bleakest, the Ford F-150 SVT Raptor arrived. The SVT-badged baja bruiser is one serious piece of hardware, with unique Fox struts and 35-inch rubber.
With the overwhelmingly positive reaction that the Raptor has received, we've been wondering if General Motors, Chrysler or even Toyota would follow suit with their own sand monster. After seeing a Camaro video posted by Chevrolet on YouTube, we may have evidence that it's a strong possibility.
The purpose of the video is to showcase several new Camaro graphics packages that will appear at SEMA next month, but anyone can see the pair of pics in the upper right hand corner that show a bad ass green machine dressed up in a bow tie and sporting six-spoke wheels. The hopped-up Silverado is lifted to within an inch of its life with highly flared wheel wells to corral all that rubber, but it's hard to tell if the mods are more for show than actual dune diving.
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.
You meet the greenest people on a Honda. Well, maybe not quite yet... but the World's Largest Motorcycle Manufacturer has signaled its intent to usher in a new era of electrically-powered two-wheelers, and a modern-day Cub seems like an excellent way to do just that.
Honda is showing a conceptual electric Cub as we speak at the Tokyo Motor Show, but strangely isn't letting out very much information about the machine. We know there's an electric motor powering each wheel and some kind of battery pack sitting in between somewhere in the frame rails, but that's about it.
Regardless of how little we know about the EV-Cub, it's a concept we wholeheartedly approve of. We're big fans of the original gas-powered 50cc model, which has been known to return well over 200 miles per gallon in daily use, and a thoroughly modern drivetrain seems like a fitting way to inject some new life into the old Cub.
As far as cars went, the Frankfurt Motor Show was the proverbial glut of riches, and the Tokyo Motor Show proved that you can't live life at the top all the time. Tokyo did, however, still provide plenty of aesthetic beauty, much of which had nothing to do with the automobiles. We won't call it a consolation prize, but it's certainly not something we're upset about.
Have a look at what arguably might have been the finest aspects of the Tokyo Motor Show in the gallery below – and the woman with the stuffed car on her head (it is still Tokyo, after all...). (*Translation: "The beautiful women of Makuhari Messe").
We've been keeping tabs on Rhys Millen Racing and their construction of a V8-powered, mid-engine Hyundai Genesis Coupe for the last few weeks. Called the RM460 Genesis Coupe, this car will make its official debut at SEMA in early November, but we've got the first rendering of the exterior right here for ya.
As we've mentioned before, the engine is the 4.6-liter Tau V8 normally found under the hood of a Hyunda Genesis sedan. The Gen Coupe's rear seat has been tossed to make room, and the V8 has been upgraded with eight individual throttle bodies, a set of JE pistons and an AEM engine management system that all work in concert to bump power to 500 horsepower. In order to make the engine accessible back there, RMR also replaced the trunk lid with a carbon fiber rear hatch that's vented and hinges near the roof line.
Being a SEMA car, there's hardly a bolt or nut on this car that hasn't been modified. The stock transmission was swapped out for a Mendeola five-speed sequential gearbox and the stock suspension augmented by a set of KW coilovers. HRE 560 Series 20-inch wheels, Toyo T1R tires and a StopTech braking system round out the hardware upgrades. The exterior, meanwhile, features an RMR Signature Edition kit with carbon fiber spoilers and custom RM ONYX HD paint job by BASF. The interior sports seats plus alcantara and carbon fiber trim panels from Sparco, and there's a boomin' sound system by Infinity as well.
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Yamaha looks to have channeled a bit of BMW with the Super Tenere concept bike that's currently being displayed at the Tokyo Motor Show. Like the Bavarian automaker's Gina concept, the Super Tenere eschews traditional bodywork for a fabric covering supported by some kind of internal skeletal structure. Naturally, the expected production version for next year will come equipped with real bodywork and a fully functional engine... at least we'd hope so.
That future production model will come equipped with a 1200cc parallel-twin powerplant and will do battle with BMW's range of off-road-ready GS bikes.
