Straightline

Photo Illustration by Nick Wilcox

Since rumors are already flying about the possibility of a Toyota FT-86 convertible, we thought we would give you an idea what such a vehicle might look like. Not bad eh?

Supposedly a Toyota official told someone at a Dutch website that the company would build such a vehicle "if there was sufficient demand." Well, given that the FT-86 was the unofficial star of the 2009 Tokyo auto show, we're guessing that an FT-86 convertible would create more than enough demand to justify its existence.

An FT-86 convertible would also do something that an FT-86 coupe probably would not -- that is, lure non-enthusiast buyers who simply want a stylish two-door that gets decent mileage. Makes for a much better business case, and the way Toyota's fortunes are going it could use a few hits.

Autotelegraaf via Autoblog
 

Categories: Convertibles,Coupes,Future Vehicles,Sports Cars,Tokyo Motor Show,Toyota

Just after last week's Tokyo Auto Show, IL News Editor Kelly Toepke had a chance to participate in a roundtable discussion with Honda's new president Takanobu Ito.

He laid out several of Honda's goals in the coming years as well as explaining some of the reasons for his actions so far. Here are some of the most memorable quotes from the conversation.

In response to a question on his expected time line for hydrogen-powered cars:

"My wish, within 10 years. Please tell your government to build more hydrogen stations."

"Hydrogen stations are not being built as fast as we had hoped, so we have to prepare ourselves with battery EVs."

Regarding the cancellation of the NSX:

"I'm the one that stopped that program."

"I personally would love to develop another sports car, but if our wish is to come true we need to overcome two challenges:
1.    Bad economy, need more profit to have freedom to build new cars.
2.    Need to develop new green technologies. One we have an abundance of cash, we will develop a green sports car, not like the car Lexus announced yesterday."

And finally his view of the Acura brand:

"There's a certain level of confusion within the Acura line-up, we're in the midst of a big change. Post-Lehman we dropped the larger-than-V6 engine, and have to adjust to new consumer demands."

Categories: Acura,Auto Industry,Future Vehicles,Honda,Hybrids,Tokyo Motor Show,Trends

Just in case you didn't get your fill of the Lexus LFA last week, here's one more peek at one of its many impressive parts.

This was on display at a supplier booth. It's the LFA's torque tube that connects the engine to the trasnsaxle out back. Looks more than sturdy enough to help harness the power of the car's sick-sounding 4.8-liter V10.

First Drive: 2011 Lexus LFA

Categories: Coupes,Lexus,Luxury Cars,Sports Cars,Tokyo Motor Show

Along with the near-production ready CR-Z hybrid and more pure concepts like the EV-N and Skydeck, Honda also showed off the production version of its new VFR1200 sport touring motorcycle.

It maintains the VFR's V4 engine layout, but adds a substantial bump in displacement along with a throttle by wire system and shaft drive. This VFR is also the first production motorcycle to offer a dual-clutch transmission as an option in place of the standard six-speed manual.

To our eye, this VFR also revealed one more thing: There's still some design talent left at Honda. Hopefully some of that talent will work its way over to the car side of the business.

The CR-Z concept is a pretty good start. Next up - Acura.

Categories: Honda,Tokyo Motor Show

You may have heard the term "automotive supplier" thrown around during all the bankruptcy chaos of the last year, but few actually know what role these companies play in the manufacture of modern automobiles.
 
Take this cutaway of the Lexus GS450h for instance.  Many people would assume that Lexus, or its parent company Toyota, make most of the parts that go into constructing the hybrid SUV. Not quite.

Although Toyota may build core elements like the actual sheetmetal, it's the suppliers that build most of the parts that go into the finished product. This display in the Aisin booth at the Tokyo Auto Show reveals how many parts Aisin supplies for the GS450h. And this is just one of hundreds of suppliers used for this particular vehicle. Yes, building cars is hard.

Categories: Auto Industry,Lexus,Tokyo Motor Show,Toyota

If you go to auto shows, you know that Subaru always parks a rally car at the entrance to its booth. At international shows, it has typically been a WRC car; at U.S. shows, it's a Rally Team USA car.

But now there's no WRC team to promote, so the company had two choices: its Super GT racecar "based on"/"inspired by" the 2010 Subaru Legacy, or the Nurburgring 24 Hours WRX STI. For the Tokyo show, Subaru chose the former (fitting since the Super GT series is run in Japan and Malaysia), though the Nurburgring STI is also at the show.

The Super GT Legacy ran 3 races in 2009 in the 300-hp GT300 class (for reference, the Super GT "Nissan GT-R" competes in the GT500 class where the limit is of course 500 hp). Subaru Tecnica International supplies the turbocharged, 1994cc EJ20 boxer four-cylinder engine for the Legacy GT300, along with a six-speed sequential transmission -- which drives all four wheels, because it's a Subaru, at least in name, so it has Symmetrical All Wheel Drive. The Japanese company R&D Sport designed the chassis for the Super GT Legacy.

The car's racing future is in doubt, though, as Mitsuhiro Matsumoto, director and senior vice president of STI, told journalists, "Participation in Super GT is not yet decided for 2010."

Super GT Legacy specs

More photos of the Super GT Legacy and the 2009 Nurburgring 24 Hours STI after the jump (the latter, incidently, makes its permanent home at the STI Gallery at the Subaru dealership in Mitaka, Japan).

Erin Riches, Senior Editor

Continue reading Super GT Legacy GT300 at the 2009 Tokyo Auto Show.

Categories: Motorsports,Subaru,Tokyo Motor Show

Categories: Future Vehicles,Infiniti,Luxury Cars,Nissan,Sedans,Tokyo Motor Show

Remember Buell? That would be the sportbike division of Harley-Davidson that was shut down last week. Apparently the folks at Harley Japan missed that e-mail.

Ed Hellwig, Senior Editor, Inside Line

Categories: Tokyo Motor Show

Updated at 9 AM PDT -- More Photos

We don't spend a lot of time talking about the Subaru Exiga, because this Japanese-style minivan probably won't ever come to the U.S. It's roomy enough all right (we sat in all three rows today) since it's based on the current Impreza/Legacy architecture, but the rear doors are all hinged and Subaru would rather sell us Tribecas.

Still, there are a couple of interesting specialty Exigas in its booth at the Tokyo auto show. The more eye-catching of the two is the Subaru Exiga 2.0GT tuned by STI. You'll hear people call this the Exiga STI, but it's far less of an STI than the Forester XTI concept shown at last year's SEMA show.

It has zero engine modifications and uses the same 221-hp, 2.0-liter turbocharged boxer-4 as the standard Exiga 2.0GT (the top trim in the range). It also has a five-speed automatic with shift paddles and downshift rev-matching like the U.S.-spec Legacy 3.6R.

The STI part of it comes from the fact that Subaru Tecnica International put on its own springs and dampers, along with a strut tower brace. The wheels are different, too, but still just 17s like the stock alloys. And obviously, there's a body kit and flashier exhaust tips. Although the showcar concept is done up by STI for Tokyo, Subaru plans to put this Exiga into production -- no surprise at all considering there's already a very similar version of the Japanese-spec Legacy 2.5GT wagon.

More worthy of your attention is the Exiga EyeSight technology exhibit, as it has an interesting new safety system that will eventually make it to U.S.-market Subarus. More on this Exiga after the jump.

Continue reading Subaru Exiga 2.0GT Tuned by STI and Exiga EyeSight at the 2009 Tokyo Auto Show.

Categories: Minivans,Subaru,Tokyo Motor Show

It's small. It's red. And it's cool.

This little guy, a Toyota Sports 800, was lurking near the Mazda RX-500 in some kind of confluence of cool.

Not much information on it other than it was shown at the 1977 Tokyo Auto Show and packs a gas-turbine engine. Yeah, like that Chrysler from a decade or so earlier.

There's only 2,200 pounds to move around, but the gas turbine's 30 horsepower means you're timing this sucker to 60 with a sundial.

Jason Kavanagh, Engineering Editor

Categories: Tokyo Motor Show,Toyota

Daihatsu Deca Deca.

It's just plain fun to say, isn't it?

But it's also a clever little microvan full of modern conveniences. Measuring a foot shorter than a Mini Cooper, the Deca Deca looks likes a miniaturized cargo van with a low, flat load floor. Reconfigurable seats swing around to a variety of sitting positions.

A turbocharged 1.3-liter three-cylinder engine drives the front wheels through a CVT.

Doubt that giant flat screen will make it to production, though.

Kelly Toepke, News Editor

Continue reading Daihatsu Deca Deca at the 2009 Tokyo Auto Show.

Categories: Daihatsu,Tokyo Motor Show

Yeah, the LFA is all over the 2009 Tokyo Auto Show. Like a rash, even. But this LFA is irresistible -- it's the one that raced in the 24 Hours of Nurburgring. And it still wears the grit and tire marbles to prove it.

This LFA was shown in Yamaha's booth. After all, that company was largely -- perhaps entirely -- responsible for developing the car's 4.8-liter V10 powerplant for Toyota.

Oh, they had one of those on display, too. Jump with me.

Driving the LFA Racecar on the Nurburgring

Continue reading Lexus LFA Racecar at the 2009 Tokyo Auto Show.

Categories: Lexus,Tokyo Motor Show,Toyota

One man's 2010 Lotus Exige Scura is another man's 2010 Lotus Exige Stealth, particularly if that man lives in Japan. Yep, this is the matte-black Lotus Scura we wrote about earlier this week, except in Japan another manufacturer holds the trademark to "Scura" so it's the Stealth here.

You really can't know just how compelling the matte-black finish is on this car until you walk up and touch it -- and it gives a little. Yes, the the Exige Stealth is soft-touch, because the matte-black is not actual paint. It's rubberized material based on the stuff Lotus normally uses for dash material. The black racing "stripes" are the actual paint, i.e., the car gets painted glossy black at the factory and then the matte material is applied.

"It's five times more resilient to chip than normal paint," Roger Becker, engineering director for Lotus Cars, told us, adding that the star shield appliques applied to the lower bodywork of most U.S.-bound Exiges aren't necessary on the Scura/Stealth.

We reported earlier that Lotus would build only 35 Exige Scura/Stealths (all of them pre-sold), but Becker said demand for the car will necessitate a larger production run. He also told us the U.S. arm of Lotus has taken the opinion that the Exige Scura wouldn't have much appeal to Americans. The car won't be shown at the L.A. auto show in December.

"I totally disagree," Becker told us. "If it was my choice, I would have shown the car in L.A."

So is Becker right to take up the case of the Exige Scura/Stealth? Bear in mind that this Exige 260 Cup-based car could conceivably cost over $10,000 more than the U.S.-spec Exige S 260 ($75K).

More pictures after the jump.

Erin Riches, Senior Editor

Continue reading 2010 Lotus Exige Stealth at 2009 Tokyo Auto Show.

Categories: Lotus,Sports Cars,Tokyo Motor Show

Unlike American automotive executives who travel with bodyguards, handlers and various other hangers-on, Japanese executives are considerably less pretentious, at least the Suzuki ones I saw this week.

During a tour of Suzuki's headquarters in Hamamatsu on Tuesday, we had a meeting with Takashi Nakayama, executive general manager for engineering and a member of the board of directors. Despite his high title, he was dressed in the same uniform as every other employee at the Hamamatsu plant (that's him on the left).

He entered the room unaccompanied and ate a box lunch along with everybody else. The room itself was unremarkable, as was the rest of the "executive floor" which was merely the third floor of a small building next to the factory.

Yesterday, Nakayama gave the presentation at Suzuki's press conference while the rest of the board stood at attention off to the side. Seems normal enough, but if it had been a GM or Chrysler press conference, the entire first row of seats would have been roped off for executives who would have been ushered in at the last moment after taking the time for various photo-ops.

Remember all this the next time you see an American auto executive whining about his government-adjusted compensation package. Trust me, they're doing better than most.

Ed Hellwig, Senior Editor, Inside Line

Categories: Auto Industry,Suzuki,Tokyo Motor Show

So maybe you're not into the exterior design of the 2011 Lexus LFA. Fair enough: It's polarizing at best, a bit anime at worst.

To appease those who might not appreciate the full extent of the LFA's capabilities, Lexus hung this cutaway version of its new supercar near the show stand. Here you can see the beautiful pack of throttle bodies on the V10 engine, the beefy aluminum control arms and monster exhaust system.

Cool stuff, even if you don' t like the way it looks when it's all covered up. More pics after the break.

Ed Hellwig, Senior Editor, Inside Line

Continue reading 2011 Lexus LFA Cutaway Hanging Out in Tokyo.

Categories: Coupes,Future Vehicles,Lexus,Luxury Cars,Sports Cars,Tokyo Motor Show