Could a new Supra look like this?
Well, this would make the Toyobaru look like nothing more than an exercise in simple sharing.
If the rumors are true, a new Toyota Supra could be in the works by way of a partnership with a company that knows a thing or two about performance: BMW.
Not to take anything away from the jointly developed Subaru BRZ and Scion FR-S/Toyota GT-86—they are two of my favorite cars on the market today, but a sports car co-developed with BMW would certainly give Toyota another injection of very happy enthusiasts.
Motor Trend has reported on the exciting news, and some of the initial quotes from top Toyota brass look quite promising!
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Before shoes were invented, two guys were walking through the mountains of Tibet. One man turned to the other and said, “I sure wish we could cover the world with leather.”
The other guy paused, looked at his friend, and said, “Or we could just cover our feet.”
It’s a common story, with many variations, but you get the idea.
Rick Woodbury, founder of Commuter Cars and maker of the Tango electric car, wants to apply that logic that to automobiles and change the way the world drives.
I had an opportunity to meet with Rick yesterday and ask him a few questions about the fastest urban car in the world. His company has been around for many years and has seen some success, but a potential deal looms that could catapult his company into the mainstream.
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Mitsubishi G4 Concept
Last year, two car companies in America were on death watch.
Suzuki closed up shop on its North American operations not long after speculation of impending doom began, while Mitsubishi looked to be close behind on the way to the exit.
As we’re closing in on the midway point of 2013, it seems Mitsubishi could be on the verge of a turnaround. The company will need a pretty intense product offensive to lure customers back into showrooms, but a couple new Mitsubishi vehicles coming down the pipe could be just enough to save the brand.
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An almost mythical beast born in Japan had its legend sealed on the streets of the world.
The Acura NSX (sold in other markets as the Honda NSX) proved that Japan could dominate in the world of performance supercars. One could argue that the NSX spawned the Nissan GT-R and even the Lexus LFA. It disappeared from the market in 2005 and has since been the subject of countless rumors of impending return.
The latest news on the return of the beast has it pegged for a 2015 return, a full decade after the car retreated back to where it came from and left many enthusiasts in mourning.
When the NSX does come back, it will be almost unrecognizable compared to its former self. The biggest change, perhaps, will be that it’ll no longer be from Japan.
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Things are going crazy in Sant’Agata, otherwise known as Lamborghini’s hometown.
The Italian automaker just might be going off its rocker. I’m all for a slick white Gallardo or murdered-out black Murcielago, but some recent designs coming from the Raging Bull are leaving a lot of people with dropped jaws and shaking heads.
Lamborghini has always existed on the edge of what is acceptable for automotive design. Stark angles and heavy creases have defined the brand for the last few generations of cars, but that’s recently been taken to a whole new level.
The results of these changes seem to cross the line of cool and wade into the dangerous waters of the comical.
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Inside my car is about the only place left where I can find complete solitude and turn off the outside world if choose. I can either play my Korn albums as loud as I want, listen to NPR if I choose or bask in the glory of silence and a pleasing exhaust note.
As Frank Costanza used to say, it’s my “Serenity now!”
Aside from the outdoor advertising along the roads I travel, when I’m in my car I can be completely free of ads from companies hungry for my money. Soon, though, even the sacred space inside our cars may be fertile ground for new advertising opportunities. One of those could be ads built right into the infotainment systems of new cars.
Want to turn up the air conditioning? Doing so could be brought to you by the good people at Jiffy Lube. Changing a radio station could come courtesy of Allstate.
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I spent the final night of 1989 at a bowling alley. At 12 years old, my parents wanted to make that New Year’s Eve memorable and took my brothers and I midnight bowling.
I remember feeling a sense of awe that the calendar was about to switch the 1990s. It sounded so futuristic and had the potential to be the decade that would bring on the realization of a future I’d seen in the movies. I half expected to see flying cars in the sky on the ride home in those first hours of the 1990s.
Of course, all the 1990s brought us was email, the Internet and Vanilla Ice. Not a single flying car anywhere in the world.
If only the 12-year-old me from 1990 could have seen what Terrafugia has planned in the second decade of the 21st century!
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My 11-year-old son is years ahead of the times regarding police vehicles.
Since he was about 9, he’s been bewildered by the fact that most police cars are old Fords. He can’t quite grasp that those old Crown Victorias have an ample amount of scoot when needed and are pretty darn capable of getting their work done.
Almost every time he sees a police car, he says the same thing:
“Dad, why don’t police drive faster cars? If they all got Veyrons, no one would ever outrun them.”
Budgets seem to be another concept he has yet to grasp.
If he lived in Dubai, though, things would be quite different.
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Admit it—you’d want one
Peer pressure isn’t just for middle schoolers. Apparently, the pressure to follow the path of others never really goes away, and the inability say ”no” can lead to some questionable outcomes. All it takes is a decision from one trendsetter, and pretty soon everyone else is trying to do the same thing.
Today I’m thinking about Porsche as the trendsetter with the Cayenne SUV. Yes, it’s a superior and well-respected vehicle now, but when it was announced there were plenty of people who thought Porsche had gone off the deep end.
Nope. Instead, it spawned a new category of luxury road-going performance SUVs. And now Jaguar wants in.
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I remember the first time I drove a car, I was 13, and I spent hours stalling my dad’s 1984 Toyota Pickup. Over and over we drove around in that circle, my dad refusing to give up on me until I could finally master the art of the manual transmission.
Many of us probably have a similar story (okay, most were probably more gifted and were able to learn how to work the clutch in a matter of minutes, not hours), one of trying and failing until that glorious moment when you get enough (but not too much) gas to the engine and take off for that first time in first gear. It’s a story of pain and struggle, but at the same time it intensely bonded you to the person who taught you an essential life skill, and it ended with sheer joy at the point when you finally mastered the stick shift. Sadly, this experience may not be a common one for much longer.
A right of passage for many a teenager, learning how to drive stick is gradually becoming less and less common, as more and more automakers choose to discontinue production of vehicles with manual transmissions. Just this week, we received the heart-wrenching news that Porsche would no longer produce the 911 Turbo with a manual gearbox. This follows in the footsteps of Ferrari and McLaren, who dropped manual transmissions altogether in recent years, along with Mercedes-Benz and Lamborghini, who have already nixed the necessity on their superstars, the SLS AMG and Aventador. If European makers of supercars can no longer produce fun-to-drive cars with stick shifts, who will?
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