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Toyota to celebrate rally history at Goodwood

Brett — Sun, 27 Jun 2010 17:06:59 +0000

Toyota Team Europe is to celebrate its World Rally Championship history at this year’s Goodwood Festival of Speed by running three of its WRC championship winning cars on the Goodwood rally course. The three cars are:

The Toyota Celica Twin Cam TA64 Group B car
The Toyota Celica ST185 Group A car
The Toyota Corolla WRC

The 380 bhp Toyota Celica Twin Cam TA64 was the “King of Africa”, dominating the Safari and Ivory Coast rallies with victory at the Safari Rally in 1984, 1985 and 1986, victory at the Ivory Coast Rally in 1983, 1985 and 1986. The Toyota Celica ST185 won consecutive driver’s championships for Carlos Sainz in 1992, Juha Kankkunen in 1993 and Didier Auriol in 1994, as well as the consecutive manufacturer’s championship for Toyota in 1993 and 1994. The Toyota Corolla WRC which helped Toyota win the manufacturer’s championship in 1999.

Sadly, the Toyota Celica GT-Four which won consecutive driver’s championships for Carlos Sainz as well as manufacturer’s championship for Toyota in 1990 and 1991 will not be present.

Also at the Goodwood Festival of Speed will be Gazoo Racing’s Lexus LFA that too the class victory at the recent Nürburgring 24 hours, a prototype Toyota iQ with supercharged engine developed by Toyota Motorsport, Jonny Milner and Adrian Smith’s 600 bhp 2010 Toyota Sprint Series Celica GT4 that will compete in the hillclimb, 2010 Dakar Toyota Land Cruiser, and a 900 bhp Toyota Supera GT from Latin America.

[Source: Toyota]

Lexus LFA supercar to debut at Tokyo

Brett — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 02:32:18 +0000

Toyota Motor Corporation is set to give the production version of the long awaited Lexus LFA supercar its debut at the Tokyo Motor Show later this month. Several concept versions of the LFA have been displayed at the Detroit Auto Show back in 2005, 2007 and 2008 but only 500 units of the LFA will be produced worldwide and will be sold at a hefty $375,000 each! Despite the heavy price tag, Lexus still expects to make a loss on the LFA!

The Lexus LFA will be powered by a newly developed high reving, light weight 4.8-liter V10 engine with the redline at 9,000 rpm! Lexus claims that 90% ofLFA’s torque will be available from 3,700 rpm! The V10 engine will be mated to a six-speed ASG transmission with four driving modes and a seven-stage shift-speed selector. Stopping the car will be high-performance carbon ceramic (CCM) brake discs and an electronically controlled braking system.

2010 Lotus Exige S240

Brett — Sat, 03 Oct 2009 20:31:28 +0000

Lotus has updated the appearance of the Exige S240 for 2010 with a revised front fascia with larger air intakes for better cooling and a new larger, low drag rear wing that reduces drag without reducing aerodynamic performance. The rear wing is from the Lotus Exige GT3 road car concept shown at the Geneva Motor Show in 2007. Mechanically the 2010 Lotus Exige S240 remains identical to the 2009 model with the addition of adjustable Ohlins dampers with remote reservoirs that were previously part of the Track package.

As such, the 1.8-Liter supercharged Lotus-tuned Toyota 2ZZ-GE engine with Intelligent Variable Valve Timing (VVT-i) and proprietary Lotus T4e Engine Control System which includes variable rpm cam switching that powers the Exige S240 has a power output of 240 bhp at 8,000 rpm and 170 ft lbs of peak torque at 5,500 rpm. With the light weight Lotus Exige S240 weighing just 2,077 pounds, the Exige S240 accelerates from 0 to 60 mph in a quick 4.1 seconds and on to a top speed of 150 mph while returning an EPA rated 20 mpg in city driving and 26 mpg in highway driving! As with the 2009 model, the power form the 2010 Exige S240 is transmitted to the rear wheel through an aluminum six-speed manual transmission.

[Source: Lotus]

M-Sport Ford Fiesta S2000 Rally Car

Brett — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 10:27:42 +0000

In April M-Sport announced that it will develop a rally car to conform to the new FIA World Rally Championship (WRC) Super 2000 (S2000) sporting regulations based on the new Ford Fiesta. Now M-Sport has announced that it has began production of the first Ford Fiesta S2000 rally car at M-Sport’s Cumbrian base. The Ford Fiesta S2000 has also been confirmed as the vehicle that Ford will use in the 2011 FIA World Rally Championship.

The S2000 regulations are aimed at reducing costs and encouraging more teams to participate in the WRC and other national rally championships. The S2000 is significantly cheaper than the current WRC cars and are no less spectacular.

Currently there are only two manufactures competing in the WRC – Citroen and Ford, but Toyota, Volkswagen, Peugeot, Skoda, Fiat, Proton, Lada, Suzuki, MG, Renault and Opel already have S2000 cars competing in various national rally championships that have already adopted the S2000 sporting regulations. Skoda has already tested its Fabia S2000 rally cars in various WRC events this year while Kimi Raikkonen recently tested the Fiat Abarth Grande Punto S2000 at the WRC event in Finland at the end of last month. Former WRC stalwarts, Mitsubishi and Subaru might also begin development of S2000 vehicles.

Nissan 200SX Successor?

Brett — Wed, 13 May 2009 23:36:18 +0000

Just a few months ago, amidst the doom and gloom of tumbling car sales, we reported that Nissan put its GT 2012 plan on hold but it seems that things are changing, according to Auto Express anyway. Auto Express is reporting that Nissan is reviving plans for one of the models that fell under the GT 2012 plan, i.e. a new turbocharged 2-Liter 4 cylinder, front-engined, rear-wheel-drive (FR) sportscar to replace the Nissan 200SX (or Nissan Silvia as it was called in Japan) that as discontinued in 1998. According to Auto Express the small sports car will be a rear-wheel-drive two-seater roadster to rival the Mazda MX-5, the Honda CR-Z and the next Toyota MR2.

The still unnamed roadster will be built on the 370Z platform and will take its styling cues from the 370Z and the Nissan Urge concept, which made its world debut at the Detroit Auto Show in 2007. The sports car will be powered a new turbocharged 1.6-liter petrol engine that will feature Nissan’s new Variable Compression Ratio (VCR) Piston Crank System that uses a multilink connecting rod to vary the compression ratio. Under light load conditions, the engine will use a higher compression ratio and low turbo boost for improved thermal efficiency and fuel economy, but under heavy acceleration, the VCR system will shift to a lower compression ratio with higher boost pressure for greater power! According to inside sources, the engine will produce a maximum power in the region of 200 to 225 bhp, enough to propel the car from 0 to 60 mph in 6.5 seconds and on to a top speed of 140 mph, while producing low CO₂ emissions and a fuel economy of around 35 mpg!

According to Auto Express, Nissan hopes to keep the price right around $20,000 and hopes to have the car in dealers’ showrooms by 2011.

[Source: Auto Express]