Autoblog

Click above for a high-res gallery of the Lexus LF-A concept.

The writing has been on the wall for some time. Although the Lexus flagship graduated from "concept" to "prototype" when it campaigned in the 24 Hours of Nurburgring, Toyota has refused to even hint at a production date for the V10 supercar. Then Toyota declined to plonk an LF-A silhouette on their Super GT racer, electing to continue with the doomed SC 430 jello mold.

Then news broke that production cars would cost a whopping $225,000, but the LF-A still wouldn't turn a profit. Needless to say, Toyota doesn't like things that are not profitable.

Finally, members of the testing and development crew who have been putting the car though its paces in Germany, as well as test drivers from rival Honda and Nissan crews, have told Autoblog that the LF-A is not destined for the showroom, and will remain only a development platform.

No reasons were given, but we can think of a couple. How many people are willing to part with nigh on a quarter of a million bucks for a Toyota/Lexus? Also, the world's most prolific car maker may not be willing to join the current Nurburgring pissing contest unless it is 100% sure that they can beat the Viper, ZR-1 and perhaps more importantly, the GT-R and upcoming NSX replacement.

Actually, one 'Ring test driver didn't mind going on the record with his opinion. Former Nissan racer, NSX development driver and Nurburgring legend Motoharu "Gan-san" Kurosawa reckons, "Toyota are good at making money, but they're no good at making sports cars."

The picture at right was taken a just a day after the rally legend was killed in a tragic helicopter crash near his home in Lanarkshire. Without prompting, rally fans from across the UK drove to Scotland to hold a memorial in the McRaes' hometown, which quickly filled up with Subarus, most of them WR blue.

One year on, they've gotten organized. Next Saturday, August 30, Colin's dad, Jimmy, will drive his son's famous 555 Impreza out of Lanark and head for Prodrive's factory in Banbury, southern England. By the time he reaches Birmingham he will have 700 Subarus in his mirrors forming an all-wheel-drive parade that's expected to stretch over 10 miles. Then, on Sunday the 31st, another 600 scoobies are set to join the tailback as it heads to Prodrive's test track in Warwickshire. Yep, that's 1,300 cars in a 20 -plus-mile snake, powered by 5,200 horizontally opposed cylinders.

Although official entry to the event is now closed, organizers expect even more Subarus to show up on the day. Details of the route can be found at http://www.mcrae-gathering.co.uk/

Just under a year since the concept was announced, two brand new 2009 Formula Nippon chassis, designed and built by California's Swift Engineering, have gone through shakedown trials at Fuji Speedway. Autoblog spoke to Team Toyota TOM'S Andre Lotterer, one of the first two F'pon pilots to take the radically designed machine out for a spin, to see what he thought of the exceptionally wide single seater.

First off, they seem to be pretty well put together. In an unusual turn of events for a brand new car, nothing broke or fell off during the its first outing in anger. Equally unusual, the new design is almost as quick as the Lola chassis it replaces, and with a few adjustments is destined to be even quicker. That's saying something: Andre has managed to lap Fuji in 1 minute 23 seconds in the 2008 Formula Nippon car, less than 5 seconds off Lewis Hamilton's record of 1:18.7

Although the chassis currently lacks mechanical grip, pitching the car in to crowd pleasing slides in slow corners, Andre reckons that the gigantic 6' 4" wide front wing and sculpted sidepods are generating plenty of downforce, keeping the car planted through higher-speed bends. Unfortunately, those advanced aerodynamics won't be able to prevent incidents such as F1 refugee Yuji Ide's aerobatics at Suzuka earlier this year, and super rookie Kohei Hirate's wince inducing flight into the barriers at Motegi a few weeks ago, but the Swift monocoque is even stronger than the 2008 Lola tub that saved those drivers from serious injury.

Takuma Sato's fans had pretty much given up on seeing their idol on track this past weekend at the British Grand Prix. Many of them had bought plane and/or GP tickets well in advance, only to be disappointed when Super Aguri followed Minardi, and Arrows in to the annals of Formula 1 history just two months ago.

So what did Taku do? Rent a kart track and invite his fans, plus a few select journalists, to race him in a 30-minute endurance race. Some fans, who had flown in from across Europe and of course Japan, were new to karting, so Taku graciously took them out for a few practice laps and providing one-on-one instruction. How many people get to have their first racing lesson from an F1 racer?

Takuma and his team mate won outright (of course), but then were disqualified for "speeding". Autoblog's team was in second right up to the final pitstop when we were penalized for over taking on a yellow flag, but we still made the podium.

As Formula 1's silly season kicks in to high gear, rumors around the paddock have Takuma moving back to Honda's F1 team next year (at the expense of Rubens Barrichello or Jensen Button), driving for Team Force India should the F1 newbies switch from Ferrari to Honda power next year, heading up team Japan in A1 GP or even leading an all new Team Honda USA (which should be called Team Acura surely) with Danica Patrick as his team mate. Unfortunately, Takuma wouldn't confirm or deny any such gossip.

Thanks to Taku management for the invite, to Apex Dream Drives for the pics (and speed) and to Takuma for a great day out.

Click above for a high-res gallery of the 2008 Subaru Exiga.

When we showed you Subaru's new MPV last week your response was pretty much unanimous: man that is fugly. The car's reception on the other side of the Pacific has been a lot warmer though, particularly for the headlights' signature blue flash; the only criticism is that it's taken Subaru way too long to get this car to market.

Make the jump to read our initial impressions of the Subaru Exiga.

Gallery: Subaru Exiga Impressions

Gallery: 2008 Subaru Exiga

Photos Copyright ©2008 Justin Gardiner / Weblogs, Inc.

Hundreds of European GT-R buyers, who have put down large down payments on cars that they won't see until next spring at the earliest, have received a small consolation gift from Nissan: a tape measure.

The highly cool GT-R-embossed little box is to be used to measure their heads, so Nissan will know what sized helmets to prepare for them when they show up for their free lessons in how to extract the best from their new steeds at Silverstone or (where else?) the Nürburgring.

That's one good reason to buy from Nissan, rather than from the numerous grey importers of surprisingly cheap second-hand R35s that are already hitting Japanese websites. Thanks for the tip (and pic) Philippe!

[Source: Autocar]

"Dad, I've totalled the (insert name of first car here)." Chances are that even if you haven't had to use that phrase, you know someone who has. But in an unusual twist, Anthony Hamilton may be making the sheepish call to his son this morning.

Lewis Hamilton's dad has put someone's Carrera GT through a hedge just a couple of hundred meters from the family home in the village of Tewin, just north of London. He's not saying who the Porsche belongs to, but it appears to have German license plates, which unfortunately makes it unlikely that the car belongs to new Swiss immigrant Lewis. That would have made the story so much sweeter.

Follow the jump to The Daily Mail's version of events, but we take the tabloid's assertation that Mr. Hamilton "somehow lost control on a straight road," with a pinch of salt. The road is a sweeping right hander and was greasy at the time of the accident. Given the proximity to the Hamilton home and the GT's reputation for snap over steer, it's pretty easy to imagine what happened. Thanks for the tip Robert!

[Source: The Daily Mail]

Marketing folks at Rover used to boast that the first car most people of the world ever saw was a Land Rover. That's a pretty spurious claim, but anyone who has travelled in Asia will agree that the first vehicle that most of Earth's residents *owned* was and is the venerable Honda Cub.

Fifty years ago, Honda knocked out just 24,000 of the ground breaking mopeds, but last year factories around the world built a whopping 4.7 million of the little blighters and now the 60 millionth Cub has rolled off one of Honda's multiple production lines.

To put things in perspective, 35 million Corollas have been sold to date, 30 million F-Series trucks have left Ford dealers and VW sold a paltry 21.5 million original Beetles. How many of those 60 million Cubs are still putting along is anyone's guess, but having watched The Discovery Channel try to destroy one, we think it's fair to say "most".

[Source: Honda]

When we reported on this SM themed Agent Provocateur Mini Clubman, we took an impossible-to-resist shot at Max Moseley, but now Mini and the AIDS charity Life Ball may be making the most of the FIA president's infamous escape, too. In order to publicize the car's upcoming auction, the black and pink police car has been photographed with, you guessed it, four whip-wielding dominatrixes wearing Gestapo-esque caps... and not a whole lot else. This Dutch website has been diligent enough to post a video of the photoshoot (WARNING: NSFW video).

BMW's contribution to Life Ball is commendable, but seems somewhat odd since the boys from Bavaria were among the first to publicly call for Mr. Moseley's resignation from the FIA following his indiscrete trip to a London SM dungeon.

In a related development, The Times newspaper has revealed that the prostitute who videoed Max's exploits is married to a serving (for now) MI5 officer and as such appears to be genuine agent provocateur, much to the delight of conspiracy theorists and the FIA president's lawyers alike.

[Source: autojunk.nl]

Click above for a gallery of the new Toyota Alphard and Vellfire

Six years after Toyota's luxury minivan, the Alphard, hit Japanese (and a few SE Asian) showrooms, the company has given its flagship people mover a facelift, and a twin brother. Noting that one in four family cars in Japan are minivans but that the outgoing Alphard appealed more to grandfathers than fathers, the second-gen model remains conservatively styled, while a meaner, more aggressive-looking stablemate, the Vellfire (above), is hoped to grab the attention of Japanese family men in their 30s who have erstwhile bought Nissan Elgrands and Honda Elysions.

The new Alphard (shown at right) is longer, wider and roomier than the outgoing version. Its slightly lower roofline (by 45mm) is offset by a cabin floor that's been lowered 55 mm, so the new van actually boasts more cabin height even though it's not quite as tall as its predecessor. Power comes from either a 170 PS (167 hp) 2.4L four or a 280 PS (276 hp) 3.5L V6 driving the front wheels. In August, a 4WD variant will join the lineup.

While Toyota's press release acknowledges that the new models are a bit spacier and safer than the old one, it neatly ignores the fact that the Alphard Hybrid has been quietly dropped. This could well be the first such occurrence for the company and given the number of eggs Toyota currently has in the hybrid basket, its no surprise that its PR department is doing its best to gloss over the retirement.

So, how long until Modellista cooks up an ultra-snazzy Royal Lounge package for the new vans?

Hit the jump for a video of the Alphard in action. Thanks for the tip, Paul!

[Source: Toyota]