Top Sport Car From Toyota Mega Wallpaper

Nissan GT-R By Tommy Kaira – Carbon Fiber Autobot

Tommy Kaira creates, for the Tokyo Motor Show, an aesthetic package, which seems to prepare Nissan GT-R for the leading role in the next Transformers movie.

Tommy Kaira is one of tuners that like to mess with the magnificent Japanese “toys”, always managing to exploit the aggressive forms of Japanese athletes. For the Tokyo Motor Show, they are preparing some heavyweight stuff, tuning the Nissan GT-R. Initially they only released some teaser sketches of the car, but now we have have the real pictures, technical specifications and prices. 

The front is dominated by a very aggressive bumper, with large intakes and a sharp lip at the bottom made of carbon fiber.The skirts are respecting the carbon fiber theme and assures its continuity in the rear of the car. At the rear we can easily observe the very large carbon fiber “monument”, having the role of a diffuser. The landscape is complemented by four generous exhausts, and above all these, specific for the Japanese models, the rear spoiler plays an important part. The wheels are the AVS Model F15 Platinum with sizes 20 × 9.5 +45 in the front and 20 x 10.5 +25 in the rear.

On the inside, we will find some red leather Recaro seats, with manually sewing finishes.Technical improvements are Quantum Super Sports suspension, Endless MONO6 & 6R braking system, with 390mm brake discs and the titanium exhaust.

The price of this tuning kit is not so low: the aesthetic modifications cost $18,453, $20,031 for the brakes, the suspension costs $6875 and the exhaust is $3806. So it costs just is much as a very competent hot hatch.

Tommi Kaira Makes Toyota Prius More Aggressive?! On The Outside

Making a Prius aggressive is a dead project even before the idea stage. But it seems Tommi Kaira tried to prove us wrong (now look at the tuned Prius). They didn’t. They thought that adding a new front lip spoiler, air intakes and some vertical front lights should do it.

Not one, not two, but four useless exhaust tips

It’s nothing that you can do about a Prius. Maybe if you would change something at the powertrain (which, by the way, they didn’t). But just maybe. We also have a new rear bumper and a quad-pipe exhaust system. What for? Am I  deaf or what? Because I never ever heard something going on when a Prius passed by me, of course, I was on foot, because it’s no other way a Prius can pass you by.

The guys from Tommi Kaira, that in other situations did great things with a cars, lowered the ride hight and put some bigger wheels on the poor Prius and it looks ridiculous. Their bad. They could’ve choose a real car.

The Toyota Prius is not the kind of car you would want to buy, with or without the Tommi Keira bodywork. I see no reason why owing one, not to say more (Leonardo DiCaprio has three, maybe because the trunk is as big as a wallet).

Toyota Sai – A Bigger Prius

Toyota presented pictures of it’s newest hybrid, that now aims towards a wealthier client segment.

Bigger and more luxurious than a Prius, the new Toyota Sai is nothing more than a Lexus HS 250h slightly modified. We have, of course a changed design for the headlights, the front grid the side skirts and the alloy wheels. The interior suffered some changes to: different materials and new gauges.

Technically speaking, the car is powered by a hybrid transmission system, including an electric engine and a thermic one, working based on the Atkinson cycle, both having a total maximum power of 190 hp. The new Toyota Sai features CVT transmission, with a front wheel drive. The car will drop in Japan in December, current year with a starting price of $37,200, the Japanese automaker announcing sales expectation of 3000 units.

2012 Toyota Camry rendering (codename 050A) and speculation

This is a next-generation proposal based on the current Camry package. The goal is to raise Camry’s image as a value alternative of luxury cars. This car features an upscale exterior that expresses power and energy with Japanese overtones.toyota try to differentiate it design from Lexus cars, while animated headlights and horizontal graphics add a sense of width. The proposal of all exterior dimensions are no more than 20mm off the current Camry expect dimention are 4810MM *1825mm * 1470mm (L*W*H*)

the engine  of 2012 Toyota Camry will be the same as 7th generation Camry it will  came with a five-speed manual or five-speed automatic. The 3.5 L 2GR-FE V6 in contrast came with a new six-speed automatic and produces 268 horsepower (200 kW) The Camry will have2.5-liter 2AR-FE 4-cylinder engine mate  with 6-speed transmissions

the car will debute in June 2011 in USA.

NASCAR fines, strips points from four Toyota teams for using unapproved parts

Four Toyota teams have been fined and stripped of points after NASCAR officials confiscated unapproved parts before last weekend's Samsung Mobile 500 at Texas Motor Speedway. The penalties went against the teams featuring drivers Max Papis, Marcos Ambrose, David Reutimann and Martin Truex Jr.

The Camrys of Papis and Ambrose were found with unapproved lower radiator pans during post-qualifying inspection. Series director John Darby considered the pans to be “unapproved ballast weight mounting.” Frank Kerr, crew chief for Ambrose said he'd been using the same pans all season. “We asked when we put it on the car at California if it was OK, and they said it was 'on the edge, but OK, ' ” he said. “There hasn't been any question about the piece until now.”

The long, steel pieces also were installed in an unapproved mounting location. Cal Wells, vice president of Michael Waltrip Racing, which built the cars in question, said there was confusion about what should and should not have been submitted for approval. “There was no intent to do anything [around the rules],” he said.

No matter the intent, the penalties were issued because the radiator pieces were unapproved and provided extra front-end ballast. Crew chiefs Bootie Barker (for Papis) and Kerr (for Ambrose) were each fined $75,000 and placed on probation through Dec. 31. Car owners Robert Germain (No. 13) and Tad Geschickter (No. 47) each lost 50 owner points, and Papis and Ambrose each lost 50 driver points. Rodney Childers, crew chief for Reutimann, and Pat Tryson, crew chief for Truex Jr., were each fined $25,000 and placed on probation until Dec. 31. Neither Reutimann nor Truex Jr. was fined or lost points.

Wells said MWR won't appeal because there's no debating the radiator pans weren't submitted for approval. He said the only issue is whether the pans should have been submitted. “This gives us a clear line of sight on how parts need to be submitted for approval,” he said. “We will work diligently with NASCAR in the future on all new parts to ensure this does not happen to MWR again.”

Geschickter feels the punishments are excessive, but won't appeal. “We understand NASCAR has to police the sport and rule to keep a level playing field,” he said. “We are focusing our energy on turning our season around and winning races with Marcos.”

Grand Prix 2010: Toyota Pro/Celebrity Race never flops [Spoilers]

2010 Long Beach Toyota Pro/Celebrity Race 

The annual Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach just wouldn't be the same without the rough-and-tumble slugfest known as the Toyota Pro/Celebrity Race. Even though the actors, singers, pro athletes and television personalities who compete could probably care less, they have actually been driving safety-modded Scion tC street cars (StopTech brakes, window netting and roll cages) instead of Toyotas ever since the Celica went the way of analog television. No matter, Toyota is still the title sponsor of the whole shebang, even though there are no Toyotas in any of the racing classes tearing up the nearly two-mile street course in downtown Long Beach. Renaming it the "Scion Grand Prix..." just doesn't have the same ring to it anyhow.

The field of celebs in this year's event ran the gamut from TV icons to movie leads to radio hosts to household neverheardofems. The players included Academy Award winner Adrien Brody, 90210 alum Brian Austin Green, sometime Autoblog columnist Adam Carolla, "True Romance" star Christian Slater, singer Jesse McCartney (#11, below), TV-Saab-mechanic and Tick personifier Patrick Warburton, One Life to Live starlet Tika Sumpter, Rules of Engagement star Megyn Price (#3, below), skateboarding guru Tony Hawk and Zach Levi, the guy who plays Chuck on, uh, Chuck.



Vying for the win in the "Pro" category were automatically-bumped-in-class returning Celebrity champion Keanu Reeves (#24 above), CART/Champ legend Jimmy Vasser, everybody's favorite Kiwi Nissan tuner/racer Steve Millen, NHRA racer Marty Nothstein (#21, above), BMX vert rider extraordinaire Jamie Bestwick and Autoblog friend/TV personality/drift champ Tanner Foust. Oh, Southern California Toyota Dealer Chris Ashworth and charity auction winners Jerry Westlund and Dave Pasant were also strapped into a Scion of their own for the 10-lap event.



Qualifying had seen a fair bit of fender banging and tire-wall-testing, but in the end it was Zachary Levi (Car #6 below) on the pole, followed closely by early favorite Brian Austin Green (Car #7) and Adrien Brody in the front pack. The Pros get to start 30 seconds behind the Celebs, with Jimmy Vasser (Car #25) qualifying first overall just ahead of Foust (Car #23), Millen and Nothstein.



Within seconds of the green flag being waved, you could tell it was going to be a great race, as Corolla timed the start perfectly and started building momentum, quickly jumping ahead of Green and Brody and into second. Corolla and Green battled hard early on, but eventually Green moved into the lead, followed by Brody and pole-winner Levi. The racing was intense, if a bit sloppy. Every time the cars rounded the hairpin, you'd swear there was going to be a pileup, with cars being shoved aside like toys on every lap. It looked like the best arcade driving games, where you can bank off a competitor to keep your cornering speed up. The Pros quickly closed the gap on the Celebrities, making traffic even heavier all the way around the circuit.



We can't imagine how Jesse McCartney's voice changed when he went head-on into the tires at Turn 1, but we're guessing it didn't help matters when Chris Ashworth T-boned him as he rounded the semi-blind corner. We don't know if Toyota has a service bulletin on it or not, but it was rather alarming to see Ashworth's tC burst into flames moments after he was extricated from the car.



Up at the sharp end of the field, Tanner Foust pulled a great bump-draft maneuver on leader Jimmy Vasser, the twist here being that Brian Austin Green was the buffer between them. Foust came into the Aquarium Fountain complex rather hot and booted Green ahead and into Vasser's backside, causing Jimmy to get a little squirrely. Vasser reined it in though and never gave back the lead. The tap did allow Tanner to slip past Mr. Fox for second overall, though. BAG held on to claim top celeb honors, meaning he'll have to give up his 30-second head start next year should he demand a rematch. Brody and Levi were just a fraction of a second behind Green, separated by pro-class driver Nothstein, who finished alongside Green at the checkers.



It was a hard-fought win for both gentlemen, and another fun afternoon of adult bumper cars in this 34th running of the Toyota Pro/Celebrity Race in Long Beach. You can catch the whole race for yourself when SPEED airs it on May 1.

FINAL RACE RESULTS

Pos	Class	Name	Laps	Time
1	Pro	Jimmy Vasser	13	27:31.586
2	Pro	Tanner Foust	13	27:32.231
3	Celebrity	Brian Austin Green	13	27:34.563
4	Pro	Marty Nothstein	13	27:34.563
5	Celebrity	Adrien Brody	13	27:37.746
6	Celebrity	Zachary Levi	13	27:37.979
7	Pro	Steve Millen	13	27:38.617
8	Celebrity	Patrick Warburton	13	27:44.142
9	Celebrity	Adam Carolla	13	27:44.225
10	Charity Auction Winner	Dave Pasant	13	27:44.956
11	Pro	Keanu Reeves	13	27:45.651
12	Celebrity	Christian Slater	13	27:46.127
13	Charity Auction Winner	Jerry Westlund	13	27:56.299
14	Celebrity	Tika Sumpter	13	27:57.783
15	Celebrity	Megyn Price	13	27:58.242
16	Celebrity	Jesse McCartney	6	11:10.570
17	North Hollywood Toyota Vice President	Chris Ashworth	6	11:24.403
18	Celebrity	Tony Hawk	6	11:24.432
19	Pro	Jamie Bestwick	2	4:07.377

Toyota Set to Pay $16.4 Million Fine "To Avoid Litigation" on Sticky-Pedals

Today Toyota agreed to pay it's relatively meaninglessly 16.4 million dollar fine regarding its sticky-pedal recall.
Meaningless not only because that the capped fine is less than a drop in the bucket to Toyota (Automotive News reports it will be below 2% of net income for the financial year ending March 31), but also because they're side-stepping all real penalties in relation to the safety debacle they caused.
Without a cap, fines could have been up to $6,000 per vehicle, or $13.8 Billion total.
According to Toyota, "We agreed to this settlement in order to avoid a protracted dispute and possible litigation, as well as to allow us to move forward fully-focused on the steps to strengthen our quality assurance operations. This will allow us to focus on delivering safe, reliable, high quality vehicles for our customers and responding to consumer feedback with honesty and integrity."
Toyota goes on to say they regret the NHTSA's decision to seek the civil penalty, they in no way violated the Safety Act, and that they did not hide any safety defects.
Furthermore, new steps have been taken to make their improve quality assurance operations, including strengthening "information-gathering capabilities to respond more quickly to customer concerns and investigate potential quality issues more aggressively" (no word on how they did that) and appointing a Chief Quality Officer for North America.
U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood disagrees with Toyota a bit, saying, ""I am pleased that Toyota has accepted responsibility for violating its legal obligations to report any defects promptly...By failing to report known safety problems as it is required to do under the law, Toyota put consumers at risk."
Toyota has 30 days to pay the fine, which is expected to be in the form of an electronic transfer.
After that little drop is paid off, Toyota has a couple more problems on its hands: 1) there may have been multiple defects, leading to more than just the one $16.4 million fine, and 2) the 180 lawsuits seeking class-action status and 57 individual suits "claiming injury or deaths" related to the recalls.

2011 Toyota Supra succesor

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Japanese brand is working on a Toyota Supra successor which is to hit the market in 2011. The 2011 Toyota Supra successor will be based on the second version of the Toyota FT-HS concept which will be unveiled at the next Tokyo Auto Show. The 2011 Toyota Supra successor will be the fifth generation model and the rumor says it will also be available as a hybrid.

The 2011 Toyota Supra successor will be rear-wheel-drive with a front engine borrowed from Lexus which will output around 400 hp. The hybrid version of the 2011 Toyota Supra successor will take the engine from the Lexus GS450h which will be coupled with the powertrain from the Japanese version of the Crown Hybrid.

The next version of the Toyota Supra is expected to be premiered at one of next year's auto shows.

Toyota Suspends U.S. Sales of Eight Models Including Camry, Corolla and RAV4 to Deal with Accelerator Pedal Issues

Only a few days after announcing that it would recall approximately 2.3 million vehicles to correct sticking accelerator pedals on specific Toyota Division models, the Japanese automaker said today that it will temporarily suspend sales of eight Toyota vehicles that are on the recall list in the USA. No Lexus or Scion models are included in the sales suspension. The affected Toyota models are listed below:

• 2009-2010 RAV4
• 2009-2010 Corolla
• 2009-2010 Matrix
• 2005-2010 Avalon
• Certain 2007-2010 Camry
• 2010 Highlander
• 2007-2010 Tundra
• 2008-2010 Sequoia

For the record, the Toyota models not affected by the temporary sales halt are the Prius, Tacoma, Sienna, Venza, Solara, Yaris, 4Runner, FJ Cruiser, Land Cruiser and select Camry models, including all Camry hybrids, which will remain for sale.
According to the company, the new sticking accelerator pedal recall is separate from the on-going recall of around 1.7 million Toyota and Lexus vehicles to reduce the risk of pedal entrapment by incorrect or out of place accessory floor mats.
In this latest recall, the Japanese automaker said that it has investigated isolated reports of sticking accelerator pedal mechanisms in certain vehicles even without the presence of floor mats.
According to Toyota, there's a possibility that certain accelerators may, "in rare instances, mechanically stick in a partially depressed position or return slowly to the idle position."
"Helping ensure the safety of our customers and restoring confidence in Toyota are very important to our company," commented Group Vice President and Toyota Division General Manager Bob Carter.
"This action is necessary until a remedy is finalized. We're making every effort to address this situation for our customers as quickly as possible."
Because of the sales halt, the company said that it will stop producing vehicles on certain production lines for the week of February 1. The affected factories are listed below:

--Toyota Motor Manufacturing, Canada (Corolla, Matrix, and RAV4)

--Toyota Motor Manufacturing, Indiana (Sequoia and Highlander)

--Toyota Motor Manufacturing, Kentucky – Line 1 (Camry and Avalon)

--Subaru of Indiana Automotive, Inc. (Camry)

--Toyota Motor Manufacturing, Texas (Tundra)

Toyota Announces Voluntary Safety Recall on 1998-2010 Sienna Minivans

In what is shaping up to be a huge corporate nightmare, Toyota today announced that it will launch yet another voluntary safety recall, this time involving approximately 600,000 first- and second-generation Sienna 2WD minivans sold in the U.S. to address potential corrosion in the spare tire carrier cable.
The Japanese automaker said that the recall affects certain 1998 through 2010 model year Siennas that have been primarily driven in cold climate areas with high road salt use.
Here's how Toyota describes the problem: "Continued prolonged exposure to road salts may cause excessive corrosion of the carrier cable in some of these vehicles. In the worst case, the carrier cable may fail and the spare tire could become separated from the vehicle, a road hazard for following vehicles that increases the likelihood of a crash."
The company said that it is currently working to develop a remedy for this condition adding that until it finds a solution, owners of the affected Sienna minivans will receive an interim notice instructing them to bring their vehicle to a dealership for a preliminary inspection.

Toyota Matrix Rally Sport Concept

As with the 2009 Corolla Sedan, Toyota presented a concept version of the 2009 Matrix at the 2007 SEMA Show in Las Vegas. The Matrix Rally Sport is a racier interpretation of Toyota’s 5-door crossover powered by a supercharged version of the stock 2.4-liter four-cylinder engine. The concept is equipped with a full roll cage, body kit, hood and roof scoops and 19-inch OZ alloy wheels white the stripped out interior features a set of racing bucket seats. -Pictures after the jump