The world economy’s taking a real toll on car makers and customers alike. And autoshows are caught right in the middle of the crunch.

With sales declining and calls to cut costs increasing, Honda has decided to cancel its appearance at september’s Frankfurt auto show. “Due to the unprecedented market downturn, Honda has come to a conclusion that the company will have to skip its participation to the Frankfurt motor show this year,” the company said in a statement.

Honda has also resorted to dropping out of the F1 circuit as it tries to handle the tough economic conditions of today. I hope the cost cutting’s going to be temporary.

Here is Uei Katsuhiro in his Corolla street drifting or "streeto" as its called. It looks absolutely crazy, as there are quite a few near misses

Out on the dragstrip, one hardly expects the car kicking ass and taking names to be an old ‘72 Datsun 1200. Especially when the losers are driving BMWs, Corvettes and Ferraris. But those guys didn’t get pawned by any ol’ Datsun…this one’s electric!

It seems a bit like a paradox. Drag racing is flame-dipped muscle cars with bikini-clad hood ornaments spread over the hood. Electric cars, not so much. But John “Plasma Boy” Wayland’s White Zombie is a game changer. It goes from 0 to 60 in 3 seconds! In fact, it can take a quarter-mile in 11.46 seconds reaching a top speed of 114 mph - that’s a world record. And it’s street-legal.

The White Zombie is powered by two motors; motors that are usually used to operate forklifts. It’s filled up with over 60 batteries that occupy both the trunk and the back seat. All of this gives the White Zombie about 300 hp, and the ability to beat every combustion engine it comes up against. It takes about 20 minutes to fully charge the car, and it can get up to 40 miles on a full charge.

So how does a ‘72 Datsun knock down a souped up Corvette? Well, electric vehicles have an abundance of torque and they have it all from a standing stop. So they just explode off the starting line. I think it’s safe to say that the future of racing is green.

An interior shot of what looks like a Nissan Siliva, stripped and prepared for drift. Im liking the 2 handbrakes and the battery behind the drivers seat to help the centre of gravity a little.

A major point of owning a hybrid vehicle is, of course, sheer righteousness. They're very helpful in projecting your car’s green credentials with their wind tunnel-inspired jellybean styling.

Even closer to the ideal of a cutie bunny slipper of a vehicle than the second generation Prius was the first Insight: a lithe 2-seater made of aluminum and powered by a one-liter three-cylinder engine with 70 HP. Oh, and an extra 10 HP from an electric motor. Don’t forget that. In fact, if you take a Hamilton Beach Model 1G912 professional bar blender along for the ride, you can up the horsepower figure to 82.

But what if, in the quest for even more power, you swapped all that stuff out and replaced it with something more substantial?

Say, a rev-happy 2-liter K20 Honda engine with VTEC trumpets and 200 HP. This is exactly what the mischievous gremlins of LHT Performance did to produce the Honda K-Sight.

With the Insight’s fantastic drag coefficient of 0.25 guiding all that power through the atmosphere, the K-Sight does 46 miles to the gallon—and you get to look greener than green. Well, red, but you get the idea.

MrLHT of the team had this to say:

 

We stiffened the whole car by welding extra braces, as well as building a complete sub frame, which ties the whole front together, and course the whole thing is aluminum. The mounts are Honda OEM mounts from various Honda Vehicles so the car is very smooth with no teeth chattering. In fact you can’t feel it idle in the driver seat. Now for numbers, with very little tuning the car is making over 200whp with a very quiet exhaust and tied with a JDM 6 speed transmission accelerates like a rocket. The car feels very tight and has great feel due the extra bracing and a custom alignment.

 

A Mitsubishi GTO getting ready for a run at Santa Pod, for the Fast Show 2009

Nissan 350z

  The Nissan 350z is a proper sports car for the everyman. If we had just one sentence to describe the Nissan 350Z, that'd be it. While there are plenty of unobtainable sports cars out there to drool over, the 350Z's relatively compact dimensions, rear-wheel drive, two seats, muscular engine and sharp handling come at a price that real people can actually afford.

The Mugen NSX RR was featured at the Tokyo Auto Salon but NihonCar.com was recently invited by Mugen for a private photo shoot. The car might look impressive but you should be reminded it’s just a show car. And it’ll probably always be just a show car. Unlike other Mugen modifications, this one’s too over the top to be seen on a road anytime soon.

If you haven’t yet visited NihonCar.com, do yourself a favor and check it out. It’s an amazing resource for Japanese car fans.

below are a selection of image i found, of people trying to "tune" there cars. I cant believe some of the things these people have done. The twin turbo back seat is my flaming favourite :)

a nice looking Mazda RX-7 FC, Drifting on 3 wheels