The Toyota Auris was a good success both in Japan and in Europe and it wouldn’t surprise anyone if Toyota is planning to propose a little facelift to their Auris as well as an Hybrid version in addition to the actual line-up.
And to be very honest with you, this Auris HSD Concept, an Hybrid vehicle with its Solar panel sky roof (great idea by the way), is just a step away from the final production.
The Auris HSD Concept, will be powered by a 1.8 Liter four-cylinder engine plugged with Toyota’s state of the art Hybrid Synergy Drive technology.
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Gazoo Racing who's working on the Lexus LF-A while racing at the Nurbugring, today announced a tuned iQ, the iQ GAZOO Racing MN, where M stands for Master and N for Nurburgring…
The little Gazoo Racing iQ will be sold in Japan starting November 13th and will be limited to only 100 units. While Gazoo Racing didn't tweak or improve the engine, they worked on some basics like adding reinforced brace to improve both cornering and straight away stability, added a sport suspension kit, improved breaking disk and pad, new aluminum wheels, rear spoiler while dropping the CVT for a 6 speed manual gear box.
For those not familiar with Toyota’s Camry-sized RWD sedan, the Mark X continued the family lineage established by the much loved Mark II and brought with it a higher level of refinement and quality. For Mark II owners wishing to upgrade to the Mark X though, a big disappointment was the disappearance of turbo and manual gearbox options.
Well the new Mark X will continue in the previous car’s mould and not offer a turbo charged engine. There was talk of the new 2010 Mark X going up head to head with Subaru’s Legacy B4 2.5 GT with a turbo model but we’re now told that won’t be the case
and only 2.5L and 3.5L V6 engines will be available with the 3.5L replacing the smaller 3.0L V6 in the current car. The design of the exterior is said to be less agressive and it will also offer a higher quality interior. While the platform will be a modified version of the current car’s underpinnings and offering 4WD as well as RWD, it is also expected to be a “world car” being offered for sale in major markets outside Japan.
Road&Track: We’ve reported on this before, but we now have stronger evidence than ever that Toyota is getting back into the affordable sports-coupe game with an all-new model priced at around $20,000–$25,000. This front-engine/rear-drive 2-door will reincarnate the spirit of the 1983–1987 Corolla Levin/Trueno (AE86), a car that’s still popular today, especially among drift enthusiasts. According to our friends at Best Car magazine, Toyota’s code name for this future sports car is 086A. That it’s so similar to AE86 is no coincidence.
Toyota is partnering with Subaru to bring this project to reality. In fact, most of the engineering seems to be coming from the company known for its all-wheel-drive rally cars. Powering the future coupe will be Subaru’s 2.0-liter flat-4 equipped with a new direct-injection system, tuned to produce an impressive 200 bhp and 145 lb.-ft. of torque. We predict the car will weigh about 2700 lb., so expect fairly quick acceleration times, probably around 6.0 sec. to 60 mph. The suspension will consist of MacPherson struts up front and a multilink setup at the rear, with the chassis based on that of the Subaru Impreza and Legacy.
Toyota will mainly be in charge of the car’s styling. Although both Toyota and Subaru versions will be offered, the two models won’t look much different, apart from badging — think Toyota Matrix and Pontiac Vibe.
The car is scheduled to appear sometime in 2011 or 2012. If this future car truly is a reincarnation of the AE86, Toyota and Subaru will have a big hit on their hands.
