Bouncing Red Ball

Check out Toyota’s impressive-looking Lexus Premium 2-seater Sports LF-A, Gazoo Racing’s entry into the 24 Hours Nürburgring endurance racing in Nürburg, Germany, one of the most eye-catching muscle cars on display at the recent Tokyo Auto Salon in Makuhari Messe.
I bet this thing would outrun any one of those cars in the Road Monsters of [...]

Displayed at Toyota’s booth at the Tokyo Auto Salon is their entry into the 2009 Super GT: the Corolla apr Axio, a GT300-class machine with a water-cooled 3500cc V6 engine, modified by apr.
At the presentation held at Toyota booth, Team manager/chief engineer Hiroto Kaneso who takes the helm of apr explained the reason for picking [...]

One of the most ubiquitous cars in Japan is Honda’s Fit, which just recently had a makeover. Many people like it for its good looks, fuel efficiency and compact size which is only a little bit bigger than the smallest cars in the country but still very easy to maneuver through many of Japan’s narrowest [...]

Perhaps two of the most excessive cars on display on the recent Tokyo Auto Salon were the so-called Luxury Crystal Benz’s, each one a customized Mercedes-Benz SL600 studded with–we were told–300,000 Swarovski crystals, modified by Garson/D.A.D.
Not that I’d refuse if offered one but the cars look too showy for my mundane taste. Looks like a [...]

What’s a car show without girls? Not half as much fun as I soon found out after walking around the exhibition hall of the Tokyo Auto Salon 2009 in Makuhari Messe last week. Trade shows are one of the few places in Japan where you can take pictures of women you are not acquainted with [...]

I personally like compact cars (“keisha” as we call them in Japan): they’re fuel efficient, less expensive to drive (”road tax” in Japan is cheaper for these small cars) and can easily fit almost anywhere where ordinary cars can’t park.
And you don’t have to have boring, girly compact cars either, if you see Suzuki’s Road [...]

Perhaps a little out of place among the multitude of customized racing cars at the Tokyo Auto Salon 2009 is Mazda’s Premacy Hydrogen RE Hybrid. This is the latest iteration of the dual-fuel rotary-engined Premacy announced by Mazda over a year ago. This version of the Premacy promises better fuel efficiency, greater range and more [...]

Diahatsu, the small-car specialist, has put out a nice concept car at Tokyo Auto Salon 2009 based on their Move Conte X Limited compact car. The so-called D (for “Dog”) -Sport Move Conte “My Sneacar”, which looks like… a shoe. Cute though (dog on a leash not included). The custom work and parts cost ¥719,810 [...]