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| Oct 22, 2009 |
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| Lexus LF-A | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 Having spent nearly 10 years in development, experienced times of delay and even once close to cancellation, Toyota's first ever supercar, Lexus LF-A, finally sees the light of the day in Tokyo motor show. Here it appears in final production form. However, the preparation for production at Motomachi plant will take another year, so the first delivery won't be made until January 2011. Only 500 units will be built in a two-year run. After that, the coupe could be followed by a Spider version. The LF-A is Japan's first supercar. This title was used before for Honda NSX, but in my opinion the Honda was positioned against the junior Ferrari, so it wasn't exactly a "supercar". The same goes for Nissan GT-R, which targets at Porsche 911 Turbo rather than Carrera GT. The LF-A is different. Not only it is Japan's first 200 mph supercar, it also wears an eye-popping price tag of £343,000. This put it in the same league as Carrera GT and Pagani Zonda, exclipsing even 599 GTB or Murcielago of any kind. For a Japanese-built machine wearing a Lexus badge, is it crazy ?  I definitely think so. Despite of its engineering excellence - we shall see that later on - the LF-A's performance and contents do not justify its price. From performance point of view, it should rest in the same league of Ferrari 458 / Lamborghini Gallardo / Mercedes-AMG SLS / McLaren MP4-12. That's an achievement for Toyota, especially considering it has no experience in supercar building at all, but the LF-A is obviously not in the league of top-end exclusive supercars like Pagani. In fact, it is no quicker than the junior Ferrari that costs less than half its price ! see the table below for a comparison between them:
The LF-A not only lacks a superior performance to justify its price, it also lacks an artistic design. Many areas of its exterior show questionable taste, such as the odd-looking upper side intakes. It is just another possibility of sports car design, without the romance and memorable shape of Italian supercars. Its interior lacks drama, too. Equally important to supercar shoppers are brand image and racing pedigree, both are lacking in the Lexus. In fact, I have strong reservation of using the Lexus brand for this car, because the brand has been renowned for impeccable refinement and comfort, having nothing to do with speed and excitement.  Back to the technical side, the LF-A is a well-engineered machine, with optimized mechanical layout and extensive testing to perfectize its real-world dynamics. From the outset, it is built on a lightweight, strong yet well-balanced chassis. Central of it is an expensive carbon-fiber tub, with aluminum frames extended back and forth for mounting suspensions and engines. Most of the body panels are also carbon-fiber, no wonder its body-in-white is about 100 kg lighter than an equivalent one made of pure aluminum. Besides, its front-mid engine is mounted well behind the front axle. Combining with a rear-mounted transaxle, it achieves a perfect front-to-rear weight distribution of 48:52. In theory, the LF-A has potential to better the mid-engined Ferrari and rear-engined Porsche in handling. The whole car weighs 1480 kg, about the same as Ferrari 458 and Gallardo LP560-4. That is a little disappointing considering its high percentage of carbon-fiber.  The heart of LF-A is a brand-new 4.8-liter V10 engine. It was developed with the help of Yamaha, Toyota's long-term engineering partner. The unit has a 72-degree V-angle to achieve even firing order, in contrast to the non-even firing order of Lamborghini's or Porsche Carrera GT's V10. As expected, it employs dry-sump lubrication, forged aluminum pistons, titanium connecting rods and valves, carbon-coated rocker arms, individual throttles, dual VVT-i and a 3-stage variable intake manifold system (2 manifold lengths plus a resonance chamber). A little surprise is the lack of direct fuel injection. Still, it runs at a relatively high compression of 12.0:1. Maximum output of the V10 is 560 horsepower (DIN) at 8700 rpm. This translate to a specific output of 117 hp per liter, very good until you know the latest Ferrari V8 delivers 127 hp per liter at 9000 rpm. The Toyota's oversquared combustion chambers, measuring 88 mm bore x 79 mm stroke, does not favour torque delivery. Its peak torque is only 354 lb-ft at 6800 rpm. Although some 318 lb-ft (or 90 percent of the peak value) is available from 3700 rpm, the Ferrari V8 beats it again with 318 lb-ft at 3250 rpm and 398 lb-ft at 6000 rpm, despite of its smaller capacity ! To get the best of the V10, drivers need to make use of its full rev range, which tops out at 9000 rpm.  That is probably a bad news to the driver, because the LF-A employs an old-fashioned 6-speed automated manual gearbox, unlike the new generation double-clutch gearboxes employed by Ferrari, Porsche, AMG and even Nissan GT-R. There are different shift patterns for selection depending on what level of smoothness versus response you require, but none of them could rival the cleaness of DCT. Unlike GT-R, Toyota decided to stick with conventional rear-wheel drive layout for the benefit of weight and sporty feel. This is probably why after many attempts it still fails to match the Nurburgring lap time of the Nissan. However, the Toyota is undoubtedly a great handling machine. Its good weight distribution, Torsen LSD, aluminum suspensions (by double-wishbone front and multi-link at the rear), ceramic brakes (391mm front / 360mm rear) and grippy Bridgestone tires all contribute to excellent body control and accuracy. According to road testers, it power-slides like a BMW M3 on the track. The only downside is the artificial steering feel, blame to the electrical power steering it decided to employ. The LF-A project is set to make a loss, even if it could find 500 buyers for the £343,000 machine. Its long and costly development should guarantee some favourable reviews in the forthcoming days, but it is not a feasible business case. For this reason, its impact to the performance car world is not going to be as strong as Nissan GT-R. |
| Oct 22, 2009 |
| Honda CR-Z |
 The Honda CR-Z concept being shown at Tokyo motor show now is very close to the production version to be unveiled in Feb next year. It is derived from the Insight platform, having a shortened floorpan (wheelbase reduced from 2550 to 2435 mm) to serve the 2-seater. Many of its components will be shared with Insight, including the 13.6hp electric motor in its IMA hybrid power system, but the gutless 1.3-liter petrol engine will be replaced with a 120hp 1.5 VTEC unit from Fit / Jazz. Likewise, a 6-speed manual gearbox will replace the CVT to boost performance. Styling-wise, the CR-Z takes inspiration from the late CRX. More details will come in next Feb.  |
| Oct 22, 2009 |
| Toyota Mark X renewed |
 The second generation Toyota Mark X, or the 11th generation if you include its direct predecessor Mark II, has been unveiled in Japan. No matter exterior design or mechanical layout, this car follows the path set by the outgoing car, which means little surprise to me. It continues to ride on the FR platform shared with Crown and Lexus GS. The base engine is still that 2.5-liter direct injection V6, producing 203 horsepower. The top engine is upgraded from 3.0 to 3.5-liter DI V6 like many other Toyotas, resulting in 318 horsepower. Both mate with a 6-speed automatic transmission.  The chassis is an evolution from the last generation. Dimensions are nearly unchanged: 4730mm length (same), 1795 mm width (+20mm), 1435 mm height (same) and 2850 mm wheelbase (same). It is still served with double-wishbone front and multi-link rear suspensions, although the addition of adaptive damping, variable gear ratio power steering and the increased track width should improve handling a little. In fact, the biggest change should be the new interior rather than mechanical side.  |
| Oct 6, 2009 |
| Toyota FT-86 concept |
 Since the demise of Celica (in 2006) and MR-S (in 2007), the Toyota empire no longer offers any sports cars in its lineup. That is sad to driving enthusiasts, because Toyota has a long history of offering affordable, fun-to-drive coupes. Among those cars, the Corolla coupe / Levin of 1983, codenamed AE86, was probably the most popular. Not only it was the last rear-drive of its breed, it was further popularized by Japanese animation Initial D in recent years. Now Toyota is going to bring back an affordable compact 2+2 rear-drive coupe. In concept form, its name is FT-86, where FT refers to Future Toyota.  The concept car was designed by Toyota's European design studio in Nice, France. It is very compact, measuring only 4.16m long, 1.76m wide, 1.26m tall, with 2.57m separating its axles. This make it smaller than the last Celica (4.34m long and 2.6m wheelbase), so it is appropriate to align it to the Corolla coupe / Levin line. Toyota said it is powered by a 2.0-liter boxer engine and drive the rear wheels. That's the only technical information unveiled up to this moment. However, from interior pictures we can also see it employs a 6-speed manual gearbox.  The boxer engine confirms that this is the Toyota-Subaru joint-venture we heard long ago. Subaru offers its EJ20 engine to the car. Having a boxer engine instead of conventional inline-4 should give it an edge over rivals in terms of smoothness and center of gravity. It also enables a lower bonnet than today's front-engined coupes, as you can see from the pictures. To keep its price affordable, it is believed the engine will go without turbocharging. Instead, its internals and breathing will be improved to lift rev and power. Currently, the EJ20 engine in Impreza produces at most 150hp. However, in the last generation Legacy 2.0R it was capable of as much as 190hp, so a figure close to 200hp is still possible, especially if direct injection is added.  The rear-drive chassis is believed to be adapted from the Impreza / Legacy platform, utilizing its suspension bits like MacPherson struts and double-wishbones. The longitudinal mounted boxer engine means conversion from 4WD to RWD is easy. Despite of the high level of finishing of the concept car, FT-86 won't go into production until the end of 2011, by then it may adopt another name. Production will take place in Subaru's Gunma plant. Subaru will also produce its version of the car, but it won't be unveiled the forthcoming Tokyo motor show in order not to take away the limelight from FT-86. After all, Toyota is now part owner of Subaru.  One thing I like is the simplicity of this car. Having heard a lot of news about complicated hybrid or electric power technology - even Honda's CR-Z is going hybrid - it is nice to see Toyota is going back to basis for its revived sports cars.  |
| Oct 6, 2009 |
| Saturn: End of the Road |
 The last Saturn vehicle had already rolled off production line in Oct 1. GM originally planned to keep its production until the end of 2011. Unfortunately, talks with Penske group to sell off the Saturn brand reached a terminal failure in Sep 30. As there are no alternative potential buyers, GM decided to kill it early. Expect the inventory will be sold out in four months time, then the brand will disappear from the world. |