Motor Trend’s Carlos Lago gives us the rundown on the 2012 Lexus IS F. He explains the car’s significance in that it was Toyota’s first step back towards making performance oriented cars. He also goes on to articulate the IS F’s fun nature while noting the suspension and limited slip differential upgrades that make it a genuine competitor against the likes of the BMW M3 and Mercedes-Benz C63 AMG.
This is a brief history of the Toyota Land Cruiser as it was sold all around the globe.
Here’s some leftover footage from this year’s 86 Day at Fuji Speedway by the same guy who brought us the Pit Walk video. 86 Day is observed every year on August 6th to celebrate the history of the Toyota AE86, a lightweight, rear wheel drive enthusiast car of legendary status in Japan. This year was a little different because the AE86’s were joined by the Toyota GT-86’s for the first time (that’s what the Scion FR-S and the Subaru BRZ are called outside of the US). About 150 cars participated in the parade led by The Drift King, Keiichi Tsuchiya.
The last of the coverage from this year’s Pikes Peak International Hill Climb is still trickling in. I came across a couple of videos of the Toyota Motorsports Group EV P002 and Monster Tajima’s E-Runner that presented a nice opportunity to do a side by side comparison. What makes this interesting is that the E-Runner DNF’ed due to technical failure, but was dominating the EV class during practice. Nobuhiro “Monster” Tajima beat Fumio Nutahara in the Toyota by almost 13 seconds on the 5.16 mile lower section of the course during qualifying. Tajima had set up the E-Runner with a mixed tarmac and gravel suspension settings on the first day because he was expecting a lot of gravel to be pulled onto the road surface from the side of the road which never happened. Monster switched to a faster pure tarmac setup for the later practice runs on the middle and top sections of the course. Nutahara won the EV class in the TMG EV P002 on race day and was less than 30 seconds off of the overall record set by Rhys Millen in his Formula D car. Monster Tajima DNF’ed with a motor failure, but what if he had been able to finish? Would he have been in contention to defend his overall record? After watching these two videos, I think he could have done it. This is footage of both the Toyota Motorsports Group EV P002 and Monster Tajima’s E-Runner on the top section of the course on the last day of practice before race day. Identical course and conditions make this an excellent comparison of speed. The two cars aren’t worlds apart, but the E-Runner is visibly faster and seems more stable. I think it definitely would have been within the realm of possibility for the E-Runner to pull a 30 second gap on the Toyota over the length of the 12.42 mile course. Hopefully Monster Tajima can get the kinks worked out for the race next year and put an EV on top of the overall podium.
Video 1: Fumio Nutahara in the Toyota Motorsports Group EV P002 practice run on the top section of the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb 2012.
Video 2: Monster Tajima in the E-Runner on the same course on the same day:
Sources: Technologic Vehicles and GoPro on YouTube.
This video is for the people who have yet to test drive the Scion FR-S / Subaru BRZ / Toyota GT-86 and don’t see the appeal of them because they don’t look like much of a performance car on paper. It’s my opinion that we as a generation of automotive enthusiasts are too concerned with on paper performance numbers. My theory for the reason is pretty simple. Another name for “on paper performance” is “impressive on an internet forum performance.” The problem is that on paper performance is all about power, acceleration and top speed numbers. What the paper doesn’t convey are things like chassis balance, feedback and the character of a car. Chris Harris does a truly exceptional job explaining the difference in this comparison video of the Toyota GT-86, Nissan 370Z and a used Porsche Cayman S. He says, “It’s time we got back to enjoying performance for its nature and not because of its quantity” and I couldn’t agree more.