Category: Toyota

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Motor Shows Toyota

Detroit 2012: Toyota virtual booth

With our Detroit Motor Show gallery we tried to bring you a bit closer to the action. Toyota has joined in by releasing a virtual booth of their stand. The video guide above shows you how it works and this link here takes you to the Toyota Global website where you can navigate your own way around their display.

It’s a nice use of some familiar tech. It would be very cool if all the manufacturers at the show made their stands available to view from the comfort of your lounge room like this.

[Thanks to Jake for the tip]

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Motorsports Toyota

Toyota PR tweet reveals 2012 LMP1 Hybrid racer

Toyota LMP1 Hybrid

While the world was discussing Peugeot’s sudden withdrawal from Le Mans racing, Scott Brownlee from Toyota PR cheekily revealed the first pics (above) of Toyota’s LMP1 Hybrid via twitter. “Sorry to see Peugeot pull out of Le Mans for 2012. Maybe the mere sight of our new car scared them,” he said.

Last October Toyota Motorsport GmbH, based in Cologne, announced they would be competing in the 2012 Le Mans 24 hour race, as well as the 2012 World Endurance Championship.

TMG Chairman, Tadashi Yamashina, said: “Toyota Motor Corporation has entered Le Mans before but by using our hybrid technology this time will be a completely new challenge. We want to write a new page in the history of the Le Mans 24 Hours, as well as in the FIA World Endurance Championship, through our use of hybrid technology.

“In addition, we aim to learn from the experience of competing in such a challenging motorsport environment to enhance our production car technology. Le Mans is a legendary race and I would like to thank the ACO and the FIA for their constructive and positive cooperation over the last few months.”

Brownlee added further info, and challenged Le Mans favourites Audi, this morning when he tweeted, “Next week first official test with our new car #dieselkiller can’t wait”

So, maybe Le Mans 2012 (16–17 June) won’t be the one horse race we think it will.

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Green Machines Motorsports Toyota

Toyota Prius GT300 on show in Tokyo

Toyota Prius GT300

We got wind of a racing Prius late last year and the Prius GT300 is now on display, in full racing livery, at the Tokyo Auto Salon.

At this stage there’s no official text or detail from Toyota that we can see, but the large hybrid text on the side of the car indicates the Prius will indeed remain true to its eco roots. Panasonic, makers of the batteries used in the Prius road car, also feature prominently in the car’s livery.

Porsche has already made a successful racing debut with its own 911 GT3 R Hybrid, so it’s no real surprise to see Toyota follow suit. On that basis it makes sense for Toyota to use the Prius name to make its hybrid racing debut.

The Prius GT300 will race in the Japanese Super GT series where, as its name suggests, power in its category is capped at 300hp. The Toyota will race against the new Subaru BRZ among others when the series kicks off in March.

[Source: Autoguide]

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Green Machines Motor Shows Toyota

Detroit 2012: Toyota NS4 concept

Toyota NS4 concept, Detroit 2012

We don’t usually spend too much time covering Toyotas here at AUSmotive. But while going through the pics for our Detroit Motor Show gallery we thought, credit where credit is due, this Toyota NS4 concept actually looks half decent.

So we figured we’d take a proper look at the car, which Toyota says uses a more efficient “next-generation Hybrid Synergy Drive plug-in system”.

Jim Lentz, president and chief operating officer of Toyota Motor Sales, USA, said, “NS4 demonstrates Toyota’s take on the human connection to the car with technology that considers both emotional and rational relationships, person-to-car and car-to-society.

“The continued success of our conventional hybrid vehicles has laid strong groundwork for market acceptance of future advanced technologies.”

Taking centre stage in that human connection is the smartphone-inspired Human Machine Interface (HMI). As well as handling the expected duties of basic driver information and HVAC controls, the HMI system has the ability to learn the preferences of the driver and anticipate certain responses.

Sounds interesting, if a little scary as well. Find out more after the break.

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New vehicle sales report – December 2011

FCAI banner

Australia registered over one million new vehicle sales in 2011 the latest FCAI press release reveals. The final tally of 1,008,437 represents the fourth time the country has passed one million sales in a calendar year.

Despite dropping more than 27,000 sales (-2.6%) on 2010 numbers, FCAI chief executive Ian Chalmers reminds us this is still something the motor industry should be proud of.

“2011 full year sales are an exceptional result given the effects of natural disasters both at home and abroad throughout the year,” Mr Chalmers said.

“The uptake of new vehicles was impacted early in the year by economic uncertainty, closely followed by natural disasters in the key markets of Western Australia, Victoria and Queensland.

“Sales were further subdued by Japan’s devastating earthquake and tsunami, with a resulting shortage of export vehicles from that country a secondary outcome of the extreme loss of life experienced by the Japanese people.”

The top three highest selling brands in 2011 were Toyota (181624 sales), Holden (126,095) and Ford (91,243).

Illustrating the continuing demand for smaller cars in the local market the Mazda3 was the highest selling model in Australia last year with 41,429 sales. Traditional volume seller Holden Commodore (40 617) was close behind and the Toyota Hilux (36,124) maintained its recent grip at the top of the sales charts.

More detail and 2012 forecasts from FCAI after the break.

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New vehicle sales report – November 2011

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Hold on tight everyone Australia should crack 1,000,000 car sales in 2011 after VFACTS figures show 88,654 new vehicles were sold in November. That brings the year to date total to 925,978, which should allow the 1 million mark to be broken for only the fourth time in Australia’s history.

“For the past four months in a row sales have been trending above the same period for 2010. This suggests improving consumer confidence in Australia’s economic prospects,” FCAI chief executive Ian Chalmers said.

Although, it is worth noting the final tally for 2011 will fall short of last year’s total of 1,035,574 sales.

As usual Toyota topped the charts for the month (17,436 sales), followed by Holden (9,761) and Ford (8,103).

For the fourth month in 2011 the Toyota Corolla was Australia’s highest-selling car (3,731). Close behind was the rather more bearable Mazda3 (3,480) and the tradies’ favourite Toyota HiLux (3,332).

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Green Machines Motorsports Toyota

Toyota preps Prius GT300 to race against BRZ

Toyota Prius GT300

A few days ago Subaru released a promo clip showing off their BRZ GT300. It will race in the highly competitive Japanese Super GT series. It would stand to reason, you would think, that Toyota would follow suit by producing an 86 GT300. Well, like us, you’d be wrong if you thought that.

Here, then, is Toyota’s answer to the BRZ GT300 and it’s a Prius. Of course.

It’s not clear if the Prius GT300 will continue to use a hybrid drivetrain to achieve its maximum power cap of 300hp. However, it would be a marketing fail on an epic scale if a racing “Prius” used a conventional engine source.

The first shakedown tests for the Prius GT300 are expected to take place early next year.

[Source: Jon Sibal]

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Toyota

TRD supercharger rumoured for Toyota 86

Toyota GT 86

The Toybaru project has been applauded for its back to basics approach. However, that won’t stop anyone applauding the suggestion from Chief engineer Tetsuo Tada that Toyota Racing Developments (TRD) is planning to give the 86 a boost by whacking on a supercharger to the 2.0 litre boxer engine.

Rumours say power could be increased by around 40kW, with the possibility of more to come. TRD favours supercharging over turbocharging for its crisper throttle response. The fact they’ve been supercharging cars for almost 25 years probably has a bit to do with the decision as well.

[Source: Autocar]

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2011 Tokyo Motor Show photo gallery

2011 Tokyo Motor Show

Like us you couldn’t make it to the 2011 Tokyo Motor Show either? Fear not as we’ve assembled a variety of images from the show featuring the usual suspects, such as the Toyota 86 and it’s close relative the Subaru BRZ. There’s also the weird and wonderful, too, in the form of the Daihatsu FC Case, the Nissan TOWNPOD, the Suzuki Q-Concept (pictured) and more.

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Toyota

The sound of 86

Toyota 86 engine sound

Ever since the Toyota 86 was released people have wanted to know what the 2.0 litre Toybaru boxer engine sounds like. Now, thanks to a couple of official ringtones from Toyota, we have an idea. Check out the samples below and if you want to download them yourself, head on over to the Toyota Global website.

After the break you can watch a rather overproduced promo clip for the 86. It’s titled Full throttle and it’s certainly full on.

[audio:http://www.ausmotive.com/audio/Toyota-86-ringtone01.mp3] [audio:http://www.ausmotive.com/audio/Toyota-86-ringtone02.mp3]
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Toyota

Is the Toyota 86 really as good as a Cayman?

Toyota 86

Now that the Toyota 86 (we’re supposed to say eight-six apparently) has been revealed fans of the car will be more desperate to know what it is like to drive. Thanks to an early review from the seat of a pre-production 86 by UK mag Autocar we can bring you this taster:

“…the key facets of an 1180kg kerb weight, rear-wheel drive, ESP that can be fully turned off, quick steering and a limited-slip differential make it a riot in the twisty stuff.”

“…at its best, the driving experience is a match for the likes of a Porsche Cayman, and accolades don’t come much higher than that. That it can’t reach those heights across as broad a range of conditions as the German-built car shouldn’t detract from its overall success, because the fact that it can even get close is a minor miracle.”

That’s some high praise there, that Toyota and fans alike will be rapt to hear. There were some minor gripes over the car’s transmission and the test was carried out on ultra smooth roads, so a more precise understanding of the 86’s ride was unable to be gained. Follow the source link below for more.

[Source: Autocar]

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Toyota

VIDEO: Toyota shows off its new GT 86

Toyota GT 86

Following the official release of pics and info, Toyota has published a new promo video of its 147kW/205Nm rear-wheel drive GT 86. Check it out after the break.

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