Toyota Publicly Shows its Awesome Toy Collection

A 75th anniversary display of a huge design study collection.

A lot of gearheads like to collect model cars. It’s a good and inexpensive way to have an extra car-related hobby. But chances are your collection pales in comparison to the one owned by Toyota. The Japanese automotive giant’s collection is comprised of 1:5 scale models, all of which are hand built and used as design studies over the years. Some of them are of real cars, and some never made it to production, but they’re all exquisite.

The models are normally not on display, and are kept far from the public eye at Toyota’s Design Center, although a small number are sometimes displayed in various Toyota offices. But as part of Toyota’s celebration of its 75th anniversary, the cars were shipped from the design center and put on display to the public for the first time. The rather large scale of the models allows for an incredible level of detail, and as they’ve never been outside and exposed to the elements, they have held up quite well over time. And all with original paint and matching numbers, no less.

 

Toyota Publicly Shows its Awesome Toy Collection

Land Rover Prepares LR4 for Facelift

The go-anywhere SUV will be refreshed all round and be offered with the new supercharged V8 when it hits the showroom floor.

These spy shots reveals Land Rover is set to update the LR4 (“Discovery” outside the US). When it hits the showrooms later in the year expect it to feature new headlights, front bumper and side mirrors. Efficiency gains will come thanks to an eight-speed automatic replacing the current six-speed, while interior refinements such as a new steering wheel, upgraded infotainment system and soft-touch materials are also anticipated. Land Rover’s new 3.0-liter supercharged V6, announced for the latest RR and RR Sport, is tipped to be offered alongside the 5.0-liter V8.

Land Rover Prepares LR4 for Facelift

Honda Accord Limited Edition HFP Package Out Now

New spoilers and wheels said to help Accord Coupe be quicker around the track.

First shown at SEMA 2012, the limited edition Honda Factory Performance package for the Accord Coupe V6 is now on sale at select dealerships in the US with 500 units available for $4,620. Adding visual flare as well as making it a more capable track performer, the HFP package includes a 15 mm lowered sports suspension, 19-inch HFP alloys wrapped in performance-oriented tires, and a set of front, side and rear spoilers. Red illumination lights up the interior, which also comes with HFP floor mats and badging.

Honda Accord Limited Edition HFP Package Out Now

McLaren P1 XP2R Hints at New Special Edition

Is McLaren already preparing a beefed-up variant of the P1?

Having put the P1 hypercar firmly in everyone’s thoughts after a scintillating display at the Goodwood FoS, McLaren looks to be preparing a special edition model of its 903-horsepower flagship. Spied at the Nurburgring with the British carmaker’s chief test driver Chris Goodwin at the helm, the P1 was caught wearing a sticker reading “XP2R prototype vehicle.” The “XP” nomenclature is McLaren’s internal code for experimental prototype, and the “2” perhaps signifies this is the second such vehicle.

However, the “R” remains a mystery. Visually, there don’t appear to be any differences from the regular P1 but that doesn’t mean there aren’t any. We could be looking at a new limited edition with more power, say in the region of 1,000 horses, or this could be a racing-spec variant developed by the guys at McLaren GT. We just hope it’s not simply one of the final prototypes of the P1. Only time will tell.

McLaren P1 XP2R Hints at New Special Edition

Riding Shotgun In An Airborne Lamborghini

Even more amazing than the air time is the fact the car was fine afterwards.

After not one but two incidents where a Mercedes-Benz CLR became airborne at Le Mans in 1999, the car was never raced again, and changes were also made to the track. But similar incidents at the Automotodrom Slovakia Ring haven’t resulted in any changes to the hump which has caused numerous mid- and rear-engine cars to lift off, and at least one end-over-end flip in the style of the now very famous Le Mans CLR crash.

The video here is in-car footage of a Lamborghini Gallardo GT3, belonging to Austria’s Grasser Racing, getting some serious air on the hump in the track. Miraculously, the car fared better than some, and was able to keep right on going.

 

Riding Shotgun In An Airborne Lamborghini

1990 Jaguar XJ220 Prototype

Before the Jaguar XJ220 went on sale, a few prototypes were put to the test. This is one of them.

There was a time when Jaguar built a supercar of which only 275 units were made. From 1992 until 1994 the XJ220 was the UK automaker’s flagship, and it also just happened to be the fastest production car in the world at the time. It had a top speed of 213.1 mph, and was developed by Jaguar employees in their spare time. Before production officially began, a total five prototypes were built for testing purposes. And now one of those prototypes is for sale. The guys over at Carscoops managed to discover prototype 002 posted for sale on thei-bidder website.

According to the seller, this prototype was sometimes driven by Le Mans winner Andy Wallace and reportedly reached a speed of 186 mph while testing at the Bruntingthorpe circuit. Originally painted silver, it was given the red coat by Jaguar Sport’s test drivers. Interestingly, this car is actually 7″ shorter, 5.9″ narrower and 397 lbs. lighter than the production version. Power comes from a twin-turbo engine that has a displacement between 3.2- and 3.5-liters. All told, it supposedly took 791 man hours to completely restore the car at a cost of over 80,000 Euros. No pricing was announced as interested parties must sign up to bid first.

1990 Jaguar XJ220 Prototype

Ferrari 458 Spider Elegante

German tuner claims to have massively improved the drop-top 458. We’ll let you be the judge of that.

Lamborghini is the Dusseldorf-based tuning house’s preferred automotive canvas, but after doing its thing with the Ferrari F12, DMC Germany has picked up a taste for the Prancing Horse. It’s latest project, dubbed the “Elegante,” is based on a Ferrari 458 Spider and comes with a Performance Package that pushes output from the 4.5-liter V8 to 608 hp and 419 lb-ft of torque thanks to a ECU remap and stainless steel exhaust system. To cope with the added power DMC fitted a sports suspension and three-piece forged alloys staggered 21/22 inches front/rear, finished in Virgin Gold.

The tuners body kit is apparently a “massive improvement” on the stock 458 look. Aggressive and aerodynamic, it includes a new lip splitter, vented hood, extended side skirts, rear spoiler, and some carbon-fiber trim. A bespoke interior finished in leather and carbon fiber with a redesigned steering wheel also forms part of the package.

Ferrari 458 Spider Elegante

Jaguar F-Type Off To A Bad Start in S. Africa as one Plows into a Taxi

Quite a serious accident, but thankfully no one was killed.

South Africa isn’t a huge automotive market compared to countries like the US or China. But it is by far the biggest in the region, and that sometimes gets it special consideration from automotive manufacturers. The new Jaguar F-Type, for example, still exists in such small numbers that there are some smaller countries which haven’t seen a single unit yet, whereas South Africa has already managed to get one into the hands of someone who crashed it.

The F-Type collided violently with a minibus taxi in Durbin, injuring 17. There were no deaths, but 3 passengers were seriously injured, although they are now in stable condition in the hospital. Although it’s easy to imagine the driver of the F-Type simply got a bit carried away with the thrill which the new car can offer, we don’t know for certain that it was the Jag which was at fault. In fact, the drivers of such taxis are notorious in South Africa for their risky and aggressive driving. Either way, it appears that both vehicles have been effectively totaled.

 

Jaguar F-Type Off To A Bad Start in S. Africa as one Plows into a Taxi

Porsche Fetish Makes Man One of the Luckiest Alive

Turning your hobby into your career is entirely possible. This guy restores old Porsches for a living.

Everyone has a dream of turning their hobby into a career. For John Willhoit, that hobby is restoring old Porsches, with his bread and butter coming from his own specialty Porsche restoration shop in Los Angeles. Think of the place as a Stuttgart outpost in America.

Willhoit’s passion for cars began with his father, who was a Rolls-Royce and Bentley guy, but the son went all German. He’s never looked back, and today he has the distinct pleasure of driving around in a custom 1971 Porsche 911T.

It’s a hell of a car, driven and owned by a guy who truly appreciates everything about it. Whoever said your hobby can’t be your career should look away now.

Porsche Fetish Makes Man One of the Luckiest Alive

Nissan 370Z Made Girly with Splash of Purple

A Nissan 370Z receives a touch of purple trim it didn’t really need or deserve.

Female celebrities like Paris Hilton are known for turning once great-looking high-performance exotics into cars with the most horrific of paint jobs. Just look at that pink Bentley Continental GT she owns. It ain’t pretty. In the case of this Nissan 370Z, its new purple trim certainly isn’t for everyone but it’s still much less offensive than Paris’s pink fetish. Miami-based Vossen Wheels are the ones behind this project, which includes a new set of 20″ wheels that are finished in a two-tone purple and white.

The car has also been outfitted with an aero kit that consists of front and rear bumpers, front fender trim pieces and a rear wing. All of those new elements are done in matching purple. Carscoops claims the kit is likely from Japanese tuner Amuse and starts at about $3,700. Those Vossen Wheels set carries a price tag of around $2,400. The interior has also been spiffied up some and includes a new audio system setup. So is this something for Paris or would you be willing to drive it?

Nissan 370Z Made Girly with Splash of Purple

New Toyota RAV4 Rated 'Poor' by IIHS for Weak Small Overlap Test Performance

The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety(IIHS) has automakers’ engineers in charge of safety back to the drawing board, trying to figure out how to get a passing score for the newly-introduced small overlap crash test, which has vehicles hit the specially-designed obstacle with the area around the front-left headlight, and no more. This puts a heck of a lot of strain on the structure of the car, especially if has not been specifically designed to take this very type of shock.When it was first introduced, practically all cars fared very poorly, with drivers’ heads almost always missing the airbag, and considerably more intrusion than in the conventional test cars had been subjected to for many years and were passing with flying colors.

Now, most new cars sold in the US are engineered to fare much better than before, but it seems that Toyota forgot to add the extra strengthening to its new RAV4, as it has just been tested and rated “poor” by the IIHS in the very test we’ve spoken about so far.

Apparently, the steering column moved significantly, and the dummy’s head missed the airbag (a common problem), and its foot was also trapped in the contorted metal… This is surprising as the new RAV4 is a much safer vehicle than its predecessor overall, and it did very well in all of the other tests it was subjected to by the IIHS.

Check out the video below to see it all unfold, and see what we’re on about here…

VIDEO

---

New Toyota RAV4 Rated 'Poor' by IIHS for Weak Small Overlap Test Performance