When Toyota revealed on Tuesday the FT-86 concept, the spiritual successor to the Toyota AE86, a popular sport compact car of the 1980s, there was no question what color it would be.

“Sports cars have to be red, but we wanted a new red,” said Tetsuya Tada, the chief engineer, according to AutoWeek. “So we came up with shoujyouhi red, the traditional red color of a Japanese monkey’s backside.”

Quite a cheeky move, to quote a colleague at The Times. And one that others on the staff could get behind.

The concept, itself, should provide some punch to Toyota’s lineup, which its new president, Akio Toyoda, recently criticized for lacking excitement. “Surely it is us — the automakers — who have abandoned our passion for cars,” Mr. Toyoda said, according to the Detroit Free Press.

Reinventing the AE86 should help. Over the past 10 years, there has been renewed interest in the small rear-wheel drive compact among young import enthusiasts. Designed by Toyota’s ED2 studio in France, the FT-86 is expected to share many of the same sporty traits. The concept is lightweight and has a low center of gravity. It is also rear-wheel drive.

The FT-86 is a joint venture with Fuji Heavy Industries and will come fitted with a Subaru 2-liter boxer engine. The concept will make its debut at the Tokyo auto show later this month.

Source (article): NEWYORKTIMES
Source (picture): CARANDDRIVER

WASHINGTON - Small in stature, a group of 2009 two-door cars are providing good safety value to car shoppers, according to crash tests released Tuesday.

The Ford Focus and Volvo C30 received top scores in front-end, side and rear crash tests, according to tests from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety.

Two-door versions of the Chevrolet Cobalt and Honda Civic, meanwhile, received top scores in front-end tests and the second-highest rating in side tests. The Civic received the top score in the rear test while the Cobalt has not yet been tested for rear crash protection.

The Scion tC, which is manufactured by Toyota Motor Corp., received the second-highest score of acceptable in both the front-end and side tests. It received the second-lowest rating of marginal in the rear crash test.

The Institute decided to test the two-door cars because they are frequently asked how the small vehicles perform in crash tests, said David Zuby, the Institute’s senior vice president for vehicle research. He called the overall results “good news.”

Zuby said all the vehicles tested were equipped with side air bags that protect the motorist’s head. He said the side test results were strong, “considering how demanding the side test is. It simulates being struck by a pickup or SUV.”

The vehicles range in prices from $15,305 for the Honda Civic Coupe to $23,800 for the Volvo C30.

The tC’s structure held up well in the crash, but Zuby said the forces recorded on the dummy indicated that a driver could suffer an injury to the lower right leg. The tC is not equipped with electronic stability control, which helps a driver avoid a rollover crash.

Brian Lyons, a Toyota spokesman, said the tC was last redesigned for the 2005 model year and Toyota has been installing stability control and improved head rests in newly redesigned vehicles. Toyota has not announced when it plans to upgrade the tC, he said.

Source (article): MSNBC

Source (picture): MOTHERPROOF

For those who thought the mostly business - but partly familial - control struggle between the Volkswagen Group and Porsche AG couldn’t get any weirder or more complicated, it has.

Porsche, strangled with debt incurred in trying to acquire more than 75 percent of VW, reportedly was negotiating a non-binding agreement with the Qatar Investment Authority that would not only see the Middle Eastern investors gain as much as 25 percent of Porsche but also be granted options to buy as much as 20 percent of VW.

The situation’s increasingly circus-like atmosphere was bolstered by Porsche’s rejection of a VW offer to buy half of the tiny sportscar maker for a reported $5.6 billion - a refusal that came with a petulant admonishment that VW’s offer went to Porsche chairman Wolfgang Porsche instead of the company’s executive board.

The two German automakers have been locked in a years-long battle to decide whether tiny sportscar maker Porsche AG or giant Volkswagen Group will control the other. The Porsche family, in unsuccessfully attempting to take over VW, also riled Ferdinand Piech, the immensely gifted engineer and notoriously prickly current chairman of VW. Piech also is related to the Porsche family and is one of Porsche’s chief family shareholders.

Porsche reputedly racked up more than $12 billion in debt in its run to control as much as 75 percent of VW stock; Porsche currently owns a controlling 51 percent and options to acquire much more. It is those options Qatar Investment seemingly seeks to own as part of its proposed investment in Porsche.

Earlier this year, it seemed Porsche and VW would do the businesslike thing, bury the hatchet and merge. But a concrete merger deal never emerged and the bickering between the companies and families intensified. Now VW questions whether the Qatar proposal for Porsche investment -one that brings no voting rights - is nothing more than a backdoor method of acquiring a large stake in VW.

Middle Eastern investors have turned up the interest in the German auto sector in recent months. In addition to the latest Porsche-VW maneuvers, in March an Abu Dhabi investment firm, Aabar Investments PJSC, spent almost $3 billion to obtain 9.1 percent of Daimler AG, owner of the Mercedes-Benz brand. The stake made Aabar Daimler’s largest shareholder.

Source (article): AUTOOBSERVER

Source (picture): SPORTSCARCUP, AUTOFANS