Nissan will bring a sports car that sits below the current 370Z in some form to the Tokyo Motor Show in November.
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The AutoGuide News Blog is your source for breaking stories from the auto industry. Delivering news immediately, the AutoGuide Blog is constantly updated with the latest information, photos and video from manufacturers, auto shows, the aftermarket and professional racing.
Toyota’s new Auris campaign in Japan has already spawned a music video featuring a singer who identifies as transgender. The Auris is now also the center of an art display called “Spanking Orchestra.” Continue Reading…
Office-K, a high-end aftermarket automotive store in Tokyo, Japan, organized an incredible Rolls-Royce meet along a swanky cobblestone street in the heart of Tokyo for its owners to celebrate their favorite luxury marque. A nod to Middle Eastern extravagance, Office K’s event was named “Dubai Street, Phantom Party.”
From standard Phantoms, to Extended Wheelbase models, Coupes, and Drophead Coupes, the wide ranging variety of custom tuned Rolls-Royce cars on display is surely a rare sight to behold. Check out the videos from the event below. Continue Reading…
If you had twelve children every year, would you love them all the same? It might be hard to keep track, but as is true with any parent, seeing one of your babies hurt would be tragic.
While it’s a bit much to think of cars as children, and some people do, the Pagani Zonda is a rarity in the luxury supercar market because the company only produced one every month starting in 1999 and stopped production last year. That is enough to tug on enthusiast heart strings and evoke a passionate response when one of these rare birds gets its wings clipped.
Unfortunately, that’s exactly what seems to have happened in Hong Kong. Pictures started floating around a forum, showcasing a wrecked Zonda in the middle of an intersection. There aren’t many other details to report on the wreck, but it’s clear from the picture that the car was on a tight city street. You can see that the driver hit a pole, but beyond that it’s tough to speculate on the incident. Click here to see the forum for yourself.
GALLERY: Pagani Zonda F Roadster
Between coverage the Tokyo Motor Show and filming the Scion FR-S, AutoGuide video producer Chris Blanchette had some time to kill in the Japanese capital. Being the artistic type he captured the hustle and bustle of the metropolis, and of course, spent plenty of time capturing many of the unique vehicles that populate Japan’s busy roads.
Watch the video below and be sure to check out AutoGuide’s Scion FR-S video here:
We all love racing games, and while realistic driving simulators such as Gran Turismo 5 and the recently released Forza Motorsport 4 offers hours and hours of entertainment, the kid in all of us can never turn down a fun afternoon of Mario Kart.
The guys over at Japanese car site Cliccar decided to bring Mario Kart to real life, outfitting themselves with their best Mario and Luigi costumes, firing up their street legal X-Karts and taking them down the streets of Tokyo.
The X-Kart weighs in at a scant 209-lbs with a limited top speed of 35-mph, but can be modified to go over 50-mph. But no one really cares how fast these things can zip around when costume-clad Mario and Luigi are behind the wheel. Even though cosplaying out on the streets of Tokyo is pretty normal, these Mario Bros. did a great job stirring up the crowd in Shibuya.
Check out the video after the break.
[Source: Jalopnik]
General Motors may be testing the EN-V mobility concept vehicles in its Detroit hometown. GM North America President Mark Ruess said that Detroit would be a “perfect” area to test the futuristic machines.
EN-V, known as the Electric Networked Vehicle, is GM’s answer to changing transportation in traffic choked cities such as Tokyo. The vehicle is a battery-powered with two-wheels and seats two. The EN-V can reach speeds of 25 mph and can drive itself and communicate wirelessly with other EN-Vs to avoid crashes. The vehicle debuted in 2010 at the Shanghai Auto Show.
Ruess said the timing is right because the infrastructure for the vehicle could be installed alongside a light-rail line and a possible high-speed rail connection, proposed for Detroit.
There may also be a possibility of of testing the vehicles on military bases and senior-living communities, according to Chris Borroni-Bird, director of GM’s EN-V program. However, Ruess made it clear that GM does not have official plans to test the vehicles in Detroit. If plans become official, GM would enlist corporate and government help.
He said: “It would take unprecedented effort with unheard-of levels of cooperation between business and government.”
[Source: Car Tech blog]
Forget buying your Valentine chocolate – up the ante by getting them a chocolate-themed Smart car.
Recently unveiled in Tokyo, the Smart car was designed by Q-Pot, a Japanese accessories company, and is not only painted brown but also showcases a pattern that looks like a bar of chocolate.
It comes just a few weeks before Valentine’s Day, where in Japan it’s traditional for women to give men chocolate. And not just their significant other. They need to shell out chocolate to male members of their families, their boy friends, their bosses and their male colleagues – so it can get a little expensive.
Orders for the chocolate Smart car can be placed from February 2 to March 13. This is one day before “White Day”, when Japanese men repay the women who gave them gifts of chocolate with other presents.
If you live in Japan and want to give your sweetie this sweet gift, it will cost you 2.36 million yen (28,780 US dollars).
[Source: AP]