#Japan

Horsepower keeps climbing, sports cars outperform each other year after year and with so many new toys breaking into the market it’s hard to keep a sense of wonder about any of the latest supercars – a problem Lexus tackled differently than the Italians its LFA competes with.

Taking a step toward expanding what an electric vehicle can do, Toyota is experimenting with using a Prius as a home power generator. 

Bummed about not being one of the lucky few to snag a Scion FR-S this year? Just be glad you’re not living in the Netherlands where the same car costs an awful lot more.

Honda announced today that it will start a mass-production recycling program to extract rare earth metals from used car parts. 

With the Subaru BRZ due to arrive in showrooms very soon, Subaru is out promoting its new sports coupe in full force. One way to get your car noticed is by taking it racing, and that is exactly what Subaru did on April 1, 2012.

The BRZ race car made its public racing debut at the season opener Super GT, GT300KM race held in Okayama, Japan. This grueling race features some of the most established sports car brands such as the Chevrolet Corvette and the Lamborghini Gallardo. So the BRZ was going to have a tough time competing with the big boys, but was still able to qualify 8th on the grid.

The BRZ actually stayed in 8th place for most of the race, but when the car came in for a driver change, it soon after developed a problem and had to be retired. Upon further investigation, the problem turned out to be a faulty rear differential.

The main driver for the BRZ GT300 is Tetsuya Yamano, who wasn’t completely happy with the set-up of the car, and is insistent that the team is working on it and it will get better in races to come.

We wish the Subaru team much success in future races and hopefully will see this exciting new sports coupe in the winners circle very soon.

Watch the video’s below of the BRZ on the track.

Discuss this story at Subaru BRZ Forum.

Since Renault and Nissan formed a strategic alliance in 1999, the two companies have made tremendous strides in streamlining their business, with sales performances significantly improving for both companies.

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.

Global information company IHS Automotive conducted a study that shows sales in India will reach 4.88 million by 2016, taking the emerging nation ahead of Japan’s projected 4.51 million units in sales for that year. What’s more, IHS believes sales in Japan would taper off to 4.25 million by 2020.

About two months ago we reported a collection of luxurious and exotic machines that were involved in a bizarre accident in Japan that claimed at least eight Ferraris, three Mercedes-Benzes, a Lamborghini, a Nissan Skyline and a Toyota Prius.

The exotic car crash occurred on the Chugoku Expressway out in the Yamaguchi Prefecture and fortunately only ten people were hospitalized with just minor injuries.

Now a video of the aftermath from that accident has surfaced and it appears that Japan is now home to at least two parking lots full of fine machines just sitting and rotting. This accident is now being dubbed “the world’s most expensive car pileup” with an estimated combined cost of $4-million in damage.

Take a closer look at the Italian carnage after the break.

[Source: Carscoop]

When we think of tuners and enthusiasts shoehorning engines into other vehicles, the thought of Honda‘s F20C S2000 powerplant making its way into a Toyota Pickup isn’t exactly on our list… at all.

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