Toyota Announces Safety Recall on 2000 through 2003 Tundra Frame Rear Cross Member

Toyota Motor Sales, U.S.A., Inc. will launch a Safety Recall involving approximately 110,000 Tundra vehicles sold in the United States.

Certain 2000 through 2003 model year Tundra vehicles operated in cold climate areas with high road salt use, may exhibit excessive corrosion on the frame rear cross- member. In the worst case, the spare tire stowed under the truck bed may become separated from the rear cross member. Spare tire separation will create a road hazard for following vehicles and increase the likelihood of a crash.

Eventually, excessive corrosion of the rear cross-member may also affect the functionality of the rear brake line at the proportioning valve. If this occurs, it can lead to the loss of the rear brake circuits which will increase vehicle stopping distances and the risk of a crash.

In addition to the District of Columbia, the involved cold climate states with high road salt usage are: Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Maryland, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Virginia, Vermont, Wisconsin, and West Virginia.

Beginning in December 2009 through early 2010, owners of the involved vehicles will receive a Safety Recall notification via first class mail asking them to take their vehicles to a Toyota dealer for an initial inspection of the rear cross member. During this inspection, the rear cross-member including the surrounding components such as, the brake line at the proportioning valve (which is mounted on the cross-member assembly) will also be inspected. Based upon the inspection, Toyota will do one of the following at no charge:

Tundra

If there is no significant corrosion of the rear cross-member assembly or the rear brake line at the proportioning valve, owners will be notified of that fact and requested to subsequently bring their vehicle back to the dealership so that a corrosion-resistant compound can be applied to the rear cross-member. Toyota will notify the owner when the corrosion-resistant compound is available.

If significant corrosion is detected such that the rear cross-member can no longer safely support the spare tire and replacement components are available, the cross- member assembly will be replaced. In the event replacement components are not available, a temporary solution, such as the removal of the spare tire and securing it to the truck bed, will be performed until parts are available.

In those relatively rare cases where the rear cross-member is significantly corroded and can no longer safely support the spare tire, but the rear cross-member cannot be replaced due to excessive frame corrosion at the mounting location (e.g., if the side rails are too damaged), Toyota will develop an appropriate remedy for those vehicles on a case-by- case basis.

This inspection will take approximately 20 minutes depending on dealer scheduling.

Until your vehicle is inspected, you may minimize the risk of the spare tire separating from the rear cross-member by removing it. If you choose to do so, please be sure not to be under the rear cross-member or spare tire carrier during the lowering process. In addition, if placing the spare tire in the truck bed or other area of the vehicle, it should be secured when driving.

Customers with questions are asked to call the Toyota Customer Experience Center at 1 800 331-4331.

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[Toyota via PickupTrucks]

Well, Russ didn't actually say that. He's too nice to say something like that. But, what he does say seems to refute Toyota's inference that IIHS selectively choose certain vehicles for testing and the insinuation that the IIHS was trying to mislead the public by only selecting three cars to fail an "extreme" test. Russ tells us

"Toyota was notified in January that roof strength would be a new test. The IIHS asked automakers to flag any vehicles they'd like to have included. Toyota had plenty of opportunity to flag other Toyota, Lexus or Scion models — including being present at roof strength tests at the IIHS facility — but choose not to. So IIHS assumed that there were no models that met the new guidelines. If there are other vehicles Toyota would want to include they were able to submit them at that time or at any time in the process — including right now."

So basically, bring it Toyota, don't sing it.

This doesn't refute Toyota's other contention that the new test is "extreme." As we said before, we're not sure whether or not the new roof-crush test is extreme, but we will point out again that not only did other automakers have vehicles that passed it, but the 'yota Camry passed it as well. We'll also reiterate we're not sure how far the argument of "it was too hard" will go with consumers and the general public.

Toyota would probably do more to show it stands by their vehicles ability to pass this new roof-crush test by flagging their entire lineup to allow the IIHS to test it. Unless, of course, they know the vehicles won't pass — which, in essence, proves the IIHS point.

Toyota's claiming the roof crush test — only applied to three Toyotas — the RAV4, Camry and Yaris — is harder than federal standards:

"This is the first year IIHS has included its own roof strength tests, which exceed federal standards, for TSP consideration. All Toyota vehicles meet or exceed Federal Safety Standards for frontal and side impact, roof crush resistance and rollover protection."

So, let's get this straight: you're upset because your cars don't meet a tougher standard than the federal guidelines — a standard other automakers are capable of meeting — and you expect the consumer to accept that argument? Really? Seriously?

But wait, there's also the fact that the Camry actually passed this much more difficult roof crash test. So why didn't the mid-size get a Top Safety Pick? Well, because, as the IIHS said in their press release late last night,

"The midsize Toyota Camry would have qualified with good ratings, except for its rear crash evaluation. This car's seats and head restraints are rated marginal for protection against whiplash injury. A change to good would have earned the Camry a Top Safety Pick for 2010."

Where's Toyota's explanation for why the Camry failed to garner a Top Safety Pick this year? It certainly wasn't the more-stringent roof crush test.

Full response from Toyota below:

2010 IIHS Top Safety Pick Awards Tells Just Part of the Story

On November 18, 2009, the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) issued a news release headlined: "27 Winners of 2010 Top Safety Pick Award." Within the release, IIHS states: "Missing the mark: Not a single model from the world's biggest automaker by sales is represented among this year's winners. Toyota and its Lexus and Scion subsidiaries had a strong showing in 2009 with 11 winners but were shut out for 2010."

Toyota is confident its vehicles are among the safest on the road today and is committed to the highest levels of vehicle safety and quality.

In 2009, Toyota won more IIHS Top Safety Pick (TSP) awards than any other manufacturer. Toyota continues to improve vehicle passive and active safety, including improvement of past winners of IIHS TSP.

IIHS' statement that Toyota was shut out for 2010 is extreme and misleading, considering there are 38 Toyota, Lexus and Scion models, and only three were tested for roof strength by IIHS: Camry, RAV4 and Yaris.

This is the first year IIHS has included its own roof strength tests, which exceed federal standards, for TSP consideration. All Toyota vehicles meet or exceed Federal Safety Standards for frontal and side impact, roof crush resistance and rollover protection.

While passive collision protection is very important, Toyota also provides an array of active, passive, pre-collision and collision avoidance features. The "Star Safety System" is standard equipment on all Toyota and Lexus models.

The Insurance Institute's ratings are one of many vehicle safety and quality metrics.

Irv Miller
Group Vice President, Environmental and Public Affairs
Toyota Motor Sales, U.S.A., Inc.

Though BMW and Toyota aren't the only major automaker to not make the list of 27 vehicles, they're the most notable considering Chrysler managed to get four vehicles on the list and Volvo managed the same despite having belts on their XC60 disengage in a side-crash.

Click on the thumbs in this gallery and you can see the full list of IIHS-ordained cars in each category. For the most part, it's a sign of the cars you're least likely to want to drive. For instance, they explicitly exclude the WRX and SI versions of the Impreza and Civic.

Large Cars:
Buick LaCrosse
Ford Taurus
Lincoln MKS
Volvo S80

Midsize Cars:
Audi A3
Chevrolet Malibu built after October 2009
Chrysler Sebring 4-door with optional electronic stability control
Dodge Avenger with optional electronic stability control
Mercedes C class
Subaru Legacy
Subaru Outback
Volkswagen Jetta sedan
Volkswagen Passat sedan
Volvo C30

Small Cars
Honda Civic 4-door models (except Si) with optional electronic stability control
Kia Soul
Nissan Cube
Subaru Impreza except WRX
Volkswagen Golf 4-door

Midsize SUVs
Dodge Journey
Subaru Tribeca
Volvo XC60
Volvo XC90

Small SUVs
Honda Element
Jeep Patriot with optional side torso airbags
Subaru Forester
Volkswagen Tiguan

It was little more than half-a-century ago the armies of Rome, Berlin and Tokyo were defeated by Detroit's "Arsenal of Democracy" equipped by American carmakers. Yet to hear it lately from conservatives and leaders in the Republican Party, American automakers are what's wrong with this country, should be boycotted, and go bankrupt.

Senator John McCain told reporters that we should have never bailed out Chrysler and GM and let them go under.

"No, I don't think we ever should have bailed out Chrysler and General Motors," McCain told The Detroit News. "We should have let them go into bankruptcy, emerge and become viable corporations again."

This, of course, while he was out drumming up support for his 2010 Senate run while serving as the grand marshal of a NASCAR event where the very good ol' boys he was drumming up support from were watching Chrysler and GM products race. And, as The Detroit News points out, we did let them go into bankruptcy. We're still waiting to find out whether they'll emerge as stronger companies.

Confusingly, McCain seems to be channeling John Kerry in being for the bailout before he was against it. Now, of course, he's going so far as to refer to it as "Socialism."

And just this weekend RNC Chairman Michael Steele responded to the news of GM going further in debt by pointing out this statement:

"Today's release of General Motors' financial results is further proof that President Obama's economic experiments are wrong for America."

Of course, GM lost $4.2 billion in the third-quarter last year so this is actually an improvement, of sorts. And GM also announced they'd be repaying loans ahead of schedule.

So who do the Republicans like? At last year's Detroit Auto Show we had a conversation with Senator Bob Corker, the Republican who lead the charge against the bailout, and he talked about the Volkswagens he loves. Not a surprise given VW is joining Nissan in building a huge plant in his state.

In fact, there have been a number of foreign car companies moving better-than-minimum-wage assembly plants into states represented by Republican senators, including BMW in South Carolina, Toyota in Texas, Nissan/VW in Tennessee, and Mercedes-Benz and Hyundai in Alabama. Of course, we can't blame the Chrysler-Fiat "Global Strategic Alliance" alliance on the Republican party.

So when the far right goes to Boycott GM they're doing so for the benefit of companies like Volkswagen and Toyota, who have both surpassed GM as the world's largest automaker in the last year.

Ironically, this is the same Republican party upset about the Chinese purchase of Hummer. As Republican Representative Duncan Hunter told the Wall Street Journal: "Any money that is going to China or to Chinese companies is contributing in some way to China's military buildup."

So supporting American car companies is socialism and supporting every other country's investments in production capacity is capitalism and therefore good for America.

But hey, the Germans, Japanese, Chinese and Italians are our friends so who says we need any domestic car production or car companies? Of course, we're probably just paranoid. Maybe the real reason the Republicans hate GM and Chrysler is just that they really like Ford.

Photo Credit: DiggerHistory

[via CreativityOnline]

Most of the concepts have pretty regular wacky shapes and smart grid communications features the futurists are always in love with, of course they're all "green" and electric, but one in particular made us shake our heads. Whoever came up with the "GM Car Hero" needs a very stern talking to.

Like the AK-47 assault rifle and the RPG–7 bazooka, the Toyota pickup truck has become an icon of irregular armies worldwide. When mounted with an anti-aircraft cannon or a rocket laucher on its bed, it is called a technical and technicals have helped militas wage and win war against armies equipped with mechanized divisions. There was even a conflict in 1987 called the Toyota War, in which Chad’s Toyota-equipped troops defeated Muammar al-Gaddafi’s Libyan army.

The practice is not local to Africa. In Afghanistan, it was an influx of Toyota pickups from Pakistan’s ISI spy agency which transformed the Taliban from a Kandahar militia to a force which took over most of Afghanistan with remarkable speed, defeating established mujahideen commanders with decades of experience.

This has nothing to do with good guys, bad guys or tribal affiliations and all to do with the Toyota pickup’s extreme reliability on hostile terrain. You have no doubt seen the famous Top Gear episode where a Toyota Hilux is subjected to every manner of destructive testing short of a thermonuclear explosion yet it keeps on ticking—but you may not have seen this image from 2002, where US Special Forces soldiers ride in a quad cab Toyota identical to the ones used by their Taliban foes:

But all that may be about to change.

The only clue is a few pixels of an illustration which accompanies Seymour Hersh’s latest piece for The New Yorker, where he reports on the safety of Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal—or its lack thereof. It was created by the acclaimed French illustrator Guy Billout and if you lean in close, the truck you see the Taliban soldiers riding in is rather striking:

It’s not a Toyota. It’s a quad cab Dodge—a Dakota to my untrained eye, but it could be a Ram as well. This might be an inconsequential detail if the magazine in question was not The New Yorker, famous for their fact checking team. And the truck is definitely not some sort of generic placeholder pickup: it has a Dodge grille.

Cooperation between American companies and the Taliban would not be without historical precedent. Back in 1995 before they conquered Kabul and became host to Al-Qaeda, Unocal executive Marty Miller was involved in negotiations with the Taliban leadership for a natural gas pipeline which was to run from Turkmenistan to Pakistan, straight through Taliban territory. While the deal eventually fell through, Miller visited Kandahar several times and at one point even had Taliban leaders flown to Houston for Christmas, of all holidays.

Perhaps Toyota, with its humbling losses and its exit from Formula One, has gone over the hill—while Chrysler has found itself a particularly lucrative market for trucks, where demand for new vehicles is guaranteed not by rebates but by American firepower. And nobody likes to stick with a loser. Least of all the Taliban.

Photo Credit: SAEED KHAN/AFP/Getty Images, TERENCE WHITE/AFP/Getty Images, Paula Bronstein/Getty Images, Guy Billout, EMMANUEL DUNAND/AFP/Getty Images, U.S. Air Force

This information can be heavily qualified because this is only through the first three quarters of the year and comes after Toyota drastically cut back on production in the first half while Volkswagen took advantage of cash-for-clunkers schemes and other government support for its vehicles in markets like China.

But none of that changes the fact that Volkswagen has quickly passed Toyota and GM at the top of the heap. We'll see if it lasts all year and, hopefully, if it works out any better for them. [The Guardian]

Photo Credit: Matt Cardy/Getty Images

Infrequent bursts of fawning published in these pages will prove that the Citroën SM, in its quiet yet revolutionary way, is perhaps the most remarkable automobile ever manufactured. Yet owning one is clearly out of the picture.

Consider: if the engine goes, you’ll have to find a mechanic familiar with 40-year-old carbureted Maserati engines. Then, if anything else goes, you’ll need another mechanic intimate with 40-year-old hydropneumatic Citroëns. If you multiply the respective probabilities of finding such mechanics, you will feel the blood drain from your face.

The nightmarish nature of this scenario is not specific to the United States: contrary to popular belief, Europe does not have trees with mixed bunches of Maserati and Citroën mechanics cavorting on low-hanging branches either.

Yet the SM exerts a powerful visceral tug. Its parts are remarkable by themselves, but the SM is clear testament to the idea that on occasion the whole is indeeed greater than the sum of parts. The strange yet mellifluous 90° V6, the DIRAVI steering, the hydropneumatics, the incredible cabin: the SM’s components combine to make a car that has the ability to cruise in complete comfort at 125 MPH between fillups without breaking down.

Think about that: neither occasional bursts of speed for joy or overtaking nor a single cross-continental blitz with the result of you being on time and your car a smoldering wreck, but a grand tourer for regular grand tours.

The world has since moved on from such earthbound flights of fancy. The SM’s was a world infinitely less hostile to the automobile than ours. Its vehicular contemporaries were:

1. A hypersonic civilian jetliner flirting with time travel
2. A military spy plane made of titanium which could outrun anti-aircraft rockets
3. An air-cooled twelve-cylinder racing car with 1500 HP
4. A giant space rocket which regularly whisked American men from the gravitational pull of the Earth to deposit them on the surface of the Moon
5. The Lamborghini Miura

Yes, wow. That was four decades ago.

Perhaps we should all just forget about the Citroën SM. Ours is a world not of grand tours but of shuffling in socks through airports and molassing along at 65 MPH in plastic cabins.

Yet imagine! Just imagine a contemporary SM.

The Japanese would have to build it. The Japanese are less interested in haphazard, grandiose revolution than in taking established concepts and polishing them to perfection. The way Toyota usurped Mercedes-Benz’s lead in luxury sedans to produce the last word in personal transportation inside motorized whales, the Lexus LS600hL.

But a modern SM is not a Toyota job. In spite of occasional displays of deep petrolhead inspiration—the 2000GT, the AE86, the LFA—Toyota does not make touring cars you’d like to tour in high style in. The modern SM should be a Honda, built on Soichiro Honda’s legacy of mechanical madness and racing chops.

In fact, Honda has already made something akin to a modern SM: the NSX of 1991, a perfect, luxurious grand tourer disguised as a mid-engined sports car and generally mistaken for a Ferrari. Plus, they have taken the SM’s glass headlights enclosure and installed it on the current Civic, which is as close in chutzpah to the SM as a mass-market hatchback can be.

(And it’s not like cooperation between Japanese and French carmakers is such a long shot either. In fact, Citroën already makes a crossover called the C-Crosser on a Japanese platform, the Mitsubishi GS: a base for excellence like the Evo X and also for the abomination that is the Chrysler Sebring.)

Honda could pull it off. As for what our slow world could do with the perfect idea of the touring car executed with Japenese attention to detail, I do not have a clue. But do we really want to go down in history as the generation which has all but abandoned forward motion?

Photo Credit: PlingPlöng/Flickr, afghtiga/Flickr, Infinite Jeff/Flickr, cosmicspanner/Flickr, Ignacio Conejo/Flickr, Jim Ross/NASA, nielsvk/Flickr, Steve Kay/Flickr

These cars are rare even in their native Japan, so it was an exciting moment for loyal Jalopnik reader Nick to spot one in Central America. Hey, check out that Dave Zinn Toyota emblem on the trunk lid; looks like this car made the drive from Florida to about 1,000 miles to the southwest. Here's what Nick has to say about his find.

So I live in Argentina (originally from Vermont) and had the chance to go to Nicaragua with my dad recently. I spent a couple days attending a fair trade conference and then had some time on my own to travel. I was in Granada when I spied this beautiful toyota than I just had to take some photos of. Unfortunately the windows were completely tinted so I had no shot at seeing inside but I tried my best to capture the car.

I am an avid jalopnik reader without actually knowing much about the history and inner-workings of cars and I've always enjoyed the DOTS section. There is something about older cars that excites me. With this car, I especially liked the "liftback" badge which I had never seen. The whole GT thing also helps.

I've got quite a backlog of DOTSBE vehicles built up, so I'll try to do at least a few every weekend from now on. Thanks for sending 'em in, and for your patience if you've been waiting a year... or two.

Yes, a Toyota Venza with a built-in shower for post-surf rinsing and a TRD brake kit is distinguished not by the seats made of wet-suit material or the built-in WiFi (seen it, done it). Custom headliners aren't completely new, as anyone who has traveled in the back of a stretch Hummer can tell you, but this one may start a new era of tackiness in mainstream custom vehicles.

Of course, this means there's no longer a Japanese manufacturer in Formula One with Honda gone and no carmaker from the Land of the Rising Sun in a position to throw that much money away. [AutoNews]

The loathing and rabble rousing ran fast and thick yesterday for the hack-job 6.9 Mercedes, and in the end, it gained a 66% Crack Pipe vote for the loss of its roof and donktastic rims. That Benz would have looked right at home at the SEMA show, which is being held this week in Las Vegas. In fact, it's over the top orgy of chrome and toplessness could be slipped onto the floor today without anyone questioning its pedigree. SEMA is full of wretched excess as accessory makers pile on every oversized wheel, 10,000 watt stereo and metallic-goldfish fade paint job their demo vehicles can handle. Jalopnik is your prime source for all things weird and wonderful from the SEMA show, but you may go into overload with all the Scion-aminos and soulless-eyed Lingenfelter Trans-Am homages. So, as a public service - sort of an aperitif from the high-calorie SEMA gorging - we bring you. . . a 1980 Toyota Cressida.

The Cressida has made the rounds on NPOCP previously, and even Murillee's obsessive documenting of all things patina'd has brought us a number of Toyota's flagship from later in the Reagan era, but the first-gens have been few and far between. This 1980 Cressida comes with 85,000 miles on the odo, and its original engine. That engine is the 4M-E SOHC six, which sports one of Toyota's first attempts at FI in a U.S. model. Backing that is their rock-stock reliable 4-speed overdrive auto box to help keep things calm, and yes, wrapping that all up is a body that brings the brown. You can't get much more soothing than brown. Add to that the killer find of an 8-track tape player so you can whip out those vintage Larry Welk tapes and you're going to be on Golden Pond with this one. And like Frankie, that beige vinyl roof says relax.

And what does this rolling Ambien cost, you ask? Why, it's priced at a sane and sensible $3,250. For that, you'll be getting the ultimate in stealth- why even the Highway Patrol following you would nod-off before lighting you up for speeding after a few miles. Have a hyperactive child? $3,250 is a lot cheaper than pumping him full of Ritalin- just lock him in the back seat and let him wind down in the crushed velour upholstery, cosseted by the fold-down armrest. This is the perfect car for those who are wound too tight as it come from an age before "Cup Holder" entered the OED, and will, as such, limit you to the amount of coffee you are willing to carry wedged between your legs- hence curtailing your intake of caffeine and sugar. Do you have a dog that's too rambunctious, and is always chewing up your shoes and collection of "Classic Hustlers"? This would be the perfect car to run him over with! Why, just having this car parked in your driveway would mean overcoming those weeks of insufferable insomnia caused by the newlyweds next door and their apparent aversion to window coverings.

So, what say you regarding this 1980 Cressida and its $3,250 price tag? Does that get you dreaming of a Nice Price? Or, is that like getting awakened by a cold splash of water to the face, and a swift kick to the nuts?

You decide!

Holy Toledo Craigslist or go here if the ad disappears.

Props to Dealkiller for the tip!

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Those new products will include the all-new Toyota Sienna, which was designed in California, engineered in Michigan, and will be built Indiana. Toyota plans to reveal it at the upcoming LA Auto Show. Carter also mentioned a replacement for the Scion TC, as well as the possibility of adding another model to the line, a refreshed Camry, and others. Earnings reports for Toyota will come out Thursday, but expect to see single digit improvements in daily sales rates compared to the last month, single digit declines in the same figure year over year and a 28% improvement quarter to quarter, led by a sales bump from the Cash for Clunkers program. Toyota's expecting growth to continue in the entry-subcompact and subcompact markets and is reaffirming plans for the plug-in Prius at the end of the year, a battery electric by 2012 and a hydrogen fuel cell offering by 2015.

The 800 lb gorilla in the room was of course the litany of bad news for Toyota recently. The floor mat recall problem was the source of much discussion. Carter fielded the questions by referencing the NHTSA studies which are now wrapping up and making note that the conditions which caused the unintended acceleration were largely customer related. Toyota's claiming the problem arises when owners put down incorrect floor mats or multiple mats down which were getting caught up in the accelerator. Carter categorically denied claims like those in ABC News investigation into the situation wherein owners are claiming electrical or mechanical faults led to unintended acceleration. Those claims will have to be proven out independently at NHTSA.

The briefing wrapped up with a bit of levity though. Asked to comment on the strength of the competition, specifically the Hyundai Sonata and Genesis, Carter responded

"I have to be careful on what I say, I don't want you guys writing a story saying 'This Toyota guy thinks the Hyundai Sonata is a great car'"

Take that for what it's worth.

Tailgating credentials:

• Slide-out cargo box
• Grill N Chill cooking space
• Infrared barbecue
• "Beverage" tap
• 42-inch flat- panel TV
• Complete sound system

All that's great, but really, we're still fixated on those ridiculous door handle appliques. For further details head over to PickupTrucks.com.

The concept's a joint venture between Toyota and Microsoft Xbox. "We've taken the idea of what would it be like to take an off-road vehicle and still be able to play your favorite video games in remote locations," said David Williams, a Toyota marketing planner.

The Tacoma ATG (TACO ATG for short — and on the license plate) starts with a stock double cab pickup with a 6-foot bed, removes the B-pillars and welds the front and rear doors together to create giant gull-wing doors on both sides of the pickup, creating a "patio-like" shelter for gamers.

Mike Levine from PickupTrucks.com has more to say:

"The driver and front passenger seats fold out and back, lining up next to the rear seats, so that four players can compete head-to-head in Microsoft's new Halo ODST multiplayer videogame for the Xbox. Four Samsung 24-inch LCD displays are stowed in the center of the cabin and swing out to give each player their own view of the gaming action.

Spectators can watch the action via a 60-inch Sharp LCD television mounted in the Tacoma's trailer receiver hitch."

But in our minds the best part is the license plate holder. It says "My other car is a Warthog." It's a nice touch...for a completely silly concept truck.

Yes, she is. In addition to the three LeMons races under her belt, she has run a best quarter-mile of 11.01 seconds at 123.36 MPH in her MkIV Supra.

We met Anna for the first time about a year ago, at the BS Inspection of the very first Yeehaw It's Texas 24 Hours Of LeMons.

Her team was running a third-gen Camaro in that race, and they finished a very close second place- by far the best performance for a Camaro in LeMons history. Did the Camaro sneak some super-cheaty suspension mods past the LeMons Supreme Court due to Anna's distracting influence, or was it just a combination of driving skill and luck? Naturally, I'm inclined to the latter opinion but, it is pretty tough to concentrate when she's in Mess With The Judges mode; this is a very smart woman who clearly knows exactly how to get men to do as she says.

Hell, maybe we should make her a judge for the next Texas LeMons race. Let's see those slick Texan cheaters try to lie to the Bikini Racer!
Thanks to Anna for the photos!

[Bikini Racer]

Update: We've pulled the video at Lexus' request, look for it again in the near future.

(Apparently early-onset Alzheimers has wiped my memory of the previously posted Buick jump, so instead of boring you with a re-run, I've dug up a new Hoon of the Day... I hope)

Because if there's one thing we know, this always ends well. And y'all better hurry — we think you only have until the end of today to do it.

Oh, and the prize? It remains to be seen. But the more spectacular the stunt, the better.

Jenson Button, talking to the BBC after the race, was a bit more blunt in his description: “Kobayashi is absolutely crazy, very aggressive.”

The 23-year-old Japanese driver has been Toyota’s F1 test driver for the past two seasons but apart from two rounds of free practice at this year’s Japanese Grand Prix, he has never raced.

All that changed when Toyota’s regular driver Timo Glock did not recover from a leg injury in time for the Interlagos showdown. Starting from 11th place on the grid, Kobayashi drove with such brazenness and abandon that one of the commentators on the Hungarian broadcast I was watching remarked that he had never seen anybody drive a Toyota F1 car with such gusto.

Said lack of gusto is a major headache for Toyota, who have been running a well-financed team in F1 for eight seasons without a single win in 138 races. Their drivers have always been a bit…well, a bit like the Toyotas you purchase for daily driving. No major problems to complain about at all—but certainly nothing remarkable about them either.

And you just cannot win in Formula One without remarkable drivers who border on absolute craziness. While some of what Kobayashi was doing, especially his back-to-back overtaking battle with eventual world champion Jenson Button, was on the far edge of the rulebook, one thing is for certain: he is the kind of driver Toyota needs.

Even if the very expensive Kimi Räikkönen ends up slipping from their grip for 2010, Toyota could do worse than install Kobayashi in either Trulli’s or Glock’s permanent seat. Now that they have at last learned how to build a consistently fast car, all they need is a driver with that extra determination to stick his car on the racing line.

Whether that racing line happens to be occupied or not.

Photo Credit: TORU YAMANAKA/AFP/Getty Images, Clive Mason/Getty Images, Mark Thompson/Getty Images

Please note that like all videos depicting recent Formula One races, the one embedded above showing Kobayashi battling Button at the Brazilian Grand Prix can disappear at whim. F1 employs a number of trigger-happy copyright lawyers.

We love inline-six engines, and Toyota has made some of the best. Oh, sure, BMW made some pretty powerful ones, and Chrysler made one that couldn't be killed, but it's hard to argue with 320 twin-turbocharged factory horsepower out of 3 liters. We North Americans mostly know of this engine via the Supra, but Toyota dropped it in Chasers, Crowns, Soarers, and quite a few other rear-wheel-drive machines. Sadly, the JZ has been retired, leaving the late-70s-vintage G as Toyota's lone I6.
[Wikipedia]

Great moments include German Chocolate Cakeballs at the concession stand, someone in a Neon getting rear-ended by the judges' cart after nearly backing over a man carrying a gas tank (his bracelet was pulled, no more racing for him), and an abundance of barbecue sauce and classic rides. There are heroic motor swaps after all-night drives across the state to get a replacement. We learned one of the Probe teams has a surprisingly talented painter/driver doing a more-than-passable Bob Ross on the hood of his penalized vehicle.

We heard this yelled at an unwitting, or perhaps just witless, crewman: "When was the last time we swapped a wheel. God, check your work." We're sure God is paying close attention to his work here, at MSR, noting some of the defects in his creations.

Enjoy all this, and more, in the gallery.

The SCHWING Corolla FX16 (that's a California-built NUMMI car, by the way) had a comfortable lead... right up to the point at which their engine suffered catastrophic overheating and probable internal damage with about 30 minutes to go in the day's session. They're going to thrash on the engine all night, get the car onto the track tomorrow, and hope to gain back the dozen or so laps they've lost. Meanwhile, the leader is the winner of the Laissez Les Crapheaps Roulez LeMons race, the GT$500 Toyota Celica.

At the same time, the Index Of Effluency competition remains hot; looks like the Fiat Brava just can't keep running, the VW Fastback took some nasty collision damage, and the longshot Ford Festiva just keeps going around and around. Who will it be? You'll find out tomorrow night!

To be certain, the Toyota FT-86 Concept is only a concept, without definite numbers on anything, but based on what we understand to be the targets for the production program, we're comparing an optimistically priced $20,000, 200 HP FT-86 against a pessimistically priced $400,000, 552 HP Lexus LFA. On the one hand, you can call the FT-86 a bargain, on the other you can call the LFA efficient.

Either way, we're just amazed Toyota debuted two cars we can be excited about at the same auto show.

The translated quote goes something like this:

Home game machines are no good. Playing something that realistic makes the need for cars disappear.

It's a bit of a leap if you ask us, but something has to be responsible for falling sales, right? Could just be the combination of cars being wildly expensive to own and of limited utility in Japans crowded urban centers, but video games are probable just as likely a culprit. While the statement is something of a blind item, it does provide a peak into the growing societal issues plaguing modern Japan. Young men are forgoing family life in favor of extended bachelorhood, meaning enjoying video games and other hobbies seen as undignified perversions by the elder generation. Heck, video games could just be the downfall of Japan, but killing car sales is a good start. [Kotaku]

There were a few years around the turn of the millennium when a wild spectrum of appliance manufacturers were inspired by the translucent, colored plastics used by Apple lead designer Jonathan Ive for the original iMac. The future, as evidenced by a casual glimpse at household appliances, was about to turn bondi blue.

This did not happen, of course, mainly because Ive has since abandoned color and began to lead his team to create monochrome computers, like the latest iteration of his iMac, announced yesterday.

But Apple’s aesthetics creep through and define modern industrial design. Observe this info-display made by Toyota for last month’s Frankfurt Motor Show to advertise their new Prius: it is as close to an iPhone as you can get without actually manufacturing a handheld computing device with a multitouch screen.

I wouldn’t be surprised if our Ray Wert, currently prowling the Tokyo Motor Show, came across something very similar. Or perhaps a rapid-prototyped press freebie aping Apple’s new mouse. (Nope! Bupkiss. —Ed.)

What's that? You can't imagine a Toyota that might consider offering a fun, affordable, two door with a modicum of sportiness and some seriously interesting style? Might we introduce you to the Toyota FT-86 concept — the first Toyota (barring the epic Lexus LFA) we've been genuinely excited about since the... um... Supra? Wow, that took entirely too long.

The newest Mark X maintains the trademarked X-marks-the-spot grille treatment and adds to the rest of the car some additional curves. Curves which in some instances, like the front wheel arches, which remind us of the current Mercedes S-Class. The car rides on the same rear-wheel-drive chassis underpinning the US Lexus GS and the Japanese Toyota Crown, but it's done with a bit more sporting flair than either. The car will come with the option of either a base 2.5 liter V6 making 203 HP or a 3.5 liter V6 with 318 HP. In addition to the basic cars, customized cars from DAMD and Modellista will be forthcoming, as well as a dealer customization program. [CarScoop]

Co-developed with the Toyota FT-86, the Subaru should be mechanically very similar yet beneath the camo appears to depart radically from the FT-86's handsome proportions.

Like the FT-86, the Subaru coupe will be rear-wheel drive and use a 2.0-liter, four-cylinder engine putting out something between 200 and 250 HP through a six-speed transmission. Expect both cars to be smaller in length, width, height and weight than the Nissan 370Z, yet feature a longer wheelbase of 101.2 inches. [via DiabloMotor]

The Toyota FT-86 concept is the fruit of cooperation between Toyota Motor Company and Subaru, and as such will wear a common chassis and some degree of engine commonality, at the least a 2.0 liter, four cylinder boxer engine dubbed the "C-45 Boxer" and making between 200 and 250 HP will power the rear wheels through a manual six speed transmission, and get this - no hybrid system.



Perhaps most telling are the car's overall dimensions. At 163.7 inches long, 69.3 inches, a wheelbase of 101.2 inches, and 49.6 inches high, it's thankfully compact, smaller in length, width and height than the Nissan 370Z, and slightly longer in wheelbase. It's also the first car to wear Toyota's new swoopy styling with some gusto. Dare we say it, we actually like the look of it. It's... exciting, we're so confused here. The interior is obviously all show-car glam and may serve as direction, but we'll be shocked if there are many zippers on the production car's dash. [via FT-86 Club]