Autoblog

Takuma Sato's fans had pretty much given up on seeing their idol on track this past weekend at the British Grand Prix. Many of them had bought plane and/or GP tickets well in advance, only to be disappointed when Super Aguri followed Minardi, and Arrows in to the annals of Formula 1 history just two months ago.

So what did Taku do? Rent a kart track and invite his fans, plus a few select journalists, to race him in a 30-minute endurance race. Some fans, who had flown in from across Europe and of course Japan, were new to karting, so Taku graciously took them out for a few practice laps and providing one-on-one instruction. How many people get to have their first racing lesson from an F1 racer?

Takuma and his team mate won outright (of course), but then were disqualified for "speeding". Autoblog's team was in second right up to the final pitstop when we were penalized for over taking on a yellow flag, but we still made the podium.

As Formula 1's silly season kicks in to high gear, rumors around the paddock have Takuma moving back to Honda's F1 team next year (at the expense of Rubens Barrichello or Jensen Button), driving for Team Force India should the F1 newbies switch from Ferrari to Honda power next year, heading up team Japan in A1 GP or even leading an all new Team Honda USA (which should be called Team Acura surely) with Danica Patrick as his team mate. Unfortunately, Takuma wouldn't confirm or deny any such gossip.

Thanks to Taku management for the invite, to Apex Dream Drives for the pics (and speed) and to Takuma for a great day out.

Click above for a high-res gallery of the 2008 Subaru Exiga.

When we showed you Subaru's new MPV last week your response was pretty much unanimous: man that is fugly. The car's reception on the other side of the Pacific has been a lot warmer though, particularly for the headlights' signature blue flash; the only criticism is that it's taken Subaru way too long to get this car to market.

Make the jump to read our initial impressions of the Subaru Exiga.

Gallery: Subaru Exiga Impressions

Gallery: 2008 Subaru Exiga

Photos Copyright ©2008 Justin Gardiner / Weblogs, Inc.

Hundreds of European GT-R buyers, who have put down large down payments on cars that they won't see until next spring at the earliest, have received a small consolation gift from Nissan: a tape measure.

The highly cool GT-R-embossed little box is to be used to measure their heads, so Nissan will know what sized helmets to prepare for them when they show up for their free lessons in how to extract the best from their new steeds at Silverstone or (where else?) the Nürburgring.

That's one good reason to buy from Nissan, rather than from the numerous grey importers of surprisingly cheap second-hand R35s that are already hitting Japanese websites. Thanks for the tip (and pic) Philippe!

[Source: Autocar]

"Dad, I've totalled the (insert name of first car here)." Chances are that even if you haven't had to use that phrase, you know someone who has. But in an unusual twist, Anthony Hamilton may be making the sheepish call to his son this morning.

Lewis Hamilton's dad has put someone's Carrera GT through a hedge just a couple of hundred meters from the family home in the village of Tewin, just north of London. He's not saying who the Porsche belongs to, but it appears to have German license plates, which unfortunately makes it unlikely that the car belongs to new Swiss immigrant Lewis. That would have made the story so much sweeter.

Follow the jump to The Daily Mail's version of events, but we take the tabloid's assertation that Mr. Hamilton "somehow lost control on a straight road," with a pinch of salt. The road is a sweeping right hander and was greasy at the time of the accident. Given the proximity to the Hamilton home and the GT's reputation for snap over steer, it's pretty easy to imagine what happened. Thanks for the tip Robert!

[Source: The Daily Mail]

Marketing folks at Rover used to boast that the first car most people of the world ever saw was a Land Rover. That's a pretty spurious claim, but anyone who has travelled in Asia will agree that the first vehicle that most of Earth's residents *owned* was and is the venerable Honda Cub.

Fifty years ago, Honda knocked out just 24,000 of the ground breaking mopeds, but last year factories around the world built a whopping 4.7 million of the little blighters and now the 60 millionth Cub has rolled off one of Honda's multiple production lines.

To put things in perspective, 35 million Corollas have been sold to date, 30 million F-Series trucks have left Ford dealers and VW sold a paltry 21.5 million original Beetles. How many of those 60 million Cubs are still putting along is anyone's guess, but having watched The Discovery Channel try to destroy one, we think it's fair to say "most".

[Source: Honda]

When we reported on this SM themed Agent Provocateur Mini Clubman, we took an impossible-to-resist shot at Max Moseley, but now Mini and the AIDS charity Life Ball may be making the most of the FIA president's infamous escape, too. In order to publicize the car's upcoming auction, the black and pink police car has been photographed with, you guessed it, four whip-wielding dominatrixes wearing Gestapo-esque caps... and not a whole lot else. This Dutch website has been diligent enough to post a video of the photoshoot (WARNING: NSFW video).

BMW's contribution to Life Ball is commendable, but seems somewhat odd since the boys from Bavaria were among the first to publicly call for Mr. Moseley's resignation from the FIA following his indiscrete trip to a London SM dungeon.

In a related development, The Times newspaper has revealed that the prostitute who videoed Max's exploits is married to a serving (for now) MI5 officer and as such appears to be genuine agent provocateur, much to the delight of conspiracy theorists and the FIA president's lawyers alike.

[Source: autojunk.nl]

Click above for a gallery of the new Toyota Alphard and Vellfire

Six years after Toyota's luxury minivan, the Alphard, hit Japanese (and a few SE Asian) showrooms, the company has given its flagship people mover a facelift, and a twin brother. Noting that one in four family cars in Japan are minivans but that the outgoing Alphard appealed more to grandfathers than fathers, the second-gen model remains conservatively styled, while a meaner, more aggressive-looking stablemate, the Vellfire (above), is hoped to grab the attention of Japanese family men in their 30s who have erstwhile bought Nissan Elgrands and Honda Elysions.

The new Alphard (shown at right) is longer, wider and roomier than the outgoing version. Its slightly lower roofline (by 45mm) is offset by a cabin floor that's been lowered 55 mm, so the new van actually boasts more cabin height even though it's not quite as tall as its predecessor. Power comes from either a 170 PS (167 hp) 2.4L four or a 280 PS (276 hp) 3.5L V6 driving the front wheels. In August, a 4WD variant will join the lineup.

While Toyota's press release acknowledges that the new models are a bit spacier and safer than the old one, it neatly ignores the fact that the Alphard Hybrid has been quietly dropped. This could well be the first such occurrence for the company and given the number of eggs Toyota currently has in the hybrid basket, its no surprise that its PR department is doing its best to gloss over the retirement.

So, how long until Modellista cooks up an ultra-snazzy Royal Lounge package for the new vans?

Hit the jump for a video of the Alphard in action. Thanks for the tip, Paul!

[Source: Toyota]

James Bond used them to elude Goldfinger's foot soldiers, but now revolving license plates have hit the open market in (where else?) China. Apparently over half of all speeders caught on camera in the south of the country get away scot-free by using false or occluded plates. A basic remote controlled plate switcher costs just 800 Yuan ($115), but more sophisticated gadgets that get the job done in just three seconds cost over twice that amount.

So, would fitting one of these make your vehicle a Q Car?

[Source: Reuters]

Click above for a huge, high-res gallery of Rd. 3 of the '08 SuperGT season.

After previous incarnations of the Nissan GT-R ran away with successive JGTC titles, Japan's GT Association decided to inflict "success ballast" on race winners in an attempt to level the playing field (i.e give Toyota and Honda a chance).

As the current GT-R race car is built to 2009 Super GT specifications, the GT-A handed it a weight penalty of 50kgs added right from the start of the season. After winning Round 1 in Suzuka car number 23 had to carry an additional 50kgs at Round 2 in Sugo, which it promptly won anyway. Then thanks to also setting numerous fastest laps and other speeding offenses it was deemed that Benoit Treluyer and Satoshi Motoyama's ride would have to port an massive 200ks (440lbs) of ballast at this weekend's race at Fuji Speedway.

That presents a couple of problems. Firstly, where the heck do you safely stow 200kgs of lead? And would the car meet GT-A regulations even if Nissan found a way to do it? The ruling body's compromise was to give the car a 115kg penalty and fit a stifling restrictor to the GT-R's air intake. That knocked 30kph off the GT-R's maximum velocity at the end of Fuji's 1.5km straight, and in the words of Benoit, "Gives us no chance at all."

Follow through the jump to find out if he was right, and to find out how Lightning McQueen faired in GT300 after qualifying on pole yesterday.

Thankfully we can officially report that the humongously ugly rendering of a GT-R based SUV, which appeared in Best Car's early February edition, has no basis in reality. Reliable sources, both at Nissan's HQ in Tokyo and at the company's development center in Zama, who typically answer questions with non-committal "can neither confirm nor deny" statements, were adamant that no such project exists.

With the GT-R snatching the Porsche 911's crowns left, right and center, and the upcoming new hardcore Z rumoured to be a Cayman eater, Porsche can relax in the knowledge that the Cayenne, at least, is safe for now.