2012 Nissan GT-R by Axell Auto

Over here in the good ol’ US of A, people are gearing up for one of the biggest auto shows of the year, the Detroit Auto Show, but spin the globe around and we’ll see that there is another show that deserves a good amount of attention as well. Over in Japan, the Tokyo Auto Salon will begin in less than a month to bring us some of the hottest tuned up machines we’ve seen, and the star of the show will obviously be the new Nissan GT-R

Bringing the sports car to the forefront of the crowd is Axell Auto, a tuner who, until now, specializes in tuning Toyota van models. How they switched from vans to a beautiful sports car is beyond us, but we’ll take it anyway.

What they have done is prepared an extreme widebody kit for the new GT-R sports coupe. This kit will include new body panels, wider fenders, matching widebody Rear quarter panel fenders, a new rear bumper with a lot of vents and, of course, a new set of wheels. Currently the car is still under development, but these first couple of sketches leave us waiting in anticipation for the car’s Tokyo debut.

No engine updates have been announced as of yet, but maybe the tuner is waiting for the Tokyo Auto Show 

Nissan GT-R asks: Is the purple a bit much? 

Black, white, red, or orange; these are all suitable colors for a sports car. Stray from this assortment and the results could be hit or miss. Obviously British automotive journalist and GT-R fan, Davis Yu, has decided to take his chances and turn a perfectly good Gum metallic paint job into Barney.

That’s right, this guy has taken his Nissan GT-R to the folks at Creative FX so they could wrap it up in a purple foil.

Not that it hasn’t been done before. Nissan themselves have even ventured off to the plum palette by allowing their 2010 V Spec GT-R models to carry the color, but we’re not so sure that the GT-R deserves this kind of treatment.

"David Yu approached us to wrap his gun metal GT-R in the iconic midnight purple, which is only available in the spec V version of the latest GT-R. David is very happy with the result of the wrap and says, “most of the people who’ve seen it thought it was a respray!"

We’re glad Mr. Yu is happy with his car, but we would love to know what everyone else thinks about his wine-colored ride. Does the Nissan GT-R look good in purple, or should the foil be unwrapped and tossed away like yesterday’s Christmas paper?

2011 Nissan R35 GT-R Olsson Winter Edition

Jon Olsson is a man of many talents. A Swedish free skier and alpine ski racer, Olsson also shares with us a fascination for building cars, or to be more precise, tuning supercars and turning them into vehicles that suit his lifestyle.

He’s already made our pages with his work on a Lamborghini Gallardo earlier this year and now that winter is fast approaching in many parts of the world, Olsson is back to unveil his latest work, the Nissan R35 GT-R Olsson Winter Edition.

According to Olsson, the work on this R35 GT-R included the addition of a roof box – it’s similar to the one on his Gallardo – and golden decals stickered in various parts of the GT-R, making for a perfect contrast to Godzilla’s exterior black finish. In addition to the aesthetic additions, Olsson also added a custom exhaust on the GT-R thereby adding better performance capabilities to a car that already comes with a 3.8-liter DOHC V6 engine producing 530 horsepower.

Olsson calls this particular version the ‘NR 1’ and says that, while some modifications have already been made, his work on it is far from finished. The skier said - with a sly winking emoticon, no less – that we can “expect some more things to happen to this little thing later in the year…”

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2011 Lotus Evora Police Car

Time and again, we’ve all been thrust into the same unflattering scenario of driving over the speed limit on a highway without a care in the world - at least until a police car begins to give chase. That’s where we start quaking in our boots. In some instances, we make a break for it, hoping that our trusty steed can outrun the galloping highway patrol car as it tries to keep pace. Unfortunately for the residents of the West Midlands in the UK, trying to outrun the new highway patrol car just became a more difficult task. As a donation by Lotus and presented at the Autosport International Motor Show, the UK police force will be getting a Lotus Evora police car to facilitate the chase..

Oh yes, dear criminals. A 280 horsepower sports car will be stuck in your rear view mirrors until you cry ‘uncle!’ and pull over on the shoulder of the highway. The Evora police car will be given a two-week trial run on a stretch along the West Midlands highway that covers 450 miles, together with a number of major routes, including the M5, M6, and M2 motorways.

So the next time you find yourselves in these areas, you might want to keep watch of the speed limit because you know never know when the Evora police car will jump out of the bushes and give you chase. Most likely, you wouldn’t’ even stand a chance.

Exterior and Interior

On the outside, the Evora police car looks to have retained the same aesthetic dynamics as a stock version of the Evora except for a few obvious additions. Lotus has dressed it up with an unmistakable police livery, standard police badges, and police lights on the roof, the grille, and the interior dashboard.

Interior upgrades on the Evora Police Car have yet to be released although we can only imagine that it’s going to come with some heavy dose of law-enforcement paraphernalia, which would include a radar gun, an on-board computer, gun holsters, and maybe even a container for doughnuts. Okay, that last item is unlikely to make it there, but the rest of the features are most definitely included.

Performance

The Evora police car is being touted as the fastest police car in the UK. With a powertrain that features a 3.5-liter V6 engine that produces 280 horsepower – the same as the stock version of the 2010 Evora - this law-enforcement speedster is capable of hitting ‘north-to-60’ in less than five seconds with a top speed of 168 mph while also running at 30 miles to a gallon.

Suffice to say, this is not the type of police car you would want to see on your rear view mirrors in the foreseeable future.

Pricing

The car is priced at around £50,000, or about $80,000 based on current exchange rates. Don’t expect this car to hit dealerships anytime soon because it’s going to be sold exclusively to police departments in the UK. For now, the Evora is being loaned to the UK police force for a two-week trial run where it is going to be used to patrol an area covering 450 miles in the West Midlands.

Competition

Criminals beware! Though the Evora may not pose the same menacing presence as other police cars, don’t sleep on this little sportster just yet. What it lacks in intimidation, it certainly makes up for in terms of top-notch speed and power, the likes of which have never been seen in the UK police force.

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2011 Lexus IS- F Club

One of the most impressive vehicles displayed at the Tokyo Auto Salon was the Lexus IS F Circuit Club Sports Racer (CCS-R), and if anyone thinks it looks a bit familiar then they would be right. Seen as a conceptat last year’s Tokyo Auto Salon, the CCS-R is making its comeback in a more production ready form.

The Lexus IS-F Circuit Club Sports Racer upgrades the standard sports car by changing all of its major components like the exterior, interior, and engine. It has been given the full on carbon fiber treatment and has also received a power boost to boot! Since no racer is complete without an additional racing overhaul, Lexus has made sure that the IS-F received all of the necessary components to keep the vehicle safely on the track, including a unique frame-less construction roll cage.

All in all, this version of the Lexus IS-F Circuit Club Sports Racer hasn’t changed all that much from the concept that was shown last year, but we still can’t help but ogle it just as we did last year.

Exterior and Interior

For the exterior, the CCS-R adds a arbon hood, trunk lid, front fender, front and rear spoiler, roof ventilator, and polycarbonate window.

The interior also received an impressive update. It gets a carbon fiber dash, center console, door trim, and package tray trim, as well as a six point seat belt and a short diameter steering wheel with paddle shift.

The car is performance-engineered, too, with a racing suspension, brakes, cooling and exhaust, plus a mechanical limited-slip differential and forged alloys shod with slick tires. And finally there is a unique frameless construction roll cage. And if you add that impressive orange exterior pain combined with the black carbon hood you will surely get an IS-F that has never been seen before. Well, except for the concept displayed at last year’s Tokyo show of course.

2010 Lexus IS-F Circuit Club Sport Concept

Engine

The Lexus IS-F CCS-R carries the same engine as in the standard sports car - a 5.0 Liter V8 to be exact - but thanks to the added carbon fiber, the car now only weighs 3,086lbs. This weight reduction allows the car to produce 417hp and 373 lb-ft of torque.

When Can I Get One

Considering this is the second year the Lexus IS-F CCS-R has been featured at the Tokyo Motor Show, we would bet money that a racing version of the IS-F is somewhere along Lexus’ future. Heck, considering not much changed from last year to this year, we wouldn’t be surprised if this exact setup made it to the track. Here’s to hoping!

2010 Lexus IS-F Circuit Club Sport Concept

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2013 Citroen DS

After the DS3 and DS4, Citroen has announced that there will more DS versions launched in the near future, including a sports car based on the Survolt concept. And now that Citroen has dropped plans for a production version of the GT Concept the future DS sports car will be the only high performance model Citroen will offer.

We don’t expect the production model to follow the concept that closely as we have already picked up on a few changes that will be made, but we are hoping that the overall look and performance of the production model will be just as good, if not better, than the concept. And with Citroen targeting younger customers looking for more than just a simple sports car, we can only imagine that it will be.

Look for Citroen’s only sports car to debut sometime in 2012 with sales starting as early as 2013.

Exterior and Interior

Like all the other DS models, the future sports car will feature striking LED lights, a chrome-finished waistline surrounding dark tinted windows, muscular wheel arches, a tautly drawn roofline with a spoiler for added vitality, chrome rear bumper, and light cluster highlights.

For the interior Citroen will offer sports seats, a three-spoke steering wheel, high quality leather, aluminum pedal, and different other aluminum inserts.

The Engine

The Citroen Survolt which previews the future sports car is an electric vehicle powered by a 200kw electric motor. But don’t expect the same to happen for the production version. We expect to see a conventional engine under the hood of the future DS sports car. We’d put our bets down on a turbocharged version of the 1.6 Liter four cylinder engine with around 200 HP and mated to a six speed gearbox. The sports car will be equipped with sport brakes, a performance tuned suspension, and 18" light alloy wheels.

The Competition

The future Citroen DS Compact Coupe will target models like the Peugeot RCZ or Audi TT. The Citroen model will in fact be a cheaper alternative for the TT, but will offer a more sporty appearance.

When Can I Get One?

The DS sports car will be the last DS model to be offered, after the convertible DS3 debuts, so don’t expect to see it before 2012.

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2012 Toyota FT-86 II

It’s been more than a year since Toyota unveiled the concept version of the FT-86 Coupe at the 2009 Tokyo Motor Show. During that year, we’ve heard so many reports, rumors, and whispers about the car, that we’re beginning to think that this could very well be the second-coming of Toyota’s iconic Celica line.

We already know that the Toyota FT-86 will come with a Subaru version as a direct result of the collaboration between the two Japanese brands. We’ve also received reports that the FT-86 will come with it’s own factory modified G Sports version. Then there were reports that the Toyota version of the FT-86 will be badged as a Scion.

All these reports have generated major buzz on the sports coupe and we haven’t even talked about it’s release date yet - it’s expected to come out in November of 2011, setting the stage for what promises to be a very busy holiday season for both Toyota and Subaru.

Now, the production version of the FT-86 has yet to be revealed, but the many people that fell in love with the design of the concept version, will be happy to know that, according to Toyota, the production version of the FT-86 will look a whole lot like the concept version with only a few minor modifications to its aerodynamic package.

More details after the jump.

Exterior and Interior

Although complete specs and details on the FT-86 have yet to be announced, we’ve pieced together enough information to have an idea of what it’s going to look like. For starters, the car’s overall shape and design was inspired by the Corolla-based AE86 sports coupe that was unveiled in the 80s. The FT-86 is going to be a compact rear-wheel-drive sports coupe with an aerodynamic body that rides low to the ground to improve handling and allow it to cut through the air with ease. The fascia is completely aggressive with long slit-looking headlights giving it a mean and intimidating look.

The FT-86’s interior is as sporty as its outside with a flat-bottomed leather-covered steering wheel with its very own red stitching. In addition to that, it also has aluminum pedals, a navigation system, gauges that light with red neon, digital readouts, and a gray instrument panel that seamlessly molds into the darker dash.

Performance

The 2012 Toyota FT-86 is rumored to come with a 2.5-liter boxer-four engine that produces 305 horsepower, which is the same engine that will be found in it’s alter-ego, the Subaru FT-86. Timing figures have yet to be released considering the car has yet to finish its development stage, but given the engine that’s housed under its hood, we’re expecting a sports coupe that can post impressive numbers for its range.

Pricing

The pricing for the car has varied just about every time news about it comes out. It was first reported that it was going to have a price tag of somewhere around $20,000, but recent reports have come out stating that the sports coupe could come at slightly more than $25,000. Either way, 25 grand for a revolutionary new sports coupe from Toyota sounds a lot like a bargain. We’re still going to wait for the performance figures, but all signs point to the car being a popular sell.

Competition

The obvious competition of the Toyota FT86 Coupe is its alter-ego with the Subaru badge, the Subaru FT-86. Both cars are expected to look a little different from each other, but performance specs are expected to be right around the same neighborhood. Even if there have been no official debuts for either car – they’re scheduled to have their unveilings later this year at the Tokyo Motor Show - we’re sure that the competition between these two will be heating up with every day that passes.

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Hummer 2010

Hummer announced today details on the 2010 H3 and H3T models. And there are some very "environmental-friendly" details. Both models will get E85 capability and new colors for the 2010 model year. The prices on the other hand remain the same as for the 2009 models.

All 2010 Alpha series’ models will be powered by a 5.3L V8 Flex Fuel engine rated at 300 hp and 320 lb.-ft. of torque. The engine is mated to a Hydra-Matic 4L60 electronically controlled four-speed automatic transmission. Is not much of a green car, but according to James Taylor, Hummer CEO: "This is just the first step in HUMMER’s evolution to offer responsible, yet highly capable all-terrain vehicles. Future models will be lighter, more efficient and will continue to offer the best blend of off-road capability and on-road performance."

Besides the new engine, the 2010 models will be offered with three new premium colors: Red Rock Metallic, Silver Stone Metallic, and Canyon Metallic.

Press release

HUMMER announced today updates to the 2010 HUMMER H3 and H3T midsize all-terrain vehicles including the addition of three new exterior colors and an available E85 Flex Fuel capable 5.3L V8 engine as part of its commitment to offer a biofuel powertrain in all body styles by 2010. Both H3-based vehicles will begin arriving in dealerships before the end of 2009 in North America.

"In 2007, HUMMER committed to offer a biofuel powertrain in every vehicle by 2010 and follows through on that promise with the addition of a new 300-horsepower, E85 Flex Fuel capable 5.3L V8," says James Taylor, HUMMER CEO. "This is just the first step in HUMMER’s evolution to offer responsible, yet highly capable all-terrain vehicles. Future models will be lighter, more efficient and will continue to offer the best blend of off-road capability and on-road performance."

The new 5.3L V8 Flex Fuel engine is standard in all 2010 Alpha series’ models and is a powerful and efficient member of GM’s legendary small-block V-8 family. It is rated at 300 horsepower (224 kW) and 320 lb.-ft. of torque (434 Nm). An aluminum cylinder block is used with the H3 Alpha’s engine. It helps reduce overall mass and maintains a more desirable front-to-rear weight balance.

A Hydra-Matic 4L60 electronically controlled four-speed automatic transmission is paired with the 5.3L engine. Flat towing is enabled on all H3 and H3T models.

HUMMER also continues to expand customer choice with the introduction of three new premium colors for 2010, which include Red Rock Metallic, Silver Stone Metallic, and Canyon Metallic.

The H3 and H3T feature an extensive list of standard equipment, including full-time electronic four-wheel drive; Hill Start Assist; Stabilitrak electronic stability control system; four-wheel anti-lock brakes with traction control; roof-rail side curtain airbags and dual-stage frontal air bags with passenger sensing system; tire pressure monitoring system; OnStar; bluetooth hands-free capability and HUMMER’s premium five-year/100,000-mile powertrain warranty plan.

Pricing for the 2010 model year H3 remains unchanged from 2009, with a starting MSRP of $33,390. H3T pricing begins at $30,915, a slight $165 increase from 2009. HUMMER has lowered the 2010 H3T Alpha price $335 with a new MSRP of $35,680. All 2010 models also include destination charges of $780.

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