Easily Accessible

The automotive Golden Age, a phrase that's been repeated ad nauseum since a time when British roadsters clashed with American muscle for sales on the showroom floor, has taken on a whole new meaning in the past few years.  Today, an affordable, practical hatchback can roll off the assembly line with over 250 horsepower and beat both those cars in the twisties, the quarter mile, and at the pump.  With performance so readily available to the average consumer, what's there to complain about?

Think back about ten years ago.  Things were beautiful back then.  Car companies were big and plentiful; NASA was mapping Mars; Tiger Woods was known for his superb golfing instead of his superb pimping.  Above all, the pinnacle of automotive excellence was the F1 inspired Ferrari Enzo which sported one carbon fiber body, four carbon brakes, six semi-automatic gears, twelve cylinders, and 650 horsepower.  It was the perfect time for the Enzo because people still had 401Ks to pay for the $660,000 supercar. 

V12? $660,000? 650 horsepower?  What's the big deal?  All of these specs can be found in the super and hypercars of today.  Yes, that's true but that last number can be found in something a little less spectacular, the 2013 Mustang GT500.  As you'd expect, this Mustang, as with all Mustangs, is a car for the blue collar masses.  It doesn't live in the glorified realm of a Ferrari or the pampered extravagance of a Concours D'elegance.  Its $55,000 price tag will be mocked at the country club while its 12 second quarter mile will be bench raced against the blueprinted, ported and polished LS1 powered Chevelle that belongs to the boys that bellied up to the bar for a shot and a beer.

That's all well and good.  It's what this GT500 was built for, blazing through the quarter mile with a great hole shot thanks to that solid rear axle.  The problem arises when the buyer is more concerned about Miley Cyrus than quarter miles.  Put another way, what will happen when Joe Schmoe off the street hands over the cash for all that power without knowing how to handle it?

Now, power isn't a bad thing!  It's just worrisome to know that the median American income is around $46,000 and stretching payments on a $55,000 car for 5 years isn't a far fetched idea for this consumer driven country.  The price of this car almost guarantees that there will be buyers who just looked at how much horsepower they could get for how little money.  That kind of thinking interlaced with crowned, potholes, and gravel strewn real world roads can only result in more than a few GT500s in a ditch... next to a FR-S.

Yes!  I said it!  God's gift to the enthusiast community will end up abused, crashed, and broken on more than one occasion, even if it has 450 (!) less horsepower than the above mentioned GT500.

For the very few that don't know, the Scion FR-S is the car that brings Toyota back into the sports car game.  It doesn't overwhelm with power or technological wizardry but charms with a rear wheel drive layout, perfect 50/50 weight distribution, a low center of gravity, and sport tuned suspension.  And therein lies the problem.

There are very few sub-$25,000 cars that sport rear wheel drive.  The Mazda Miata is the most likely rival at the track.  While that car has less power and is mocked by many as belonging to a hairdresser, it's known by enthusiasts for its poise and precision.  That ability to fly under the radar of the general population is what has allowed it to be an easy choice for cheap thrills specifically by the enthusiast crowd.

Meanwhile, Scion has decided to release commercials that look like this.



The ingenious people at Toyota have decided to show everyone what drifting is.  Think of all the teenagers and young, stupid 20-somethings who bought a Scion tC because its cool factor was determined by the fact that it's a coupe and it's cheap.  Now think of what car would be the perfect upgrade for them.  A Honda Accord coupe? Nope.  A FR-S, the car that race car driver Randy Pobst said doesn't inspire confidence?  Sadly, yes.  Maybe the mainstream deserves more credit than this.  Maybe they can handle a lightweight rear wheel drive coupe.  Than again, that mainstream population is the same group of people who thought the BMW 1-series was front wheel drive... and that's without a drifting commercial.

Cars and Coffee

This past week has been a hugely exciting time to be a petrolhead.  Chrysler's unveiling of the new 2013 SRT Viper left jaws dropped at the New York International Auto Show on Wednesday.  Pictures of that can be seen here.  Halfway across the world in Qatar, MotoGP started its season with a tooth and nail fight amongst Dani Pedrosa, Jorge Lorenzo, and Casey Stoner that lasted to the checkers.  Right here in Boston, the Lars Anderson Auto Museum kicked off the Cars and Coffee season with great showing of exotica.  Kick back and click the pics!

Force Fed Friday

Alliteration is a great device to use when telling anecdotes to a group of friends.  It can turn an awful storyteller into an amazing one... or at least make the words more interesting to hear.  I don't think a story about a partially petrified paleolithic pancreas is that interesting but it's fun to say!  Sorry to all the archaeologists out there!

Where was I?  OH!  Alliteration!  Yes, it's fun.  In fact, this being the weekend, make a drinking game out of it.  At a wedding reception, we, the wedding party, all had to take a drink every time a word started with the letter "L."  We were soon talking about litigious lesbians loving lipsticked lawyers.

You should convince your friends to give it a shot.  You can use words that start with "F" but try to use innuendo more than cussing and swears.  I'll start you off with Force Fed Friday.

Incidentally, that sounds like a great title to use for a bunch of videos about turbo and supercharged cars too!  Enjoy these somewhat artsy, kind of informational, partially awe-inspiring videos.

Fragile females fracture forearms from falling. Drink! (responsibly and don't drive)

Happy Friday!  Feel free to add your own alliteration or video in the comments!


Streetgasm Top Secret Twins - RPM Online from Seifer Chimera on Vimeo.



MRC WIDEBODY S4 - THE SEQUEL 204.4MPH from MRC Tuning on Vimeo.

Commercial Success

For anyone that hasn't been living under a rock for the past few years, it's common knowledge that the housing market has been going through a rough patch with the economy being in the gutter.  Considering this is an automotive blog, the previous statement would seem to be coming out of left field.  If you think long and hard, there is a correlation here.  A house is the most financially important purchase most people buy.  Now consider the volume of people that aren't in the position to buy a house and a car becomes their biggest purchase which ties up most of their income.  So it's no surprise that the car industry has been going through its own turbulent time.  But hold on just a minute!  While 2012 may mark the end of the world, the recent sales figures are saying 2012 is a renaissance for the auto industry.

NHTSA: public enemy #1?

While we may not always think so, the NHTSA is arguably the most powerful entity in the automotive industry. United States has long been the largest market for automobiles (until China recently pulled ahead) and engineers from automakers across the world have to create products that meet whatever safety and fuel economy standard that the NHTSA enforces. These safety and fuel economy standards are established for the sole purpose to protect the millions of Americans sitting behind the wheel.

It's an important responsibility and since the NHTSA was officially established more than four decades ago, the agency's integrity was never put to question. However, two incidents in the past couple of years have made me a bit concerned. Let me explain.

In 2009, Toyota faced a public crisis when the media revealed that owners have reported incidents of unintended acceleration. Although Toyota first installed electronic throttles in 2002, a spike in the number of reported incidents triggered NHTSA to re-open the case and perform one of the most extensive NHTSA investigations since the Ford Explorer/Firestone fiasco. Eventually, with the help of NASA, another well-known technical agency of the United States, the investigators and researchers at NHTSA came up empty and concluded that findings indicated causes for unintended acceleration were nothing more than floor mat obstruction or driver error. The simplest answer is usually the correct one.

Then, not long after the Toyota investigations closed, a new controversy surfaced when a Chevrolet Volt caught fire at NHTSA's testing center on May 12, three weeks after its battery cell was severely compromised from a side impact crash test. In November, the NHTSA launched an investigation that scrutinized the safety of the Volt's lithium-ion batteries. This investigation expanded to ask automakers GM, Nissan, and Ford to all cooperate, and to ensure the integrity and crash-worthiness of the battery-cell of their own electric vehicles. Finally, according to NHTSA's final report, the available data could show no greater risk of fire with a Volt than a traditional gas-powered car.

Case closed and job done, right? Not so fast. The House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform held a hearing bluntly titled, "Volt Vehicle Fire: What Did NHTSA Know & When Did They Know It?" In a nutshell, some individuals (read: Republicans), challenged that NHTSA knew of some really bad information in regards to the Chevy Volt and have been trying to keep the battery fire a secret for fear of causing damage to GM, the country's investment in GM, the Obama Administration's relationship with GM, as well as President Obama's odds for re-election. After all, why else would the agency launch the investigation in November when the fire occurred in May? NHTSA defended its intentions and insisted that their investigation was thorough. What's more, data collected by NASA proved to be comparable with the data NHTSA had accumulated. 

Matters with Toyota weren't over either. Like the ghost of Christmas past, Toyota's unintended acceleration incident came back to haunt NHTSA almost a year after the agency has closed its investigation. An independent auto-safety firm, Safety Research and Strategies, had filed a lawsuit in federal court against NHTSA, requesting for the release of internal records related to said investigation with reason to believe that the agency withheld documents and videos that suggest unintended acceleration incidents were caused by electronics systems rather than floor mat or driver error. NHTSA, of course, denies wrongdoing.

Thanks for bearing with me so far but I'm getting to my point: Is the NHTSA corruptible? Is the body already compromised?

Back in 2008, the global economy suffered a shocking collapse when financial institutions across the world suddenly found themselves waist deep in over-leveraged mortgage backed securities. Lehman Brothers realized moments before bankruptcy that if their holdings in MBS were to drop 20%, the loss would be greater than the entire value of the company.

Credit rating agencies, the body responsible for auditing financial banks as well as their financial products and assets to keep things in check, either never saw it coming, took too long to react, or simply turned a blind eye to give the banks freedom. AAA rated securities were actually worth less than a dollar.

Nothing of that extent has happened in the automotive industry and I can't imagine that it ever will. However, what if NHTSA becomes the automotive industry equivalent to Moody's or Standard & Poor's? It makes you wonder...

2011-2012 Silly Season Remix

Race season kicks off in just over a week with the Rolex Series 24 Hours at Daytona!!! Ya, we're revved up (every pun intended!)!  Okay okay, so we're not the biggest fans of the Rolex Series or Nascar, which both start the earliest of any series.  Who cares?!?!  Racing's back!  Here's a quick, semi-entertaining yet highly informative rundown of what happened in the off season with the series we do follow:

The Scion FR-S is awesome, and I'm a hypocrite.

Last month, I created a rant to express frustrated I am with Toyota's slow roll-out marketing strategy for the GT-86. Toyota first unveiled the FT-86 in 2009 and after all the hype, all the teasers, and media kits, I was simply tired of all the bullshit and I lost interest in the car.

Dozens of 86/FR-S/BRZ forums have sprouted over the years and very soon I could no longer stand the redundant discussions covering the same handful of subjects.

And yet, after I published, something strange happened. It's as if Toyota had decided to cast a curse on me and before I knew it, I was sucked back into it all. Suddenly, AutoGuide.com assigned me with more and more GT-86 related articles to work on and soon I found myself clicking through all the FR-S related literature I came across. I've clicked on every new gallery. Hell, I now start every morning by typing in "Scion FR-S" into the search box just to see whether Google news had found anything new for me to feed on. I've become an addict.

Confused, I decided to seek counseling from a friend of mine and we discussed the matter in depth. We're well aware of its performance and we like what we're seeing at the Tokyo Auto Salon so it wasn't like there was anything that hadn't already cross my mind. Nonetheless, perhaps addressing my thoughts aloud will allow them to take shape.



My friend Blake thoughtfully raised a rather important issue. Quite bluntly, he mentioned that it would only be a matter of time before an FR-S gets plastered with Fatlace, Monster, and Red Bull stickers. It will only be a matter of time before an FR-S gets bagged and slammed. It'll only be a matter of time before we spot a stormtroopered-out FR-S with pink BBS rims. It will be driven by d-bags that don flat-brimmed baseball caps, neon wayfarers, and ironic jeans.

Just look at the threads on www.fr-sforum.com. Seriously, there's a whole thread dedicated to discussing what kind of craziness Veilside (of Tokyo Drift Fortune RX7 and Fortune NSX fame) might offer. I haven't heard that name in ages!

Hell, there's even a RWB rendering. On Nakai-San's defense, Rauh-Welt Begriff WAS cool. Unfortunately, some things can only be cool so many times before it starts becoming uncool, if you know what I mean. With the addition of every new project, RWB loses its mystique. In my opinion, the radical fabrication garage has already fallen from grace 5 Porsches ago. Now, the GT86 isn't even released yet and these hypebeasts are already finding ways to ruin it.

With respect, I took my friend's thoughts into account. I reached into the deepest corners of my soul and sincerely asked myself whether an FR-S is what I really want.

Alarmingly, not only is my answer a resounding yes, but I could also see in all likelihood that I'll be caught doing exactly the same things that I claimed only a douchebag would moments ago. I think I'm going to strip the Scion badges off of my future FR-S and replace them with Toyota badges.

JDM, yo.

eBay Finds: MR Opportunity

Looking back for a second, the nineties was a decade filled with almost too many choices for the sporting enthusiast.  Aside from the usual suspects from the US and Europe, almost every Japanese car maker had their hat in the ring as well.  Supra, RX-7, 300ZX, and 3000GT were all big hitters but the grand daddy of all Japanese sports cars had to be the NSX.  It's mid-engine rear-wheel drive layout meant that it could compete not only with the aforementioned Japanese muscle but also with the likes of Ferrari.  All of this ability came at a price too high for mere mortals and the only affordable mid-engine car came from rival Toyota...or did it...

Designed by Pininfarini, the Honda Beat was a tiny car with a tiny engine that produced big smiles.  While never sold in the United States, one can be had with a couple of mouse clicks on eBay.  Here's one with a pretty high reserve but exclusivity never comes cheap.

Marlboro Sponsorship

If you watched any of the top tier motorsports since the 1970s, chances are pretty good that you've seen a Marlboro sponsored vehicle.  Their mainstay has been F1 but have also dabbled in WRC, MotoGP, and Le Mans.  Their sponsorship have appeared on the vehicles of champions like Wayne Rainey, Michael Schumacher, Tommi Makinen, Ayrton Senna, and Casey Stoner, just to name a few.  Whether displaying the Marlboro name or a simple bar code, you can count of Marlboro to be at the track for many years to come.

Japan Week: Toyota

Badge Loyalty

Badge Loyalty. I'm willing to bet that more than some of you will think of that guy with the Ford logo tattooed on the back of his head (true story, this guy actually exists) or the family with a mailbox in the shape of the ubiquitous Bow Tie. Today, I submit a different definition- A marque's loyalty to the essence of the badge they place on the hood of their automobiles.

Opposite Lock - Rants & Raves

Toyota has been trying to repair their public image ever since that whole driving into a wall accidentally scandal.  Lately, these kinds of commercials have been popping up to bolster that goody-goody joy joy feeling inside us all.  I'll let you know what I think about it after the jump and you can voice your opinion in the comments below.

2010 "Can't Think of a More Witty Phrase than 'Car of the Year" Award

Back in October, I posted my thoughts about Hyundai becoming the next Honda, or more importantly the Honda of the 90s.  Back then, Honda had several exciting cars in their lineup that showcased cutting edge technologies like four-wheel steering, VTEC, and aluminum unibody.  Today, the excitement can be felt in Hyundai's entire range of cars.  There's the sporty rear-wheel drive Genesis coupe, the mega-mile consuming Genesis luxury sedan, and the jack-of-all trades Sonata.  While the two Genesis cars cater to a very distinctive audience, the Sonata is the car that everyone can enjoy for its good looks, perfect size, adrenaline pumping turbo power, and frugality at the pump.

courtesy autoblog.com

Toyota Sports Cars: "Moving Backward"

carwalls.com

Recently, Toyota has been in the press for both good reasons and bad.  First, there was the "our-drivers-don't-know-cars-or-care-about-driving-and-"unintentionally"-hit-the-gas" scandal which everyone and their mother had theories about.  Then, there was the release of the Lexus LFA which every enthusiast has had theories about...for 10 years.

Now, these two events only really apply to very specific types of people.  The unintended acceleration debacle played out in the cars of those who could care less about driving and treat their cars like appliances.  Lexus' LFA supercar, which costs $375,000, may interest a few passionate drivers among us but let's face it.  It is for the absurdly rich... and we, enthusiasts, probably already have our hearts set on other supercars that aren't from companies like Lexus.

So, where is the Toyota for the everyday enthusiast? Where are the cars that can herald the arrival of technology from F1, WRC, or JGTC?  When will we see names like Supra, Celica, or MR2 again?