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Never before has a concept car been so aptly named. The Toyota Aygo Crazy concept will be displayed at the 2008 British International Motor Show this month.

The Toyota Aygo Crazy has been converted from a front engined front wheel drive configuration to a rear engine rear wheel drive setup. The car’s body has been modified to accomodate its 17 inch wheels. Installed in the rear is a 1.8 liter VVT-i engine from the Toyota MR-S together with the rear suspension from the MR-S. Tein dampers have been fitted all-around.

The engine has been turbocharged with a Toyota Motorsport turbo kit resulting in 200 PS at 6,700rpm and 240Nm of torque at 3,400rpm in the 1,050kg car, giving it a 0 to 100km/h sprint time of 5.7 seconds. A huge aluminium radiator can be found installed up front.

It cost £100k to build, so unless you’re crazy you’ll be better off getting something else to match the Aygo Crazy’s performance. More images after the jump.

Click here to read the rest of Toyota Aygo Crazy Concept

UMW Toyota Motor Sdn Bhd has added the new Toyota Vios 1.5J to their model range for the 2008 and 2009 model years. The new Toyota Vios 1.5J comes with both a manual and automatic transmission and costs RM69,800.00 or RM73,500.00 respectively, OTR with insurance.

Mechanically, the Vios J spec is similiar to its higher spec brethren, featuring the same 109 PS 1.5 liter VVT-i engine mated to a 4-speed Super ECT gearbox. As for equipment levels, it comes with 14 inch steel wheels wrapped with 175/65R14 tyres, manual wing mirrors, a bumper with no foglamps, dark grey fabric seats, a 1-DIN CD player, 4 speakers, and power windows for all four doors.

There are no SRS airbags in this car, but the anti-lock brakes and EBD remain, with ventilated disc brake at the front and drum brakes at the rear. For those who are interested, the 5-speed manual gearbox’s ratios are: 1st: 3.525, 2nd: 1.904, 3rd: 1.310, 4th: 0.969, 5th: 0.815, reverse: 3.250.

UMW Toyota Motor is also currently running a Merdeka Meriah promo for the Vios from the 1st of July until the 31st of August 2008 where buyers will get a downpayment rebate or a petrol card.

Toyota Vios 1.5J (Manual) - RM69,800.00
Toyota Vios 1.5J (Auto) - RM73,500.00

For photos of the car snapped back in late May 2008, view the related posts below:

Related Posts:
Toyota Vios J with manual transmission spotted!

Click here to read the rest of New 2009 Toyota Vios J Spec Manual and Auto

Toyota is set to launch its first lithium ion battery-powered hybrids in 2009, but it is already undergoing R&D for the next generation of batteries in search for battery technology with capabilities beyond what lithium ion battery technology can offer.

One of the technologies being researched are metal-air batteries. Typical metals used in metal-air batteries include zinc or aluminium, with zinc being the most popular one by far, a popular choice to power hearing aids.

Metal-air batteries have often been compared to fuel cells in terms of operation. The anode is pure metal, and the cathode is a supply of air, which is pretty much considered inexhaustible. Water is used as a catalyst. There are also lithium air batteries and carbon air batteries being researched.

Please refer to the links below for more information on metal-air batteries.

Related Links:
Wikipedia: Zinc-air battery
ESA: Meta-Air Battery
Batteries Digest: Metal Air Batteries, Half a Fuel Cell?

We may see a second hybrid vehicle being introduced into our local market soon as a Thai CBU model, the Toyota Camry Hybrid, as Toyota Motor Corporation will begin assembly of the hybrid D-segment vehicle at its Thai Gateway plant in the Chachoengsao Province southeast of Bangkok next year.

The Chachoengsao plant current produces Toyota’s monocoque vehicles such as the Camry, Corolla, Vios, Wish and the Yaris, while its two other plants produce IMV vehicles such as the Hilux and Fortuner.

“Thailand is the first ASEAN country to build hybrid vehicles. As the Camry has
received a warm welcome from Thai customers, we are sure these customers will be satisfied not only with the product but also with its environmental performance,” said Toyota Motor Thailand President Mitsuhiro Sonoda.

I’m not really sure whether the Camry Hybrid will use Australian Aurion Presara styling (ASEAN Camrys use this styling) or the funkier American Camry styling. There is a Camry Hybrid in the US that uses the American styling. It uses a 2AZ-FXE engine, a 2.4 liter VVT-i Toyota Direct Injection engine that runs on the Atkinson cycle, producing 147 horsepower at 6,000rpm and 187Nm of torque at 4,400rpm.

This is paired to a 30kW (40 horsepower) electric motor that can produce 270Nm of torque from 0 to 1,500rpm. This hybrid powertrain sends power to the front wheels via an electronically controlled CVT gearbox.

Toyota will later add another assembly base for the Camry Hybrid in Australia in 2010.

That red blur that you see above is Toyota’s TRD Aurion Pro-Facfory Xtreme, which made its debut at the Willowbank Raceway in Queensland, Australia last week.

Toyota claims the TRD Aurion Pro-Facfory Xtreme produces over 1740 horsepower from its turbocharged 6 cylinder engine and can get up to 100km/h from a standstill in less than 1 second. The car can achieve a top speed of over 350km/h.

Now that’s truly insane… wonder if those numbers are real or just something theoretical. Imagine the traction needed to get up to 100km/h in less than 1 second, plus would the turbo boost kick in that fast? I’d imagine a big turbine with lots of lag to get it up to those horsepower figures.

Toyota has updated its Toyota FCHV fuel cell vehicle with a new FC Stack that extends the range of the vehicle considerably.

The FCHV’s original hydrogen storage system could store 148 liters of hydrogen at 35 MPa maximum storage pressure. The new system in the new Toyota FCHV-adv concept vehicle stores 156 liters at a double the maximum pressure - 70 MPa. The result is an increase of maximum cruising range from approximately 330km to a very usable 760km according to the JC08 test cycle, or 830km according to the Japan 10-15 test cycle.

Other contributors to the significantly improved range is a fuel efficiency improvement of 25% through various measures such as improving fuel cell unit performance, a better brake energy regeneration system, and an auxiliary system that consumes less power.

The new fuel cell system can also start at a lower temperature, making it usable in cold regions with ambient temperatures as low as -30 degrees Celcius.

Full specs of the old Toyota FCHV and the new Toyota FCHV-adv found after the jump.

Click here to read the rest of Toyota FCHV-adv: FCHV with extended range

I am not sure if this source is reliable, but Edmunds claims that Toyota and Subaru have decided that the Toyota-badged version of the upcoming co-developed boxer-engined rear wheel drive coupe will only be sold in Japan, while Subaru will market it internationally.

Edmunds further added that the companies have decided to mimic the dimensions and power to weight ratio of the now discontinued Honda Integra Type R, so if that is true, expect about 200 horsepower and a wheelbase of around 2400mm.

Related Posts:
Upcoming RWD Subaru coupe causes marketing team to worry
New Toyota/Subaru boxer-powered RWD sports car to arrive in 2011

Reader CT mailed in these photos of a Toyota Vios J that he managed to snap, which indicates that a barebones Toyota Vios with a manual transmission is due to be launched quite soon.

The Toyota Vios J-spec trim level features steel wheels (hubcaps are likely to be added on the final production model) and does not have foglamps on the front bumper. Taking a look in the interior (photo after the jump), you will find a dark interior colour scheme and a single DIN CD player rather than an integrated unit.

There doesn’t seem to be any SRS Airbag logo on the steering wheel shown in the photo of the interior, so we can assume for now that the J-spec model will not have airbags. Let’s hope ABS stays.

Look after the jump for another 3 photos.

Click here to read the rest of Toyota Vios J with manual transmission spotted!

Toyota has launched the latest generation Toyota Alphard MPV, and this time around the Alphard also gets a twin with minor exterior differences portraying a more aggressive look called the Toyota Vellfire.

Toyota has been known to do this with its JDM cars - the Toyota Noah has an evil twin called the Toyota Voxy, and the Toyota Allion’s twin is called the Toyota Premio.

As expected, the new Toyota Alphard is a slightly toned down production version of the Toyota FT-MV concept showed at last year’s 2007 Tokyo Motor Show. Toyota says the Alphard design represents “elegance and refinement”, while the Vellfire represents “power and innovation”.

The name Vellfire was derived by combining the words velvet and fire. The vehicles have slightly different front and rear looks, with the Vellfire having two-stepped headlamps at the front, and clear lense tail lamps at the rear. Both vehicles also feature rear wipers that fold away into the roof spoiler so that the rear looks cleaner when you do not need the rear wipers.

The Alphard (and Vellfire) is larger now, with a longer wheelbase of 2,950mm versus the previous generation’s 2,900mm wheelbase.

Each MPV has two engine choices - either a 2AZ-FE 2.4 liter DOHC VVT-i inline-4 engine mated to a Super CVT-i stepless gearbox with the option of 7 virtual gear ratios, or a 2GR-FE 3.5 liter V6 engine with a 6-speed Super ECT transmission.

The MPVs feature S-VCS (Steering-assisted Vehicle Stability Control) which can correct steering angles as well as adjust power and brake in efforts to stabilize the MPV.

More images of the two MPVs and a video of the Vellfire after the jump.

Click here to read the rest of New generation Toyota Alphard and Vellfire

Toyota’s Hybrid Synergy Drive badging will soon be phased out, according to Toyota Motor Sales USA’s president Jim Lentz. Instead, future hybrid-only models by Toyota will have Prius badging, and conventionally powered cars that also have a hybrid model added to its range like the Lexus RX will just be called the RX Hybrid.

It seems that the marketing dollars spent on building the Hybrid Synergy Drive badging into a brand is not really working, with consumers being focused on the Prius name instead. Toyota wants to expand its hybrid-only passenger car range into a few models rather than the current one-model range, and all of these cars will be called Prius, perhaps as a suffix or something similiar.

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