But that was to be expected as affordable and focused rear-wheel drive sports coupes have become an increasingly rare sight in our days.
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You can get a sample of their precise driving and impressive drifting skills with a Nissan 350Z RC in the videos that follow right after the jump. And while no doubt you'll find all the tricks and courses pretty cool, you may want to turn down the volume as the same music plays on all clips.
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Toyota said that it expects to bring in a net profit of 180 billion Yen [US$2.3 billion] for the fiscal year ending March 31, 2012, down 53.8 percent from the 390 billion yen [US$5.04 billion] it projected in August.
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The two companies will cooperate in the development of carbon fiber and composite materials for future use in high-volume GM cars, trucks and crossovers.
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Pushing its suppliers hard to minimize their costs, or finding alternative partners, is one of the measures taken by the biggest Japanese carmaker. Moving more of its production out of Japan to more cost-efficient plants in other countries is t.
The weak dollar is making manufacturing in the U.S. increasingly more attractive, allowing for more competitive prices and higher profit margin – to the point that U.S.-made Camrys will be exported to South Korea.
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Proving his foolishness, the driver of a white-colored Mercedes-Benz CLS in Japan scrapped his (or her) car against a grey Nissan GT-R while changing from the left to the right lane and attempted to flee the scene to avoid paying for the damages.
The fender bender can be seen 17-seconds into the video at which point, the driver of the Nissan GT-R pauses for a couple of seconds before launching an all-out attack to capture the perpetrator before he (or she) got away.
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Luckily, no fatalities were reported though ten drivers suffered bruising and some minor injuries.
“The accident occurred when the driver of a red Ferrari was switching from the right lane to the left and skidded,” Mitsuyoshi Isejima, executive officer for Yamaguchi Prefecture’s Expressway Traffic Police unit told Bloomberg News. “It was a gathering of narcissists," said Isejima who added that the drivers were aged between 37 and 60 years old.
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If the opening picture caught you attention, there's a lot more from where that came from in our high resolution gallery that you're more than welcome to enjoy directly after the break.
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The Impreza series is a characteristic example going from boredom to controversial and vice versa not only with each new restyling, but sometimes even within the same generation.
Time to meet the Impreza Casa Blanca - a special edition version of the first generation Sport Wagon with the 1.5-liter boxer engine that was introduced in Japan in 1999 to address the craze consumers had for retro styled cars at the time.
And yes, you read that correctly: the Casa Blanca isn't a abomination creation from some unknown coachbuilder but an official Subaru product and it was produced from 1999 to 2000 in a limited run of 5,000 units!
However, at the Tokyo Motor Show, the Japanese company came out of its shell introducing several bespoke models.
Aside from the Toyota Century-based FS Hybrid concept that we showed you earlier today, Kana Auto Works also displayed two prototypes of the newly presented Toyota Aqua hybrid, which will be marketed under the Prius C brand name outside of Japan.
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Kowa, a company that engages in medical and optoelectronic business, and Tmsuk Co. Ltd., a robot development manufacturer, joined forces to create three attention-grabbing electric-powered prototypes under the Kobot brand name.
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KAW has several plants throughout Japan as well as in Thailand and Brazil. It has built several Toyota models while also helping the Japanese company in the engineering field with projects like the MR2-based GRMN Sports Hybrid Concept II that was also on display in Tokyo.
Believed to preview the looks and possibly an alternative powertrain option for the next generation of the Mitsubishi Outlander, the Concept PX-MiEV II is a follow up to the PX-MiEV study displayed at the 2009 Tokyo Motor Show.
On the outside, there are some minor styling changes such as the higher roofline, larger mirrors, plus more conventional looking alloy wheels, lights and bumper designs, all of which suggest that the PX-MiEV II is pointing to the styling of the next Outlander.
The new N Concept 4 has not only veered closer to production in styling but it will actually go on sale next year. The announcement was made by Sho Minekawa, who is the Managing Officer and CEO for Honda Regional Sales Operations in Japan, during the company's presentation in Tokyo.
"As a part of the N Series, a new model based on N Concept 3 will be introduced to the market in spring 2012, followed by the introduction of another model based on N Concept 4 in fall 2012," said Minekawa. "With that, we will strive to increase our mini-vehicle sales to 280,000 units, which would double the sales of 2011," he added.
The N Concept 4 will be based on the running gear of Honda's new Kei-class N Box tall city car, which also made its world premiere in Tokyo but more on that later.
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Besides the name, there's nothing else different about the Aqua that made its world premiere this week at the 42nd edition of the bi-annual Tokyo Motor Show in Japan.
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Perhaps the most important news coming from Nissan at the Tokyo Motor Show is the company's decision to heavily invest in its performance arm NISMO and expand its offerings to include more focused editions of Nissan's mainstream models.
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In the real world, human twins may indeed differ, mostly in character – though not as much as Arnie and Danny by any stretch of the imagination. In the automotive world, however, when two manufacturers jointly develop a vehicle, 99.9% of the times it ends up being identical to its sibling.
Even Subaru and Toyota are not pretending that their BRZ and 86/GT86 are anything but the same car. They clearly admit it in their press releases and even inscribe it on the engine cover. It’s badge engineering, pure and simple.
Therefore, all the hoopla about the extremely low center of gravity, the compact dimensions, the fun to drive RWD configuration et al is repeated in the BRZ which also made its premiere today at the 42nd edition of the Tokyo Motor Show.
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Developed by Toyota and its motorsports partner Gazoo Racing, the prototype made its debut at this year’s 24-hour endurance race at the Nürburgring in Germany.
For those of you wondering, "GRMN" is an acronym for “Gazoo Racing tuned by the Meister of the Nürburgring,” the latter being a nickname for Toyota’s late test driver Hiromu Naruse who died in an accident last summer while driving a prototype of the Lexus LFA Nurburgring Edition.
The GRMN SPORTS HYBRID Concept II is a development of last year's racing prototype that was based on production MR-2. The second iteration of Toyota's hybrid sports car features a brand new body while also improving upon the first concept on the powertrain front.
Suzuki says that the Regina embodies its vision of a next-generation global small car featuring a lightweight construction and impressive fuel economy.
The concept is 3.5-metres long and 1.6-metres wide, while it weighs in at just 730kg (1,609 pounds). According to the Japanese automaker, the quirky looking city car has a drag coefficient at least 10% lower than that of current models of the same size and category.
