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Toyota bids farewell to FJ Cruiser with Ultimate Edition at SEMA

Happy trails, to you... As we reported back in August, the FJ Cruiser is headed to the great automotive graveyard in the sky, and Toyota is offering a fitting eulogy in the form of the 2014 Trail Teams Ultimate Edition, which was just unveiled here at the 2013 SEMA Show.
Unlike many special edition models, the Ultimate FJ Cruiser earns its name with a host of parts from Toyota Racing Development, starting with TRD Bilstein race shocks that Toyota says improve damping, articulation and high-speed stability. The front shocks measure 66 millimeters and feature TRD race coil springs, with geometry that improves the approach angle; the 50mm rear units are equipped with remote reservoirs to diminish damping fade.
A new one-quarter-inch thick aluminum TRD front skid plate offers protection for the underbody bits, and the outfit is completed with a BF Goodrich A/T KO tires on 16-inch bead lock wheels, rock rails and a roof rack. Check out the high-res image gallery above and the press release below for all the rest of the details.

Vice chronicles Okinawa's illegal street racing scene

We all know that street racing is dangerous, and that motorsports are best left on the track or drag strip. However, that doesn't mean that there still isn't some outlaw allure among enthusiasts of racing on public roads. In this video, Vice Japan profiles Eikichi Nagayoshi of Japan's island of Okinawa. He is a used car dealer by day and an illegal racer by night.
Nagayoshi has a deep love for his highly customized Toyota Aristo (better known to us as a first-generation Lexus GS) that he claims produces over 1,000 horsepower and has hit 205 miles per hour. He races his car both on drag strips and in drifting competitions, but says that he often has to ship the car to mainland Japan to compete. In the absence of those opportunities, he sometimes gathers friends and takes the racing to the public roads. While we're not down with street racing, this Vice video is an intriguing personality piece, as well as a look into Japan's fabled underground racing scene. Scroll down to check out the video, but make sure you have the "CC" button clicked, because several portions are subtitled.

Toyota nudges US sales projections up to 2.25M

Toyota has raised its expectations for 2013's US sales for the third time since the end of 2012. The new target rests at 2.25 million units, when sales of Toyota, Lexus and Scion are taken as one. Subtracting Lexus, Toyota is still expecting to move over two million vehicles in the US by the end of 2013.
According to a report from Automotive News, the sales expectations came from Bob Carter, senior VP of automotive operations for Toyota USA, during a dealers during a meeting in Atlanta. The heightened expectations go along with Toyota's predictions for the US market as a whole, which it expects to grow to 15.5 million units by the end of 2013.
Besides an overall, national uptick in new vehicle sales, Toyota is also expecting a big push as it puts the next-generation Corolla to market during the second half of this year, along with the Tundra pickup truck. Meanwhile, dealers were shown images of a refreshed Camry, set to arrive in 2015, and reported that it's "more than a nip and a tuck," according to the AN report.