2014 Toyota Sequoia Limited on 2040-cars

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Toyota Camry Dragster takes the phrase 'sleeper' to its logical extreme [w/video]

Sometimes, looks can be deceiving. This is certainly one of those times, as Toyota successfully trolled the entirety of the media corps at the 2014 SEMA Show by rolling an innocent-looking Camry onto the floor... only to lift literally the entirety of its body to reveal an 850-horsepower, tube-framed dragster. Well, we have been asking for a more driver-oriented Toyota.
While it's designed to go fast in a straight line, the origin of the Camry Dragster's parts might be surprising. The 5.7-liter V8 engine, transmission, rear axle and electronics were plucked from the Toyota Tundra pickup. Toyota Racing Development donated a supercharger, while a wet-nitrous-injection system was also tacked on for that little extra something. Those goodies will help propel this anonymous looking monster through the quarter mile in just 9.8 seconds.
"This is the most extreme build we've ever unveiled at SEMA," said Toyota's motorsports chief Steve Appelbaum said in a statement. "The transformation from seemingly stock Camry to full-blown racecar just shocks the senses. Chuck Wade and the team at Motorsports Technical Center did a truly spectacular job executing the vision of this project."

Toyota RAV4 "Adventure" brings the butch

Just last week, your humble author had a 2013 Toyota RAV4 in his garage, and he couldn't help noting that even in mid-level XLE trim, its aesthetics lacked oomph, due in large part to its cheap-looking black bumpers and airy-looking wheel wells. Judging by the RAV4 "Adventure" on display at the Geneva Motor Show, someone at Toyota must've been thinking the same thing.
With Japan's biggest automaker understandably focused on bigger reveals, information on this butched-up softroader has proven to be hard to come by, with no press materials whatsoever. We don't even know if this is a pure concept or if it's actually being considered for production. Either way, we approve. The 20-inch dark-finish alloys probably don't do much for ride quality, but they certainly look nicely aggressive, as does the new lower fascia with its prominent lower lip. Other changes include beefier wheel arches, side rails, headlamps with integrated LEDs, twin-element fog lamps and mesh grille inserts. All of the changes are quite well integrated - enough so that the Adventure largely avoids looking like a SEMA refugee in person.

Autoblog Podcast #317

Mitsubishi Mirage, Toyota thinks of beefing up US production, Marchionne on Alfa, Dart and minivans, Ford Atlas concept, Honda Gear concept
Episode #317 of the Autoblog Podcast is here, and this week, Dan Roth, Jeff Ross and Michael Harley bookend the other podcast topics with a pair from the Montreal Auto Show, the Mitsubishi Mirage and Honda Gear concept, and in between we talk about Toyota building all its US-market cars stateside, Hyundai building a Nurburgring test facility, Sergio Marchionne's latest words about Alfa Romeo, Dodge Dart powertrains and the future of Chrysler vans. Some chatter about the Ford Atlas concept finishes up the meat of the 'cast and then we wrap with your questions. For those of you who hung with us live on our UStream channel, thanks for taking the time. Keep reading for our Q&A module for you to scroll through and follow along, too. Thanks for listening!
Autoblog Podcast #317: