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Jay Leno gets behind the curtain on the design of the Toyota FT-1 concept

Hinting at the future of Toyota performance vehicles, the FT-1 concept was one of the stars of the Detroit Auto Show this year. It even nabbed fourth place in our Editors' Choice list. While he's a few months behind the car's official reveal, Jay Leno managed to get the only existing concept of the sports coupe wheeled into his garage to take a closer look, and he's pretty impressed.
Leno speaks with Alex Shen and William Chergosky, the exterior and interior chief designers of the FT-1 respectively, to get a better idea of the inspirations behind the concept. Jay heaps high praise on it for mixing Italian and Japanese design and says he likes the look even more than the Lexus LFA. The coupe isn't a product of either country, though. It was penned at Toyota's CALTY Design Research center in Newport Beach, CA.
The designers go into the entire history of the FT-1, and Shen even admits that Toyota design lacks an emotional factor at the moment. It's a fascinating interview behind some of the little touches you might miss at first glance. Unfortunately, the model doesn't have the green light for production yet and may never get made. In any case, scroll down to watch Leno swoon over the coupe.

2014 Toyota Corolla details leaked

Toyota will launch the 2014 Corolla later this year, and thanks to the ever-leaky internet, a couple of key details about the new sedan have been revealed. Car and Driver was able to uncover these bits of information thanks to someone at a Toyota dealer in Kansas who has seen the car, as well as its order guide, though the dealer's site has since removed its original posting.
We got our first glimpse at the next-generation Corolla's design at the 2013 Detroit Auto Show, where Toyota unveiled the Furia concept, pictured above. Yes, it looks all sporty and aggressive, but fear not, appliance shoppers, C/D says that the production car should have a couple of Furia bits mixed in with a huge helping of Camry-inspired styling.
The 2014 Corolla will reportedly continue to use a 1.8-liter four-cylinder engine, though the mill has been massaged a bit, adding Toyota's Valvematic continuously variable valve timing. A four-speed automatic (yep!) will be offered in the base model, though the manual transmission now has six gears, and higher trim levels can be had with a CVT. Both engine output and fuel economy numbers should improve slightly over the 2013 model. Currently, the Corolla produces 132 horsepower and 128 pound-feet of torque, and achieves 27/34 miles per gallon (city/highway) with the five-speed manual 'box.

Toyota TRD Pro Chase Trucks are ready to hit the desert at SEMA

Toyota marks the 35th anniversary of its Toyota Racing Development performance arm this year, and the division is celebrating at this year's SEMA Show with a quartet of tuned off-roaders based on on the 4Runner, Tacoma and Tundra that look more than ready to go just about anywhere.
All four of them will take part in this year's Baja 1000 race, but only the Tundra (far left in the above photo) is actually competing. The other three will be there to act as support vehicles.
Inspired by the production TRD Pro Series trucks, the 4Runner, Tacoma and Tundra are prepared by off-road fabricator N-Fab with a mix of TRD and the company's own parts to be able to take whatever the grueling, 1,000-mile can throw at them. The trio is fettled with extra communications equipment, GPS, additional lights and all sorts of body and suspension modifications to help them survive the ordeal.