2012 Toyota Tacoma Regular Cab Damaged Fixer Runs! Cooling Good Low Miles L@@k! on 2040-cars

Auto blog

Hi-po Toyota GT86 to get KERS?

We happen to like the Toyota GT86 - and, it of course goes without saying that the same applies to the Subaru BRZ and Scion FR-S, as well - just the way it is. Yes, that includes the standard 2.0-liter four-cylinder boxer engine and its 200 horsepower at 7,000 rpm.
That said, a little extra power never hurt anybody, right?
The most obvious way to add some punch to the GT86 would be with a turbocharger, and that has indeed long been rumored for an STI version of the BRZ. Will Toyota follow suit? According to Top Gear, the answer is no. Says GT86 chief engineer Tetsuya Tada, "I think 300bhp with a turbo and 200g/km of CO2 would be tasteless in this day and age. And a turbo would mean the loss of the GT86's uniqueness." Perhaps a bit harsh, but there you go.

Lexus Eco Challenge rewards schools for clean water, briquette press projects

Teams from one New Jersey high school and one Michigan middle school reversed the old adage by thinking locally and acting globally. And that strategy won them the grand prizes in the most recent edition of the Lexus Eco Challenge. The future is indeed bright. The Toyota luxury-vehicle division gave out a half-million dollars in this year's contest. One $30,000 grand prize was awarded to the Pinelands Eco Scienteers from Little Egg Harbor, NJ, which produced and distributed low-cost briquette presses to rural villages beset by deforestation. The other grand prize went to the E.T. Electrical Team from Byron Center West Middle School in Michigan. That middle-school group raised money to send water filters to Haiti, Kenya and the Philippines. Lexus also awarded eight $15,000 first-place awards, with the winners including high schools from California, Florida, Missouri and Pennsylvania as well as middle schools from Arizona, Michigan, North Carolina and Texas. A special shout out goes to Daniel Boone Area High School in Birdsboro, PA, where students created an educational and public-relations campaign to publicize algae-based biofuels. In all, Lexus has doled out more than $4 million in Eco Challenge awards in seven years. Check out Lexus's press release below. Students Get Dollars and Sense in Lexus Eco Challenge - $500,000 Awarded to Teams Who Learn About Environment and Community Empowerment Two Grand Prize Teams Earn $30,000 Eight $15,000 First Place Awards Given to Innovative High School and Middle School Teams Students Bring Ideas to a Larger Audience and Make a Positive Impact on the World TORRANCE, Calif., (Feb. 24, 2014) – It's a win, win situation! Communities become a better place, and students, teachers and schools have the chance to share $500,000 in scholarships and grants through the Lexus Eco Challenge. This year, the $30,000 Grand Prize winners are the Pinelands Eco Scienteers from Little Egg Harbor, New Jersey, and the E.T. Electrical Team from Byron Center, Michigan. The Lexus Eco Challenge is an educational program and contest that inspires and empowers young people to learn about the environment and take action to improve it. High school and middle school teams nationwide define an environmental issue that is important to them, develop an action plan to address the issue, implement the plan, and report on the results.

Toyota takes i-Road tests to the streets of Tokyo

OK, here's where we think those road tests will start to get a little scary. Those super-narrow all-electric three-wheeled Toyota i-Road vehicles may have looked great sashaying through the towns of the French Riviera. But now? They're being tested in Tokyo. Hoo boy. The Japanese automaker says it'll start testing the i-Roads in the country's largest city on March 24 and will do so through early June. And while there will be some industry experts among the 20 participants, there will also be some regular folks who we hope won't find out the hard way how well those 660-pound, one-yard-wide vehicles perform in crash tests. In the meantime, we'll cross our fingers. The cool thing is that the i-Road now comes in five colors: blue, green, white, yellow and what looks like a magenta-fuchsia-type hue. Earlier this month, Toyota said it started testing the vehicles in Toyota City, Japan, as part of a broader program called "Ha:mo" where people link shared vehicles with public transportation systems (it stands for "Harmonious Mobility Network"). The three-wheeler was unveiled at the Geneva Motor Show early last year before getting the star treatment in a French Riviera-locale video. Check out Toyota's press release below and read our impressions of driving the i-Road here.