Car FYI

Photo Credit: Toyota Motor Corporation untitled For the 89 th time, auto racing’s pinnacle event testing the endurance of machinery as well as human being over 24 hours was held in Le Mans, France. Running for the second time in August as opposed to its traditional June date to allow for spectators to attend, the 2021 24 Hours of Le Mans instantly presented the added difficulty of a wet race track that resulted in the first two laps taking place behind a safety car. Conditions changed between dry, then wet, then dry against during the running of the daylong race on the 13.626-kilometer (8.467-mile) Circuit de la Sarthe. With 61 cars starting among four main classes on the Circuit de la Sarthe, the highest honour in 24 Hours of Le Mans to be the overall winner. At the conclusion of the 2021 edition of the great endurance event, the Toyota Gazoo Racing team stood in the coveted top spot of the podium. The #7 Toyota GR010 Hypercar driven by Mike Conway, Kamui Kobayas...

Photo Credit: Toyota Motor Corporation Occurring after a one-year delay under unprecedented circumstances, the Tokyo Olympic Summer Games opened on July 23 rd as a much-needed opportunity to see the globe’s most diverse, dedicated collection of human athleticism in full force. The competitors of this year’s games have spent a before part of an entire lifetime perfecting their performance potential for the chance to be the lucky few to be eligible in their choice sport. With more than11,000 athletics arriving from 206 countries vying for the rare opportunity to one of three medals in each event. With all the practice and preparation put forth by every individual competitor to make it to Tokyo, Japan, the final leg of the journey towards attempting to make Olympic dreams come true receives some support by a sizable staff in the Olympic Village as well as at athletic venues. Serving to support athletes and the workers at the games, Japanese automotive giant Toyo...

Photo Credit: Toyota Canada Teased for almost two decades by rumours and the appearance of the FT-1 Concept, the Toyota GR Supra became a production reality for 2020 in a tight, flashy sports car package. The revival of the Supra became Toyota’s quickest accelerating road car sold and featured a wide array of modern performance handling aids such as an adaptive suspension. A debut that saw a fast following for their fast GR Supra, Toyota were immediately relieved when the first production model of the sports car snagged 2.1 million dollars US in June of 2019. After scorching roads in its opening year run, the Toyota GR Supra is ready to lay down even more tire tracks for 2021 model year.  Entering only its sophomore year, the GR Supra is already undergoing some defining updates. Maintaining a low, elegant body style, intimate two-seat cabin and its rear-wheel drive layout, the Toyota GR Supra does enter 2021 with a new sporting spirit with a revision made to its engine performance....

Photo Credit: Toyota Great Britain Everybody loves a winner! The familiar title of a William Bell song of the 1970s, the words would imply Japanese auto giant Toyota attracts a great deal of affection. Residing either at the top or around the top for the world’s leading automobile seller, the company’s reputation is also bolstered by efforts in the competitive test of auto racing. Once again, Toyota turns focus towards the French town of Le Mans and the Circuit de la Sarthe in an effort to find love at a famous daylong sports car racing event. With a fleet of three TS050 Hybrid prototype race cars, Toyota looked to capture their highly-sought first overall win at the 2017 24 Hours of Le Mans. Victors two big American races, the Indianapolis 500 and Daytona 500, Toyota’s racing credentials over the years are included past successes in rally car racing and desert off-road racing. Sports car racing also is an avenue of competition where the Japanese brand enjoyed triumphs. A col...

Photo Credit: Chris Nagy All the pretty motorized horses are rolling into the City of Toronto this weekend. Drawing what should be guaranteed to be another stellar collection of new and collectible automobiles, the 2017 edition of the Canadian International AutoShow has opened with a new sense of new while what was new in 2016 begins an unfortunate transition to being outdated. Although one year is not a drastic distance back in time, consider the fact the generational life of an automobile is roughly 6-10 years. As the 2017 Canadian International AutoShow is now underway, let's take some time to reflect what transpired at the 2016 gathering of motoring excellence in Toronto Civic Responsibilities: 2016 Honda Civic Wins Big Photo Credit: Chris Nagy The 9th generation version of the Honda Civic released in 2011 was an example where a devotion to a proven formula almost proved poisonous. Although the 9th generation Civic did not deviate from its solid build qualit...

Photo Credit: Toyota Canada Inc. Like it or not, the next decade of motoring is embracing a reality where advanced technologies will play a more involved role. While optimistic futurists are hedging bids that full self-driving autonomous will be emerging, a more plausible driving future appears more likely to the supported by sensors, cameras and software in a manner that could make a noticeable effort in reducing collisions. One of the more remarkable technology is an automatic emergency braking system that has gained rapid acceptance as a collision avoidance tool. In what has been a relatively short period of time, this automotive safety advancement's potential of reducing severe accidents can now be a tool for car insurance savings in many parts of Canada through one provider. Through Aviva Canada Inc., drivers of vehicles equipped with automatic emergency braking are entitled to a discount of 15 percent to relevant auto insurance policies. As Aviva becomes the first auto...

Photo Credit: Jared C. Tilton/NASCAR via Getty Images The Toyota Camrys prepared by Joe Gibbs Racing were the toast of Texas for much of the Duck Commander 500 on Saturday night. In a race where three of the four Joe Gibbs owned cars and the associated Furniture Row Racing #78 car led for all but 15 of 334 laps, the one who triumphed at the end only truly showed his hand late on the fast Fort Worth, Texas track. The 500-mile race at the Texas Motor Speedway started after a roughly two-hour delay. Leading the field to green, the Stanley-sponsored Toyota wheeled by Carl Edwards led 57 of the first 57 laps of the race. On lap 59, Edward’s main adversary for the night emerged in the form of the black #78 Toyota Camry. Martin Truex Jr started 3rd in the field and kept his Furniture Row Racing car in the top-5 for almost the entire race. Thanks to a long green flag running from lap 34 to 136 (totalling more than half the race’s scheduled distance), Truex Jr held the lead for an impre...

Photo Credit: Toyota Canada Inc. The Canadian International AutoShow always features a lively and eclectic group of automobiles. This year’s show pledges to offer the greatest of 2016 cars, trucks, vans, crossovers, and almost any other class of passenger vehicle on four wheels. Some of the most engaging concept vehicles also arrive in Toronto every year as a firsthand opportunity for Canadians of the great city to chart what progress is upcoming for automobiles. Many times attendees of the Canadian show are the first in the country to witness the bold and high-tech future but we face the reality that we are not the first public members to examine such designs. Sometimes automakers even send concept vehicles that were first displayed several years ago to Toronto. Having brought the i-Road, FV2 Concept and the Fun-VII to previous iterations of the Canadian International AutoShow, Toyota will embark on a fairly uncommon vehicle. As much as their concept design is striking amongst...

The 2016 Canadian International AutoShow arrives this weekend promising to gather an assorted collection of automobiles. Before going into any depth with the 2016 edition of the Toronto exhibition, I wish to provide some enlightenment to the spirit of the event by profiling last year’s. While I was able to detail some of the content through articles and with videos on YouTube, I regret that I wasn’t able to write a full review of last year’s Canadian International AutoShow. I’ll sum it up by explaining that I simply froze. Last year’s media day for the Canadian International AutoShow corresponded with one of the coldest days of 2015. In my round-trip to the Metro Toronto Convention Centre, there was about 15 minutes I needed to walk outside. In the morning it was about -15 degrees Celsius and my trip back had me moving through temperatures of -25 degrees Celsius. Between that time, I was inside a convention space where lights and constant movement made it feel like a sauna. I a...

Photo Credit: Chris Nagy When Billy Joel once sang that "Only the good die young", some could ponder if his words are prophetic to Toyota's experiment with a youth-driven brand. Bearing a name symbolizing an offspring or descendent, Scion was deliberately launched as a targeted method to court the Generation Y or Millennial automotive customer. After 13 years, Toyota's has announced plans to discontinue the Scion brand. A sudden announcement from the world's largest automaker, the move by Toyota is not unexpected. Since its launch in 2003, Scion has experienced varying success in the marketplace. Sale numbers for Scion have never arisen to expectations. Despite boasting well-equipped, practical vehicles and some compact performance spice with the Scion FR-S, the brand had trouble identifying with a large customer base. At the end of 2015 in the United States, the entire sum of Scion sales accounted for just 56,167 vehicles of Toyota's total of over 1.1 ...