Toyota’s efforts in Formula 1 may have ended, but the final run of their F1 cars sure didn’t hold up the rest of the action during the Toyota Motorsports Festival. Joining the race versions of the LFA, Toyota had a nice surprise for everyone, in the form of a production version of the LF-A, sporting a rather catching shade of matte black. Next to the race cars it sounded much quieter and refined, but it didn’t look any slower when it shot past the main straight.  Continue reading at Speedhunters.

—By Dino Dalle Carbonare

Fuji Speedway is the place to be this time of the year as two of the biggest events of the calendar are hosted at the international circuit. I am of course talking about the Toyota Motorsports Festival and the Nismo Festival, which this year are held within two weeks of each other. This past weekend was Toyota’s turn, which managed to attract a pretty impressive 28,000 people to the freezing race track in order to celebrate the past year’s achievements in motorsport. Continue reading over at Speedhunters.

—By Dino Dalle Carbonare

On my way up to the Drift Matsuri on Friday I stopped over at Nikko circuit as I heard there was a drift track-day going on, organized in collaboration with T&E. I’m so glad I did take the little detour as I got to see some fantastic cars, total grassroots stuff being driven hard around the track. One car that grabbed my attention was this unmolested GX71 Cresta Super Lucent slammed onto some sexy vintage JDM wheels. The whole body has been left stock, the 80’s looks enough to make this this boxy Toyota sedan beyond cool. Even the emblems were still intact on the trunk lid! Continue reading at Speedhunters

By Dino Dalle Carbonare

Who says E85 has to be slow? E85 ethanol gasoline blend is actually better for forced induction performance because it lowers the risk of detonation. Alternative fuel does not indicate the end of the performance world! Read more about the Titan Motorsports 800 whp Toyota Supra running E85 at Tampa Sports Car Examiner.

I have been having a real hard time trying to identify the JDM Minivan that has been displayed in the DUB Booth since Monday. I have asked the (real) booth professionals with no luck. I left a phone message with the Air Runner Systems distributor in Anaheim to no avail. I even threw out the question to other Bloggers here at SEMA. So now its time to throw out the question to our readers. Identify this wild custom JDM van, and win some CarDomain Swag. Read more after the Jump!

Continue reading "Guess the JDM Minivan, Win Some CarDomain Swag" »

Clambering over mounds of insane car nuts, I scampered for the doors to SEMA. Elbow clocking, crotch kicking, upper cut chucking. It was a nasty scene. BUT, I managed to get in with only a broken collar bone and a head gash. Only 4 inches long right through the left eye. But don’t worry. I’m ok.

And what did my good eye perceive? … Camaros. Ug. So, while everyone’s posting Camaros, I’ll post other stuff. Like this! My hotel.

Continue reading "Fireball SEMA Day 1! It’s Open!!!!" »

Well, day two is off and running here at SEMA, so I thought it would be a great time to show how Toyota set up their booth for SEMA. First of all, there were a few manufacturers that skipped SEMA this year, so floor space opened up. The Toyota Booth was large, almost as large as their space at the major auto shows. They also had some cool custom trucks, and some very curious cars.

Continue reading "The Toyota Booth at SEMA: Cool Trucks, Odd Cars" »

By combining one of the best chassis designs to ever come from the German luxury sport manufacturer and the most sought after JDM engine in the world, you get one amazing performance package! Capable of awesome handling and super sleek sleeper-like performance, this BMW powered by Supra is a killer setup for the country club. Sneak up to the unsuspecting and surprise the ninth hole putters by unleashing 500 horsepower worth of JDM hidden under your stylish BMW embroidered hood. No one will expect the punch a Supra powered BMW M3 can deliver! Learn more about this awesome build at Tampa Sports Car Examiner!

I’m not quite done with my Garage Boso features yet, here’s one more Boso-built car you guys might be interested in. The RA21 Celica above is owned by Option Magazine and Tokyo Auto Salon founder Daijiro Inada – a very well known personality both in Japan and abroad. Dai spends a lot of time in LA visiting his brother and taking part in the automotive culture here, so he decided to build a car to enjoy in sunny SoCal. After picking up the project, Dai brought the car over to Garage Boso where the guys got to work on transforming it into a modern kyuu-sha hot rod. Continue reading at Speedhunters

By Mike Garrett

An amazing performance piece by Boost Logic, the 243 mph Toyota Supra is sending out a strong JDM message to the world. Move over Veyron, there is a new contender in town. The mid 1990’s built Supra can withstand the top speeds of the multi-million dollar exotic. Only a few miles per hour slower, this Supra is not done and is expected to break the Veyron’s top speed in spring of 2010. Can it do it? I think so. Who cares about leather and chrome trim at 240+ mph anyways! Bye bye Bugatti, eat the Supra’s dust. Learn more about the 243 mph Supra at Tampa Sports Car Examiner.

With all of the blog talk on the Tokyo Motor Show lately, I just wanted to share my two cents.

Many sports car purists (myself included) have been disappointed by the massive slowdown of sports cars being produced. This slow down has been timed impeccably with the rise of eco cars, kei cars and overall cars that I would classify as practical and boring when compared to sports cars. As some of you can tell, I’ve been at times worried that sports car tuning is being gradually replaced with more “practical” and “eco” cars and the tuning that comes with them.

The trends have been validating my fears for the past couple of years and seeing my idol tuners like Top Secret switch new R&D to the Prius and Insight only brought that idea home more.

But I get the feeling like we’ve just reached a turning point for the better.

Continue reading "Hooray For Sports Cars!" »

ASI Japan has released this image of what their Prius aerodynamics package will look. According to ASI, this is the confirmed final version of the design. In other news, ASI has launched a sub brand called ASI Green to release this Prius kit. More at The Real JDM

We all know that Toyota teamed up with Subaru on its latest FT86 concept Jeroen posted about last week, but it looks like the rumored Subaru STi version of the car may be the one to wait for. According to Autoblog, where I found this image, the STi version of the car might be ready for the 2011 Tokyo Motor Show and pack a 250 HP EJ25 along with a rear-wheel-drive layout. I wonder if a turbocharged 300+ HP STi AWD variant may be on the cards too?

By Dino Dalle Carbonare

For those of you who can’t get enough of the FT86, there are some great detail pics over at ft86club.com. Thanks for the tip, Cameron!

I’ve been on CarDomain for nearly two years now, and in that time I’ve seen some of the most amazing custom cars you can imagine. Camaros, Cobras, Vipers, Chevelles, Cadillacs, all of those you’d expect me to mention, right? Those kinds of cars are the kind you’re expected to fawn over at a show. Me, I love ‘em all, but deep inside is the feeling that the winter beaters we reserve for most of our abuse deserves more respect than any show car trailer queen.

With that said, some of us feel that some beaters are more fun to, well, beat on. They last through it all without a complaint, some need a fix here and there, and some just can’t handle our bad driving and completely drop an engine (for the record, that’s happened to me once). What I’ve done is compiled a list of five beaters that I’d love to have, for the simple purpose of running ‘em until they die:

1. 1992-1998 Geo Metro- 3 cylinder

When I first noticed these cars, I absolutely abhorred their weak engines and their odd styling. Over the last month they’ve grown on me, and now I realize the charm that these little runts have. It’s like it takes hold of your imagination. You hate it, but then again the utter joy of beating the piss out of it is equal to that of, say, a Porsche 911 Turbo at Laguna Seca? I can’t for the life of me think of a way to make it look cool, I do know that window tint would be in order for the simple fact that no matter how much fun it is to ride it like Fergie, it’s still embarrassing to be seen in one. After all, not everyone will see it my way, which, in my opinion, is just another reason that I enjoy them.

Continue reading after the jump!

Continue reading "I Want These Four Beaters" »