By Jen Dunnaway

Editor

Former Showoff of the Week Tyler scored the win for the latest round of the Castrol Unlock Your Performance contest, and got a case of Castrol Edge and a 500-dollar gift card to blow on his car. He also got to make an awesome video about his ride with Matt Farrah. Check it out below, and don’t forget to head over to the Castrol Unlock Your Performance contest page to vote on the next winner.

By Speedhunters

Car Culture At Large

To conquer the Pro class of the HKS Drag Series is one thing, to do it twice in succession takes a very, very special car. Never mind a car that still has it’s original steel quarter panels, roof, spoiler, bumpers and lights.

The car before you is that of Leon Green, owner of JPS Motorsport and the car was built for two reasons, one as a test bed for his customer’s cars and two for Leon’s own personal goal of running consistent six second passes. Continue reading at Speedhunters

By Paddy McGrath

By Brian Lohnes

BangShift.com

The runaway diesel engine is an interesting thing. The condition can be brought on by a number of factors. In this case it was apparently caused by overfilling the engine with oil. With no throttle to vary engine speed and a motor literally consuming its own oil, death is imminent. This poor van’s engine most likely got a mouthful of engine oil that was forced out of a breather vent into the intake tract.

With that oil acting like a big infusion of fuel for the engine, the revs pickup, and when that happens the engine begins to suck more oil out of the vent and things quickly spiral out of control. The only way to stop it is to block the air intake of the engine and choke it off. In many cases, like this one, there’s no stopping it and the motor runs until it breaks the connecting rods or the crank or simply runs out of lube to burn and locks up tight.

This Toyota van releases enough crap into the air to offset 100 Priuses for a year!

By Steve Little

SouthernGuy8503

Looks like yet another Toyota recall on the heels of the 10 million vehicles Toyota has already pulled from the field in the last year. This time, there appears to be a problem with the braking system–a master cylinder seal that doesn’t seal–as well as problems with the electric fuel pumps in some foreign-market vehicles. A total of 740,000 cars in the US, 599,000 in Japan, and a handful of others throughout Europe will be subject to the recall, which includes the 2005-06 Avalon, the 2004-06 Highlander, and a variety of Lexus models. More details here.

By Speedhunters

Car Culture At Large

Back in 2008 this Scorch Racing Supra kind of raised a few eyebrows after its appearance on the Blitz stand at the Tokyo Auto Salon. At the time it seemed strange that Blitz would get involved with a drag project, as interest in the scene has died down in Japan. I originally shot it for Turbo magazine, now long gone since being axed in late 2008, and at the time the car was supposed to be raced within a few months, ready to set those record passes everyone was expecting from it. But nothing really happened for a good two years.

I was very surprised the other weekend in Sendai Hi-Land when out of nowhere it showed up at the strip. I had completely forgotten about it but it looked like the project, after a little pause, is back on track. It was the car’s first outing and it achieved what it set out to do within a few passes, so the Scorch Racing and Blitz guys were extremely happy. The car put down a series of low 9-second runs before recording a 9-sec dead at the end of its first practice day. See more pics and continue reading at Speedhunters.

-by Dino Dalle Carbonare

By Jen Dunnaway

Editor

This low-miles Supra was bought by a father and son from a previous owner who’d driven it only as a weekend fun car until he put it in storage in 2006. The only thing wrong with it when they got it was that it had been sitting, and after fresh fluids, tires, and a few spare parts, it runs and drives pretty much like new. It’s rare to see one of these that hasn’t been thrashed to hell–take a look at the eBay auction.

By Ted Berner

GTwildfire

Toyota has revealed plans to make a non-hybrid, all-electric Prius available in 2012, and will also be rolling out other Toyota EV models in pretty significant numbers. The Prius should offer a more cost-effective option for those ready to take the plunge, edging out the Leaf and easily underbidding GM’s Volt with a pricetag around $28,000. This is good news for the advancement of electric cars, efficiency and energy independence.

However, in the press release on the announcement, Toyota’s product development chief was quoted as saying that “Over time, we would like to offer consumers the option of paying more for a bigger battery and longer range, but that won’t be possible with the first version.” I guess that’s the future of battery technology at Toyota in a nutshell? Bigger + heavier = farther? And you have to pay more for it? The lack of room for thinking about better battery technology in his revelation alone managed to curb my enthusiasm, but battery issues aside, I’m looking forward to Toyota’s new lineup. No doubt the next generation of EV garage modders will again be improving on Toyota’s design.

Credit to Kevin Krolicki and Reuters for this informative article.

By Speedhunters

Car Culture At Large

Could this be the Toyota Previa to rule them all? It certainly looks like no other out there. The two-tone paintjob and the Leon Hardiritt wheels really make this car standout. The wheels are 19″ and sit perfectly on a Silk Road Airbag system.

More photos can be found on Mike Gilberts Flickr.

By Jeroen Willemsen

By Rob Einaudi

Editor-in-Chief

This week’s win goes to GetTheClicker for “Now it whistles every time I’m on the highway…. Can you hear me now?” Tune in tomorrow for another high caliber caption contest!

By Jen Dunnaway

Editor

Jonathan is building his ’93 Camry to resemble a BTCC Super Touring car, yet still keep it streetable. Check out his ride page!