DrivingEnthusiast.net Prior Blog Posts by Date DRIVING: that's what it's ALL ABOUT! A blog and website for automotive driving enthusiasts, featuring my interests as I see them: news and opinion about manufacturers of interest, significant enthusiast cars, and driving them hard and well. December 2006 Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat           1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31             Nov   Jan RSS Feed for DrivingEnthusiast.net About DrivingEnthusiast.net Index of prior posts by title Use this calendar to navigate thru prior blog postings by date. Wednesday, December 27, 2006    Toyota FT-HS: what is it?   Road & Track has the full story on the FT-HS concept car in the February 2007 issue. Of course this raises the big question - what is the relationship of this to any kind of production car? The enthusiast web is full of speculation that this is somehow a Supra replacement... even with the hybrid engine. Of course, everybody wants a new Supra. But we want solid evidence... not further speculation such as the last two years of outright guesses in Road and Tracks annual future prediction issues. I think we need to get real here. This is clearly a concept. It has angles which cannot be punched out in sheetmetal. It has an engine and drivetrain which are a logical next step from the existing production GS450H. Nothing remotely like it has been spotted testing in Japan, or at the Nurburgring (unlike the upcoming Lexus 2-seat sports car - under test at the ring for the past two years) and the IS-500 (oops, IS-F) which has been shown testing at the 'ring for two years as well. The FT-HS has godawful aerodynamics and ergonomics. And it has all-but-blocked views out the sides to the back. Toyota couldn't build a car like this. That's not to say there isn't a platform underneath which could be used to build a sporting Supra-type car. That car would likely use the same engines and drivetrain as the IS350, IS-F, and GS450H. That would present a wide range of powerplants, make the green necessary statement, and keep development costs down. But what is wrong with Toyota over the past several years? Celica? Gone! MR-2? Gone! Supra? Gone! As of this moment there isn't a single sporting car in the entire lineup... and the upcoming IS-F will probably cost 60-70K USD. Thsi is the largest car company int he world... and they have nothing for enthusiasts - at the moment. View and add comments: Trackback: Trackback Link and count:;[] Permalink for this post:  See similar posts in these categories: Toyota Supra | Toyota-Lexus | Toyota-Lexus - Concepts Search for similar posts on the web: Google It! RSS Feed for DrivingEnthusiast.net About DrivingEnthusiast.net
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