Posts Tagged evo
Tokyo Auto Salon 2013: Race Cars
Posted by stocjoe in Uncategorized on January 30, 2013
The big draw for me at the Tokyo Auto Salon was all the amazingly modified cars that are on display. But those aren’t the only vehicles that show up at show. As it turns out, to my surprise and delight, some pretty cool race cars from the past and present were on display this year. Two of Honda’s 1960’s Formula One cars were on display, one from 1967 at Honda’s booth, and one from 1964 at the NGK booth. What I love about these cars are the elaborate twisting headers sprouting from the rear mounted engine. And speaking of F1 there was also a 1996 Ferrari Formula One car on display.
Super GT cars were also out in force, ranging from Toyota Prius, to Honda CR-Z, to GT-R, and the lamented HSV-010. The HSV was what came of the remains of Honda’s canceled NSX project. The plan was originally to have a V10 mounted up front for the next generation NSX, but economic conditions led Honda to cancel the project. The Super GT HSV was developed from the stillborn NSX. As many of you know, the NSX will return, but instead with a mid-mounted V6 hybrid. I still look forward to the newest interpretation of the NSX, but I still wonder what a front engine V10 NSX would have been like.
Le Mans cars also showed up, and this probably excited me the most. Last year marked a serious return of Japanese cars to the big prototype leagues at Le Mans. Toyota fielded two LMP1 prototype cars, both gasoline hybrids, against Audi’s nearly invincible entries. Although they were not victorious, it was still a big deal to see them on track and being reasonably competitive. One of those Toyota racers was on display this year. Almost more exciting was seeing the DeltaWing (powered by Nissan) race car at the Nissan booth. The DeltaWing is one of the most radical race car designs to come up in many years. It’s design involves a very narrow track up front with a wide section at the back. The idea is that the car is half the weight and half the aerodynamic drag of its competitors, and as a result, only needs half the power and half the fuel of its competitors. It’s proven to hang well with the established racers, but how to classify it has been a major issue, with the car being relegated to experimental classes. The other issue has been completing a race without wrecking. Through no fault of its own, the DeltaWing has had unfortunate incidents where other cars have taken it out of contention. Ironically, at Le Mans 2012, it was taken out by a Toyota. The other Le Mans racer on display was Mazda’s new diesel powered LMP2 car. This car is brand new and marks Mazda’s return to Le Mans this year. Mazda is the only Japanese manufacturer to ever win Le Mans overall, and the only one to do so with a rotary engine. Since Le Mans is generally dominated overall by the LMP1 class, I doubt that we’ll see Mazda take an overall win, it will be interesting to see how it does in the LMP2 class.
And besides all of these, there were race cars of a slightly more stylized persuasion. Inside the show there were a handful of drift cars scattered about, but it was outside that you could see some D1 Grand Prix drifters putting their cars through their paces in a small course marked out in the exhibition area. Each driver had two solo runs, one a warm-up and the other a scored run, and then they ran tandem drift runs. Though I’m sure it wasn’t quite as spectacular as at a full scale race circuit, it was still brilliant to see some pretty impressive car control, and a healthy (unhealthy?) amount of smoke in such a small area.
Also, be sure to check out the videos linked to YouTube down below for a taste of the drifting action at Tokyo Auto Salon:
Idling: A Car Blog 