Tokyo Auto Salon 2011: Toyota Takes the Stage
Perhaps the biggest surprise of Toyota’s exhibition at the 2011 Tokyo Auto Salon was not a car, but a person. Company president Akio Toyoda took the stage and spoke about how driving the Lexus LFA in...
View ArticleGrand Touring: 2011 Scion tC & Calty Design Research
Recently, we found ourselves behind the wheel of a jet black 2011 Scion tC. Why are we telling you this? Because the tC is the latest vehicle to emerge from Calty Design Research in Newport Beach,...
View ArticleEVENTS: The Bayline Gathering, Part 01
Ever since Motoring J Style faded in 2008 there’s been a void in the NorCal nostalgic scene. The Bay Area is rife with vintage Nihon steel, and it needs a bona fide show to bring the cars out from...
View ArticleGrand Touring: Up the California Coast in a Toyota FJ Cruiser
In Part 01 of our Bayline Gathering coverage we promised an in-depth examination of the steed that carried us north, away from our familiar SoCal environs and to the Bay Area in search of precious...
View ArticleEVENTS: 2013 SEMA Show
The SEMA show is a purist’s worst nightmare. Stock is a dirty word to these people. You won’t find a single unmolested car in the whole Death Star-sized convention hall, but that’s not necessarily a...
View ArticleEVENTS: 2014 All-Toyotafest, Part 03 — Practicals
We’ve seen the high-end luxocruisers that gave Toyota its reputation of apocalypse-grade reliability and the long-forgotten sports coupes Akio Toyoda hopes will rekindle passions for his...
View ArticleEVENTS: AE86 Nights 9th Anniversary
What started as a small gathering of enthusiasts of the last RWD Corolla eight years ago has grown into a gathering that attracts hundreds of cars from all over southern California. It all started with...
View ArticleVIDEO: Behind the scenes at Toyota’s Calty design studio
We all know that cars are designed, but what is “design,” exactly? A new video released by Toyota aims to answer that question via a history and tour of their Calty design studio. Toyota was the first...
View ArticleMINICARS: A beginner’s guide to JNC Legos, Part 01
The popularity of Legos had exploded in recent years, leading to many fans going beyond off-the-shelf kits and building their own custom creations. We’ve posted about Legos before, starting from back...
View ArticleMINICARS: A beginner’s guide to JNC Legos, Part 02
With the popularity of Legos showing no signs of slowing, it’s a good time to get into building custom JNCs out of these little Danish bricks. In Part 01 of our beginner’s guide, we took a look at some...
View ArticleWe went off-roading with a cadre of Japanese nostalgic trucks
The mountains to the north of Los Angeles are home to some of the best driving roads in America. I had covered Angeles Crest, Glendora Mountain Road, and Mulholland Drive many times. But it was always...
View ArticleMINICARS: A beginner’s guide to JNC Legos, Part 03
In the final installment of our beginner’s guide to Lego JNCs, we are going to focus on the prevailing style of builds in Japan. In Part 01 we admired highly complex creations comprised of hundreds of...
View ArticleVIDEO: This Toyota Van excursion looks like a load of fun
The Barlow Pass near Mt Hood was one of the final sections of the famed Oregon Trail. And while our ancestors may have died of dysentery in a covered wagon, in modern times you can navigate from the...
View ArticleJapanese Classic Car Show 2019: Upping the Game and Best in Show
We are 60 percent of the way to the point where the JCCS itself, if it were a car, would be eligible for classic status. In its 15 years in existence, the Japanese Classic Car Show has grown from a …...
View ArticleMINICARS: 2021 Matchbox lineup includes MR2, BRAT, T360, and more
The annual Matchbox collector’s convention was supposed to be last weekend, but the coronavirus happened. Instead, it was held virtually, with a video presentation to show what’s coming down the line....
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