A biweekly roundup of automotive news, good, bad and just plain weird: Longest-serving Toyota CEO dies Eiji Toyoda passed away this week, just a few days after his 100th birthday. The centenarian had long been retired, but remained an honorary chairman at the Toyota Motor Corporation, in recognition of his long service.
Born in 1913, Toyoda entered a world where the automobile was just beginning to become available to the masses. He joined his cousin at the newly minted Toyota Motors - the family business had heretofore been in textiles - and eventually helped build the company into the powerhouse it is today.
A year after becoming president of the company, Toyoda presided over the launch of the 1968 Corolla, Toyota's first real success in the North American market. He would later oversee the foundation of the Lexus luxury brand and the creation of the Prius, all while sticking to his original principles of slow, constant improvements in quality and efficiency.
Today, Toyota competes with General Motors and Volkswagen for the title of largest automaker in the world.
Mazda's Furai concept goes up in flames Having just sat through an onslaught of pretty but non-functional concepts revealed at this month's Frankfurt Motor Show, the general sadness over the loss of one Mazda concept car may be hard to understand.
However, the difference with the Furai, a six-yearold design exercise, is twofold. First of all, it actually ran. Second of all, it was flippin' amazing.
Based around a LeMans prototype chassis, the Furai was powered by a threerotor, 450 horsepower Wankel rotary engine. The word "Furai" means "sound of the wind" in Japanese, and with that high-revving rotary motor at full chat, just assume they're talking hurricaneforce here.
The Furai looped tracks like the iconic Laguna Seca, but sadly perished in a fire while undergoing testing and filming with the BBC's popular Top Gear. As a one-off, there may never be anything like it, ever again.
Ford builds 2,000,000th EcoBoost engine
Four years ago, Ford decided to embrace turbocharging as the wave of the future in terms of maximizing both performance and fuel economy. How successful they've been is a bit of a mixed bag: there were massive recalls for fire issues (never a good thing) and real-world fuel consumption often differed greatly from the official numbers.
However, the Blue Oval has persevered, with the result that the twomillionth engine has just rolled off the factory floor at their plant in Louisville, Ky. A 2.0-litre unit, the engine will find a home underneath the sheet metal of the popular Ford Escape crossover.
Currently, Ford makes the EcoBoost in sizes from a tiny 1.0-litre threecylinder, to be found in the Fiesta sub-compact, all the way up to a 3.5-litre twin-turbo in the F150 and Taurus SHO. Midrange EcoBoost options are popular for punchy torque, and if driven gently can still return reasonable fuel economy - constant fiddling with engine tuning is improving real-world results.
About 90 per cent of Ford's current North American fleet can be optioned with a turbo engine, and this is set to rise to 95 per cent by the end of 2015. Will that include some form of turbocharged Mustang? Rumours indicate that it's only a matter of time.
CR-Z to gain Type R status?
Honda's Frankfurt press conference was full of references to its racing heritage - a heritage it seemed to be wilfully ignoring recently. Here they are back though, with World Touring Car wins, a new NSX in the pipeline, a return to F1 racing with McLaren, and the return of the Civic Type R. With a goal set of being the fastest front-driver around the Nürburgring, the new 276 h.p. Civic Type R is currently in development, and should be available by 2015. Everywhere except here, of course.
However, before getting too upset by yet another bit of European unobtanium, the rumour currently making waves is that the Type R's development will lead to improvements for the lackadaisical CR-Z. The little two-door hatchback North America gets might not be very quick, but the bones are there for a quickhandling car that's a proper descendant of the CRX giant killer. It just needs a little more power.
To that end, Honda's turbocharging research may trickle down into some version of the 1.5-litre hybrid CR-Z; reportedly, a prototype already exists.
World's smallest car takes to the road With a top speed of just 40 kilometres per hour, this two-foot-high, four-foot-long, open-top machine is hardly going to keep up with highway traffic. However, at least in the eyes of Texan law enforcement, Austin Coulson's tiny creation is perfectly road legal. At least, for low-speed roads only.
As such, the Arizona native's earned himself a place in this year's Guinness World Book of Records with the World's Smallest Road Legal Car. Fun stuff, but about as safe as spending time with the World's Angriest Lion.
Watch this space for all the week's best and worst of automotive news, or submit your own auto oddities to [email protected]. Follow brendan on Twitter at @brendan_mcaleer
