Articles by Steve Buscemi
30/12/15
30/12/15
27/12/15
There’s not much middle ground to crossovers as they are usually either depressingly awful or brilliantly cool. On one side you’ve got frumpy FWD tall wagons, which have zero off-road capabilities yet manage to be crappy on-road as well. Then on the other side you’ve got true dual-purpose vehicles, able to impress on a winding tarmac backroad or a lumpy dirt trail.
21/12/15
The proposal for the AZ-1 goes as far back as 1985 when Suzuki created the Suzuki RS/1 as a midship sports car project for volume production. Suzuki went as far to design the car for the Tokyo Motor Show more than just a design exercise, they designed the car to be functional with a front/rear weight distribution of 45:55. powered by a 1.3 liter G13A engine from the Cultus.
21/12/15
The Columbus, dedicated to Christopher Columbus, was a 7-seater MPV van designed as an ultra-high level status vehicle ideal for the urban scenarios of the United States. Nearly 6 m in length, it featured a steel box-section load-bearing chassis while the body was in carbon fibre. The Columbus was fitted with a 5000 CC and 300 hp and V12 BMW engine fitted in a transverse mid position. Traction is permanent four wheel drive and the rear wheels may achieve an angle of 15° at low speed.
21/12/15
The Sard MC8-R was a modified and lengthened version of the SW20 built for GT racing by Toyota’s works team SARD (Sigma Advanced Research Development). The MC8-R housed a twin-turbo version of the 4.0-liter Toyota 1UZ-FE V8 producing 600 bhp (450 kW). Eligible for the GT1 category, the MC8-R lacked pace against the new generation sports cars and homologation specials such as Porsche 911 GT1, but did compete alongside a similarly modified Toyota Supra.
20/12/15
While Toyota’s front-engine, rear-drive Celica rally cars proved dominant in the African Group B rallies of the 1980s, they were at a disadvantage on the twistier European stages. Thus, in 1985 Toyota Team Europe started a rally project codenamed “222D” based on the MR2, for competition in Group S and potentially Group B as well.