2013 Lexus GS F Review and Release

2013 Lexus GS-F Rumor Reality
2013 Lexus GS-F

Auto­car is report­ing that the Lexus GS-F is on deck for 2013 and will be pow­ered by the LFA’s V10:

Lexus engi­neers are work­ing on reduc­ing the engine’s capac­ity by around 200cc to 4.6 litres and power to 450bhp. The idea is to improve low-range torque, although even with the reduced power out­put the GS-F will become the most pow­er­ful road-going Japan­ese saloon ever built.

The GS-F will be fit­ted with Toyota’s first torque vec­tor­ing dif­fer­en­tial. Sim­i­lar to the diff used on BMW’s M cars and the likes of the X6 SUV, the ‘torque split unit’ actively appor­tions drive between the rear wheels to aid han­dling. A sim­i­lar sys­tem is also expected to be fit­ted to the new SC.

The GS F has been long rumored, and at the Detroit Auto Show, even Lexus rep­re­sen­ta­tives were whis­per­ing about the pos­si­bil­ity. The time­frame seems rea­son­able, and it wouldn’t sur­prise me to hear that Toy­ota was work­ing on torque vec­tor­ing technology.

Also men­tioned in the arti­cle is the next-generation SC:

The new SC will be unveiled in mid-2014, although the cur­rent car is due to fin­ish pro­duc­tion this July, leav­ing a four-year gap between the two cars. How­ever, the next model will be a hybrid, pow­ered by a 5.0-litre V8 and an elec­tric motor dri­ving the rear wheels only.

Can’t see the SC going on a four-year hia­tus, even if it’s depen­dant on GS-F tech­nol­ogy. That would be a long time for Lexus to go with­out a true sports coupe.

[Source: Auto­car]

Nissan GT R 2013 Review and Release

2013 Nissan Qashqai Rumor or Reality

2013 Nissan Qashqai

2013 Nissan Qashqai Review and Release

The new Nissan GT-R R36 arrives in 2013. This is confirmed by Andy Palmer, vice president of the Japanese, who unbuttons some valuable information on the new model. Specifically, during an ‘interview for a popular American magazine, Palmer said that Nissan was inspired by Porsche regarding the pace of upgrading its products (we had no doubt). The new R36 GT-R will be built on a chassis developed than at present and will retain its mighty twin-turbo V6, suitably revised and expanded (could get direct fuel injection).

Will still remain in the mechanical architecture of the car. The fact that Palmer during the interview, spoke of Porsche GT2 as a benchmark for the GT-R reminds us that new Nissan supercar will receive a substantial injection of power to compete adequately with the more “horses” of 911. Moreover, given the configuration of the GT2, the words of the boss of Japanese allows us to make some modest speculation about the arrival of a variant of the GT-R rear wheel drive only.