Subaru Forester tS STI... for Japan only

Subaru will produce an STI version of the Forester tS. Fancy one? Well, only 300 cars will be built and before you run to your local Subaru dealer, bare in mind that you have to live in Japan in order to get one...

Production is scheduled to run from now until the end of March 2011 and all cars will be fitted with a 5-speed automatic transmission. The 2.5L engine will produce 263 ps and 347 Nm of torque. STI tuned dampers, springs, body bracing will be fitted.

The STi version costs 3,600,000 ¥.

Nissan Juke on the streets...

On Saturday night, I got the chance to see the Nissan Juke for the very first time and actually, I saw four of them parked next to each other (I took those shots with my mobile phone and thus the low quality). There should have been an event somewhere, cause they  were demo cars.

When the first official photos were released back in February, I was rather shocked. Some kind of typing mistake should have been made. The name should be Joke and not Juke... However, seeing the car out in the real world left me with mixed feelings. The first thing I noticed was the fact that in the reality, it's smaller than what I expected. The front end is definitely weird and people will need a bit of time in order to get used to it, while the rear end (where some Volvo design elements are evident) looks better and it matches the overall design of the car. In general, I believe that it is not a nice car to look at, there is no doubt about that, but at the same time it's just different from what we have been used to. Since each car was in different colour (silver, red, black and white), I found silver and white to suit best the car's design.

What really surprises me with Nissan is the fact that it's the first Japanese manufacturer to follow the trend of turbocharged engines with the DiG-T engine. Japanese automakers still try to avoid using turbocharging and one good example is Mazda with its new SKYACTIV technology (earlier post). I believe that there is a good reason behind this, as we are talking about mass produced cars, and it is a good practice to keep the design with as few parts as possible. Avoiding complexity is a basic principle if you want a reliable product.

Considering that prices start from €17k, it should sell well and Suzuki's SX4 is now in big trouble...

Honda HSV-010 takes 2010 Super GT title

The HSV-010 won the 2010 Super GT championship in GT500 class following a second place of the Dome team in the Motegi race. Well done Honda!!!