We dream of one day becoming as important enough so that Nissan will invite us to exotic, faraway locales and give us cars to test drive while showing us sneak peeks of upcoming releases. Kinda like they did with the writers at Inside Line when they took them to Portugal and let them see the upcoming Nissan Silvia successor. (more…)

A couple of months ago we told you about this speculative drawing of the next iteration of Nissan’s iconic Z car. Now, what appears to be an official Nissan rendering of the final design has been leaked to the world. It looks like the sketch from March wasn’t too far off, but do you notice something? No, the 2009 Maxima headlights and bulging fenders were already identified in the March rendering. Look closer. That’s right, baby - the side glass and C-pillar is a nod to the original 240Z! Yeah, it’s not much but we’ll take what we can get. At least someone in the design department knows Datsun history. A comparison pic after the jump. (more…)

In the late 80s and early 90s, Nissan teamed up with design house PIKE to create a series of retro-style cars based on the Nissan March. In the West, the most popular one of these cars is the Figaro, which was even named one of the 25 “greatest creations” of the last quarter century by the London Design Museum, even though it was never officially imported to the UK.

Our favorite, however, is its sibling, the awesomely retro Nissan Pao. Keep in mind that in this case, retro means what the Japanese would consider retro. You won’t see an lavish chrome or jutting tailfins here. No, the Pao is reminiscent of early “People’s Cars” cars like the Subaru 360 or Suzuki Suzu-light.  These compact, utilitarian machines are what got the majority of the Japanese public on the roads.

Money was very much an object, and the Pao is full of touches that hearken back to those simpler times - check out the exposed door hinges, simple round head and tail lights, beads rolled into the sheetmetal for strengthening, sliding rear windows, color coordinated dash.  The list goes on and on.  Even the colors - grayish green, powder blue, ivory - were the ones most popular in the late 50s and early 60s.  Beautiful!

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Today we received the most convincing news yet that Toyota is seriously considering a return to its rear wheel drive roots. We thank dear reader Buddy J, who informed us that an unnamed lead project developer at Toyota has contacted Moto Miwa, founder of Club4AG, to ask his readers what they’re looking for in a revived compact sports car. If you haven’t been keeping up with this saga, catch up via this post.

While it’s clear that everyone would like to see a responsive, lightweight, RWD sports coupe, some people want it all. Let’s face it, Toyota will not be able to toss in VVT-i, a 6-speed transmission, LSD and keep the price at a “reasonable” level. In 2008 dollars, a 1985 Corolla GT-S should cost almost $25,000 today.

Frankly, we’d be more than thrilled with a simple, lithe FR sportster that takes styling cues from the AE86 (or first-gen Celica, if it will be badged as such). Weigh in at Club4AG.

Speculation continues to abound at the reincarnation of a lightweight, rear wheel drive Toyota. For those of you who haven’t been following this particular rumor-fest, a quick recap: First, in August 2007, it was the Japanese magazines that began reporting on a comeback for the famed AE86 Corolla or hachiroku. Further details from Japanese newspaper Asahi Shimbun emerged, saying that Subaru, which Toyota purchased an 8.7% share of from GM in 2005, would be providing a boxer engine for the motivation. In October 2007, word leaked that Toyota had created an internal “committee to create interesting cars” and in November, more grapevine gossip said that Celicas, MR2s and Supras were all in queue for revival.

Now, Autoweek.nl is reporting that this new RWD compact will be a Celica, not a Corolla. If this is true, the new Celica will be offered in coupe and hatchback body styles (what, no liftback?) and in GT or GT-4 trim. The GT will have Subaru’s standard 2.0L boxer and RWD, while the GT-4 will have the 300hp 2.0L from the WRX STi and AWD. This could also mean a return to World Rally Championships for Toyota.

Not since 1985 and the A60 chassis has the Celica been RWD. In 1986, the Celica split off completely from the shared Supra/Celica platform and became four-cylinder FF or AWD only. The world is in dire need of a light, rear-driven coupe. Let’s hope this turns out to be fact, not just rumor, and if the car turns out to be retro-styled after the original Celica, well, that’ll be the bee’s knees.

Read the translation at World Car Fans.

Motorcycle News is reporting that the Honda CB1100F concept unveiled at the 2007 Tokyo Motor Show will see production as a 2009 model. In a move that seems contrary to the current trend in motorcycle engines, Honda will stay true to the concept and equip the production version with an air-cooled inline-4. Unfortunately, the article also states that the CB1100R, also unveiled last year at Tokyo, will most likely not make it into production.

According to the article, the CB1100F has been in the works for a long time, with patents for it’s innovative air-cooling system filed as early as 2003. In typical Honda fashion, however, no information about this project was leaked in the past four years. Let’s hope Honda has something planned for us on the auto front as well.

[via Motorcycle News]

As the unveils at the Tokyo Motor Show enters its second day, the dearth of nostalgics and any reference to them continues.  We’ve seen cars that are soft to the touch and glow in the dark, ones that swivel 360 degrees with a R2-D2-like copilot, a rotary-powered landspeeder a futuristic COE battering ram and three retro bikes, but zero classic cars.  Well, there was one, but it was a Volvo.

So instead, we’ll just show you the Suzuki LC from the 2005 ToMoShow, a retro concept that hearkens back to the company’s first car, the 1955 Suzulight.  Check out the stubby bullet fender mirrors, the plaid-on-red upholstery and the whitewall tires, all in a package cute enough to be a Sanrio character.  Sadly, it never made it into production, but we want to love it and pet it and call it George.