It was just a rumour yesterday, but now it's official: Japanese parts manufacturer Trust has filed for bankruptcy after declining sales revenue pushed the company some $60 million USD into debt. Despite being one of the tuning world's best-known tuning parts companies, Trust never quite managed to sell enough products to cover its expenses and by the time it filed for bankruptcy at the Tokyo District Court it had racked up a hefty debt that included around $43 million USD in loan repayments....
If you were planning on picking up a brand-new R35 GT-R but were simply waiting for the requisite amount of pennies and farthings to accumulate in your wallet, you'd better get prepared to wait just a little bit longer. That's right, citing "increased raw materials costs," Nissan has decided to raise the GT-R's MSRP by just under seven thousand Yankee dollars - $6,990 USD, to be exact. That brings prices to $76,840 for the base model, and 79,090 for the Premium. Granted, its still nowhere...
While aftermarket parts companies have yet to offer a replacement turbocharger/manifold kit for the R35, Japanese tuning house HKS have developed their own turbine upgrade that manages to eke out a few more ponies from the GT-R's standard-issue turbo. Dubbed the GT570, HKS's kit consists of stronger wastegate actuators, an HKS EVC boost controller, de-cat front pipes and aluminium intercooler piping. The concept is simple, and a tried and true method of extracting more power from factory...
While it may be one of the more expensive Japanese sports cars, the Lexus SC430 is sadly far from being the prettiest. Its bulbous, over-inflated bodywork and the stylistic compromises necessitated by that electric folding hardtop have relegated the poor ol' SC430 to being the ugly duckling in the Lexus lineup, but thanks to a number of aftermarket body addenda that can easily be changed. Blitz have now added to the range of third-party bodykits for the SC430 with their recent release of a...
Japanese aftermarket metalsmiths ARC have apparently developed a new "Performance Bar" for the Z33-based Nismo 380RS, which ties together the front of the engine bay and bridges the gap between the very ends of the frame rails. To be honest, I've never considered the 350Z's chassis to be especially wanting for rigidity around the engine bay area, as the stock tower bar and the thick steel webbing between the firewall and the suspension towers already did an admirable job of suppressing any...
Here it is folks, next year's (slightly) edgier, (slightly) manlier Mazda MX-5 has been revealed. Last month we got a preview of what the facelift might look like, but now thanks to the folks over at Spanish site km77.com (who helpfully splashed their watermark all over this image - thanks guys) we can finally lay eyes on next year's updated model. Bodywork changes are entirely limited to the sheetmetal ahead of the A-pillar, with the front bumper now sporting a happier 'grin' and the...
Attention Subaru fans: US aftermarket tuning co. Cobb Tuning has now added a set of uprated sports springs for the 2008 Subaru WRX STI to its performance parts catalogue. Cobb's springs lower the STI by 2.2cm on each corner and also feature a 10 per cent increase in springrate on the front and a 20 per cent increase on the rear, which should make for a significant upgrade in handling. According to a recent test conducted by Motor Trend, Cobb's development mule was also able to turn in a...
In a touching display for the man who almost single-handedly created one of Subaru's largest foreign markets for the rally-bred Impreza WRX, almost 1100 Subaru Impreza owners converged on Prodrive's Banbury headquarters to form an enormous tribute for Colin McRae, who sadly perished in a helicopter accident late last year which also claimed the lives of his son and two family friends. After following McRae's original 1996 Impreza rally car driven by his father, ex-rally champ Jimmy McRae,...
Here's some eye candy for you all to perv on. These pics are renderings of Wald's upcoming Sports Line bodykit for the R35, and boy do Wald love vents. Despite the front bumper being mega-fussy, Wald has definitely come up with an eye-catching design for the GT-R. The side view is dominated by those rear over-fenders (which, truth be told, would look a lot better painted the same colour as the body) and the rear features a very Ferrari 599-esque rear diffuser and some kind of...
Honda took the wraps off the Mugen-developed Civic 5D Mugen at the recent Moscow Motor Show, and suffice to say, it's one delectable looking hatchback. Mugen have succeeded in transposing the Type R flavour of the two-door FN2 Civic Type R onto its five-door sibling, and it's tempting to say that the end result is a car that appears harder, edgier and more athletic than the top o' the line CTR. It's a pity then that the Civic 5D Mugen is just a styling exercise for now, with neither...
Remember that R35 GT-R transformers toy that we told you about earlier this month? Well, it seems that Takara have finally decided to give the pint-sized robo-replica a lick of paint - and it sure looks good. Judging by the few rough edges evident on this model, the GT-R Transformer is still in the prototype stage. Still, it's practically a sure bet that it'll be ready by Christmas. [Source: GTRBlog.com] [Image: GTRBlog.com]
It was just a rumour yesterday, but now it's official: Japanese parts manufacturer Trust has filed for bankruptcy after declining sales revenue pushed the company some $60 million USD into debt. Despite being one of the tuning world's best-known tuning parts companies, Trust never quite managed to sell enough products to cover its expenses and by the time it filed for bankruptcy at the Tokyo District Court it had racked up a hefty debt that included around $43 million USD in loan repayments....
If you were planning on picking up a brand-new R35 GT-R but were simply waiting for the requisite amount of pennies and farthings to accumulate in your wallet, you'd better get prepared to wait just a little bit longer. That's right, citing "increased raw materials costs," Nissan has decided to raise the GT-R's MSRP by just under seven thousand Yankee dollars - $6,990 USD, to be exact. That brings prices to $76,840 for the base model, and 79,090 for the Premium. Granted, its still nowhere...
While aftermarket parts companies have yet to offer a replacement turbocharger/manifold kit for the R35, Japanese tuning house HKS have developed their own turbine upgrade that manages to eke out a few more ponies from the GT-R's standard-issue turbo. Dubbed the GT570, HKS's kit consists of stronger wastegate actuators, an HKS EVC boost controller, de-cat front pipes and aluminium intercooler piping. The concept is simple, and a tried and true method of extracting more power from factory...
While it may be one of the more expensive Japanese sports cars, the Lexus SC430 is sadly far from being the prettiest. Its bulbous, over-inflated bodywork and the stylistic compromises necessitated by that electric folding hardtop have relegated the poor ol' SC430 to being the ugly duckling in the Lexus lineup, but thanks to a number of aftermarket body addenda that can easily be changed. Blitz have now added to the range of third-party bodykits for the SC430 with their recent release of a...
Japanese aftermarket metalsmiths ARC have apparently developed a new "Performance Bar" for the Z33-based Nismo 380RS, which ties together the front of the engine bay and bridges the gap between the very ends of the frame rails. To be honest, I've never considered the 350Z's chassis to be especially wanting for rigidity around the engine bay area, as the stock tower bar and the thick steel webbing between the firewall and the suspension towers already did an admirable job of suppressing any...
Here it is folks, next year's (slightly) edgier, (slightly) manlier Mazda MX-5 has been revealed. Last month we got a preview of what the facelift might look like, but now thanks to the folks over at Spanish site km77.com (who helpfully splashed their watermark all over this image - thanks guys) we can finally lay eyes on next year's updated model. Bodywork changes are entirely limited to the sheetmetal ahead of the A-pillar, with the front bumper now sporting a happier 'grin' and the...
Attention Subaru fans: US aftermarket tuning co. Cobb Tuning has now added a set of uprated sports springs for the 2008 Subaru WRX STI to its performance parts catalogue. Cobb's springs lower the STI by 2.2cm on each corner and also feature a 10 per cent increase in springrate on the front and a 20 per cent increase on the rear, which should make for a significant upgrade in handling. According to a recent test conducted by Motor Trend, Cobb's development mule was also able to turn in a...
In a touching display for the man who almost single-handedly created one of Subaru's largest foreign markets for the rally-bred Impreza WRX, almost 1100 Subaru Impreza owners converged on Prodrive's Banbury headquarters to form an enormous tribute for Colin McRae, who sadly perished in a helicopter accident late last year which also claimed the lives of his son and two family friends. After following McRae's original 1996 Impreza rally car driven by his father, ex-rally champ Jimmy McRae,...
Here's some eye candy for you all to perv on. These pics are renderings of Wald's upcoming Sports Line bodykit for the R35, and boy do Wald love vents. Despite the front bumper being mega-fussy, Wald has definitely come up with an eye-catching design for the GT-R. The side view is dominated by those rear over-fenders (which, truth be told, would look a lot better painted the same colour as the body) and the rear features a very 
Ferrari
Honda took the wraps off the Mugen-developed Civic 5D Mugen at the recent Moscow Motor Show, and suffice to say, it's one delectable looking hatchback. Mugen have succeeded in transposing the Type R flavour of the two-door FN2 Civic Type R onto its five-door sibling, and it's tempting to say that the end result is a car that appears harder, edgier and more athletic than the top o' the line CTR. It's a pity then that the Civic 5D Mugen is just a styling exercise for now, with neither...
Remember that R35 GT-R transformers toy that we told you about earlier this month? Well, it seems that Takara have finally decided to give the pint-sized robo-replica a lick of paint - and it sure looks good. Judging by the few rough edges evident on this model, the GT-R Transformer is still in the prototype stage. Still, it's practically a sure bet that it'll be ready by Christmas. [Source: GTRBlog.com] [Image: GTRBlog.com]