Author Archives: Will@FluxAuto

Mugen Shinden Takes To The Track

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What you are looking at is the Mugen version of the Honda RC-E electric motorcycle. Mugen, which is Japanese for “Infinity,” is Honda’s in-house tuning company for their cars and motorcycles that was founded by Soichiro Honda’s son. Mugen’s version of the RC-E is named the Shinden after a Japanese god of lightning. Mugen will be campaigning the Shinden at an electric motorcycle exclusive racing series called the TTXGP at the Isle of Man. The Shinden will be piloted by British racer John McGuinness.


Source: CarNiftyTV YouTube Channel

D1 FT-86’s Debut in Odaiba

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The new crop of professional drift cars based on the new Toyota/Subaru FT-86 made their debuts at the Odaiba round of the Japanese D1 Drift Series last week.

First is Hibino’s Up Garage car. He is using an EJ-25 engine from a Subaru Impreza. Unfortunately, he crashes it pretty hard in practice:

 

Next is Manibu “Max” Orido’s FT-86 which is powered by the V8 from a Lexus IS-F.

 

Taniguchi’s HKS supercharged car was there, but I don’t think it competed. It uses the HKS GT Supercharger kit on the stock based engine.

 

Here are some highlights of Hibino and Orido during the competition rounds.


Source: CarNiftyTV YouTube Channel

Toyota TS030 Hybrid

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Toyota unveiled the car they would using to return to Le Mans LMP1 racing earlier this year. It’s called the TS030 (TS stands for Toyota Sport) and it’s a gasoline/electric hybrid. The gasoline end of things is taken care of by a 3.4 liter V8. Toyota’s press release stated that they were still deciding on which electric motor system they were going to use. The rules limit them to driving only one of the axles with an electrical system. Toyota was considering a system by Aisin for driving the front wheels and a Denso system to drive the rear wheels. The energy storage duties will be handled by an ultra-capacitor made by Nisshinbo. Capacitors are much lighter than batteries and are better suited for the high energy charging and discharging duties of road racing. The car will operate in pure EV mode in the pit lane.

Unfortunately the last news I heard about this car was that there was a crash in testing which would push back it’s official debut. Toyota Europe released this video with the press release announcing the car. It’s in-car footage of Alex Wurz driving the TS030 around the Paul Ricard track in France. Pay attention to how the car sounds as it first leaves the pit under electric power only.


Source: Toyota Europe YouTube Channel

Tony Stark’s NSX Roadster

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Edmund’s Inside Line got a chance to play around with the NSX roadster concept that Tony Stark drives around in the upcoming Avengers movie. Turns out it was built on the chassis of a ’91 NSX. The body panels will fall off if the car goes over 10 mph. The interior is totally stock down to the tape deck. Despite of how cheesy this movie car is, the new NSX should be pretty awesome.


Source: Edmund’s Inside Line YouTube Channel