OK all you Civic fan boys with large checkbooks and connections to the home market, get your browsers ready, because there’s going to be a whole lot of JDM parts for you to order up. At this year’s Tokyo Motor Show, Honda rolled out a JDM only version of the Civic officially called Civic Type R Euro. But right off the top, let me just say that I’ve always been a little bit puzzled by Honda’s making JDM specific and Euro-market specific and North American market specific versions of these cars (or any other ride that’s sold in all three markets).

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Normally, station wagons don’t do much for me. But station wagons that are tricked out by STI (Subaru’s skunk works/racing arm/rally parts bin) and trimmed out in WRC blue … OK, I might be interested, sure. Anyway, the wagon you see here just rolled out at this year’s Tokyo Motor Show. It might get missed amongst all the general weirdness that is rampant at the show, or overshadowed by stuff like the Lexus LFA … but then again, a high performance wagon might go unnoticed by certain types of other people too.

“Why, no officer. It couldn’t have been ME that was speeding, it must have been those hoodlums over there with that racy looking car with the huge wing on it!”

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Here’s something that has been a long time coming, even if it is only a prototype/design study from a German Technical college. Rolled out at this year’s Frankfurt Auto Show, the E-Wolf e1 is an all electric formula style racer that is completely electric. To say that this is something that should have been done decades back would be an understatement. And to say that we’ll all benefit if something like this takes off is an understatement as well. The old saw is that ‘racing improves the breed’, and if we want to have enjoyable EVs that are fun to drive, then we should all be pulling for the E-Wolf to be made by the score, raced all over the world every weekend, and for that technology to make it into our future cars.

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VW showed their L1 Concept at Frankfurt this year. It’s an updating of a similar design from a few years back. Essentially it’s a 1+1 diesel powered city car-esque design study that will get the greenies all up in a fine lather but will be sort of threatening to old school car guys.

I’m not sure why that is though. There’s long been this perception that gearheads must fight tooth and nail against cars like the Smart or the Prius or, for that matter, the L1 Concept. Because if we don’t, then somehow the big bad evil government will force us to only drive in Smarts with 29 MPH speed limiters while eating tofu and listening to Enya.

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Looks like Kia’s been busy over the past year. At the 2009 Frankfurt Motor Show, Kia unveiled a total of five new models, along with their new “EcoDynamics” sub-brand. Most of the new stuff will only be available in Europe, at least initially. Let’s take a look at what they’re offering…

New Production Models

All-new Kia Sorento

The Kia Sorento, introduced in 2002, is really what helped Kia squeeze into the mid-size SUV market. With refreshes and new options here and there over the years, Kia’s decided to give it an overhaul to keep up with current design trends and features. The new style is much sleeker than before, enough so that you might be able to notice one on the road now.

Kia went so far as to ditch the old body-on-frame structure and design a completely new monocoque chassis which can now seat up to seven passengers. This helped the Sorento lose a significant 473 lbs, despite all the new stuff on it.

The engines have actually gotten smaller this year. The gasoline-powered V6 was reduced from 3.8 to 3.5-liters, and the 2.5-liter diesel is now 2.2-liters. Production has already begun on the new Sorento, and will be available next year in the States. Continue Reading…

Being the 50th Anniversary of MINI means they’re unveiling two new concept cars on the public at the 2009 Frankfurt Motor Show. Dubbed the “Oxford Twins,” the Coupe and Roadster Concept cars made an impression at the show today.

I’ll be honest with you…the press release MINI sent out today regarding these cars was 58 pages long; I’m not joking. I’m not going to read the whole thing like I do most of these releases, but I have the important stuff regarding the Coupe and Roadster… Continue Reading…