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Weekly Recap: Ferrari, Ford and Porsche power up for Geneva

Monday was Groundhog Day. Tuesday, apparently, was Sports Car Day. The Ferrari 488 GTB, the Ford Focus RS and the Porsche Cayman GT4 all debuted within hours of each other ahead of their rollouts at the Geneva Motor Show. Three sporty machines, three vastly different approaches – and a lot of implications for enthusiasts. That's a day worth repeating. It also illustrates the opportunities automakers see in the performance market, which is expected to grow in the coming years. Ford estimates the segment has expanded 14 percent in Europe and surged 70 percent in North America since 2009. The Detroit Auto Show was evidence of this, and performance cars of every stripe debuted, including the Acura NSX, Ford GT, Alfa Romeo 4C Spider and several others. This isn't a fad. Performance cars aren't going away. The question is why? Stricter CAFE standards are looming in the United States, as are tighter emissions regulations in Europe. And no one expects gas prices to remain low in America. None of this matters for sports cars, and automakers are increasingly using them to elevate their images. That's why Dodge rolled out two 707-horsepower Hellcats last year. It's why Ford has decided to resurrect the GT for road and track. It's why in the depths of bankruptcy, General Motors continued work on the Chevrolet Corvette Stingray, not to mention the Z06. "Great brands are made one car at a time," Ford of Europe president Jim Farley said at the reveal of the Focus RS. Still, companies make those cars for different reasons. View 5 Photos Mainstream brands like Ford and Dodge want to build cars that get people talking, excite their bases and drive more potential customers into the showroom. They probably don't buy a Focus RS or a Hellcat, but suddenly the regular Focus hatch looks a bit hotter, and that V6 Charger seems to be just a touch more muscular. The halo of performance is alive and well in the eyes of automakers and their customers. "It's one of the most effective catalysts for ingenuity and innovation," said Joe Bakaj, vice president of product development for Ford of Europe. That also leads to a trickle-down effect. Some of the technologies inevitably make their way to other products. It's hard to think the new all-wheel-drive system in the Focus RS that distributes torque front to rear and side to side won't be used in other vehicles. It's different for Ferrari and Porsche.

Toyota Crown celebrates 60 years

Toyota offers a robust lineup of cars in North America, but while the Crown may not be one of them, that wasn't always the case. And this year, the company's longest-running nameplate is marking its sixtieth anniversary. First introduced way back in 1955, the Crown was Toyota's first major export. It became the first Japanese passenger car to reach the US market when the first-generation Crown was launched here in 1958, and marked the company's arrival in Europe when the second-gen model arrived in Denmark in 1963. It started building the Crown in Australia in 1967 and in China more recently in 2005. The Crown is now on its fourteenth generation, and to mark its birthday, Toyota is launching the sedan for a limited time only in sky blue and bright green. Jan. 08, 2015 Toyota 'Crown' Turns 60 Sixty years ago this week, Toyota launched the "Crown", a luxury sedan that would go on to become the company's longest-running passenger-car nameplate and a significant vehicle in the history of the Japanese automobile industry. In 1958 the Crown became the first Japanese passenger car to be exported to the United States, and also started Toyota's passenger car exports to Africa in 1957 and Europe in 1962. Now in its 14th generation, its foremost models are the Crown Royal deluxe saloon and the Crown Athlete sports sedan, both with hybrid powertrain options. In Japan, Toyota is marking the anniversary with the introduction of limited-time-only sky blue and bright green exterior body colors. Toyota Crown Milestones January 1955 First generation launched April 1957 Exported to Ethiopia, Africa August 1958 Exported to the United States October 1962 Second generation launched December 1963 Exported to Denmark, Europe February 1965 Exported to Canada February 1967 Assembly begins in Australia September 1967 Third generation launched February 1971 Fourth generation launched October 1974 Fifth generation launched September 1979 Sixth generation launched August 1983 Seventh generation launched September 1987 Eighth generation launched October 1991 Ninth generation launched December 1995 10th generation launched October 2001 11th generation launched December 2003 12th generation launched March 2005 Production begins in China February 2008 13th generation launched December 2012 14th generation launched

Toyota says you might have the 40-millionth Corolla ever built

The guy who bought the 50-millionth Toyota in the US got a free Camry and RAV4, but whoever in the world bought the 40-millionth Corolla in August gets a hearty "thank you" from the Japanese automaker. On sale since 1966, the Corolla is the best-selling nameplate in the world by a goodly margin (more than the Volkswagen Beetle and Ford Model T combined). So while you'd think that vehicle number 40 million would be sitting in a museum somewhere, Toyota can't even say in which country this milestone Corolla was sold, let alone to which customer.
One reason that Toyota is unsure where this Corolla was sold is the fact that the Corolla name itself is more than just the compact sedan sold in the US. On our shores alone, sales of the Matrix are lumped in with the Corolla, but around the world, numerous vehicles wear the Corolla name or share its platform. Scroll down for Toyota's press release, and it has also put together a website celebrating 47 years and 40 million sales for the Corolla... and counting.