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Report: Daihatsu leaving European market

More than any other, two carmaking giants sit at the top of the industry: Toyota and General Motors. But while GM sells under a (shrinking but still) expansive range of brands, the Toyota Motor Corporation sells most of its vehicles under its own name. That doesn't mean that Toyota, however, doesn't have its own portfolio of subsidiaries. Here in the United States we have the youth-oriented Scion division, while Lexus handles its upscale offerings, and overseas there's Daihatsu.
The budget brand offers a range of small cars under its own name; most are hatchbacks, but there's also the Copen roadster and even a rebadged Camry called the Altis. You may have come across some of their offerings while traveling overseas, particularly in Europe, but that last part is about to come to an end, according to reports.
Word from across the pond is that Toyota plans to withdraw Daihatsu from the European market altogether. The move would reportedly take effect in 2013, and if it comes to pass, would follow similar withdrawals from the North American (1992) and Australian (2006) markets. Thanks for the tip, William!

BMW-Toyota joint sports car project is on like Donkey Kong

It's official - there will be a jointly developed sports car from BMW and Toyota. While the two auto giants signed a Memorandum of Understanding that pledged to pursue "joint development of architecture and components for a future sports vehicle" back in June of 2012, in the interim, it has remained unclear how those plans had been progressing. BMW has finally officially confirmed that the German and Japanese manufacturers will be codeveloping a pair of sports cars in addition to pursuing other disciplines including fuel cell systems and lightweight technologies.
"We have agreed on a joint architecture for a sports car. What is important is that there will be two different vehicles that are authentic to the two brands," BMW Development Chief Herbert Diess told Germany's Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Reuters is reporting. This is a very, very big step for both brands, but now the speculation can officially begin as to what the products of this agreement will look like.
There's ample reason to believe that the BMW-Toyota tie up will result in a Supra successor based on comments made by the chief engineer of the GT86/FR-S program, Tatsuya Tada, back in August. Follow that with a rumor from earlier this month that Toyota could debut a Supra concept car at the upcoming Detroit Auto Show later this month, and we could be seeing the fruits of this partnership sooner rather than later.

Toyota brings TRD Griffon GT86 to Goodwood [w/video]

In the midst of the 2013 Goodwood Festival of Speed, there's a particularly special Toyota running up the hill. This special entry is a GT86 (the cousin to our Scion FR-S and Subaru BRZ) that's been poked, prodded, and tweaked by the minds at Toyota Racing Development. The result of TRD's fettling is a nearly race-ready car.
Starting with the body, the hood, doors, trunk lid, and wings are all made of carbon fiber. The lightweight treatment doesn't end there, though. The bumpers, fenders, and diffuser all feature carbon-fiber-reinforced plastic, while the windows are now made of polycarbonate plastic.
Under the hood sits the same 2.0-liter boxer engine found in the standard GT86, but its six-speed manual gearbox features a shorter final drive ratio for improved acceleration. The coilover suspension has been firmed up, and a TRD mechanical limited-slip differential replaces the Torsen unit. The TRD Griffon rides on TWS 18-inch wheels and Yokohama Advan tires. To bring proceedings to a stop, TRD has fitted its own mono-block caliper kit, complete with more robust racing pads.