Ferrari has wholly-owned local subsidiaries in the United States, Great Britain, Germany, France and China. Yet despite being its second-largest market in the world for years now, Ferrari’s interests in Japan have until now been represented by an independent importer. That’s about to change, as Ferrari is taking matters into its own hands and opening a Japanese office on July 1. The erstwhile exclusive importer, Cornes & Co., will continue to sell and service Ferraris alongside Maseratis, Rolls-Royce and Bentleys.

Maranello considers Japan to be the world’s largest luxury market, with a high concentration of wealth. Despite slowing automotive sales in the country, sales of Ferraris rose 38.7% last year, a trend which Ferrari evidently hopes to help along by directly controlling its sales in Japan.

[Source: AutoBlog]

There have been a fair number of tuners that have made the trek to the Nardo test track in Italy to see if their modified rides could break an illustrious top speed. The MTM Bimoto TT comes to mind, as does AC Schnitzer’s GP3.10 3-series, Edo Competition’s Lamborghini LP640 and 9ff’s insane GT9. Another contender has been added to the list and it’s just as impressive as the rest.

Top Secret has been making the show rounds with its twin-turbo’d V12 Supra for the past year, but it’s finally putting its money where its mouth is and going for a top speed of 400 km/h (248 mph) later this year in Italy. Breaching 200 km/h hasn’t been an issue since the boosted 6.0-liter V12 is supposedly pushing out over 1,000 hp.

You can read up on Kazuhiko “Smoky” Nagata’s golden boy here and check a Japanese-language video of the Supra after the jump.

[Source: AutoBlog]

There are a handful of vehicles that we’ve been forced to do without here in the States, but the one that hurts just a little bit more than the rest is the Mazda MX-5 Roadster Coupe. Back in 2003, Mazda manufactured a handful of the hardtop MX-5s based on the last generation NB platform and kept them on the shores of automaker’s homeland. For those of us not particularly partial to convertibles, it was manna from the automotive Gods and we’ve been praying for years that Mazda would finally see the light and offer a fixed roof variant of the MX-5 in the U.S.

According to Japan’s Best Car, Mazda might be considering a comeback based on the current generation (NC) platform, as shown in the rendering above. While it might only be informed speculation on Best Car’s part, they maintain that a launch of the coupe could come as early as 2010, which is right before the MX-5 is due for another refresh. It would be a fitting send off for the current car and would finally give those of us who crave a lightweight, rear-wheel-drive coupe a viable alternative to the more expensive offerings from other automakers.

[Source: AutoBlog]

The new Nissan GT-R isn’t short on power — this much is known. Whether its sizable punch calls for the addition of an adjustable race-style rear wing is debatable. After all, the stock machine conquered the ‘Ring in 7:38 without raiding the Boeing 757 parts bin for stuff to bolt to the rear deck. Engineers… they’re generally a thorough bunch, after all. Now, perhaps this Japanese car owner is race-prepping his personal Godzilla, and if that’s the case, then it’s all understandable. We’re probably just jaded from seeing wings like this on stuff like first-gen Altimas. With GT-R badges on them.

[Source: AutoBlog]

The debut of the production Nissan GT-R remains one of the hottest happenings in the automotive world this past year, but the return of the GT-R to Japan’s SuperGT series is of equal importance. We’ve already seen what the new racer will look like as it gears up for its assault on the GT500 class, and today, Nissan finally released all the technical details about the SuperGT competitor. Let the bench racing begin.

As rumored, the GT-R will be powered by the VK45DE V8 that’s been successfully campaigned in the 350Z over the last two years. The naturally aspirated mill produces 500+ hp and well over 376 lb.-ft. of torque. The 4.5-liter sends power to a six-speed sequential gearbox and on down to the rear wheels. Nissan opted for the V8 instead of the production GT-R’s twin-turbo’d 3.8-liter V6 because the new mill is still too green to compete in the upper echelon of motorsport and the torque output isn’t up to GT500 standards – something that’s key to competing in SuperGT.

Nissan’s Works program will be fielding five GT-Rs spread across four teams, with the first race set to begin March 15-16 at Suzuka.

[Source: AutoBlog]

Lexus’ L-finesse design language was meant to stand for “Seamless Anticipation,” “Intriguing Elegance,” and “Incisive Simplicity.” If we put aside the marketing speak for a moment, the point of L-f was to give Lexus design a greater emotional connection with consumers. While it certainly didn’t stop Lexus from selling more cars, we have a feeling that the increased number of wavy lines simply didn’t resonate with the public quite like it was meant to.

Now Lexus is looking for a successor to L-finesse. Emotional connection from a purely design standpoint — not “I just love my Toyota!” — has been a weak point for Japanese cars in this country. Even the GT-R, the LF-A and the last Supra, technological tour-de-forces that they are (or were or will be), and for as much emotion as they inspire, are not pretty cars. The LS is a good looking car, but we wouldn’t call it inspiring. Yet Lexus has a pretty good grasp on what its customers are looking for, so while we can’t imagine that whatever’s coming is going to be outrageous, we can hope that it will be a little less birds and clouds and a little more visceral.

[Source: AutoBlog]