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Race Recap: 2014 24 Hours of Le Mans defines 'endurance'

Commenting on the rush of events that rocked beginning and end of the 24 Hours of Le Mans, Paul Truswell of Radio Le Mans said "the race is about the ability to endure, not just the ability of drivers to do what they do for a long time." The entire race machine, all the way down to the pit boards and radios, has to survive the stress and abuse of the entire day. This was the race to prove those words.
There were two Toyotas, two Porsches and three Audis, five of the seven led the race at some point, six of the seven ran in the top three. Toyota will be hugely disappointed that it didn't win when its car and drivers were so, so strong, but they gave Audi the kind of scare we haven't seen since the best of Peugeot's days, and Toyota did a better job of it even in the loss. Porsche blew away everyone's expectations, falling 3.5 hours short of a fairy tale ending that would have made Disney cry.
But Le Mans doesn't really do fairy tales. Well, not that fairy tale. Audi's Twitter handle during the event was #welcomechallenges. As usual, Le Mans answered for the entire field.

Toyota GT86 convertible could debut in March

The dates are lining up, now we wait to see how the badges align. Just before the Toyota GT 86/Scion FR-S/Subaru BRZ line-up was introduced at the Tokyo Motor Show last year, there was a report that Subaru was considering a convertible while Toyota wouldn't even comment on it. That got swapped around when earlier this year the chief engineer on Toyota's side said a convertible was coming, and then a Scion FR-S droptop was confirmed for early 2014.
Autocar now reports that the Toyota GT 86 convertible will make its first appearance at the 2013 Geneva Motor Show in March. In a car whose specs like weight, packaging, horsepower and center of gravity were all tightly controlled to get the most from the least, the changes necessitated by chopping the roof could make this a very different car. It's said to employ a fabric roof to keep a "small" weight gain check, and the suspension will be softened to work more harmoniously with the decreased body stiffness. And somewhere in all that the back seat and trunk space will need to take a hit.
In other news, Autocar says the hi-po GT 86 with some kind of capacitor system instead of batteries is being worked on for 2015.

Toyota reveals new customizable Camatte57s kid-friendly concepts

Toyota plans to follow up last year's kid-friendly Camatte concept with two new versions: the Camatte57s and Camatte57s Sport (right). Like the original Camatte, the two new concepts will make their debut at the International Tokyo Toy Show, which is happening this weekend.
Not much has changed with these two new Camatte models. Like their predecessor, they both feature detachable body panels (the count is up to 57), a 1+2 seating array and reconfigurable pedals that allow children to operate the gas and brakes while Mom or Dad steers. What is new is an open-top roadster design that even eschews doors in favor of easier ingress/egress. They look like something a tourist would rent to get around a Hawaiian island, though we dig the distinct personalities of each model's design.
Both cars are all-electric, though Toyota hasn't provided any other specifications, like what makes the Sport model sporty besides its more aggressive body panels and silver, black and red color scheme. That's just as well, as neither concept, like the original Camatte before them, is street legal.