PRB is an Australian builder of Clubman-style sportscars (i.e. cars based on Colin Chapman's ground-breaking LotusSuper Seven design), the PRB Clubman was created by Peter Raymond Bladwell in 1978. Bladwell's first order was received from John Ribeiro, a racing driver from Canberra, Australian Capital Territory, who went on to win the New South Wales State Hill Climb Championship in his PRB. There are now several hundred PRB Clubmans on Australian roads. The cars compete very successfully, primarily in Club motorsport. An acceleration time of 0 – 100km/h in less than 4 seconds is achievable in a modified car.
The current PRB clubman is a composite monocoque design utilising aluminium honeycomb construction. It is only available as a build it yourself kit for owner assembly, or can be assembled by a local PRB agent. The aluminium construction makes for a lighter and more rigid car.
The PRB S3 differentiates itself from many of the other kit cars available in Australia by using mostly new parts, many fabricated specifically for the S3. The latest model S3 utilises an engine from a Ford Focus, Toyota Celica or for racing purposes a Toyota 4AGE 1600.
A Locost is a home-built car inspired by the Lotus Seven. The car features a space frame chassis usually welded together from mild steel 1 in × 1 in square tubing. Front suspension is usually double wishbone with coil spring struts. The rear is traditionally live axle, but has many variants including independent rear suspension or De Dion tube. Body panels are usually fiberglass nose and wings and aluminium side panels. Each car is highly individualized according to the resources, needs and desires of each respective builder.
The Lotus Seven is a small, simple, lightweight two-seater open-top sports car produced by the British manufacturer Lotus Cars between 1957 and 1972.
The Mini is a two-door compact city car that was produced by the British Motor Corporation (BMC) and its successors from 1959 until 2000. The original Mini is considered an icon of 1960s British popular culture. Its space-saving transverse engine and front-wheel drive layout – allowing 80% of the area of the car's floorpan to be used for passengers and luggage – influenced a generation of car makers. In 1999, the Mini was voted the second-most influential car of the 20th century, behind the Ford Model T, and ahead of the Citroën DS and Volkswagen Beetle. The front-wheel-drive, transverse-engine layout of the Mini was copied for other "supermini" designs including the Honda N360 (1967), Nissan Cherry (1970), and Fiat 127 (1971). The layout was also adapted for larger subcompact designs.
The Toyota Supra is a sports car and grand tourer manufactured by Toyota Motor Corporation beginning in 1978. The name "supra" is derived from the Latin prefix, meaning "above", "to surpass" or "go beyond".
The Toyota MR2 is a line of two-seat, mid-engined, rear-wheel-drive sports cars manufactured in Japan and marketed globally by Toyota from 1984 until 2007 over three generations: W10 (1984–1989), W20 (1990–1999) and W30 (2000–2007). It is Japan's first rear mid-engined production car.
The Toyota Vitz is a three- and five-door subcompact hatchback produced by the Japanese automobile manufacturer Toyota from 1999 to 2019. The "Vitz" nameplate was used consistently in Japan, while most international markets received the same vehicle as the Toyota Yaris, or as the Toyota Echo in some markets for the first generation. The Vitz was available in Japan from Toyota's Netz Store dealerships. Toyota began production in Japan and later assembled the vehicle in other Asian countries and in France.
Alpha Street productions and later Alpha Sports Productions (ASP) were an Australian kit car and racing car manufacturer. It has made sports cars and open wheeler cars. Originally building cars based on the Lotus Seven but have evolved to construct their own distinctive designs.
Toyota Racing Development is the in-house tuning shop for all Toyota, Lexus and formerly Scion cars. TRD is responsible both for improving street cars for more performance and supporting Toyota's racing interests around the world. TRD produces various tuning products and accessories, including performance suspension components, superchargers, and wheels. TRD parts are available through Toyota dealers, and are also available as accessories on brand-new Toyotas and Scions. Performance parts for Lexus vehicles are now labeled as F-Sport and performance Lexus models are labeled F to distinguish Lexus's F division from TRD.
Nota Sports and Racing Cars is an automobile manufacturer in Australia. The company was founded by Guy Buckingham in 1952. He was an aircraft engineer and used his expertise to build triangulated spaceframed sportscars. Possibly Australia's first space-framed cars. In 1958 the company built a series of all-enveloping aluminium streamlined sports cars. First called "Streamliners", and later called "Mazengarbs". Up to 1960 eleven of those were made. In the late 1950s the company produced Formula Junior cars in both front and mid-engined formats. Nota also made a series of specialist monoposto racing cars for the track and hill climbing events. In 1963 the company made a series of Mini powered sports cars. In 1964 they started production of the Nota Sapphire, an alloy bodied sports and coupe designs with Ford Fiat and Coventry Climax engines. In 1965 Nota started producing Formula Vee cars for Warrick Farm race track making 34 in the first year. In the 1960s the company formulated their "Sportsman", a Lotus 7 lookalike, which they still build today and are now building in a mid-engined version for the modern day transverse engines which the major car manufacturers produce. In 1968 came the Nota Fang Chris Buckinghams first real design, a midengined sports car using a Cooper S engine power plant behind the driver but in front of the rear wheels, their most successful model with over 100 being made. Later the Fang was equipped with Lancia engines, then Toyota engines, finally being fitted with Toyota's V6 Quad cam supercharged engines with over 400BHP. In 1973 Nota started with their Marauder range of cars using the same mechanicals as the Nota Fang. At the same time they were making the Nota Levanti front engine twin cam coupe. In 1975 the supply of Leyland 1275 GT engines started to run out so Nota contacted FIAT and both Marauders and Fangs were made with the 2-litre twin cam FIAT/Lancia engine. Leyland were then approached and the P76 engine was fitted to the Marauders using a Nota made gearbox trans-axle with the gear box next to the driver and the engine behind. In the late 1970s Nota had started on 4WD 351 V8 mid-engined Marauders, but in the 1980s Ford stopped export of the 351 engine to Australia. After a trip to England Chris Buckingham assembled a design team to design a Fang with Fl 3 litre V6 quad cam engine as well as a fully enclosed, similarly specified Chimera. In 2003 Nota developed the Nota Le Mans, powered by either a Suzuki GTi 1300 cc or 1100 cc motor cycle engine. For road use it could also use a Toyota 1800 cc VVTi 6-speed or the 3.5-litre V6 quad cam. By 2012 Nota had decided that due to the lack of front engine rear wheel drive 4 cylinder engine being available they would use an existing front-engined Nota clubman chassis and move the seats forward by 150mm and fit a transverse engine behind the driver. It looks just like their front-engined clubmans but with the advantage of a mid-engined design.
The Toyota Belta, referred to in North American and Australian markets as the Yaris and in Asian markets as the Vios, is a subcompact sedan manufactured by Toyota.
A V8 engine is an eight-cylinder piston engine in which the cylinders share a common crankshaft and are arranged in a V configuration.
The Toyota 7 was a series of racing cars developed by Toyota Motor Company in cooperation with Yamaha Motor Corporation. Designed primarily for use in FIA Group 7 competition, it was Toyota's first purpose-built racing car project.
A substantial car industry was created in Australia in the 20th century through the opening of Australian plants by international manufacturers. The first major carmaker was Ford Australia and the first Australian-designed mass production car was manufactured by Holden in 1948. Australian manufacture of cars rose to a maximum of almost half a million in the 1970s and still exceeded 400,000 in 2004. Australia was best known for the design and production of 'large' sized passenger vehicles. By 2009 total production had fallen to around 175,000 and the Australian market was dominated by cars imported from Asia and Europe.
The Toyota Camry (XV20) is a mid-size car that was sold by Toyota between September 1996 and 2001 in Japan and North America, and 1997 and 2002 in Australia. Introduced on 3 September 1996, the XV20 series represented the fourth generation of the Toyota Camry in all markets outside Japan, which followed a different generational lineage. The XV20 Camry range is split into different model codes indicative of the engine. Inline-four models utilize the SXV20 (gasoline) and SXV23 (CNG) codes, with MCV20 designating the six-cylinder (V6) versions.
Haynes Roadster is a replica of Lotus Seven home-built according to a book Build Your Own Sports Car: On a Budget by Chris Gibbs (ISBN 1-84425-391-0). Ford Sierra is used in the car as a donor for drivetrain and suspension components.
The Toyota 86 and the Subaru BRZ are 2+2 sports cars jointly developed by Toyota and Subaru, manufactured at Subaru's Gunma assembly plant.
New Zealand had a long history of small garages and vehicle enthusiasts modifying and creating sports and sports racing cars. Out of these interests grew the New Zealand kit and replica car industry with the introduction of fibre-glass car bodies in the 1950s.
The Toyota GR Yaris is a performance-oriented variant of the XP210 series Yaris supermini/subcompact hatchback, in a segment commonly called the hot hatch. The vehicle is manufactured by Toyota with assistance from the company's Gazoo Racing (GR) division.
The Australian Clubman, later known as Sports 1300 class catered for small capacity front engine rear wheel drive sportscars initially similar to the road going sports cars such as the Lotus 7 and to other Clubman series internationally. These cars were simple two seat cars based on widely available road car components in a purpose-built space frame chassis and simple bodywork using cycle guards over the front wheels. The basic features of these cars were
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