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If the song is true that “to everything, turn turn turn, there is a season, turn turn turn,” then we’re going to need a lot more seasons for the Fiat 500. In addition to versions by StudioTorino, Diesel and Abarth, not to mention a convertible and an F1-themed run of 12, Fiat is making a special edition 500 to celebrate the car’s appearance in the movie Lupin III: Green vs Red.

The Japanese anime film itself celebrates the 40th anniversary of the Lupin III series of movies, which began in 1979 when gentleman thief Lupin III used a yellow Fiat 500. While the film is out now on DVD, the special edition Fiat 500 in yellow livery and graced with Lupin’s image won’t come around until the latter half of 2009, and probably only in Japan. If Fiat keeps this up, it might just challenge the Ford Mustang for the title of Most Gratuitous Special Editions Differentiated by Inconsequential Details.

Late Sunday night, Mazda issued a press release from the mothership in Japan touting the arrival of the new home-market AZ-Wagon kei car. Those of you who paid attention to Autoblog last week may be experiencing twinges of deja vu as you look at the enclosed photos. Yes, you have seen this car before: the new Mazda AZ-Wagon is simply a rebadged version of the new Suzuki Wagon R, just like it was before. The regular AZ-Wagon is the standard Wagon R, while the AZ-Wagon Custom Style (above) is the Wagon R Stingray. We’d happily sign up for one, but alas, Mazda’s Stateside rebadge-o-rama is limited to the Tribute and B-Series.

As many of you doubtless know, the Japanese Honda Odyssey isn’t the same thing we get here in the States. While we get the more jumbo-rific family escape pod with sliders and the whole shebang, the JDM Odyssey is a sleeker-looking MPV with four traditionally-hinged doors anf four-cylinder power. And now it’s time for a new one. Honda’s just put up a special site to welcome the upcoming 4th-gen JDM Odyssey, whose styling further evolves the shape that’s by now a common site in Japan, while the front end is likely to showcase Honda’s current family design theme (think Clarity, Insight, etc.). You can check out the teaser site by clicking here, and keep in mind that Honda’s reportedly thinking about sending over some of its JDM machinery. In lieu of, say, an Accord wagon, this (or the more compact Stream) might work for a lot of people — especially those of use who view the traditional minivan as Superman does kryptonite.

In a follow-up to our previous post about Trust’s bankruptcy filing in Japan earlier this week, GReddy – Trust’s U.S. arm – has issued a press release (available after the jump) to assure Stateside consumers that all is well and operations will continue in the U.S. unabated.

According to the release, Trust filed for “Minji-saisei-hou” in Japan, the equivalent of Chapter 11 in the States, that will allow the performance parts manufacturer to continue its business while it reorganizes. That process will have “little, if any effect on GReddy Performance Products” in the U.S. GReddy plans to feature three new project vehicles at SEMA this year, and both Trust and GReddy have adequate inventory and personnel to service customers.

It was rumored yesterday, and it’s real today. Come September 13, Japanese enthusiasts will be able to order up the hottest Civic Type R yet. The already-impressive R gets the full once-over from Mugen, and the result is the Honda Civic Mugen RR. Designed to be perhaps the ultimate front-engined/front-wheel-drive performance car, the Mugen RR sheds an additional 10kg (22 lbs) off the standard Civic Type R’s weight, coming in at 2733 lbs. In addition to the weight loss, the freer-breathing Mugen RR picks up 15 horsepower over the regular Type R. It’s rated at 240 horses at 8,000 rpm and 160 lb-ft at 7,000 rpm.

Complementing the added power and and decreased weight are a new bodykit, upgraded brakes all around, a retuned suspension, new wheels and tires, and logo-emblazoned Recaro sport buckets. Availability is limited to 300 cars, all in the Milan Red finish shown, and the pricing in Japan has been set at ¥4,777,500 ($38,750 USD).

Mugen’s official website has a video of the car lapping Japan’s Tsukuba circuit in 1:06:68, which is worth a look if you’re interested in seeing it in action.

[Source: MUGEN via Carview]

After previous incarnations of the Nissan GT-R ran away with successive JGTC titles, Japan’s GT Association decided to inflict “success ballast” on race winners in an attempt to level the playing field (i.e give Toyota and Honda a chance).

As the current GT-R race car is built to 2009 Super GT specifications, the GT-A handed it a weight penalty of 50kgs added right from the start of the season. After winning Round 1 in Suzuka car number 23 had to carry an additional 50kgs at Round 2 in Sugo, which it promptly won anyway. Then thanks to also setting numerous fastest laps and other speeding offenses it was deemed that Benoit Treluyer and Satoshi Motoyama’s ride would have to port an massive 200ks (440lbs) of ballast at this weekend’s race at Fuji Speedway.

That presents a couple of problems. Firstly, where the heck do you safely stow 200kgs of lead? And would the car meet GT-A regulations even if Nissan found a way to do it? The ruling body’s compromise was to give the car a 115kg penalty and fit a stifling restrictor to the GT-R’s air intake. That knocked 30kph off the GT-R’s maximum velocity at the end of Fuji’s 1.5km straight, and in the words of Benoit, “Gives us no chance at all.”

Follow through the jump to find out if he was right, and to find out how Lightning McQueen faired in GT300 after qualifying on pole yesterday.Three laps after the rolling start it was clear that Benoit’s prediction was spot on. While Honda NSXs and Lexus SC430s battled for the lead, car number 23 was already slipping back towards the GT300 field rather than chasing down the leaders. Takashi Kogure had squeezed his Takata NSX on to pole, and managed to keep the lead until he spun on lap 22, gifting the lead to the Zent Cerumo Lexus SC430, first driven by Yuji Tachikawa, then by Richard Lyons after the second pit stop, then by Yuji again all the way to the checkered flag. Meanwhile, tactics worthy of Ron Dennis and Ross Brawn leap frogged Juichi Wakisaka and Andre Lotterer’s SC430 from fifth to second over the 110 lap race.

1 38 ZENT CERUMO SC430 Y.Tachikawa/R.Lyons 110 3:02′28.036
2 36 ETRONAS TOM’S SC430 J.Wakisaka/A.Lotterer 110 0′13.882
3 18 TAKATA DOME NSX R.Michigami/T.Kogure 110 0′15.893

GT300

It takes a lot to drown out the sound of 30 Super GT cars wailing down a mile long straight at full chat, but several thousand Japanese school kids managed just that when rookie Lightning McQueen took the lead in the closing stages of the race after arch rival Chick Hicks the Cusco Subaru Impreza got called in to the pits, not once but twice for racing infractions. Recent returnee from Europe’s GP2 championship Kohei Hirate had put in a masterful flying lap on super soft tires to seal pole position for McQueen on Saturday, but the team then gambled that the comparatively frugal 3.5-liter MR-S could manage all 500 kms with just one fuel stop and on two sets of hard rubber. Despite starting heavy, McQueen never dropped out of the top five, but the two drivers, who aren’t much older than McQueen’s fan base, didn’t have it easy fighting first Porsches, then the Impreza and the Leopalace Z all the way to the flag.

1 95 Lightning McQueen apr MR-S K.Hirate/K.Kunimoto 101 3:02′34.661
2 46 MOLA LEOPALACE Z K.Hoshino/H.Yasuda 101 0′26.739
3 2 Privee KENZO Asset Shiden K.Takahashi/H.Katoh 101 0′44.019

Full Results

The Daihatsu Copen is another example of a fun little car offered overseas that we wish would make the journey over the Atlantic to American shores. To sweeten the bitter-sweet pill, Daihatsu’s British importer has coaxed the Toyota subsidiary to introduce a number of revisions that make the quirky little roadster even more desirable.

For 2007, the Copen has received an engine transplant. Replacing the previous tiny 660cc turbo engine is the 1.3-liter twin-cam engine from the Sirion hatchback, producing just 86 horsepower, a 19hp increase over the outgoing engine plus an extra 15 lb-ft of torque. It’s mounted transversely up front and features the world’s first self-regenerating catalyst with temperature-sensitive palladium crystals. The innovative engine is good enough to drop a couple seconds off the 0-60 time, bringing the sprint down to 9.5 seconds while returning an average 47 mpg on the combined cycle. It’s a tiny motor, but it’s powering a tiny car that weighs in at just 850 kg, despite the power hardtop. The only visible additions for the new model are a new lip spoiler on the rear decklid under which the roof disappears and a new choice of colors.

The revised roadster comes with a bigger engine, producing more power while returning better fuel economy and producing lower emissions. Not enough? The new Copen sells in the UK for 1500 less than the previous model, retailing in old Blimey for just 10,995. Designed to fit into the Japanese Kei-car category, the Copen continues to offer a power aluminum roof that disappears in just 20 seconds, gas shocks and a host of other goodies. We hope the people at DaimlerChrysler are paying attention, because they’ve been beaten by Toyota yet again: this is what the Smart Roadster should have been from the get-go.

Hungry for more? Follow the jump for another pic and the full press release.

[Source: Daihatsu]