The championship, which caters for GT2 and GT3 machinery, will again hold eight races next season, visiting seven different countries from April to October.

The only change to this season’s calendar will see the series visit the Nurburgring for the first time. The German track replaces the Valencia Street Circuit on the 2010 schedule. Valencia was initially included on the 2009 calendar but the race was cancelled due to the unavailability of the track and replaced with a second visit to Portimao’s Algarve Circuit.

Organisers GT Sport have also confirmed that the Super GT (GT2) and GTS (GT3) classes will remain unchanged next season as will the two-race format which sees one race take place on the Saturday and one on the Sunday of each event weekend.

“We are actively working on the 2010 edition of the International GT Open and will pursue our policy of progressive growth based on regulatory and cost control, which is what our GT competitors are asking for,” said GT Sport CEO Jesus Pareja.

“We are placed to announce our 2010 calendar which includes eight events in seven different countries, all at top-class circuits with premium venues. We are also delighted to add a motorsport temple like the Nurburgring to that list.”

International GT Open – Provisional 2010 calendar

9-11 April Imola (Italy)
30 April – 2 May Nurburgring (Germany)
21-23 May Portimao (Portugal)
25-27 June Spa-Francorchamps (Belgium)
9-11 July Magny-Cours (France)
3-5 September Donington Park (UK)
1-3 October Monza (Italy)
29-31 October Barcelona (Spain)

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The engine is 1800 cc VVT-i 4-cylinder petrol, combined with a CVT automatic transmission driving the front wheels. Battery nickel-metal hydride mounted on the bottom of the trunk, there are 3 modes of driving Eco, Normal and Sport – there is also an electric engine only mode that works.

The step reflects deepening concerns in Japan over Toyota’s recalls of more than 8 million vehicles, most of them in overseas markets.

Transport Minister Seiji Maehara told Japanese lawmakers Friday that he hopes to try to improve his agency’s recall system to respond better to consumer interests, Kyodo News agency reported.

“We will consider reviewing the recall system to make it more familiar to users,” Maehara told a Lower House committee.

The agency may require automakers to move more quickly to fix defects and may expand the types of problems subject to reporting requirements, according to the reports, which also included one in the Yomiuri Shimbun newspaper. The reports cited unnamed ministry officials.

Toyota’s president, Akio Toyoda, is to appear Wednesday before the US House of Representatives Oversight and Government Reform Committee. Its chairman, Rep Edolphus Towns, a Democrat from New York, virtually compelled Toyoda to attend last week after issuing a formal invitation for him to testify.

Toyota has not given any details of Toyoda’s travel plans, though the Japanese newspapers Yomiuri Shimbun and Mainichi Shimbun reported he left Japan over the weekend.

Maehara and other Japanese officials have applauded Toyoda’s decision to attend the hearing and voiced their support, saying he should use the opportunity to reassure customers angered by recalls over sticking gas pedals, accelerators jamming in floor mats and momentarily unresponsive brakes.

US safety regulators are also investigating complaints about power steering in the Corolla, Toyota’s top-selling model worldwide, with 1.3 million sold last year. The estimated 500,000 Corollas in question in the US market are not made or sold in Japan.

As Toyota wallows in its recall mess, there has been relatively little talk here about how and why its famously impeccable quality control regime failed — and why mainly in overseas markets.

But a review by the transport ministry could focus on such issues inside Japan, where the company has recalled about 223,000 Prius hybrid cars for braking problems.

The number of complaints over quality and safety issues in the US has dwarfed those in Japan, largely because the millions of Toyota vehicles subject to recalls were made with parts not used in models made and sold in Japan.

The recalls crisis has raised doubts over the Japanese automaker’s sterling reputation, earned over decades of striving to win over American and European drivers.

Even Toyoda, grandson of the company’s founder, has publicly lamented the difficulties of keeping a grip on quality in an era of outsourcing and global expansion.

“We so aggressively pursued numbers that we were unable to keep up with training staff to oversee quality,” he told reporters at a news conference in Tokyo last week.

Toyoda has promised an outside review of company operations, better responses to customer complaints and improved communication with US federal officials.

Japan, where the customer is said to be “king,” has had plenty of product quality crises — some of the most notorious involving automobiles. And the transport ministry, similar to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration in the United States, does keep public records of recalls and drivers’ complaints.

But Japanese citizens tend to be less assertive, partly because the legal system and other government institutions are more likely to side with manufacturers than with consumers. Back home, Toyota’s travails are drawing attention, but not the sort of outraged criticism seen in the US.

“Americans are whinier. But it’s also that most Japanese are aware that, at the end of the day, the consumer hasn’t come out satisfied and mollified and compensated,” says Jeff Kingston, director of Asian studies at Temple University in Tokyo.

Still, if the problems expand back in its home market, Toyota is bound to face some high-stakes questions here, too.

Japan’s biggest recent auto quality case involved Mitsubishi Motors Corp. and its truck unit, which were mired in a scandal that first surfaced in 2000 over systematic hiding of defects for decades. The automaker recalled millions of vehicles — some models repeatedly for multiple problems.

Although the manufacturer has promised the cover-ups will never happen again, it acknowledged in 2004 that it didn’t come totally clean in 2000.

Two former Mitsubishi Motors employees were convicted of professional negligence in a 2002 accident in which a housewife was killed and her two young sons injured when a wheel flew off the axle of a Mitsubishi truck.

Parts that connected the wheel to the truck were among the defects requiring recalls, which also included braking systems.

A former Mitsubishi Motors president, Katsuhiko Kawasoe, was convicted of the same crime in a separate 2002 accident in which a driver died when the brakes of his Mitsubishi vehicle failed.

“Many automakers viewed Mitsubishi’s problem as a wakeup call. Before, the problems were not handled so vigorously,” said Christopher Richter, an auto analyst at CLSA Asia Pacific Markets in Tokyo.

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Like the 370Z coupe, the 370Z Roadster is available in two trim levels, Base and Touring, the latter adding heated and cooled leather seats, Bluetooth, and a Bose stereo. Touring models offer an optional navigation system and a Sport package with 19″ RAYS wheels, improved brakes, limited-slip differential, and a rev-matching feature for manual-transmission cars.

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For the moment, feast your eyes on that Art & Science front end and check out the full spy report from the boys at KGP after the jump detailing all the design differences between the Cadillac CTS Coupe concept from Detroit and this seeming production model.

- 4,195 cc 4.2 liters 6 V front engine with 93 mm bore, 102 mm stroke, 10 compression ratio, double overhead cam, variable valve timing/camshaft and four valves per cylinder

- Unleaded fuel

- Fuel economy EPA highway (l/100km): 11.8

- Multi-point injection fuel system

- Main 95 liter unleaded fuel tank

- Heavy duty battery

- Power: SAE and 205 kW , 275 HP @ 6,000 rpm; 275 ft lb , 373 Nm @ 3,600 rpm

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The hatchback will be built on a new line at Honda’s Suzaka, Japan, plant, which already builds the Civic hybrid. Capacity at the plant will grow from 70,000 to 250,000, with room to expand even further—which tells us this is but the first of many hybrid announcements to come.

Design-wise, the smaller five-door will look similar to the Accord-sized FCX Clarity fuel-cell vehicle that converts hydrogen to electricity, with water as the only emission.

The CR-Z concept was first shown at the 2007 Tokyo auto show. CR-Z stands for “Compact Renaissance Zero” to denote Honda’s attempt to create a fun and sexy sports car that is also a fuel-efficient hybrid. Looking like the cult favorite, 1980s CRX compact, especially in the vertical glass section at the rear, the concept has a low-slung grille, aggressive LED headlights, and dual exhaust tips exiting through the rear bumper.

Bajaj Motor took out his small car to rival Tata Nano, Renault will be marketed. The engine will use DTSi technology first developed for Bajaj motorcycles. in 2012 Bajaj Small car will go on sale, and will be a small car cheapest in India.

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New Maserati Gran Turismo Convertible 2011.

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