Toyota is headed to the Baja 1000 next year with a special Tacoma built specifically to take the worst that the Mexican desert can throw at it. The pickup has been specially-prepared by Long Beach Racers, a group of Toyota enthusiasts who have made a habit of building some of the toughest trucks to take to the off-road race. Created as a tribute to the production Tacoma TRD TX, the Long Beach Racers Tacoma boasts custom Bilstein 60mm racing shocks and 16-inch TRD wheels clad in 35-inch BF Goodrich tires. A SCORE-approved roll cage should keep everyone inside safe in the event of a shiny-side-down event. Funk Flex
Auto Talk: Dodge Challenger ACR sheds pounds, adds speed
The Mopar team showed up to SEMA 2011 in full force with a bevy of factory-tuned machines, including a Dodge Challenger ACR. The company says that the vehicle is an homage to the option-delete muscle-bruisers of old, and as such, this Challenger has scrapped any component that could possibly slow it down. Funk Flex
Auto Talk: Chevrolet Camaro concepts storm the General Motors booth
It just wouldn’t be SEMA without a whole slew of Chevrolet Camaro coupes and convertibles staring us in the face, and this week’s Vegas show doesn’t disappoint. General Motors’ own booth features four rather interesting specimens, which you can see in the image gallery we’ve compiled here. Funk Flex
Auto Talk:Chevrolet Camaro Hot Wheels Concept fulfills a childhood fantasy
If you played with Hot Wheels as a kid, then you’ve probably imagined what it would be like to have the thing in full size. Chevrolet has tried to make that a reality, creating a Camaro concept car inspired by the “Custom Camaro” 1/64-scale model that was part of the original Hot Wheels collection released in 1968. Funk Flex
Auto Talk: Chevrolet COPO Camaro Concept lives life a quarter-mile at a time
What’s a COPO, you ask? Back in the heyday of American muscle cars, COPO was an acronym for Central Office Production Order, which was, for all intents and purposes, a way for Chevrolet and its enterprising dealer network to sneak high-performance option packages and oversize engines past the bigwigs at General Motors and into the waiting hands of automotive enthusiasts. Funk Flex
Auto Talk: Suzuki Grand Vitara Marine Concept storms the beaches at SEMA
Some of the industrial giants in Japan make all sorts of things. Yamaha, for example, makes everything from motorbikes to grand pianos. Honda does lawnmowers, business jets and everything in between. Suzuki does cars and they do outboard motors. But seldom do these competencies overlap. Feast your eyes, then, on the exception. Funk Flex
