Toyota dabbles in carbon fiber with Mark X concept [Video] - Automobile News

This time, Toyota slapped a carbon fiber roof on its Japanese-market Mark X sedan, an upmarket, rear-wheel-drive four-door sedan sized a bit smaller than its North American Camry. The Mark X G Sports Carbon Roof concept's name gives a pretty clear indication of what it is: A more sport-oriented version of the Mark X, but with a weight-saving carbon fiber roof panel.



The panel itself was created at Toyota's essentially idle Motomachi carbon fiber plant in Toyota City, Japan. When the 500th LFA was built, Toyota had no other use for carbon fiber in a production model.



The carbon fiber panel doesn't save a whole lot of weight - just 13 lbs., Toyota says - but it does lower the car's center of gravity by about half an inch. If a carbon fiber roof panel gets the green light for a production model, it could be designed to save even more weight.

Otherwise, the concept car is essentially identical to the Mark X G's Sports that hit the market late last year. A 314-horsepower 3.5-liter V6 sends power to a suspension modified by Japanese tuner Gazoo. The Mark X is based on the last-generation Lexus GS, and while it's sold in a number of Asian markets, there are no plans to offer it in the United States. /* @Himanshu 09-01-2013 New code to work with br tag, p tag and /n */ div.post-content1{ color: #000000; font-family: Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.333em; margin-bottom: 16px; margin-top: 10px; } /* @Himanshu 09-01-2013 New code to work with br tag, p tag and /n */ div.post-content1 ul li { list-style:disc !important; margin-left:20px; color:#000000; } div.post-content1 ol li { list-style-type: decimal !important; margin-left:20px; color:#000000; } #editorial_graph ul li { list-style:none !important; margin-left:0px; }

Source: Leftlanenews