Toyota needs $2B, in talks with Japanese government

The credit crisis has finally hit Toyota’s financial services unit and they’re looking for a cool $2 billion loan. The lending arm does 70% of its business in North America where car sales have plummeted and credit has tightened. Associated Press: Toyota’s financing unit is in talks with a Japanese government-backed bank on possible lending, the automaker said Tuesday, underlining the serious woes facing the car industry amid plunging global sales. Toyota Motor Corp. said no details had been decided. Kyodo News and NHK TV reported earlier in the day, without identifying sources, that Toyota’s auto loan unit, Toyota Financial Services, had asked for a 200 billion yen ($2 billion) government loan. A spokesman for Toyota Financial Services said the talks with the Japan Bank for International Cooperation were among the various ways being studied to gain funding. The lender does 70 percent of its business in the U.S., where sales have been plunging and credit tightening. The Japan Bank for International Cooperation, which started helping cash-strapped Japanese businesses last year as the global financial crisis unfolded, said it does not comment on individual company matters. Some companies have been struggling for cash ahead of the fiscal year end of March 31. The Finance Ministry said Tuesday it will provide an additional $5 billion from its foreign reserves this month to the Japan Bank for International Cooperation, to make sure there is ample cash available for needy businesses. Tokyo has about $1 trillion in foreign reserves. Finance Minister Kaoru Yosano also said the ministry stands ready to raise the money pool available for lending in yen from 800 billion yen now to 1.2 trillion yen to help companies ride out the deepening global slump. Toyota, which makes the Camry sedan and the Prius hybrid, had been growing solidly before the U.S. financial crisis hit last year. But now it is expecting a 350 billion yen loss for the fiscal year through March, as plunging global demand and a strengthening yen batter earnings. Toyota’s projected red ink for the fiscal year through March would mark its first such annual net loss since 1950, and a sharp contrast from the record 1.72 trillion yen profit it racked up the previous year. Toyota is still faring better than General Motors and Chrysler, which together have received $17.4 billion in emergency loans from the U.S. government, and asked for an additional $21.6 billion in aid last month. Nissan Motor Co. has said that it is considering various types of government aid, but it declined to say Tuesday whether it was requesting for Japan Bank for International Cooperation loans. Nissan has forecast a 265 billion yen net loss for the fiscal year through March. Toyota shares fell 0.3 percent to 3,060 yen. The news of the lending talks broke before trading ended in Tokyo.

 

Switzer’s 700-HP Nissan GT-R

Ohio based Switzer Performance Innocation has developed a Nissan GT-R performance package called P700 that supposedly delivers more than 700-HP on 93-octane gas.

Tests so far have shown that the street-legal performance package does infact go beyond the limits of the standard ECU calibration, but 700-HP? For real? Sort of. In the end, with P700 package installed, the SPI Nissan GT-R manages to produce more than 626 all-wheel HP with 383 lb-ft of all-wheel torque. Impressive, but I’d like to see them bump it up just a little bit more.

Switzer’s P700 GTR package should set you back a decent USD $16,650.

SWITZER PRESS RELEASE

Oberlin, OH - 05MAR2009 - Switzer Debuts P700 PKG for Nissan GTR

Comparisons between Porsche’s turbocharged 997 and Nissan’s newest GTR have kept the automotive press pretty busy in recent months – with the general consensus being that the GTR stacks up against Stuttgart’s performance icon pretty well, thank you very much. Now, however – a year after the GTR’s debut – the first tuner GTRs are starting to reach customers … which seems to beg the question: how do these tuned GTRs stack up against tuned Porsches?

Back in January, the thousand horsepower SLEDGEHAMMER 997 introduced the world to Tym Switzer and his Oberlin, Ohio-based tuning firm. With more than 15 years’ experience tuning high-performance cars from Europe and Japan, Switzer is uniquely qualified to answer that question. “Compared to the Porsches, Nissan’s ‘Godzilla’ is a different animal altogether. As an all-weather, four-passenger supercar, the GTR seems like it could appeal to the same kind of audience as the 997, but the GTR is much more of a ‘digital’ type of experience. It’s really amazing how close these cars are, in terms of ultimate performance.”

Switzer would know: for the last few months, Switzer has been carefully studying the GTR, developing a series of sensible, high-performance bolt-ons aimed at producing a streetable GTR performance package that didn’t force GTR owners to sacrifice reliability or drivability.

Called the P700, Switzer’s new package promises more than 700 bulletproof crank horsepower on 93 octane pump gas. “I was always impressed with Nissan’s application of certain technologies. One thing I was not impressed with was the amount of ‘fluff’ parts I was seeing being distributed for the cars or the ‘banzai’ sort of crank-the-boost with 100+ octane racing fuel antics I was seeing in the aftermarket. I knew that it was important to take a look at what the car was reliably capable of, and what was really going on within the platform.”

Switzer’s first step was extensive data-logging and analysis. “We checked for pressure drops, temperature variations, everything. After replacing the stock turbos with application-specific custom units and our own unique MONSTER intercooler package, we slowly dialed up the boost, checking all the data again and again. Eventually, we ended up going beyond the limits of the standard ECU calibrations and hardware, so we built the necessary components and the data-gathering started again.

With more than 626 awhp and 583 lb-ft of awtq on tap, the Switzer P700 GTR is certainly set to deliver a driving experience that is many steps above Nissan’s standard “Godzilla” GTR, without putting unnecessary stress on the GTR’s driveline.

MSRP for Switzer’s P700 GTR performance package is 16650 USD. Contact your Switzer Performance dealer for more information and compatibility with your current aftermarket hardware.