I went into the Toyota dealer to look at the Yaris and Scions and left with a Prius, a shiny black one. I love it! I love the push-to-start button, the constant miles-per-gallon monitor, the quiet engine when it runs on battery.

Of course, I should have bought one a long time ago since these are so techie and all. But I didn’t want to sit on a waiting list or pay extra to get ahead of everyone else. Apparently, waiting isn’t an issue anymore. The dealer had a half dozen models. I wound up buying a lower-end Prius and I am kicking myself for not getting the Bluetooth and GPS integrated into the car. Well, too late now. This will encourage me to experiment — like add a personal computer to the car. Or integrate GPS on my own. And in the future, I’ll be able to add the DASH GPS if it ever comes out.

Within hours of my purchase, I was scouring message boards about modifying the Prius. I wound up on OCPrius.com, the home of Orange County’s Prius Club. The group had Tomio Yamazaki, the chief designer of the Prius II as the guest speaker. I had to go. And I’m glad I went because Tomio (pictured) showed us how he came up with the aerodynamic design of the Prius plus a sneak peak of a hybrid to come, the Toyota FT-HS (already been Wiki’d too!):

More pics…

Tomio works in Newport Beach at Calty Design Research, which was established in 1973 to be Toyota’s first overseas design base. He’s the chief financial officer there. He’s the guy who streamlined the shape of the Prius. He’s not working on the next generation of the Prius but he did show us some early renderings of his Prius design and his work on a new hybrid concept he’s working on, the Toyota FT-HS, which has rear-wheel drive.

And the “triangle mono form” that he settled on:

Afterwards, as all car clubs must do, we went outside to look at everyone’s car. A guy named Art shipped his Prius back to Japan to modify the engine, which he later detailed and painted:

Another member, Jonathan, connected an old laptop to the car’s LCD screen. He keeps the laptop under the driver’s seat and a wireless mouse in the cup holder. But he doesn’t use the mouse much. He uses the car’s touch-screen monitor to access DeLorme’s GPS software and WinAmp for music.

Even Tomio was curious. He brought his own little camera and peeked at many of the club members’ modified cars. It’s good to know that the top designers at a major car company are doing their research to see what members like and don’t like.

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