Of cars & coolers.

• Position: Japanese automakers test their prototypes in Alaska; glacier ice from Alaska is shipped to Japan

Of Cars & Coolers. The great American road may belong to Buick, but the great Alaskan road belongs to Toyota, Nissan, Honda and Mitsubishi. Rick Cook, Anchorage office manager for Nippon Express USA Inc., says his company, a Japanese air-cargo booking agency, arranges to fly prototypes of cars and trucks from the major Japanese automakers to Alaska for road tests. The automakers conduct their tests on the relatively straight, two-lane Parks Highway, which begins in Anchorage and ends about 275 miles north in Fairbanks.

Cook says the cars bear no markings because the Japanese auto giants do not want other companies, particularly their U.S. competitors, to know what they are up to. That is why they conduct their American driving tests in Alaska in the first place. Cook won't say how long the Japanese have been sending their prototypes to Alaska or when the next high-tech auto, pick-up or 4 x 4 might cruise the Parks for a workout. "This is very sensitive and top secret," he notes.

The auto prototypes are only a small portion of his Alaska business, Cook...