| Honda's next-gen Accord will be in your neighborhood showroom this fall.
This wedge-shaped coupe is Honda's most daring styling exercise in a while. Keep Reading: 2008 Honda Accord Coupe Concept - Video |
| You go, water dog!
The recent history of personal watercraft reads much like the evolution of the automobile over the past 50 years, only condensed into a decade or so. EPA and CARB regulations have caused a 90-percent reduction in watercraft emissions, with fuel-injected four-stroke engines replacing two-stroke carbureted units. In the process, exhaust noise has been drastically reduced, and refinement is way up. Meanwhile, instead of offering room for just one rider to stand up, ever-increasing size and weight have resulted in enough space for two passengers to sit down. The best part of all this, as with cars, is the phenomenal spike in horsepower that has occurred. In 1998, a three-seat Sea-Doo made 85 horsepower. But many of today's personal watercraft are turbo- or supercharged and make 200—or even250—horsepower. Indeed, in 2000, the Coast Guard's concern that performance was getting out of hand prompted a gentlemen's agreement among watercraft builders to limit top speeds to 65 mph. Keep Reading: 2008 Honda AquaTrax F-15X |
| A peek at the hybrid Honda would show at its Detroit press conference—if it were having one.
The production version of Honda's Insight hybrid is headed for a fanfare-free debut at the increasingly desolate Detroit show in January: Honda has said that it will maintain a presence at the show, but will forego its normal press conference in light of the global economic downturn. Previewed in concept form at last October's Paris auto show, the Insight is Honda's answer to the Toyota Prius. It shares the Toyota's basic shape—owing to efficiency and aerodynamics—but adds a bit of Honda style. The single advance photo of the production version reveals that not much has changed from the concept, although the side mirrors have grown to a more useful size, the wheels are smaller, and the head- and taillights have a much more conventional look. Keep Reading: 2009 Honda Insight |
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And in today's episode of "As The Camshaft turns" … OK, as you know, Honda bailed from F1 racing with about 17 hours notice. 'Too expensive' they cried. 'World economic downturn' they moaned. Although actually it is looking more and more that getting their rear wings handed to them by the likes of Toro Rosso and Toyota had more to do with it than just plain money. Shoot, even the good crew over at Axis of Oversteer is saying that 'BMW calls Honda girly men for quitting Formula 1′. As they were leaving, Honda did say that if they could find a buyer, they'd be more than willing to sell the team and it's assets (you know, little trinkets like rolling road wind tunnels and server farms you'd ordinarily find in places like Fort Mead) if anyone was interested. 'F1 team for sale?!?!' said Dave Richards. There's more, after the jump. Richards is the guy behind ProDrive, the British outfit that runs Subaru's WRC team (and quite well thank you) and also runs Aston Martin's Le Mans efforts (and quite well thank you). Richards also really, really wanted to run his own F1 team. He was in it to the point of having an agreement to run a B-team of McLaren sourced customer cars … but then that fell through (and McLaren is now in an agreement with Force India of all things) and Dave Richards was left out in the cold. But now, a-HA!, Honda bails. And all their bright, shiny toys (like rolling road wind tunnels and server farms you'd ordinarily find in places like Fort Mead) could be picked up for Pence on the Pound. And Dave Richards has a LOT of those. But wait, it gets even better. "To boost the chances of a sale, embarrassed Honda has offered to bear the team's outstanding debts, and offer for sale the excellent facilities of the squad for a nominal fee as low as $1." says the news sources. That low-low, fire sale price does not come without strings however. "The successful buyer would have to convince Honda that it could safeguard the future of the team, even if many of the 700 employees would be retrenched as the annual budget is slashed from its current $300 million to as little as $70m." Yeah, that's a pretty tall order … but what it DOES do is make the nut of running an F1 team in the tens of millions of dollars range, rather than the hundreds of millions. That would be very attractive to a guy like Richards. "The Daily Telegraph" said that Dave Richards, could be in a position to seal the deal by the end of this weekend. It ain't over yet folks Source: SpeedTV |
| Amid the announcement of its third profit warning of the year, Honda has confirmed that it has canceled plans for the launch of a successor to the NSX supercar. The new V10-powered model was expected to arrive in the United States next year as an Acura, but sadly all development work on the car has come to an end. Honda CEO Takeo Fukui confirmed the plan in his end of year speech, saying that all development of the car would cease. Fukui also revealed that plans to introduce the Acura brand to Japan in 2010 have all been canned, reports Automotive News. The news comes less than two weeks after Honda announced that it planned to pull out of next year's Formula One season, citing financial constraints as the main reason. Honda also announced today that it is lowering its annual operating profit forecast by 67% - its third profit warning of the year. The carmaker now expects its operating profit for the business year to March 31 to be $2 billion - down 81% from last year. |
| Last week, the new Honda Accord made its official debut in Japan and only a few days later, Honda specialist Mugen already presented the first details regarding the upcoming package for the car, both sedan and wagon versions. The Accord Mugen will a full new bodykit, with new front and rear spoilers, 'aero' bumpers, side sills and a huge rear wing, plus four alloy wheel designs available in 18 and 19 inches size.
Performance upgrades include a new sport suspension kit, high-performance brake pads and rotors, plus a new sport exhaust system. No word wether the 2.4 liter engine or the 5-speed automatic transmission received any upgrades. |
| Are you suffering from arthritis ? or having weak leg muscles ? Do you have problem in walking ? HEY!! you are not visiting a Health Blog, its still Cars On rOll. Well... I wish you don't have any of those physical ailments but still if you are suffering from any one of them or your family member, then here is a solution - the new Honda Walking Assistance Device.
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This wasn't the design direction Honda was looking for with the Honda FC Sport concept. Move along. |
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The Linian is a cooperative project between the Guangzhou Automotive Group (GAG) and Honda, bringing together the visual aspects of a Honda S2000, new Nissan 370Zish headlights and just a touch of Saturn Astra in the rear. There are no details available regarding engine choices, drive layout or just about any information at all for that matter (probably because it will never be produced). The badge adorning that scowl of a front fascia is neither GAG, nor is it Honda, meaning this is most likely the logo of the newly established GAG-Honda design studio. Just imagine all of the tasty vittles just waiting to pour out of that dream factory. [ABChina] |
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Speaking as someone who has done it, being an engineer for any of the not-so-Big Three is something of a soul-crushing endeavor. Deadlines are always too aggressive, budgets are always too small, management never grasps the true complexities of a system, and you inevitably have to deal with totally incompetent suppliers who over promise and under perform. It's a delightful job. That kind of experience makes the open letter from a Honda employee that arrived at the offices of BoingBoing seem like working there is some kind of magical fantasy-land of happy rainbows and pony rides. Be sure to head over and give it a read, but the email describes a place where the sun rises and sets on curiosity and innovation, where you're more or less free to do as you want and where everyone is treated with respect even in the face of conflict. Sounds like a total fallacy to us. Maybe even Honda propaganda. Take the opening paragraph for instance:
It's practically impossible to believe such a place actually exists. If it did you'd have the happiest, most productive, best engineers in the world turning out superior products and doing it while leading the way in innovation. Oh, wait a minute. [BoingBoing] |
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Details on the instrument panel and driver assist systems on the new 2010 Honda Insight have been released and it seems Honda is intent on training the new hybrid's drivers in much the same way other auto manufacturers have announced. The "Ecological Drive Assist System" uses a combination of color cues in the speedometer and "leaves which grow" to encourages economical driving behaviors. When you push the "Eco" mode button, the speedo turns green when you're being frugal or blue when you're hooning it, also a panel grows "leaves" to reward short term driving and displays the long term performance as well. This of course comes on the heels of the announcement from Ford about their "Smartgauge with EcoGuide" system in the Fusion Hybrid and Milan Hybrid which also rewards judicious use of the go-pedal with growing leaves. We expect everyone who complained about that system to bellyache about this too. But that's not all these new images tell us. If we take a closer look at the rest of the dash, it looks like the Insight will share design cues with its Euro Civic cousin and offer such features as a USB aux audio input, a CD/MP3/WMA disc drive and an overall simple control scheme. What we don't know is what the heck an "S" means in the PRNDL cadence. What the heck does "PRNDSL" mean? Park, reverse, neutral, drive, second and low? Probably, but we're holding out for a "Superamazing" gear.
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Honda surprised the motoring world today with the release of the radical and futuristic Honda FC Sport, a three-seat Hydrogen-powered design study that hints at the future of Honda sports cars to come. Using the Honda V Flow fuel cell setup already found in the Honda FCX Clarity, the FC Sport is the supercar to the FCX's stately sedan. The stunning design is meant to invoke the concept of a high-performance, low-weight hydrogen sports car. Press release and more details below the jump.
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Welcome to Down On The Street, where we admire old vehicles found parked on the streets of the Island That Rust Forgot: Alameda, California. Can you believe we've never had a Honda Accord in this series? Have the early Accords become that rare? They sure have, which makes me sad; the first-gen Accord was a great car for its time. It was reliable, had fairly decent performance, was less cramped than its tiny Civic cousin, and- in my no-doubt-shared-by-few-others opinion- looked pretty good.
It's always fun when I find a DOTS car with another one in the background, and this time we've got two: the '66 Mercedes-Benz 200D and the '76 Ford Mustang II. |
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It was a bad weekend for the folks at Spoon Sports. The same people who brought you the Spoon NSX-R GT (yes, the same one we reviewed earlier this week) managed to place a JDM Honda RSX/Integra in the stands of Infineon Raceway during a NASA race. No one appears to have been hurt, but the driver had to be cut out of his Honda touring car. From reports, the Spoon Sports Honda hit the grass berm in the runoff area in turn 1 before being launched by momentum over the fence and into the grandstands. It apparently landed within a few rows of a group of people there to watch the race. A report from MadCat360 in the NASAFormus below:
[Source: NASA Forums] |
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Welcome to Project Car Hell, where you choose your eternity by selecting the project that's the coolest... and the most hellish! We had another too-close-to-call one yesterday, with the Toyota 4x4 Van and the Dodge Caravan Turbo locked in a 176-171 near-tie, according to the Choose Your Eternity poll. Today we're going to escape from Suburban Minivan Land and roll down the mean streets of the Early Gangsta Rap Era, with the kind of rides that Ice-T wannabes might have selected for high-speed runs to Vegas back in the day. And, yes, it's another upstart challenging a mighty PCH Superpower: Japan versus Italy!
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They say you should never meet your heroes. For the most part that's true, I've never been more disappointed than after my first drive in a DeLorean DMC-12, childhood dreams of time travel completely squashed. When I was eleven I picked out the colors for a friend's dad's new NSX — red with a black top — and even though I've never driven one, it's been on top of my supercar wish list ever since. So when the guys from 0-60 Magazine called and said they wanted to fly me out to Infineon to drive not just any NSX, but the Spoon Honda NSX-R GT, a tuned version of the rarest NSX ever made, I didn't hesitate. Based on the second generation, 2002 NSX-R, the GT was created specifically to comply with homologation regulations for Japanese Super GT racing. Those regulations stated any car that wanted to compete in the series had to be based on a production car with at least five examples. So Honda made five NSX-R GTs. Honda never stated what, if any, changes they made to GT underneath its wild new bodywork. We do know what enhancements Spoon made to one of those five cars. Starting with the NSX-R GT's functional carbon fiber aero aids, flat undertray, non-functional snorkel (there for homologation purposes only), complete absence of sound deadening, single pane rear glass (the only thing separating you from the engine) and carbon/Kevlar Recaros, the Japanese tuner added its own upgraded suspension and brakes as well as a giant turbocharger and remapped ECU to boost the 24-valve 3.2-liter V6's from 290 to 420 HP. This isn't just the car I've always lusted after. It's the single rarest example of that model and not a plain version of that either, but one that's had the bejesus tuned out of it. Infineon is an intimidating place to drive any car, in place of run off, concrete walls are installed right next to most of the track, restricting not only your options should something go wrong, but, in a car as low as the NSX, your vision too. What parts of the track are unencumbered by concrete feature huge elevation changes. It's my first time here and I'm having trouble remember which corners go right and which ones left. The track is especially intimidating given the complete absence of driver aids in this priceless one-of-a-kind car. Sure, there's ABS, but there isn't traction control stability control, magnetic suspension or drive-by-wire anything. Dating from 1990, the NSX hails from a completely different era of car design, one that put emphasis on the fundamental rightness of a low curb weight, lower center-of-gravity, an engine mounted amidships and the kind of subtle control that's only available in the absence of electronic assistance. The GT's bodykit also adds down force, lots of it. Turn six at Infineon is an impossibly fast, downhill, off camber, near 180-degree hairpin. Its exit is bordered by a three-foot high, six-inch thick piece of poured concrete. Taking it fast takes commitment and more than a little faith. Gripping the tiny Momo wheel with white knuckles, it takes all my strength to turn the NSX onto a tighter line. The downforce that kicks in at close to three-figure speeds combined with the huge amount of caster means the steering gets heavier as you go faster, lots heavier. But that's just a side effect to the reason for those two changes; with them, the NSX-R GT will make it around any corner, at seemingly any speed, with an absolute absence of drama. As long as you keep your right foot planted, just like the 911 before they made it a luxury car, the mantra for any NSX-R GT driver needs to be "Never Lift." Oh, and there will be NSX-R GT drivers too. Even though this specific model will remain very special, starting next year Spoon will sell you a brand new one that looks and goes just like this for only $150,000. And yes, it will be road-legal and available in left hand drive. Neither will they be mere replicas, but built using a supply of left over NSX-R chassis Honda has squirreled away somewhere in Japan. That money won't buy you a luxury car. While the original equipment carbon/Kevlar Recaros are supportive and comfortable, the air-conditioning cold and the tape player functional, the interior is cramped and difficult to access in a way expensive cars simply aren't any more. It's loud in here too; only a single pain of glass separates you from the grumbling tuned engine and its big, popping exhaust. Don't think of it as Spartan, think of it as purposeful. Decades old design has its benefits; the view out is unencumbered by hood, fenders or power bulges, while the A-pillars are thin, enhancing your vision. The view out of the NSX is unrivalled and uncompromised, allowing you to concentrate on doing nothing but going fast. And it does go fast too. Weighing just 2,795 Lbs (the 480 HP Nissan GT-R weighs over a thousand pounds more), that 420 HP can propel it to 60 in less than four seconds and on to a top speed somewhere in excess of 186 MPH. They say never meet your heroes because they won't live up to your expectations. But, this NSX-R GT doesn't just feel as good as I expected, but better than I could ever have hoped. Unlike other classic super cars, the passing of time has been kind to the NSX. It suffers from neither high weight nor over complication of modern super cars, but adapts their up-to-date running gear, brakes and tires to give itself modern performance. Classic involvement with modern speed? That's a fantasy we're glad came true. To read more, including a comparison against the 2009 BMW M3, pick up a copy of 0-60 Magazine issue 6, it hits stands nationwide today. Photography credit: Robert Kerian Thanks to: Edmun at Spoon Sports |
