TOKYO -- Honda Motor Co., aiming to re-energize its performance cred, is studying a revival of an S2000-type sporty car.
The
automaker's top exterior designer says he wants a midlevel sporty car
added to the lineup between the two sports cars under development. A
revived Acura NSX will debut atop the automaker's lineup in 2015. And at
the bottom, Honda is targeting Japan with a sporty minicar inspired by
the Small Sports EV Concept shown at the 2011 Tokyo Motor Show.
"We
are making the NSX and the small sporty minicar," Toshinobu Minami said
in a recent interview at Honda's global design center. "Naturally, I
personally want something in between."
Although his comments represented his own ambitions, such an entry was under study, he said. He declined to give details.
To
properly nurture sports-car nameplates, a company must keep making
them, Minami said, criticizing Honda's decision to drop sports cars when
the global financial crisis hit.
"Don't quit," said Minami, who
oversees global exterior design for the Acura and Honda brands.
"Quitting the NSX and the S2000 is the thing I regret most."
Honda
dropped the NSX in 2005 and scrubbed plans to revive it in 2008, as the
foundering global economy undercut earnings. The company said at the
time it needed more practical offerings. In January 2009, it said it was
killing the S2000 roadster, a jaunty rear-wheel-drive, four-cylinder
convertible, after a 10-year run.
Each car had a loyal following.
It
is important to keep selling sporty cars "no matter what condition the
company is in," Minami said. "It maintains that relationship with the
customer."
He said the Honda brand's current sporty offering, the
hybrid CR-Z compact hatchback, fills an important niche because of its
electrified drivetrain. But the lineup also needs a more traditional
driver's car, he said.
"I want to keep hybrid sports cars like
the CR-Z," Minami said. "I also want to do something like the original
S2000 we used to have. I want to do both."
Rediscovering Honda's roots is a top priority, he said.
"We
have lost a bit of our sportiness while retaining good functionality,"
Minami said. "First, we want sportiness. The thing I want most is to
recover our uniqueness."
Source;
http://www.autonews.com/article/20131007/OEM03/310079963/honda-designer-wants-sporty-car#axzz2h2kxNbFD
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