DeviantArt show aggressive Honda CR-Z design

This was done a while ago but I didn't get a chance to post it, beautiful 'chop' done.  Gotta say, It's wayyy over the top, but I like it.

Source;
http://crz.pavedearth.com/2011/05/19/deviantart-show-aggressive-honda-cr-z-design/

Inside Line: 2013 Honda Accord Interior Spyshot with Info

Just the Facts:

• The redesigned 2013 Honda Accord will arrive this fall.
• Three drivetrains will be offered, including a plug-in hybrid option.
• Its exterior dimensions will be reduced slightly compared to the current model.
  

DEATH VALLEY, California — Prototypes of the 2013 Honda Accord were caught during hot-weather testing prior to the car's anticipated launch this fall. Although still covered in heavy camouflage, the sedan and coupe test mules clearly showed that the design of the new Honda Accord won't stray far from the concept shown earlier this year.

Notable design elements that can be seen here include a sharply defined character line on the side of the car that plunges from the rear door handle down to the front wheel opening, rectangular headlights with a row of LED marker lights across the bottom and a sizable front airdam opening below the trapezoidal grille.

A quick peek through the window also revealed a few details about the interior design of the 2013 Honda Accord. The gauge cluster looks like it will switch to a large centrally located speedometer flanked by auxiliary gauges on each side. The Accord will continue to use a large in-dash monitor, but the control unit below will switch to a central control knob design similar to Audi's MMI layout. This should reduce some of the button clutter that plagued the design of the dashboard in the current model.

Honda has already announced that the Accord will offer three different drivetrains. The base four-cylinder will be a new direct-injected, DOHC engine that will deliver 181 horsepower and 177 pound-feet of torque. It will be paired with either a six-speed manual transmission or a continuously variable transmission (CVT).

A 3.5-liter V6 will be optional, but Honda has only said that it will be more powerful and more efficient than the current engine. In early 2013, a plug-in hybrid variant will be added to the model lineup. It will combine a 2.0-liter four-cylinder engine with a 120kW electric motor powered by lithium-ion batteries. Honda says it will be capable of travelling up to 10 miles in pure electric mode at speeds up to 62 mph.

Inside Line says: Judging by the looks of these prototypes, Honda will continue to play it right down the middle when it comes to the design of its midsize coupe and sedan.

Source;
http://www.insideline.com/honda/accord/2013/2013-honda-accord-caught-testing-in-the-desert.html

TopGear Record Breaking Stunt - the Deadly 720!

The Top Gear Live Stunt Team has set a new world record by becoming the first to complete a spectacular double loop-the-loop on four wheels!! The ground-breaking feat -- dubbed Deadly 720 -- was the amazing finale to the first of four Top Gear Festival shows staged in front of a sell-out 15,000+ live audience at the Moses Mabhida Stadium, Durban, South Africa (June 16-17).

#Deadly720 is the biggest, boldest and most technically challenging stunt ever performed by the record breaking Top Gear Live Stunt Team who will be coming to Birmingham's NEC later this year (Oct 25-28) with even more audacious performances hosted by Jeremy Clarkson, James May, Richard Hammond, The Stig and, of course, the Top Gear Live daredevil stunt team.

Honda demonstrates the Uni-Cub: personal mobility meets 'Uniracers'

by Jeff Blagdon of www.theverge.com

This weekend in Tokyo, Honda took the wraps off its Uni-Cub personal mobility device concept, showing the public what the self-balancing, motorized "unicycle" is capable of. The Omni Traction Drive System in the Uni-Cub uses a system of small wheels that rim the main drive wheel, propelling the vehicle 90 degrees left or right. The result: the seated rider can smoothly and (seemingly) effortlessly move in any direction just by leaning — front, back, side-to-side, or any combination thereof. A representative from Japan’s National Museum of Emerging Science and Innovation took the Uni-Cub through its paces during a short 10-minute demo, showing off the device’s tight turning radius by repeatedly looping backward inside a ring of spectators. The moves looked tricky to pull off, but we’re told that it’s really easy to learn — supposedly you can pick it up in 10 minutes.

The Uni-Cub's top speed is 6kph (about 3.7mph), and its lithium-ion battery pack will keep it running for about an hour at that pace. Of course, no 21st Century vehicle would be complete without a smartphone app, and Honda's allows the rider to rotate his or her Uni-Cub on the spot (say, to turn and face someone), as well as call it over from across the room (video below). Also, if you're worried about the vehicle's performance on hills, we learned it can tackle grades of up to 8 percent. Honda hasn't announced any plans to put the Uni-Cub into production, but it will start letting the public test drive it in spring of 2013.

Source;
http://www.theverge.com/2012/6/17/3092977/honda-uni-cub-unicycle-personal-mobility-demonstration

Honda: 2013 Accord one of 'most feature-rich vehicles we've ever made'

Honda watchers counting on a restyled 2013 Accord to reignite the Japanese automaker's sales spark in the United States may be disappointed by the first spy images emerging of the sedan.

Photographs captured this week show the mid-sized sedan with only evolutionary changes from its previous design. In a segment that will be filled with several bold redesigns by next spring -- the Toyota Camry, Volkswagen Passat, Nissan Altima, Chevrolet Malibu, Ford Fusion and Mazda6 -- the Accord could find itself fighting for a seat at the head of the table.

In engineering the new Accord, Honda executives say they learned their lesson when they removed too much content on the redesigned 2012 Civic.

"You're going to find that Accord is a very well-balanced product that is the best overall product in everything, whether we're talking about interior packaging, content of the vehicle, the fuel economy of the vehicle," Erik Berkman, head of research and development for Honda Americas, told Bloomberg News in a recent interview.

It "will be one of the most feature-rich vehicles we've ever made," Berkman added, without elaborating.
The new Accord is expected to go on sale early this fall.

A merely evolutionary design change to the Accord could spell trouble when the competition is making huge jumps in styling, especially the Ford Fusion with its Aston Martin-like lines.

Hyundai and Kia have also gained ground in the U.S. market with radically designed mid-sized sedans.
The 2013 Accord is the last of four core models Honda will introduce over a 24-month period. An all-new Odyssey minivan went on sale in late 2010, followed by the new Civic compact last spring and the revamped CR-V in late 2011.

The four models accounted for nearly 80 percent of the Honda brand's U.S. sales last year.

Accord sales last year fell to 235,625 units, representing a 17 percent decline, although a big chunk of the decline was tied to earthquake-related parts shortages.

But it's still a long way from previous years when the Accord produced annual sales of nearly 400,000 units.
Last year, the rival Nissan Altima became the second-best selling car in the United States after the Toyota Camry.

So far in 2012, the Accord is the fourth best-selling car in America, after the Camry, Altima and Honda Civic.

The revamped Accord will feature Honda's new "Earth Dreams" family of engines and related technology, including continuously variable transmissions, the automaker's first such powertrain change in a decade.
Honda previously used CVTs only on small cars made in Japan.

Starting with the 2013 Accord, the new transmission, with an infinite number of gear ratios, will replace the current five-speed automatic to aid fuel-economy and performance.

The CVT will be the only automatic offered in the Accord four-cylinder, but the V-6 will come with a traditional geared transmission.

The engine line, with displacement ranges from 660 cubic centimeters to 3.5 liters, is being added to every new Honda model starting with the Accord.

Mark Rechtin and Bloomberg News contributed to this report

Source;

http://www.autonews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20120616/OEM04/120619890/1273

Honda UK launches Curiosity Documentary Ad Campaign

In the same way that documentaries dissect their subjects in order to provide a more complete view of the whole, a new series of Honda ads each hone in on a single feature of the auto company’s latest models.

As sponsors of Channel 4's Documentaries, Honda has launched this new TV campaign, created by Wieden + Kennedy London, which links brand and programming together. The tagline "The More We Look, The More We Learn" could be applied to the documentaries themselves, or the ads/"idents" which use footage that looks as though it came from a documentary to illustrate features of several different Honda products.

The campaign also includes a new website developed and created by Collective London, which indulges the kind of curiosity that accompanies an interest in documentaries. On the website, users will find a game that’s played with a series of questions themed ‘How curious are you?’ The site will Channel 4 content throughout the year. 


Source;
http://www.fastcocreate.com/1680950/ever-wonder-how-hondas-headlights-got-that-way

The Walking Dead creator designs Hyundai Elantra zombie survival machine

by Shane McGlaun
 
When it comes to surviving and fighting the zombie hordes, a Hyundai Elantra would never come to my mind. I’d feel better driving something much larger that could hold more bullets and beer. Still, the Hyundai Elantra Coupe created by The Walking Dead writer Robert Kirkman would probably do the job well enough.


This car may have started life as a plain, and rather boring Elantra Coupe, but it was transformed into a zombie killing death machine. It has long spinning spikes that stick out from the wheels, lots of lighting on the roof, what appears to be riveted steel panels for more protection, and a spiked plow for mowing through the zombie hordes. I also like the roof-mounted escape hatch.

The vehicle was designed to celebrate The Walking Dead’s 100th issue at Comic-Con. Along with zombie killing machine; a customized Elantra GT with a wrap of the cover of the 100 issue will be given away. The image here is only a drawing of the along track zombie death machine, but apparently the car was actually built for the 100 issue celebration. Hopefully, some pictures of the actual car will turn up.

Source;
http://www.slashgear.com/the-walking-dead-creator-designs-hyundai-elantra-zombie-survival-machine-18234329/

Erik Berkman of Honda Interview

In April Erik Berkman became the first American to lead North American research and product development for Tokyo-based Honda.

Erik Berkman’s iPhone wallpaper isn’t of his wife, children or dog. When Honda  Motor Co.’s new North American development chief gets a text message, he sees a background picture of the automaker’s V-6 IndyCar racing engine.

Dario Franchitti won the Indianapolis 500 last month using the engine designed by a team led by Berkman, who was at the track known as the Brickyard to watch. Motor-sports passion -- central to founder Soichiro Honda, who said, “If Honda does not race, there is no Honda” -- will be an asset if Berkman can apply the same speed and creativity to product development.

Honda’s first American president of R&D for the region is helping shape everything from a modified Civic and new Accord due this year to an overhaul of the Acura line that includes the NSX supercar. The 30-veteran of Tokyo-based Honda plans to win back its reputation for innovative cars in the face of improving Korean, U.S. and German competition as well as critical reviews.

“I know that there is a particularly high expectation for Honda to get back that magic it had at one time,” said Berkman, 53, in an interview last month at his new domain, the vast R&D center in Raymond, Ohio. “What are we going to do, complain that expectations are too high for us? That we want low expectations? That’s not right.”

Product development and engine innovations have a special place at Honda, which has been led since its beginning only by engineers, even as tight business controls appear to have led it to take fewer risks on core models in the past decade.

Sporty Ride

Along with overseeing eight U.S.-developed Honda and Acura models, Berkman has to find a way to add content and upgrade interiors within a company that controls spending so tightly it made money even through the recession, natural disasters and exchange rate pain. Honda is the only major automaker to have never had an annual loss.

While Honda and Toyota Motor Corp. won fans in the 1970s for durable cars that were inexpensive and fuel-efficient, Honda boasted the sportier ride, reflecting the founder’s racing fervor. Honda’s R&D Americas president has to get that back.

“Honda is off the rails; they still build a great car, but they aren’t leaders,” said John Wolkonowicz, an independent analyst in Boston who specializes in automotive history. “In the ’80s Honda, had the best cars on the market. They drove the best, had great fuel economy and people really loved them.”

While Honda’s U.S. sales in 2007 more than doubled the combined U.S. deliveries of Hyundai Motor Co.  and affiliate Kia Motors Corp. , the Koreans were within 1 percent of Honda last year. Accord, the best-selling car in the U.S. in 2001, has been topped by Toyota’s Camry every year since then. Toyota’s Corolla has exceeded Civic’s U.S. sales annually since 2003.

Honda’s Man

Berkman may be the ideal man for the job he started April 1, succeeding Hiroshi Takemura, who returned to Japan as deputy director of automobile operations. The compact engineer with close-cropped brown hair joined Honda in 1982 when it started making cars in the U.S. in Marysville, Ohio. His only automotive job before that was with a company John DeLorean hired to turbocharge DeLorean Motor Co.’s DMC-12 gull-winged sports cars.

After starting as a production engineer, Berkman moved to Honda’s U.S. R&D unit in 1991, working on models including the 1994 Accord wagon, 1999 Odyssey minivan and 2001 Acura CL coupe. His biggest success was leading development of the 2004 Acura TL sport sedan.

Before it became one of Acura’s best-selling cars, it was far from universally loved within Honda. High-end content, such as performance brakes by Italy’s Bre SpA (BREmbo), was seen as too costly. The exterior styling was too edgy and polarizing.

TL Controversy

“It was so controversial, it almost didn’t happen,” Berkman recalled. “It was too much for some people.”
Reactions to the TL’s design in consumer clinics didn’t clarify the situation, Berkman said. “Half the people said they loved it, half of them hated it,” he said.

Ultimately, his vision of the car was approved for production. More than 77,000 were sold in its first full year, making it 2004’s top luxury sedan.

“I fought for the one I wanted, and it worked,” he said.

Honda is counting on those instincts to come through again. Honda President Takanobu Ito, who worked with Berkman at the U.S. R&D center in the 1990s, and Executive Vice President Tetsuo Iwamura, head of North American operations, have high expectations for him.

“Through his career, he has a very good understanding of Honda,” Iwamura said in a March interview at Honda’s U.S. headquarters in Torrance, California. “What we expect him to do is, through this good knowledge and experience, fulfill his dream of making North America strong.”

Civic Tweaks

Honda is looking better in 2012 already. With the factories again running at full capacity, U.S. sales have expanded 10 percent this year, buoyed by a 48 percent increase last month. While the company has easy comparisons with last year’s disaster-limited results, it has three models among the top 10 sellers in the U.S. this year: the midsize Accord, CR-V compact sport-utility vehicle and the Civic.

The 2012 Civic drew a harsh review in Consumer Reports in August 2011 and failed to win the magazine’s “recommend” designation. The non-profit publication for decades consistently placed Honda models among its top picks. The magazine said the new car, compared with the version it replaced, had a choppier ride, less agility, longer stopping distances, more road noise and a worse interior.

Berkman has helped to fix it midstream. The model’s mid- cycle refresh, due in about three months, was moved up by about a year. Among the improvements will be better interior materials, he said.

“There’s an opportunity with the minor model change to tweak Civic,” Berkman said. “If we do that, we’ll knock off one more criticism.”

‘Earth Dreams’

He’s planning changes in styling, materials, driving dynamics and technology across the Honda and Acura model lines.

That begins this year with a revamped Accord featuring Honda’s new “Earth Dreams” family of engines and related technology, including continuously variable transmissions, the company’s first such powertrain change in a decade. Honda previously used CVTs only on small cars made in Japan.

Starting with the 2013 Accord, the new transmission, with an infinite number of gear ratios, replaces the current five- speed automatic to aid fuel-economy and performance, Berkman said. The engine line, with displacement ranges from 660 cubic centimeters to 3.5 liters, is being added to every new Honda model starting with Accord.

“You’re going to find that Accord is a very well-balanced product that is the best overall product in everything, whether we’re talking about interior packaging, content of the vehicle, the fuel economy of the vehicle,” he said. It “will be one of the most feature-rich vehicles we’ve ever made,” he said, without elaborating.

Acura Supercar

Acura, Honda’s premium brand that some auto reviewers don’t regard as a full-fledged luxury line, will also see new styling and benefit from technology such as the high-performance hybrid system going into the NSX, he said. The car, likely to cost more than $100,000, will be raced as well as sold, Ito said in Detroit in January.

The NSX will go on sale in about two years, Honda has said. An ad for the car that ran during this year’s Super Bowl featured comedians Jerry Seinfeld and Jay Leno.

Berkman said his team is eager to shake off the idea that Honda’s vehicles have become bland or lack the value of its glory days.

“Having high expectations or pressure is what’s necessary to get us to a point where we’re performing,” he said. “We want everybody to fall over and go: There it is again. There’s that Honda we used to praise.”

Source;
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-06-14/honda-suffering-reputation-loss-taps-american-s-retooling.html