Honda Insight earns Top Safety Pick

Torrance, California - The 2010 Honda Insight EX has earned the highest “Top Safety Pick Award” from the U.S. Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS).

The award recognizes vehicles that do the best job of protecting vehicle occupants involved in front, side and rear crashes, based on ratings in IIHS tests.

“Fuel economy and safety have always been part of Honda’s DNA,” said Erik Berkman, vice-president of corporate planning and logistics. “The Insight EX is a great example of an affordable vehicle that receives a high rating for safety.”

Source;
http://www.canadiandriver.com/2009/08/13/honda-insight-earns-top-safety-pick.htm

Honda Prefers Hydrogen as U.S. Pushes Battery Autos

Here's a nice article with a possible direction of the Auto Industry....
Aug. 12 (Bloomberg) -- Honda Motor Co. is backing hydrogen power for the cars of the future, a stance at odds with the Obama administration’s decision to drop automotive fuel-cell technology in favor of battery-run vehicles.

“Fuel-cell cars will become necessary,” said Takashi Moriya, head of Tokyo-based Honda’s group developing the technology. “We’re positioning it as the ultimate zero-emission car.”

Honda, the only carmaker leasing fuel-cell autos to individuals, opened a production line last year in Tochigi prefecture to make 200 FCX Clarity sedans. The Energy Department sought to eliminate hydrogen-station funding and instead lend $1.6 billion to Nissan Motor Co. and $465 million to Tesla Motors Inc. to build electric cars, and give $2.4 billion in grants to lithium-ion battery makers.

“Honda has a propensity to think very long term,” said Ed Kim, an analyst at AutoPacific Inc. in Tustin, California. “It’s also part of the company culture that if they’ve made a decision they think is correct, they’ll really stick with it.”

Honda isn’t alone. Toyota Motor Corp., Daimler AG, General Motors Corp. and Hyundai Motor Co. say hydrogen, the universe’s most abundant element, is among the few options to replace oil as a low-carbon transportation fuel.

U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu said in May his department would “be moving away” from hydrogen as it’s unlikely the U.S. can convert to the fuel even after 20 years. Nissan Chief Executive Officer Carlos Ghosn predicts battery cars may grab 10 percent of global auto sales by 2020. Honda hasn’t announced plans for a battery-electric car.

Honda’s American depositary receipts fell 3 cents to $31.93 at 4:02 p.m. in New York Stock Exchange composite trading. They have risen 50 percent this year.

Fuel Costs
Hydrogen, made mainly for industrial use from natural gas, costs about $5 to $10 per kilogram for vehicles in California, more than double an equivalent amount of gasoline. Fuel-cell cars also have at least double the efficiency of gasoline models, with Clarity averaging 60 miles per kilogram.

The Energy Department estimates future prices for hydrogen will fall to $2 to $3 a kilogram, Toyota said on Aug. 6.

The fuel can also be made from solar and wind power and even human waste.

Toyota President Akio Toyoda said Aug. 5 his company plans consumer sales of fuel-cell cars within six years. Toyota, like Honda, is making “exponential progress” with the technology, Justin Ward, manager of Toyota’s U.S. advanced powertrain program, said in an interview.
Battery cars are further along in the market. Mitsubishi Motors Corp. started selling the i-MiEV last month. Tesla sells the $109,000 Roadster and Nissan unveiled its electric Leaf this month, with sales to start in Japan and the U.S. next year.

Fueling Time
Honda says hydrogen vehicles match the refueling style drivers are used to: filling up in minutes at a service station. Nissan’s Leaf recharges fully in 30 minutes with a fast-charger, or up to 16 hours on a household outlet, said Tetsuro Sasaki, senior manager of Nissan’s battery test group.

A budget crisis slowed plans for more hydrogen stations in California, home to the biggest fleet of cars using the fuel. At the federal level, Chu sought $333.3 million in May for battery and advanced gasoline autos in the 2010 budget, up 22 percent. Hydrogen funds were cut 60 percent to $68 million, slashing money that would have gone to transportation projects.

The Clarity is available in the U.S. only in Los Angeles, where drivers can use as many as 16 hydrogen stations. The 5- passenger car has a top speed of 100 miles an hour and goes 240 miles (386 kilometers), more than double the 100-mile range of Nissan’s compact electric car. Through July, Honda leased cars to 10 drivers for $600 a month.

Filling Stations
The need for a network of hydrogen filling stations is a problem.

“We cannot do infrastructure alone,” said Moriya. “We’ve been developing the cars on our own without government support.”

The Senate and House voted in July to restore the funds. President Barack Obama must approve the final budget.

Honda and Toyota will have to reduce production costs to win over consumers. Fuel cells need platinum -- a precious metal that costs more than $1,200 an ounce -- and current durability is half that of gasoline engines, according to Moriya.

Honda plans to offer hydrogen-fueled cars at prices comparable to midsize gasoline autos by 2020, down from a company estimate that Clarity’s 2005 hand-built predecessor cost about $1 million. Moriya wouldn’t discuss the Clarity’s price.

Expensive Platinum
Honda engineers in Tochigi are trying to trim costs. For 13 months, technicians have worked in a semiconductor-style clean- room, coating rolls of plastic film for fuel-cell membranes. Nearby, a press stamps stainless-steel plates that will grip the material. Hundreds of the cells are then sealed in a metal case, forming the fuel-cell stack.

Honda’s hydrogen push has been undermined by plunging sales in the U.S., its main market. Last quarter, profit at Japan’s second-largest carmaker fell 96 percent to 7.5 billion yen ($79 million). Its research budget is 515 billion yen this fiscal year, down 8.5 percent. Funds for fuel cells were cut and some spending shifted to other “priorities,” Moriya said, without elaborating.
Honda probably spends “a few tens of billions of yen” a year on fuel cells, said analyst Mamoru Kato at Tokai Tokyo Research Center in Nagoya.

“Maybe, just maybe, fuel cells will be the future,” said Edwin Merner, who helps manage about $3 billion at Atlantis Investment Research in Tokyo. “And if you’re not in there, then you have a big disadvantage.”

Source;
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601109&sid=atHH0LYy6MYA

Acura: Old NSX Was “Too High a Halo,” Next Sports Car to Be Less Ambitious

The on-again, off-again next-generation Acura NSX sports car is pretty much off for good, at least as we have come to expect it. The low-slung, mid-engined, quasi-exotic sports car that Acura built all through the ‘90s and into a good part of the this millennium was expected to become a front-engine GT with extreme styling in its next iteration, but alas, due to many factors, the car has been shelved.

But according to John Watts, Acura’s senior manager of product development, the prospect of an Acura sports car is not dead. It has just been scaled down. The NSX was “too high a halo,” said Watts. “For it to be fully effective [as a halo vehicle for the brand], it couldn’t be too far removed” from Acura’s other products. In other words, it would be less expensive than the NSX—which was expected to have an MSRP approaching six figures—and probably derived from a current product platform. That’s bad news for those who got attached to the concept of a Honda-built exotic sports car, good news for Nissan, whose GT-R won’t be facing a Honda-built rival any time soon. We are intrigued, however, by what kind of sports car Honda can build in the $50K–$60K range.

Source;

http://blog.caranddriver.com/acura-old-nsx-was-too-high-a-halo-next-sports-car-to-be-less-ambitious/

Trans Am Conversion Kit Coming for Camaro

Yes!
So... as of January 1, 2010, Pontiac is dead. Buried. Gone forever. No more. Obviously, something as pesky as death ain't going to stop hard core Trans Am fanatics from driving an (almost) honest to goodness 2010 Pontiac Trans Am and/or Firebird. Why? If you have to ask... you bring up a good point. Especially because when you get right down to it, the Trans Am was rarely anything other than a Chevy Camaro with different sheet metal.

Keeping that in mind, Trans Am Depot will be offering body kits that will transform (lowly) Camaros into full-on screamin' chicken Trans Ams! Based off Kevin Morgan's original design(s), the Phoenix Trans Am kits will be unveiled at the 2009 Trans Am Nationals. And then you'll have the chance to own a Trans Am that costs more than a Camaro but is just as fast. Hey – just sayin'. Fully detailed press release after the jump.

Check out the source for some awesome pics;
http://www.autoblog.com/2009/08/12/confirmed-phoenix-trans-am-conversion-kit-coming-for-camaro/

Honda: Fuel cells offer "the ultimate zero-emission car"

Honda is not yet ready to concede victory in the eco-friendly automobile wars to the battery electric car. Instead, Honda will continue developing its hydrogen fuel cell technology. Says Takashi Moriya, head of Honda's fuel cell operations, "Fuel-cell cars will become necessary. We're positioning it as the ultimate zero-emission car.

"While Honda is the only automaker in the States that's actually put hydrogen-powered vehicles in the hands of paying consumers (GM's Project Driveway loaned citizens a fuel cell vehicle for free for a short while), it's clear that the Japanese automaker isn't making any money on the FCX Clarity now and likely won't any time soon. Fuel cells are expensive pieces of technology, partly due to their high concentration of precious metals like platinum.

Despite the shortcomings of current hydrogen technology – which, in addition to the aforementioned high price of the vehicle itself, include difficulties in capturing the gas in an environmentally-friendly manner, storing and transporting the gas and an inadequate infrastructure – Honda believes its investment will one day pay off. In fact, Honda says it plans to have hydrogen-powered cars on the market by 2020 at costs comparable to cars running on gasoline. Toyota has said it's hydrogen car, due in 2015, will be priced "shockingly low."

Source;
http://green.autoblog.com/2009/08/12/honda-fuel-cells-offer-the-ultimate-zero-emission-car/

Photoshopped pic of a Acura TSX Wagon

As per previous post on this, found this 'shopped' pic on Autoblog, being that I deal with Honda's it pains me to see an 'A' on that front grill instead of a 'H', but beggers can't be choosers....
Source;
http://www.autoblog.com/2009/08/10/report-acura-considering-tsx-wagon-for-the-u-s/

Acura “Closely” Considering TSX Wagon

Wagons have been in the news quite a bit lately—Cadillac is soon to launch a CTS wagon, Mercedes-Benz just unwrapped the eccentric E-class wagon. We’ve now heard that Acura may be on the verge of bringing out a wagon version of the TSX.

“We’re closely, closely looking at it,” said John Watts, senior manager of Acura product planning. Watts believes that the younger part of the target market for the TSX—specifically the Gen Y portion—might be open to such a variant. “Boomers, and [the older among] Gen X, who had wagons as kids don’t want one, but the new kids do,” he said. Count us in that group, too, Johnny.
It wouldn’t be hard to develop, either. A wagon version of the TSX already is sold abroad as the Honda Accord Touring. All Acura would have to do is rebadge the thing and get it approved by the feds . . . the automotive equivalent of flickin’ a (somewhat costly) switch. And with everyone looking for handy, stylish, and thrifty alternatives to gas-guzzling SUVs, we think the time is right for said switch to be flicked.

Source;
http://blog.caranddriver.com/acura-%e2%80%9cclosely%e2%80%9d-considering-tsx-wagon/

Piston Heads: HONDA CIVIC TYPE R MUGEN DRIVEN

Here's a UK car that I thought could have been ported over under a Acura badge, or even a SiR under the Honda badge, never did, and probably never will. Amazing car though.
PH gets a world-first spin behind the wheel of the Super-Civic

Poring over these pictures of the Honda Civic Type R Mugen Concept, it is possible to draw several conclusions, depending upon your preconceptions of Honda, and of hot hatches in general.

You might think that, however good Mugen's reputation as a tuner of Honda cars, the latest Euro-spec Honda Civic Type R, with its unyielding twist-beam rear suspension, is never going to be able to mix it with a properly sorted rival with independent rear suspension. You might also think that, despite the undoubted allure of Honda's high-revving VTEC engines, even a tuned version won't be able to compete with the turbocharged European hardcore hatch competition. If you're feeling particularly ungenerous, you might feel that a chap with some time on his hands and some spare parts from Halfords would have done a better job with the body kit.

All these things crossed my mind as myself and lucky PH competition winner Nick (check out the video of Nick's Japanese experience on PH soon) arrived at the Twin-Ring Motegi race track to try out the prototype of Mugen's super-Civic Type R - the first westerners to do so. The rather humble makeshift pit garage - actually nothing more than a couple of shabby-ish hospitality-style tents and awnings - made me still more nervous that this really would be a bit of a Heath Robinson project.

I needn't have worried. There are two things that strike you about the way the Japanese go about their business. The first is that they tend to be very modest about their achievements - hence the shabby gazebo and the generally unglamorous surroundings. The second is that, when they do a job, they do it properly - hence the very serious-looking machine sitting underneath the grubby awnings.

Okay, so some of the body panels are a slightly different shade of red, but that's because a) this is still a development hack and not a series production model and b) the front and rear bumpers and the front wings are all made of fibre-reinforced plastic (FRP). This is part of a weight-saving programme that shaves a significant 105kg off the Civic's kerb weight and also involves the removal of the rear seats.

The engine has also received a similarly extensive going-over. This version of Honda's K20A motor is essentially the same as the one used in the 2007 Mugen RR, a limited run of 300 very hardcore versions of the Japanese domestic market four-door Civic Type R. This means that power is up 39bhp, from 198bhp to 237bhp, while torque is up 14lb ft to a respectable (for a VTEC unit) 162lb ft, thanks to extensive internal changes to the cams, inlet and exhaust systems.

Tweaks to the chassis are pretty involved, too, with uprated springs and shocks, while nestling behind the lightweight alloys are 17-inch diameter brakes with bespoke four-piston monoblock callipers (standard CTRs get a single-piston set-up). Partly to accommodate the chunkier brake callipers, the Civic's track has been widened by 10mm. Like the latest Championship White UK-spec Civic Type R, the Mugen concept also has a limited-slip diff, which could prove a crucial point for track day fans.

But now to the truly important part - driving. Stepping into the Civic Type R Mugen, it’s immediately clear that this is a car that means business. Despite the absence of a roll cage the empty space where the rear seats would be, the hip-crunching racing buckets and the extra stack of gauges to the right of the steering wheel telegraph a clear message: “drive me hard” this car is saying.

This car also has a data-logging device that monitors various pressures and temperatures within the car, into which you can pre-programme certain parameters. When your chosen indicator - oil temperature, say - reaches your pre-determined limit a buzzer will sound, telling you it’s time to cool the car down. If you do a lot of track days, that has got to be one hell of a useful tool.

Once we thumb the starter motor, however, and head out onto the test track, we’re in for a bit of a surprise - several, actually. The first shock is how sophisticated the whole thing feels. Looking at the Civic Type R Mugen you’d expect it to feel edgy, raw, nervy and unyielding, but in reality it feels quite the opposite. This might be a ‘hardcore’ hot hatch, but its sophisticated damping and more linear power delivery (Mugen has designed this engine to deliver seamless torque and power, so there’s less of a trademark VTEC ‘kick’) make it feel more refined than the standard car.

That’s not to say the Mugen Civic is dull, though. The K20A still wails like a touring car engine as you push it beyond 8000rpm, the (shorter-throw) gearchange is still one of the sweetest of any front-drive car I’ve driven and the new-found mid-range torque gives the motor the sort of punch that might - just might - see it keep up with turbocharged European hot-hatchery, as long as you work that engine hard enough.

Surprise number two arrives with the first few corners and the realisation that, on track at least, the torsion beam rear is no hindrance to the Mugen Type R’s handling. Mugen has kindly provided us with a Japanese-spec four-door Civic Type R equipped with a smattering of Mugen handling extras by way of comparison, and the difference between the two cars is startling.

Between you, me and this computer screen, I expected the UK-shape Civic, with its less sophisticated rear suspension and shorter wheelbase, to feel twitchy and snappish in its cornering behaviour, while the Japanese-spec car’s longer wheelbase and independently sprung rear end would make it the more predictable and approachable of the two.

Driving the four-door Civic round an off-camber right-hander with a bump in the middle and a heavy braking zone just the other side, I realise just how wrong I am. In the Type R Mugen prototype this is a simple corner, where you simply hold on to the steering wheel a bit tighter as your front right wheel skips over the bump, and you brake for the next bend while still turning. It is a bend you think nothing of.

In the Type R saloon, things are a little different. I approach the same bend in exactly the same way, but as the four-door crests the bump things begin to go wrong. First, the front suspension is flustered, throwing the steering off kilter. Then I start to brake for the next corner and the back end steps wide on the damp tarmac. There follows a rather ungainly series of fishtails before I manage to gather the car together - fortunately before the tyre wall does it for me. Torsion beam 1, independent rear suspension, nil.

The third surprise is the brakes. Actually, with that clever - and powerful - calliper set-up the stopping ability of the Civic Type R Mugen should come as no surprise, but the car’s ability to resist fade, even after half an hour of heavy use, is deeply impressive.

It’s clearly a car with promise, the Civic Type R Mugen. It’s quick, surprisingly sophisticated and something a bit different from your average super-hatch. It’s also coming to Britain for final development testing, so it just might cope with the scarred, rutted piece of tarmac that is the average British B-road.

Mugen is keen to point out that this car is still very much a concept - it doesn’t even have a proper name yet. But if it does get the go ahead for a limited production run, rumour has it that it could cost more than £30k. And that’s about £5k too much, I reckon. So come on, Mugen, give us a fourth surprise and make it cheap enough to compete head-on with the likes of the Ford Focus RS.

Source;

http://www.pistonheads.com/roadtests/doc.asp?c=120&i=20408