Yes, the sales of little Japanese Kei trucks (it’s pronounced “kay”) were up in 2023, one reason they have been getting a lot of attention from the media. The compact haulers, built to conform with Japan’s keijidōsha class of light vehicles, are practical as well as cheap and charming, so smitten American buyers have been importing them from their home markets at a higher rate. But we should keep things in perspective: According to the Japanese Used Motor Vehicle statistics, 7594 Kei trucks were imported into the U.S. last year. Ten years ago, before many of these Japanese market vehicles met the 25-year age limit to legally import into the U.S., that number was 797.

Meanwhile, Ford sold 750,789 new F-150s in 2023. Those who suggest that the backlash from state governments seeking to keep Kei trucks off the road is even partly motivated by the desire of manufacturers of full-sized pickups to keep the market for themselves, a view that has also been represented in the media, are probably incorrect.

Governments keeping them off the road is the other reason the tiny, right-hand-drive Kei trucks have been in the news, and we blame Rhode Island. While the federal government writes the rules controlling the importation of foreign market vehicles like Kei trucks, it’s up to individual states whether or not you can register and drive them on the road. According to multiple sources, Kei trucks are street-legal in 19 states. But in Rhode Island there are only 30 or so Kei trucks on the road so, as they’ve done in many places, Kei trucks have sort of driven under the radar when it came to the law.

Until this happened, as told last month by the Providence Journal: “Imagine this: You import a mini-truck from Japan after calling the Rhode Island Division of Motor Vehicles and being assured that you’ll be able to register it here. Several years later, you receive a notice from the DMV: The Japanese mini-truck’s registration has been revoked, and you’ll need to hand over the license plates.”

One of those owners was a constituent of State Senator Louis DiPalma, who began asking questions. Apparently, the state DMV had, since 2021, been re-evaluating its decision to issue registrations for Kei trucks based on existing law, and recently started demanding that owners return their license plates.

Publicity ensued, and the story was picked up by a raft of media sources, and officials in other states began asking questions about what their DMVs were doing about the danger represented by allowing Kei-sized vehicles on the road. Citizens began picking sides, and the next thing you know, outlets like NBC News and The Economist are reporting on the Kei kerfuffle.

And the whole mess is confusing. In Wyoming, you can drive your Kei truck on any road but an interstate highway. In Georgia, the Motor Vehicle Department conclusively insists that Kei vehicles “are not ‘street legal.’ Kei vehicles are barred from titling and registration.” That said, “…both customers and county tag offices have been confused by the title and registration laws relating to these vehicles. Due to this confusion, certain customers have successfully, albeit unlawfully, had their Kei vehicles titled and registered in Georgia.” Gee, whose fault is that?

Angry Kei truck owners have pointed out that motorcycles and scooters are allowed on public roads, as are hundred-year-old, 20-horsepower Ford Model Ts: Are they any safer than a Kei truck? In some states, the battle over Kei rights is getting downright contentious. Kei truck owners are banding together to advocate for fair treatment; the Texas Kei Vehicle Advocates, for example, report that they’ve already been successful in getting the state to reverse its ban on titling Kei trucks. A memo issued April 4 by the Texas Department of Motor Vehicles said, “The department has revised the titling and registration requirements for these vehicles. Effective immediately, mini vehicles are required to be titled and must be registered if operated on public roadways.”

This cultish American enthusiasm for Kei trucks likely calls for an explanation. While we are talking about the tiny, single-cabover pickups or microvans that you’ve likely seen, say, doing maintenance on a golf course, “Kei” refers to more than that.

Kei is short for kei jidōsha, which is Japanese for “light motor vehicle.” A vehicle that is considered a Kei—and this has changed over the years, dating back to 1949—is, since late 1998, the following: Has an engine no larger than 660cc (about 40 cubic inches); no more than 63 horsepower; is no longer than 3.4 meters (just over 11 feet), and no wider than 1.48 meters (just under five feet). By comparison, the 2024 Nissan Versa, one of the few remaining small cars sold here, is 14.7 feet long and has 122 horsepower.

Since—obviously—the tiny Kei is not built to the U.S. Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards, only Kei vehicles that are older than 25 years can be imported into the U.S., because vehicles that elderly aren’t subject to FMVSS. That’s why the newest Kei vehicles you see for sale in America are typically 1999 models.

There are also Kei cars, including some sporty ones like the Honda Beat and Suzuki Cappuccino convertibles, and the Autozam AZ-1, built by Mazda and featuring gullwing doors: Those three are especially appreciated by American collectors, and quite a few have been imported. Decent Beats and Cappuccinos start at under $7000, while the rare Autozam AZ-1 starts at about $12,000, and can climb to over $30,000.

But it’s the Kei truck that is pulling in the (relatively) big numbers, and there are many companies in America that want to sell you one. Among them is Japan Car FL, based in Oldsmar, Florida, just south of Tampa. They have been importing JDM (Japanese Domestic Market) vehicles since 2018. The small, family-owned company advertises that they are licensed, bonded and insured, which is important in the JDM world, because not every company is.

Among Japan Car FL’s Kei vehicles is a 1999 Honda Acty Kei truck with four-wheel-drive, air conditioning and custom wheels for $10,850, and an air-conditioned 1999 Subaru Sambar Classic Kei microvan for $12,250. Each, says Japan Car FL, “comes with a clean Florida title, and is ready to be driven home on the day of purchase.”

While Japan Car FL handles all types of JDM imports, the business is driven by Kei trucks and microvans, said owner Lana Kashchuk. “There has been an increase in queries as they become more and more popular. It’s the top seller.”

Buyers vary. Some customers use them for work—Kei trucks are affordable, maneuverable, and their small engines are easy on gas. Many have six-foot beds that rival bigger trucks in cubic-foot capacity. “We have a lot of small business owners who buy them for tree-trimming, pool service, that sort of thing. But we also have customers who use them instead of golf carts locally to take them shopping or to Home Depot, or they drive them on weekends to go to the beach,” Kashchuk said.

There’s no problem in Florida—for now, anyway—to get them registered and tagged. The state now officially refers to them “mini trucks,” for use on roads where the speed limit is 35 mph or less. “But at the same time they are not branded as ‘low-speed vehicles’—they are not golf carts, so they get a regular tag and a regular title,” she said. “We have a lot of customers who aren’t having any problems or issues because they have a license plate like any other car, and they have a title like any other car, but it says ‘MT’—mini truck.”

Modern Kei trucks and microvans have no problem keeping up with the normal flow of traffic—that 1999 Subaru Sambar Classic, for instance, has 54 horsepower, and is good for 70 mph. Yes, they may technically be limited to roads where the speed limit is just 35 mph, but many traffic officers will look the other way as long as a Kei isn’t holding up the show.

As in most states, you can’t register a vehicle in Florida without proof of insurance. You can insure Kei trucks, but you may have to shop around for an agent familiar with the category, Kashchuk said. “It all depends on the agent. He or she might be confused about the shorter VIN number—because it isn’t the usual 17 digits and letters like a typical U.S. car, and because they may have a model name that is not familiar to them, not in their system.” As far as financing, Japan Car FL works with several companies that make loans on Kei trucks.

Even as states struggle to decide exactly what a Kei truck should—or should not—be allowed to do, there will likely still be a market for them, if for no other reason than because they are reasonably affordable. And cute.

Oh, and what’s happening in Rhode Island, where this confusion arguably began? Senator DiPalma is co-sponsoring legislation that would restore the ability of Kei truck owners to register their vehicles, and get license plates. That’s the good news. The bad news for Kei lovers: The new law would only apply to the 30-odd Kei trucks that are already on the road there, for use “until they can’t function anymore,” DiPalma said. There is no provision for adding any new Kei trucks to Rhode Island roads.

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In May of 2019, IndyCar announced that it would be moving to a hybrid powertrain. That August, IndyCar finalized its plans, confirming that the hybrid system would debut in 2022.

The new system was expected to do three things: First, it would allow drivers who stall out on track to re-start their cars and rejoin the race, rather than have to bring out a caution flag and summon a safety team to drive to the stalled car and re-start it. Second, it would boost the powertrain’s total output to over 900 horsepower.

And third, certainly having the real-world relevance to hybrid power in passenger cars would attract a much-needed third manufacturer to sign up for the IndyCar series, joining Honda and Chevrolet.

On Tuesday, five years after that original announcement, IndyCar said that the hybrid package would debut at the Honda Indy 200 race at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course, which is set for July 5-7. Obviously, it has been delayed multiple times.

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Addressing IndyCar’s expectations of the new hybrid systems: The drivers will indeed be able to re-start their cars without the aid of the safety team. This will mean fewer caution flags.

Second, in Tuesday’s announcement, IndyCar said the hybrid system would boost horsepower to “800+ for the first time in two decades,” and though it did say more power might be possible down the line, it’s still short of the promised 900.

That 800-horsepower figure will be achieved when the driver presses two buttons: One will deploy the available electricity to supply additional power. The other is the existing Push to Pass feature, which lets the turbochargers briefly increase the boost, itself worth about 50 hp. (Push to Pass has been around since 2004, when the competing ChampCar series introduced it on its Ford Cosworth engines.)

The two power enhancers come with different rules. Push to Pass will still have a restriction on amount of time per use and total time used over the course of a race. Rules for the hybrid power unit will limit the amount of energy deployed per lap based on track length. Drivers will be able deploy the electric boost on all the circuits that the series visits. They will be able to combine it with Push to Pass on road and street circuits, but not ovals since Push to Pass is not available on those tracks.

The new hybrid system, jointly developed by Chevrolet and Honda, was more of a challenge than they were expecting, but the end result is a low-voltage, 48-volt unit that stores energy in 20 ultracapacitors instead of batteries. Capacitors work well for storing energy for brief periods, but aren’t great at long-term energy storage, which is fine for this application.

The hybrid equipment, called the ERS for energy recovery system, weighs in at about 120 pounds, a significant increase given the cars weigh 1630 pounds on most tracks, slightly less on ovals. It is contained in the bellhousing, located between the 2.2-liter, twin-turbocharged V-6 engine and the gearbox. IndyCar has done 23,518 miles of testing on hybrid-equipped cars, with more planned at the Milwaukee Mile in June.

Oh, and that third thing the hybrid system was supposed to do? Attract at least one more OEM, or original equipment manufacturer, besides Honda and Chevrolet to the IndyCar series? Hasn’t happened.

“This technology is very important to our current OEM partners, Honda and Chevy,” IndyCar President Jay Frye told the Indianapolis Star in 2019, “so if it’s important to them, then you can logically conclude it’s important to other OEMs.”

Perhaps, but it seems only IMSA, the sports car series, has been able to attract many new manufacturers, as it currently has 18. The competing SRO series, in the GT3 sports car class alone, has nine.

So we’ll see if another manufacturer will sign up for IndyCar. Regardless, the series is pretty strong now, and excitement is building for the 108th Indianapolis 500 on May 26. Maybe the hybrid system will keep IndyCar in the conversation well after its biggest race.

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The NTT IndyCar Series held a test at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway last week for teams that had not yet experienced the new hybrid system that will be used in races during the second half of the season, following the Indianapolis 500 on May 26.

Participating were AJ Foyt Racing, Dale Coyne Racing, Ed Carpenter Racing, Juncos Hollinger Racing, Meyer Shank Racing and Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing. With this test, all the IndyCar teams have now experienced the hybrid system. Reviews were mixed.

“It’s a complex system,” said Romain Grosjean, driver of the Juncos Hollinger Chevrolet. “It’s quite different. There are a lot of buttons to push.”

It’s the latest of many changes over the years to the venerable, long-lived IndyCar chassis. First introduced 12 years ago, the Dallara-designed DW12—“DW” for driver Dan Wheldon, who helped develop the car before he was killed in a crash at Las Vegas—ran its 200th race at the 2024 season-opening Grand Prix of St. Petersburg in March.

The DW12, used by both the Chevrolet and Honda teams, has undergone multiple body redesigns and safety adjustments. The addition of the hybrid system is considered a major update: Both the Motor Generator Unit (MGU) and Energy Storage System (ESS) fit inside the bellhousing, which sits between the new 2.2-liter, twin-turbocharged V-6 engine and the gearbox.

One of the additional responsibilities for the driver is management of the regeneration system, which uses braking to supply more electricity to the ESS, to add more boost. There’s a manual and an automatic option for regeneration, and it will be up to the driver to fine-tune the system on track. “I think that it could change the racing, but at the same time, everyone has the same package to work with so it will be who uses it the wisest,” said Sting Ray Robb, driver for AJ Foyt Racing.

The central value of the hybrid system is that it will allow drivers to initiate a boost of power, similar to the existing “push to pass” feature, which is only allowed at certain times and on certain parts of the track. Another major improvement is that the hybrid system will allow the driver to re-start the engine should it stall, after a spin, for instance. Presently, restarting a car requires a caution flag to slow the race and allow safety crews to drive to the stalled car with a portable starter.

As you would guess, the hybrid system adds a moderate but undisclosed amount of weight. It’s expected that the car will need some new chassis tuning as a result.

The unit was developed jointly between the two engine suppliers. “The partnership between Chevrolet and Honda has been phenomenal,” IndyCar President Jay Frye said. “The IndyCar-specific hybrid power unit is dynamic and an engineering marvel, and we’re completely committed to its successful introduction.”

“I’m not fully comfortable with it, but I am very much enjoying it,” said Santino Ferrucci, who drives for AJ Foyt. “I can’t wait until we have it in the series full time.”

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The Accord Hybrid you see here possesses a more refined powertrain than ever—hushed and impressively consistent in operation. The packaging of that system is top-notch, so the Hybrid model suffers no carrying capacity penalty compared with the standard Accord. Fuel economy is stellar. The car even looks pretty good, and the interior materials are better than what you get in a base BMW 2 Series. It would be fair to say the 2023 car is the best Accord Hybrid that Honda has ever made. But is it the best Accord? 

For my money, no. That honor—still—goes to the 2013 Accord Sport with V-6 and manual transmission, which even was briefly offered as a coupe. I always thought of this four-door as a 2010s version of the 326 V-8-powered ‘64 Pontiac Tempest—healthy power in a decent-looking, spacious family sedan. By the next-generation Accord, launched for 2018, the V-6 was gone in place of a turbocharged 2.0-liter four-cylinder and the option of a six-speed manual or a new, 10-speed automatic. This Accord Sport lacked some of the bullishness of the V-6 version but was fundamentally excellent—quick, agile, comfortable, and fairly priced at about $35,000.

When Honda redesigned the Accord for 2023, it killed the 2.0T and now pitches the Hybrid powertrain as a sporty performance alternative to the base 1.5T/CVT setup. Offered on Sport, EX-L, Sport-L, and top-dog Touring trims, its max output of 204 hp and 247 lb-ft (up 2 hp and 15 lb-ft from the 10th-generation car) is more than sufficient in normal operation, but the setup is optimized for short bursts in traffic. This is great for stop-light take-off and quick lane changes, but it’s not an outright barn burner anymore. Car and Driver clocked the 2023 Accord Hybrid Touring at 6.5 seconds sprinting from 0 to 60 mph, which is down a full second compared with the outgoing 2.0T/10-speed-auto car. (The V-6 Camry still scoots at 5.8 seconds, 0 to 60.) 

Specs: 2023 Honda Accord Hybrid Touring

Price: $38,435
Powertrain: 2.0-liter four-cylinder gas engine (146 hp; 134 lb-ft) with generator, single electric motor (181 hp; 247 lb-ft), and 1.1-kWh lithium-ion battery
Combined Output: 204 hp; 247 lb-ft
Layout: Front-wheel-drive, four-door, five-passenger sedan
EPA Fuel Economy: 46 mpg city, 41 mpg highway, 44 mpg combined
Competitors: Toyota Camry Hybrid, Hyundai Sonata Hybrid

The automaker expects that, for this 11th-generation car, 50 percent of examples sold will be Hybrids. The gas-only Accords, the entry-level LX and EX, are 192-hp 1.5-liter turbo-four affairs. All that is a long way of saying that Honda has spoken, and the hot Accord is no more. Boo hiss.

Fortunately, Honda’s hybrid system is excellent. Power delivery is so consistent and smooth that most people won’t even be able to tell the electrified Accord apart from a pure gas variant, other than to notice how quiet it is. Most of the time, the 2.0-liter Atkinson-cycle four-cylinder (now with direct injection) is not connected to the drive wheels; instead, it works in tandem with a generator to power the 1.06-kWh battery and/or electric motor, the latter of which drives the front wheels. In certain situations, such as highway cruising, the engine can engage a clutch to drive the front wheels. The four-cylinder is completely disengaged while the car is decelerating, stopped, or when the system determines battery power is sufficient. Unlike many of the start-stop systems in modern gas cars you may be familiar with, both shut-off and restart here are imperceptible. 

I did encounter an issue, however. After stepping outside the car for a minute to return a library book, I left it running with the hazards on and the key in my pocket. I got back in, drove off, and at the first stop light the car completely shut down with the transmission somehow still in D. The car would not move, the wheels would not turn, and all of the screens were black. I couldn’t get it to restart until I shifted into Park, pressed the starter button to fully turn the car off, pressed the starter button again to reactivate it, and then put the car back in D. There was no indication at any point that the car no longer recognized the key. It was a one-time problem that I tried and failed to replicate, but being trapped in traffic for thirty seconds, for any reason, is nonetheless disconcerting. 

The drive motor runs in reverse during coasting or braking to recharge the battery, and the tuning for the mechanical braking system is spot-on, such that the two systems blend seamlessly in normal operation. Integrating the two while producing a natural feeling is extremely difficult, and Honda nailed it. There are six levels of regenerative braking, selectable using paddles behind the steering wheel, and the most aggressive level can bring the car nearly to a stop, so it’s not truly one-pedal capable like many EVs are. Wearing the top-tier Touring example’s 19-inch wheels, the Accord Hybrid has an EPA rating of 44 mpg combined (48 mpg for the EX-L). In mixed city and highway driving, our results were closer to 42 mpg. For context, the Accord Hybrid is 8-10 mpg off the Toyota Prius’s EPA rating, but its powertrain is smoother and the vehicle itself is meaningfully larger, quieter, and more comfortable.

The Accord’s underlying platform is essentially the same as before, though this 11th-generation car is 2.7 inches longer and has a 0.4-inch wider rear track. Honda says it made the chassis more rigid and implemented suspension and steering updates—one of those changes is that the Touring model no longer gets adaptive dampers, sticking with a more traditional fixed setup. The Accord’s steering is not quite as sharp and lively as before, particularly mid-corner, but the ride is immaculate. The Accord comports itself with phenomenal composure regardless of the conditions. It could be city streets, country roads, or long stretches of highway—the car’s balance, responsiveness, and overall comfort best every new entry-level luxury car I’ve driven.

Unfortunately, the Accord doesn’t look quite as luxurious on the outside. This is a rather plain redesign, in my opinion. The faster roofline over the second row is attractive, but the front end has a dull bluntness to it that I wouldn’t call flattering. The curved, C-shaped air intakes at the lower corners of the front fascia do not blend well with the rest of the nose, which is covered in almost exclusively sharp, geometric angles. Out back it’s a little better, with the full-width taillight treatment adding a modern, minimalist sort of flair. The prior, 10th-generation car was perhaps aesthetically busier, but it was also a lot more interesting. The new Hyundai Sonata, in particular, blows the new Accord out of the water when the two are parked next to one another.

It’s a different story inside. The revised interior uses many of the same design cues as the smaller Civic—mesh-pattern HVAC vents across the dashboard, in particular—albeit with far superior materials. I’d be curious to try a lower-level Accord, say, the $30,000 EX for comparison, but the interior of the Accord Touring is among the highest-quality and easiest to settle into for under $40,000. (The 2024 model, at $39,985, just squeaks under that threshold.) The leather padding on the door armrests feels cushy and natural, rather than plasticky or sticky. None of the switches come across as cheap. Outward visibility is outstanding, which is rare in a modern car. It’s hugely spacious, with wide seats up front and gobs of rear legroom, and the trunk can easily swallow a bike with its front wheel detached. Or luggage for a family of four on a weekend getaway. You might want a bit more room than the Accord offers in the center console, but that’s about it.

The Accord Touring packs a number of niceties over the next-down Sport-L: wireless phone charging, ventilated front seats, heated rear outboard seats, a head-up display, 5G Wi-Fi hotspot, parking sensors, a Bose 12-speaker premium audio system, and Google Assistant/Maps built into the 12.3-inch center screen and infotainment. When it comes to infotainment technology, Honda has neither been particularly willing to swing for the fences nor especially competent at integration, but this system works great. It’s fast-responding and unfussy. The visuals are pretty crisp, and the Google navigation system is clear and easy to follow when it pops up in the HUD. The Bose system is nothing to write home about, but this is a lot of feature content in a $38,000 car. Okay, Honda! 

Well, this particular test car was too connected for its own good. Who can say why, but at one point, I went to start the car in the early morning and it refused to do so, citing a pending, over-the-air System Update. No amount of button pushing or cursing could convince the car to knock it off. It finally relented after 10 minutes or so, lighting up the dashboard as usual aside from a rather lippy message in the instrument cluster that the car’s software update was interrupted and would resume at the next shut-off. 

Listen, car. You do what I tell you to do … right?

Aside from those two oddball bugs I experienced, the Accord Hybrid is an impressive package. I miss the outright performance of the 2.0T, but the 2023 Accord Hybrid zips around happily, handles better than practically every other mainstream family sedan, and sips fuel while generally not letting on in any way that it has a battery and electric motor. Our Touring test car even convincingly cossets you in near-luxury. In every way other than ground clearance and sheer carrying capacity, the Accord Hybrid is a compelling reason to skip a milquetoast crossover and keep it classy with a sedan. Best Accord Ever? Not in my book, no, but for most Accord folks there’s good reason to hail the ascendance of the Hybrid.

2023 Honda Accord Hybrid Touring

Price: $38,435

Highs: High-quality interior materials. Efficient powertrain that doesn’t reveal itself as a hybrid. Exquisite ride and handling for a mainstream family sedan.

Lows: Ghosts in the machine that gave us two separate no-start conditions. Plain exterior design feels stodgier than the outgoing-generation car.

Takeaway: A hybrid family sedan that compromises nothing to hit its mpg marks. The Honda Accord Hybrid deserves serious respect, provided you don’t have the same bugs we did.

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With a new world record sale on Bring A Trailer of $109,200 including fees, the Honda S600 has officially entered the hall of collectible Japanese legends. The 1965 roadster in question had an exceptional pedigree: A comprehensively restored example that won best in show at the 2014 Japanese Classic Car Show in Long Beach, California, it had also been displayed at The Petersen Automotive Museum. But all S600s are special: effervescent to drive, advanced for their time, and of outsized historical importance.

The diminutive S600 casts a long shadow. Not only was it the first production car exported by the brand, but the coupe also was developed in a way that speaks to the speed with which Honda was reacting to the rapidly changing automotive industry in Japan. Launched in 1964, the design of the S600 is impressive even today: fully independent suspension at all four corners, a curb weight of under 1600 pounds, and an all-aluminum, 606cc four-cylinder engine with a redline of 9500 rpm and a power output of nearly 100 hp per liter.

In its day, the S600 should have shocked the world with its capability. But this was the mid-1960s, long before the fuel crises of the ’70s would send buyers flocking to Honda dealerships. Though fictional, the Mad Men episode “The Chrysanthemum and the Sword” captures the sense of the bemusement with which U.S. buyers must have received an export-specification S600: His firm having won the chance to compete for Honda’s planned automotive business, Roger Sterling mentions the sky-high redline of the little Honda, a figure to which Don Draper responds with, “What?” The S600 is dismissed as more motorcycle than car.

But that is the importance and the appeal of this tiny roadster: It is the bridge between Honda’s early motorcycle success and the brand’s ascendancy as an automaker. At the same time, S600 embodies the mercurial nature of Soichiro Honda, the founder of the company. The sports coupe wasn’t the first passenger vehicle produced by Honda. With most of Japan’s population getting around via bicycle or train in the 1960s, the company first built the T360, a tiny but practical pickup truck. Dr. Honda, however, wanted more.

A longtime racing fan even before WWII, Soichiro wanted Honda to build a sports car. Shown next to the T360 in 1962, the S360 prototype roadster was a bold effort. The color of its paint involved a rather public fight: Honda wanted his first sports car to wear bright red. At the time in Japan, red and white were reserved for emergency vehicles. Soichiro wrote newspaper columns about how ridiculous this restriction was and generally made such a nuisance of himself that the Japanese government relented. The production version of the S360, the S500, launched in a bright crimson that remains Honda’s official corporate color.

You could call the S500 a production car, but with just over 1300 made, it’s as rare as a Ferrari F40. The S500 also suffered from various mechanical issues due to the high-strung nature of its quad-carbureted 531cc engine, which made 44 hp at 8000 rpm. After a year, the S600 arrived with a bored-out, 57-hp version of the same engine, now supported by reworked cooling and oiling systems.

Honda’s sports car wasn’t perfect yet. In the summer of 1964, journalist and founder of Japan’s Car Graphic publication Shotaro Kobayashi bought a brand-new S600 and shipped it to Europe. The official purpose of the trip was for Kobayashi to attend Honda’s first foray into Formula 1, at the Nürburgring, but he also turned the expedition into a 7500-mile tour of all things automotive in Europe. Kobayashi hit up Monza and Spa, crossed over the Alps, stopped in at the Porsche factory to see the then-new 901 (later 911), and even managed to let Colin Chapman have a go in the S600.

On the way back from the German Grand Prix, disaster struck. Piston three seized and the connecting rod went through the block. The culprit was a torn hose leading to one of the four Keihin carburetors. Luckily Honda just so happened to have a replacement engine in Belgium. (Rumor has it that Honda was so worried about the failure of Kobayashi’s well-publicized trip that the company had a car tucked away, on standby.) A reinforcement was applied to all subsequent production cars to prevent this tearing.

Honda built roughly 11,000 S600s between 1964 and 1966, with periodic revisions for greater reliability. Each one had that 9500-rpm, four-cylinder hummingbird of an engine, and vestigial motorcycle features like twin chain drives, one for each independently sprung rear wheel.

On the road, the main experience is a lack of inertia. If properly set up and tuned—something perhaps best left to a motorcycle mechanic—the four-cylinder engine doesn’t so much crank as it does switch on like a modern Honda generator. The curb weight is near that of a Lotus Elan, although the suspension is a little softer. The brakes are drums at all four corners, but shedding speed is easy with so little weight on the move.

Recalibrating your brain to the sky-high rev range takes some getting used to. The tendency is to short-shift at 7000 or even 8000 rpm; to have the most fun, you learn to keep your foot in it. Placing the car on the road is ridiculously easy, as it’s ten inches narrower than an original Miata, and anyone over six feet tall will loom out of the cockpit like one of Richard Scarry’s anthropomorphic bears driving a shoe car. Everything in a S600 smells and looks like the 1960s, but the car drives as you hope it will: like something far more modern.

The temptation is to liken the S600 to the equally revvy S2000, but you have to put both cars in context. The 21st-century screamer is the product of a fully mature Honda, a company that was still pushing the engineering envelope, but one that had an established global market share and broad product portfolio to back it up. The S600 was breathtakingly audacious in its time, and the way it screams through those quad-carbs near redline lets any S2000 know that Grandpa Honda is not one for a quiet retirement.

Soichiro’s follow-up to the S600 was the larger, front-wheel-drive Coupe 9, which ended up being a bit of a disaster in terms of company morale. The boss kept changing the car on the production line, and the engineers eventually rebelled. The later N600 hatchback (and of course the Civic), which was most Americans’ introduction to four-wheeled Honda products, was a lot more practical and easy to live with day-to-day.

S600s did make their way outside of Japan, arriving in Europe as official exports, and also into Canada. Canadian cars were sold through motorcycle dealers, and the first batch was likely shipped to Toronto in the summer of 1965. S600s are not common in Canada by any means, but since keeping one on the road requires some pretty skilled mechanical knowledge, and because parts were hard to come by in the pre-internet age, barn finds are not unheard of.

The other way to get into a left-hand-drive S600 is via Okinawa, which remained under U.S. administration until the late 1970s. There, unlike in mainland Japan, cars drove on the right side of the road. There’s also a strong following for the S600 in Germany, buoyed by specialists like Michael Ortmann.

Arguably, the S800 that followed the S600 is an easier collectible to own and keep on the road: Later models ditched the rear chain drives for a more conventional axle. You can also get a later S800 with disc brakes up front, although you can also fit the discs to an earlier S600.

With values solidly established, bagging a bargain S600 is probably off the table these days. Finding and restoring one is a theoretically more accessible path, but these little cars are so delicate and precise that a lot of patience is required. The S600 might be the grandfather of the Honda Civic, but it’s not a Honda Civic.

Against contemporary Japanese icons of the 1960s, the S600 punches well above its weight. It is less outlandish than the Mazda Cosmo, thought the Honda equals its Japanese compatriot for technological advancement. An S600 is nowhere near as rare and expensive as a Toyota 2000GT but shares its elegance and restraint.

The S600 offers a genuinely unique driving experience, a thrill that is laced with Soichiro’s maverick glee for speed. Six decades later, the coupe is a clear link in the bloodline running between the Super Cub and the NSX. The first car Dr. Honda sent out into the world may have been tiny, but it left a mark.

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At an Automotive Press Association appearance on December 4, 2023, General Motors CEO Mary Barra said GM was considering bringing back hybrids. “We have the technology,” she said. “We’ll continue to look at where the market is, where the regulatory environment is.”

Now, market factors such as customer demand, problems with building electric models, and government pollution standards have caused Barra to admit that GM will begin building plug-in hybrids. Her comments came last Tuesday in a fourth-quarter earnings call with analysts.

She reiterated that GM is still on track to convert its portfolio to all-electric by 2035, as it promised in January 2021, “but in the interim, deploying plug-in technology in strategic segments will deliver some of the environmental benefits of EVs as the nation continues to build its charging infrastructure.”

She declined to say when we’ll see plug-in hybrids, or in which market segments GM will offer them. “We plan to deliver the program in a capital- and cost-efficient way because the technology is already in production in other markets. We’ll have more to share about this down the road.”

It’s lost on no one that GM had a leg up on plug-in hybrids with the Chevrolet Volt, which went on sale in December of 2010. The second-generation Volt, which had an upgraded powertrain and more battery capacity, went on sale in October of 2015. But GM pulled the plug on the slow-selling Volt in 2019 and began doubling down on plans to produce electric vehicles.

GM likely should have further refined a hybrid portfolio, as other manufacturers such as Toyota and Hyundai were doing, rather than dropping the technology altogether. “GM not only had a head-start on hybrids with the Volt but also with the SUVs more than a decade ago,” said Sam Fiorani, vice president for global forecasting for Pennsylvania-based AutoForecast Solutions. “Had they not decided on taking the all-EV route, they could have had a usable, and arguably more popular, hybrid lineup.

“The emissions regulations are going to require something more than the eventuality of electric vehicles,” he continues. “With the slowing transition to EVs, it makes sense to add hybrids to your lineup, especially since many of your products are V-8-powered trucks, and what are traditionally high-polluting models.”

Also in play is a “slowing of the transition to EVs,” Fiorani said. Early adopters jumped on EVs when they first became available, but the balance of customers have been more cautious about entering the EV market when they perceive that range and infrastructure may not be at the levels they require to abandon their ICE vehicles.

“Everybody anticipated that the growth would continue at this sharp angle, and it’s just not happening,” Fiorani said. “As we transition out of the early adopters, it’s been more difficult to move customers out of their ICE vehicles and into an EV.”

Indeed, simply building EVs and getting them to market has been difficult for GM, in part due to issues with weakened demand and with producing the Ultium battery platform. In a February forecast by AutoForecast Solutions, GM said it planned to build 416,300 EVs in 2023. Actual production was 120,900.

Presently, the Chevrolet Corvette E-Ray is the only hybrid in GM’s North American lineup. As Barra mentioned, GM builds hybrids in other markets, most notably China.

But Fiorani said that simply bringing the Chinese hardware and software here won’t solve GM’s problems. The Chinese hybrids are mostly smaller vehicles, and one issue will be finding a vehicle small enough in the U.S. fleet to use the same technology. “There’s a potential that they could use it in vehicles the size of the Chevrolet Trax, which is produced in South Korea. But the big meat will be hybrids that compete with Ford and Toyota in full-sized trucks.” Both Ford (as of the 2021 model year) and Toyota (as of 2022 MY) currently offer hybrid versions of their full-size trucks, and hybrid offerings in that segment would go a long way to helping GM meet emissions goals across its portfolio.

So when can we expect to see some new hybrids from GM? “This will not be an overnight thing,” Fiorano said, because GM will have to bring back engineering they haven’t used in a decade and raise it to current levels.

“It’s important to note that GM and the rest of the industry should have seen this coming,” Fiorani said, “and should have been better prepared. Toyota, Ford, Honda—a few of these companies have hybrids in their lineup, and companies like Toyota didn’t expect the transition to EVs to happen anytime soon. Something between those two extremes probably would have been the best course of action.”

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“Holy jumping Caesar’s catfish, my ‘H’ has been stolen! Ohhh, that’s how people know it’s a Honda! What’s the point of having a Honda if you can’t show it off?”

Honda’s H logo clearly mattered a great deal to Superintendent Chalmers in a popular 1996 episode of The Simpsons, though the audience might have wondered why Chalmers’ boast of “making superintendent money” still only allowed him to buy what was by that point a 17-year-old Accord.

The even more eagle-eyed might have spotted that the emblem wrenched off the front of the superintendent’s Accord was actually incorrect for the year of the car. The fade marks left by the missing badge depict a wider H, which arrived two years after the character’s 1979 model was built.

Since 1963, when it began producing automobiles in Japan, Honda’s car division has only had four significant emblems. That will change in 2026, when the first in a dramatic new line of Honda electric vehicles arrives wearing a new H logo, the badge’s first significant redesign since 2000. Look at each in turn, though, and despite their differences, Honda has clearly seen fit not to mess with one of the world’s most recognizable automotive marks.

Honda’s first H: 1961–69

There appears to be no official explanation for the design of the original Honda H. It’s said to have first appeared in 1961, a significant date in Honda’s history, coinciding with the firm’s first victory at the Isle of Man Tourist Trophy races and with the opening of a new R&D facility in Saitama, Japan, but at that point Honda was still denoted by its famous winged logo, a design that had already been through five evolutions since 1947.

The first automobile to use the familiar H, and indeed Honda’s first automobile full stop, was the T360, a tiny kei-class pickup truck unveiled at the Tokyo motor show in 1962. The H then appeared on the S500 sports car, but not until 1969 would customers in the vital U.S. market become familiar with the badge, affixed to the front of a tiny two-door sedan dubbed the N600.

Based on Japan’s N360, another kei car, the N600 still had an engine displacement smaller than that of most motorcycles (the clue was in the name), but that parallel twin could buzz along at 80-or-so mph all day. The N600 sold alongside the sportier Z600—same engine, kooky styling—before both were replaced by an all-new car wearing an all-new badge …

1969–81

Here’s the Honda logo that Superintendent Chalmers’ Accord should have been wearing. It debuted in 1969 on the little-known Honda 1300, an air-cooled vanity project of Soichiro Honda that leaned too heavily on his focus on engineering above all else and, as result, sold poorly in its home market. Its replacement was ushered in swiftly for 1972 and, with the possible exception of the Super Cub motorcycle, did more to build Honda’s brand than any other vehicle in its history.

That car was the Civic. Next to the 1300 it was middle-of-the-road conventional, but against the N600 it replaced, it was significantly more useful, with double the cylinder count and notably more torque. Just a year after the car’s debut, the oil crisis hit. Combined with growing unease over pollution, the frugal Civic—with its low-emission CVCC (Compound Vortex Controlled Combustion) engine, which needed no power-strangling catalytic converter or weedy carburetor to meet new emissions requirements—arrived at the perfect time.

Against all this the Honda H of 1969 is less exciting, but it notably lost the HONDA wordmark and went from a low and wide design to a tall and slim one—typically a white H on a black background. On Chalmers’ Accord, the real badge would have sat neatly on a slim chrome trim piece at the leading edge of the hood.

1981–2000

The next change came in 1981, and it’s this logo that forms the basis of the emblems applied to the front of every Honda since. The key elements were all in place by this point: An H that splits the difference in height and depth between the designs of 1961 and 1969, always presented within a soft-cornered trapezoid, and with the bold uppercase serif lettering making a return—although typically used on a separate badge, rather than below the main logo.

The new badge debuted on the City supermini in Japan but soon featured on much more exciting cars, such as the Honda CRX. By now on its third-generation Civic, Honda supposed that customers might also like a sportier variant, and the CRX of 1983 was the bob-tailed, flyweight (right around 1700 pounds) result. Spectacularly economical in its earliest iteration, the CRX is even better appreciated in its 1988 second generation, with a distinctive split-glass rear hatch and, in some markets, a dual-overhead cam VTEC engine making nearly 160 hp from 1.6 liters.

The badge itself had subtle evolutions throughout the next two decades, but was mostly seen as a raised chrome emblem with no solid color background. The exception is on Honda’s Type-R models sold outside the U.S., a moniker that debuted with the NSX in 1992 and brought back the red background seen first on the nose of the S500 in the 1960s.

2000–present

In 2000, the Honda H became a skeuomorphic design, with a 3D appearance replicating the actual chrome logos seen on most Honda cars by that point. The Honda script itself was now bright red, a detail you’ll see in most of the brand’s official literature, though white and black are also used for contrast depending on where the script is being used; Honda often ditches the H entirely in brochures and on some of its websites. The use of the logo on cars still varied, with a chrome logo standing proud of the grille on some, and a flush-fitting H with a solid background on others.

It arrived on 2000’s Civic, but no other model better heralded Honda’s new-millennium look than the S2000. Launched in 1999, the S2000 was the most focused model from Honda since the NSX a decade earlier, and indeed it was built in the same factory. Like all the greatest Hondas, the S2000’s centerpiece was its engine: a 2-liter four with a 9000-rpm fuel cutoff making 237 hp through one of the tightest shifters you’ll find.

2026–forward

Honda’s next generation of production cars doesn’t yet have a solid launch date, but the 0 Series concept shown at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas will supposedly debut in relatively unchanged fashion in 2026.

However much the low-slung sedan morphs before then, an aspect that probably won’t change is one of the more significant updates to the H logo in the company’s history. Wider and shorter than the outgoing badge, it’s closer in spirit to the 1961 original than any we’ve seen since, and just like the original logo, it has no defined background.

Honda isn’t the first car brand to return to a historic logo: Citroën and Peugeot have recently both gone back to designs inspired by their early days, Renault’s latest design harks back to the 1970s, and many more such as VW, BMW, Skoda, Audi, and Mercedes-Benz have, like Honda, adopted a flat logo in recent years.

Just as with these, Honda’s new look reflects advances in design and technology, perhaps alluded to with badges increasingly becoming illuminated. But perhaps it’s also a nod to the fact that unlike some of the auto industry’s recent startups and upstarts, having history and heritage—and a recognizable brand mark—is something to be proud of.

Superintendent Chalmers understands that Honda pride, even if the details got lost in his animation.

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Although its first two fully electric, large-volume vehicles (the Acura ZDX and the Honda Prologue) will probably grab the majority of headlines this week, Honda is also readying a third, arguably more vital car for 2024. The 2025 Honda Civic Hybrid will bow this summer, the third and final pillar of Honda’s effort to hybridize its strongest selling vehicles, the other two of which are the CR-V and the Accord.

The Hybrid variant will accompany a mid-cycle refresh for Honda’s everyman car and will be offered in both the sedan and the hatchback versions. It will use the same dual-electric motor system that’s found on the Accord Hybrid and the CR-V Hybrid. The system features an electric generator motor and an electric propulsion motor, which sit side-by-side and are mounted near the driven wheels. When paired with an Atkinson-cycle engine on the Accord, this system delivers 247 lb-ft of peak torque; expect similar, if not slightly lower figures for the Civic Hybrid.

Honda is planning to update styling and features for the Civic as part of this mid-cycle refresh as well, and a new wheel design can be seen on the Civic Hybrid at the top of this story.

When Honda debuted the Hybrid variants of the Accord and CR-V, it aimed for a 50 percent take-rate on those electrified models for 2023. At a business briefing event held yesterday with members of the media, Honda was proud to announce that the take rate for the Accord Hybrid and the CR-V Hybrid had actually exceeded 50 percent. Honda is hoping that the hybrid model will account for 40 percent of Civic sales in the coming year. If the former Accord and the CR-V are any indication, there’s a decent chance Honda will surpass that goal.

Hybrids are important to Honda, which is working to fund future electrification efforts and ease buyers into the idea of an EV by electrifying its most popular vehicles. We’ve spent time in all types of the eleventh-gen Civic, from the track-melting Type R to the milder Civic Si to the all-day-livable Civic Hatchback Sport Touring, and we’re big fans of each. We’re looking forward to the day when we get to sample Honda’s hybrid tech in this charming, economical package.

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Honda is pressing on with two major EV launches planned for this year despite issues surrounding the General Motors Ultium battery platform, upon which Honda’s EVs will be based.

At a business briefing event held today with members of the media, Mamadou Diallo, American Honda’s senior vice-president of auto sales, laid out the plans for Honda’s North American division in the coming year. Following the briefing, Diallo was asked whether there were any concerns that software problems with GM’s own Ultium-based products—related to a recent voluntary stop-sale of the Chevrolet Blazer EV—might negatively affect the launches of the Prologue and ZDX. “We’re confident that the software issues will be addressed by the time that we begin deliveries,” Diallo said.

Later this year, Honda’s first two volume EVs—the Honda Prologue and the Acura ZDX—will arrive at dealerships. Both of these crossover SUV-type electric vehicles will make use of GM’s Ultium battery platform, the fruit of a partnership between Honda and GM that was announced in April of 2022. That partnership was initially supposed to produce a handful of affordable, “sub-$30K” EVs as well, but Honda and GM nixed said venture in October of 2023. The Prologue and ZDX were far enough along to warrant seeing through to completion and launch.

Make of the split what you will, but these first two offerings are going to be vital for Honda, which wants to produce more than 2 million BEVs annually by 2030. Getting off on the right foot is imperative, and as it stands, the launchpad for the Prologue and ZDX may raise some questions.

To recap: Late last year, Chevrolet issued a stop-sale order for the hotly-anticipated Blazer EV, one of its most important new vehicles, citing concerns about software issues that were leaving owners stranded.

A statement provided by Chevrolet spokesperson Chad Lyons reads as follows: “We are aware that a portion of Blazer EV owners have experienced some software quality issues. To ensure our customers have a great experience with their vehicle, we are temporarily pausing sales of Blazer EVs. Our team is working quickly to roll out a fix, and owners will be contacted with further information on how to schedule their update. We apologize for the inconvenience.”

Those teething issues on the Blazer appear to involve infotainment screens that are flickering and then turning off completely, and some news outlets such as Edmunds and InsideEVs reported more serious problems around charging system failures and modules that were no longer communicating with the vehicle.

In Edmunds’ case, which had purchased the vehicle to add to its long-term test fleet just two months earlier, the Blazer EV in question experienced 23 different problems that resulted in a multi-week dealership visit. Edmunds noted that a GM engineer and a technician from another dealership were flown out to attempt to remedy the issues. Their story detailing the issues came out on December 20 of last year, and at that point, the car had been in the shop for two weeks.

Lyons tells us that the Blazer EV is the only vehicle affected by the stop-sale. Meanwhile, in a follow-up story, InsideEVs reported that it had received emails from owners of not only the Blazer EV but also from owners of the GMC Hummer EV and the Cadillac Lyriq—offerings also based on the Ultium platform—who said they had experienced similar issues.

Honda has not provided any hard dates on when those Prologue and ZDX deliveries will begin, saying only that both EVs will arrive at dealers in early 2024. It may be a case where Honda will sit tight and hold any specifics until it has fully confirmed that these issues won’t affect its products.

The precise extent to which the aforementioned issues could affect the Honda models is not known; Honda appears poised to offer its own software and user experience for the Prologue, ditto Acura with the ZDX. (A key differentiator between the Prologue and anything GM? The inclusion of Apple CarPlay, which GM is dropping this year on all new vehicles, starting with the 2024 Blazer.)

It will be interesting to see how this all shakes out. Per Lyons’ statement above, the stop-sale for the Blazer EV is still ongoing, and there’s no official end in sight. With no specific timeline in place for an “all-clear” announcement, Honda and Acura may yet have to adjust their paddles on the launch of arguably each brand’s most important new vehicle of the year.

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“Concept car for the road” is an overused phrase among car enthusiasts. Very few designs truly make the transition between concept and production vehicle undisturbed, and many of those that change the least are a case of smoke and mirrors, where a “concept” didn’t inspire the production car but instead was an already-signed-off design dressed up with bigger wheels and shinier paint to “preview” a vehicle arriving in just a year or two.

So you’ll forgive us a raised eyebrow at reports that the new Honda 0 Series, or ‘zero’ concept, unveiled recently at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, closely previews a new production car arriving in 2026.

To be fair to Honda, it has not been too wide of the mark in the past—though the company also has quite a back catalog of true pie-in-the-sky concept vehicles. Below we’ve selected ten of our favorites, including a couple that show the 0 Series isn’t the first time we’ve seen a lounge-like, new-energy saloon from the Japanese brand.

2003 Honda Kiwami

The new Honda 0 Series concept looks familiar. Really familiar. Not sci-fi familiar, but “I think Honda might have done this before” familiar. Well, you aren’t imagining things, as back in 2003 the company unveiled the Kiwami concept, a premium saloon that at casual glance looks almost identical to Honda’s latest concept.

Then as now, Honda was aiming for a minimalist look inside and out. The company likened the Kiwami to “the beauty of a landscape as it changes hues with the seasons,” though the 2003 concept did get a more prominent trunk, rather than the 0 Series’ breadvan look. The key difference, though, is the powertrain: Back in 2003, Honda still felt hydrogen fuel cells were the way forward, whereas the 0 Series is an EV.

2001 Honda Dualnote

We would never say that Honda was out of ideas, but two years before the Kiwami, Honda launched the Dualnote. It was … er, a somewhat low-slung, premium four-seater, though as we’re going back in time, this one was neither EV nor fuel-cell but a hybrid, a technology Honda was already exploring at the time.

Power came from a 3.5-liter naturally aspirated V-6 engine paired with the brand’s Integrated Motor Assist hybrid setup, though this used three motors rather than the single one you’d find in a Honda Insight. Combined output was around 400 hp and sent to all four wheels, but Honda claimed it’d do more than 50 mpg. Not the prettiest concept Honda has ever made, but gamers could get behind the virtual wheel as the two-tone machine in 2002’s Gran Turismo Concept.

1999 Honda Spocket

We’re going back another two years with the Honda Spocket, this time tracing the styling thread of the Dualnote. The two certainly share a similarity at the front, and both embrace a two-tone color scheme, too. But from there they diverge, as the Spocket (and you’re reading that correctly, it’s not “sprocket”) was actually a compact two-seater pickup.

The front axle was powered by a four-cylinder engine with hybrid assistance, while the rear got electric power. Doors opened Lamborghini-style, the bed was (according to Honda’s sketches) large enough to shuttle a go-kart around (or a plus-two pair of seats could pop out of it), while the powered roof over the cabin could retract to sit over the bed.

1984 Honda HP-X

We’re not done with wedges yet. By the standards of most Japanese car companies, Honda didn’t seem to waste much effort on concept cars during the 1980s, but a glance at the HP-X suggests engineers and designers were mulling a supercar long before the NSX made its debut at the turn of the next decade.

Styled by Pininfarina (the HP-X name means ‘Honda Pininfarina Experimental’) and unveiled at the 1984 Turin motor show, the HP-X had a single-piece Perspex cockpit which raised to allow entry. Power came from a 2-liter V-6, derived from that used in Honda’s Formula 2 machines of the era. While the later NSX was unrelated, the HP-X showed where the company’s collective mind was at the time.

1991 Honda EP-X

We’re jumping forward in time again now to the 1991 Honda EP-X. If performance has always been one of Honda’s central tenets, then environmental friendliness has always been another. The EP-X is probably the kind of thing a lot of us thought eco-cars would look like by now: tiny, light, and aerodynamic, rather than simply SUVs with batteries slung underneath.

The EP-X got its power from a 1-liter, three-cylinder gas engine with VTEC-E, Honda’s alternative VTEC technology, which prioritized low-rev efficiency over high-rev power. It made nearly 70 horsepower, but the real benefit in such a low, narrow, tandem form was 100-mpg fuel economy. The actual future feels a lot less fun to us.

2009 Honda EV-Cub

In 2024, 100 mpg is impressive for a car, but Honda Super Cub riders have been getting figures like that for decades. The world’s most prolific motorized vehicle—with well over 100 million units sold since 1958—is also one of its most efficient, but it could in theory be improved further with clean electric power, something Honda previewed in 2009.

The EV-Cub featured a removable battery mounted low in its underbone chassis and simple styling directly inspired by the original. Other than a simplified sub-moped version offered in China, though, Honda has not yet put an electric Cub into production. Perhaps, when the original is already so efficient and so affordable for so many, the potential market for an electric model is too small.

2015 Honda Project 2&4

From a two-wheeler to a car inspired by two-wheelers. Honda unveiled the Project 2&4 in 2015, with a single-seater layout and white/red color scheme inspired by its 1960s Grand Prix racers. The 999c V-4 engine was straight out of its (at the time) dominating MotoGP bikes, giving 209 hp at a screaming 13,000 rpm.

Somehow the 2&4 was even more skeletal than other stripped-down track cars, like the Ariel Atom, with the driver seat virtually hanging off the chassis to the side. The absence of bodywork resulted in an 893-lb curb weight, and while Honda has never made a production version, it was, like the Dualnote further up, “driveable” in a Gran Turismo game: Gran Turismo Sport on the PS4.

2007 Honda Puyo

It just wouldn’t be right to scribble down a list of concept cars from a Japanese manufacturer without including something deeply odd, and the 2007 Puyo concept is probably among the odder Honda has ever created—a blob-like fuel-cell city car designed to “please both users and onlookers alike.”

Not just visually, either. “Puyo” is apparently a Japanese onomatopoeic word “that expresses the sensation of touching the vehicle’s soft body,” to “convey a warm, friendly impression.” If you’re not a fan of strangers coming up to fondle your car then this probably wouldn’t be the vehicle for you, though we’re also imagining a pleasing cartoonish boing if you happen to bump something when parking it.

2017 Honda Sports EV

Honda’s biggest 2017 concept debut was probably the Urban EV, a big-wheeled, retro-styled hatchback that became the Honda E production car, albeit with a much less dramatic shape. But the Sports EV concept launched the same year is much more interesting to us. If the Puyo invites you to touch it, the Sports EV very much encourages driving.

Honda announced disappointingly little information on the concept, perhaps tacit admission that it wouldn’t see the light of day. But its visual similarity to the Urban EV and the Honda E suggested a rear-mounted electric motor, and a broad dash-mounted touchscreen was visible, while an AI assistant could display messages in the car’s front and rear black panels.

1995 Honda SSM

In covering only 10 vehicles here, we’ve inevitably had to leave out plenty of great concepts, but it’s impossible to leave out the SSM. You’ll immediately place it as the predecessor to the S2000 production car that arrived in 1999, but that link almost doesn’t do the concept justice, for the most Honda of reasons: its engine.

The S2000’s F20C four-cylinder was remarkable, but had it been closer to the concept, we could be eulogizing an inline-five instead. The SSM used a 2-liter, 20-valve five with an 8000-rpm redline, which would no doubt have sounded remarkable. Thankfully, Honda ignored the SSM’s “F-matic” automatic transmission with the S2000, while its open cockpit—while driver-focused—was undoubtedly more practical than the SSM’s two individual enclosures would have been.

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An Ariel Atom 4R and … ? The fantasy-garage game is a good one. Especially when you start putting in some rules. The most basic restriction is to limit the number of cars that you can choose, but after that criterion, you can start getting creative with your two-car setup.

In this episode of The Driver’s Seat, Henry Catchpole ponders a two-car garage where the cars must share an engine. There are all sorts of possible engine options from Mercedes and BMW and Ferrari and Jaguar, but the one that Catchpole has chosen is from Honda.

Now, the 2-liter, four-cylinder turbocharged K20C isn’t the most exciting engine when set against some of the other options, like a naturally aspirated Ferrari V-12 or a twin-turbo V-8 from AMG, but it does happen to be attached to two very different but brilliant drivers’ cars. The obvious one is the Honda Civic Type R FL5. It’s a bit demure in the looks department but a tactile hoot drive. The other half of the garage is taken up with the wild new Ariel Atom 4R. The R takes the engine’s output up to 400 bhp (394.5 hp) and 369 lb-ft of torque. It also adds a Quaife sequential gearbox with paddle shift and, if you want, quite a bit of aero.

What hasn’t changed, however, is the fundamentally brilliant chassis of the standard Atom 4, which makes it absolutely brilliant to drive—even when you’re on a soaking-wet Anglesey circuit. This R also offers a seven-stage traction control system and a twelve-stage Bosch ABS system as options to help you out, while you can up the ante even more by adding carbon wheels and carbon-ceramic brakes.

Quite the diverse duo, then, but with an engine in common and driving enjoyment at their respective cores. How’s that for a two-car garage?

Following Henry’s shared-engine parameters, drop us a comment below and tell us which you would choose.

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Before we proceed, let’s ensure we are all on the same page on the concept of trolling, as Merriam-Webster defines the act as to:

“Antagonize (others) online by deliberately posting inflammatory, irrelevant, or offensive comments or other disruptive content.”

Let’s focus on the phrase “disruptive content,” because the disruption presented here is on par with Amazon versus Sears. The trolling you feel isn’t a mirage: The oddly proportioned, first-generation Mustang seen above isn’t AI generated, and its owner uses this creation as a daily driver.

Contrary to information posted elsewhere on the internet, this “Honda Stang” was placed on Facebook Marketplace with the sole intent to raise the collective blood pressures of social media users. It worked, spurring another automotive news outlet to ask, “What would possibly compel someone to do something like this?” Sadly, they answered their own question with conjecture in lieu of reaching out to the owner for an interview. Kristofer (the seller) didn’t much care for what he was reading online, but luckily we here at Hagerty have the latitude to actually interview someone before publishing a story.

I reached out and got the truth about this Honda-infused Mustang. As our phone call progressed, Kristofer started shutting the Mustang’s doors/hood/trunk while asserting, “Tell me if there’s another Honda that sounds like that!”

He’s right; the Honda Stang made metallic thuds like every first-generation Mustang I’ve experienced. Kristofer’s choice in a commuter vehicle is certainly bold, and he wasn’t shy about the ramifications of his purchase decision:

“I know this is an insult to several generations of enthusiasts with a single car, and I bought it because my co-worker hated it. I drove 14 hours to buy it: Ford people hate it, Mustang people hate it, Honda guys hate it. I’ve hit a trifecta here, but I never thought a troll post would take off like this. I mean it’s got a backup camera for god’s sakes.”

And Kristofer wasn’t kidding when he said his troll post stirred things up. The feedback from Facebook users was both frustrating and amusing, as the positive comments were occasionally overshadowed by the most offensive words you can imagine. The lack of humanity in some people is tragic, as Kristofer notes the Honda Stang is “just a car…metal, cloth, rubber, tires. It’s not worth this.” At least the misleading reporting he read elsewhere on the internet was far more entertaining. So he was thrilled to set the record straight with Hagerty, and he shared things he did not post in the listing.

Kristofer openly admits that he was neither the builder nor the intended recipient of the Honda Stang, but he’s doing what it was designed for: It’s used for commuting to work and has needed nothing aside from maintenance and regular upkeep expected for an 18-year-old Honda.

Our treats from the owner started with shared photos of the original donor cars, complete with a listing for the rust-free doors needed to make that 1965 Mustang shell into a road-worthy body transplant. The donor Mustang was indeed left to rot in a field, and the builder was the only person interested in saving it. Or ruining it, and the same could be said for the (presumably) usable 2005 Honda Accord sedan that donated its heart and soul to this project.

The build pictures of the Honda Stang show how “disruptive” things got before the final coat of shiny paint was applied. This is a hat car in all its glory: The rusty shell of a Mustang was dropped onto the Honda Accord and modified as needed to fit into its new home.

While both cars have nearly the same wheelbase (the Honda is 0.1-inch shorter), the location of the cowl in a front-wheel-drive Honda necessitated moving the Mustang’s front wheel arches further back to get the dashboard in the right spot. From there, the rear also had to move back. The custom rocker panels (lower than a stock Mustang) and deep chin spoiler (to protect the radiator support) further show how the Mustang was altered to be a Honda Accord under the skin.

A set of 17-inch Torq Thrust style wheels from a 2005 Mustang GT completes the deception, as the Honda and the S197 Mustang use the same bolt pattern. Or, as Kristofer put it,”the Honda Stang is not a K24 in a Mustang, it’s a Mustang on a Honda!” The Honda DNA truly shines in its 30-mpg fuel economy, ice cold A/C, great heat, cruise control, airbags, catalytic converters, and full OBD-II diagnostic functionality. Modifications to the Honda part of the Mustang are modest, as it sits on coilover shocks and has a Flowmaster muffler.

“Its not a Mustang sitting in a field anymore, it even gets driven in the snow.”

The “hat” car adage of being able to get anything from the local parts store also holds true, as Kristofer recently grabbed a power steering line for his “2005 Honda Accord” and installed it without a hitch. He kept the Honda-themed rocker panels but notes that passersby unexpectedly hate the non-standard fuel filler location, as it looks too much like a Mustang II. But since Honda demanded a filler neck location in that quarter panel, the Honda Stang abided.

The reality of Honda Stang ownership is that Kristofer has also been trolling his neighbors in real life. He gets negative comments on a regular basis, and is “flipped off twice a week,” as you’d expect from a four-wheeled troll with world-class engineering. But with 8000 miles of commuting under its belt, it’s hard to deny the allure of daily driving with an interior sporting the modern comforts we expect, but in a vintage wrapper complete with crank windows and a pillarless hardtop.

The interior is familiar to anyone who has been in an Accord, but the Tesla-style touchscreen in the center stack is a nice upgrade. The stereo definitely adds to the experience, complete with a Pioneer amplifier and a subwoofer from a 2006 Chevrolet Cobalt SS. Kristofer admits he is brand agnostic in his choice of subwoofers, but the hat car purists among us would insist it needs either a Honda or a Ford loudspeaker instead … am I right or what? 

That upgraded stereo runs off the Honda’s dashboard wiring, to the point the fancy screen is integrated with the airbag-equipped steering wheel’s audio controls. That was by design, and Kristofer asked me the rhetorical question, “Why should I lose creature comforts in my ’65 Mustang?”

While other automotive news sources questioned the cleanliness of the carpets, their condition is to be expected in a vehicle that sees work boots on a daily basis. Kristofer is a mechanic by trade, and the Honda Stang is his mighty steed for just about everything. He noted how the new Honda floor created a far more cavernous trunk than that of a stock Mustang, a feature he regularly puts to the test as a commuter car.

Contrary to other reports in the media, Kristofer is a dyed-in-the-wool Blue Oval fan. “I have 2011 Ford F-350 Powerstroke with 643,000 miles, and I love Ford aside from the Focus DCTs.” He just has no problem trolling people—and enjoying the fruits of combining two fantastic vehicles into one nearly perfect daily driver.

But there’s an irony in Kristofer’s “disruptive” behavior, because he received two offers at his $15,000 asking price. Both are from out of state, however, so cash wasn’t exactly flashed in his face, ensuring that “the offers are tempting but it’s hard for me to let go.” Perhaps he should actually sell, as Kristofer is still in touch with the builder, and this troll post emboldened them to go even further. There’s a chance a rust-bucket 1965 Mustang fastback will donate itself to a Subaru WRX chassis in the future. Wow.

Watch this space for any updates, and follow Kristofer on TikTok, as there’s likely more to come on this story.

***

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Though Honda’s pivot to turbocharged engines for its sporty offerings took place over six years ago, enthusiasts still fondly remember the company as a manufacturer of screaming, 8000+ rpm four-pots. In fact, the lust for these mellifluous engines and their peaky, naturally aspirated powerbands only seems to increase with time. That’s why, even in a cooling market, this week’s very strong sale of a low-mile 2008 Honda Civic Mugen Si for $42,525 (including fees) on Bring a Trailer didn’t entirely surprise us.

Back in 2008, Honda fans in America were used to getting short shrift. Sure, the Acura Integra Type R made it stateside, but more than a decade had gone by since the raucous Civic Type R debuted abroad, and U.S. buyers had to make do with the entertaining but less-capable Si model. In an effort to meet some of that pent-up enthusiasm, Honda sent a limited-run tuner car our way in the form of the Honda Civic Mugen Si.

Mugen is a household name among those who modify Hondas. For those not in the know, it’s an engine tuner and parts manufacturing company co-founded in 1973 by Soichiro Honda’s son, Hirotoshi, and racer Masao Kimora. Since its inception, Mugen has been closely linked with Honda, and the partnership has built a rich auto- and motorcycle-racing history as well as several special-edition cars (almost all of which have become very sought-after in the collector market). Mugen was a natural choice, then, to co-create a special car for an American market that was brimming with excitement for anything performance-oriented from Japan.

The Mugen Si wasn’t a powerhouse by any stretch. Though equipped with a throatier cat-back exhaust, power figures held steady at 197 hp and 139 lb-ft of torque from its 2.0-liter K20Z3 engine. Mugen’s tuning instead focused on handling: re-valved dampers, shorter and stiffer springs, lighter wheels, and grippier tires amplified the little Civic’s roadholding and made it much more capable. A body kit and exclusive Fiji Blue Pearl paint added some tuner-car flair to the package.

“The Mugen Si wasn’t any faster than the standard Civic Si sedan, but it sure looked and sounded like it was,” says ’08 Civic Si owner and Hagerty Price Guide editor Greg Ingold, who is also a regular contributor to this site. “Essentially, the Mugen Si was a glimpse into what a quality ‘tuner’ could be like. In 2008, the Japanese tuner world was still coming off of the gaudy ‘auto salon’ era that everyone associates with the Fast and Furious movies. Buyers were likely going to perform these upgrades to their Si anyway, so getting all the tweaks from a name like Mugen right at the dealership was a great selling point.”

The $29,500 MSRP did give a lot of potential buyers pause, however, and quite a few of the 1000 made ended up sitting on dealer lots.

Fifteen years on, the eighth-generation Civic Si remains a well-rounded and engaging car to drive in just about every aspect. Headlined by an engine that begs to be revved all the way to its 8000-rpm redline, it’s also the final generation to make its power that high—the redline dropped to a mere 7200 revs with the introduction of the ninth-gen car in 2012.

The regular Civic Si isn’t in the Hagerty Price Guide, but clean, lower-mile examples are plentiful and can still be had for under $15,000, with top-flight cars coming in around the $25K mark. With that context, the fact that this Mugen Si sold so well is likely to make plenty of eighth-gen Civic Si owners perk up.

“This potentially points to the future collectibility of the eighth-generation Civic Si as a whole,” says Ingold. “I don’t expect the market to explode for these cars overnight, but it may be an indication that the generation is gaining attention.”

Indeed, this sale does highlight the healthy outlook for certain modern front-wheel drive cars as collectibles (one look at the record for an Integra Type R, set earlier this year, is enough to confirm the strength of this sub-segment). It also took place at a crossroads of an ascendant Japanese segment and a slowing market. As we’ve noted recently, strong sales of in-demand cars are no longer a given, but this Mugen Si is a reminder that great-condition cars mixed with a little rarity can still make for an impressive number when the clock runs out. If you’re a fan of high-revving front-wheel drive Hondas, the Si is the one to modify and enjoy, while the Mugen Si looks like it may have begun to be the one to collect.

***

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The more time you spend digging into automotive history from the 1990s, the quicker you realize how the Japanese bubble economy was more than just a time of increased stock valuations and easy credit from lending institutions. All this money and promises of good times for the foreseeable future meant that Japanese automakers were beyond motivated to make amazing cars (examples here, here, here). They also had the nerve to put these excellent cars into production, many of which are now appreciating classics in today’s classic car landscape.

The bubble economy was a rising tide for all boats, be it cheap like a Civic or a top-shelf Acura NSX. Likewise, the fourth-generation Honda Prelude (1992–96) saw a lift in terms of performance, styling, and fit and finish. VTEC became a thing for a Honda engine, and the previous generation Prelude’s manual 4-wheel steering was given an electronics-laden upgrade. A radical interior shared little with other Hondas, and had a six- or seven-speaker audio system to make that cabin even more pleasurable. Well except in Japan, where the Prelude got an eight-speaker audio system, complete with a center channel speaker. So lavish was the eight-speaker system that it got us wondering: Did the bubble economy give us a theatrical experience before Best Buy offered it for your home?

No longer a blocky 2-door notchback with styling heavily dependent on its Accord Coupe brother, the 1992 Prelude was a fastback with a presence unmatched by any other car in Honda’s lineup. It looked more like the Acura Legend‘s athletic offspring. Heck, even the exterior door handles were unique, no small feat for a cost conscious company making a low volume sports coupe. But that attention to detail and a spare-no-expense attitude is what made the Bubble Era so special.

And then there was that upscale interior. The seats were delicious, especially when wrapped in that charcoal black leather with gathered inserts. The dashboard swept expansively from corner to corner, with gauges recessed into its upper cave. Interior polymers felt more like the skin of an organic being. The experience was, again, more akin to an Acura Legend. The Prelude had come into its own. Except it got even more expensive, and this was still the Arrogance and Accords era of the Honda dealership retail experience.

Perhaps the Prelude grew too big for its own britches, and the soft styling wasn’t to everyone’s tastes. Not to mention the Accord coupe was more practical, similarly equipped, and had a more usable back seat. The Civic Si fared similarly well in the bubble economy, and likely provided more thrills for less money than the Prelude. No wonder Honda couldn’t break the six-figure sales mark after four model years. (A disappointing 98,627 units found homes, a far cry from the 160,909 sold in three years of third-generation Prelude production.)

Prelude sales slumped stateside while an economic bubble burst in Japan. It’s the sad reality of automotive hubris, but this Prelude was a delightful interlude in the brand’s history. It represented everything Honda could do with a mainstream grand touring coupe, and Motorweek noted how the 1992 Honda Prelude Si was both stunning to behold and a radical departure from the previous model. They wondered aloud if “new and different do not necessarily mean better”, a query that the market would eventually answer with a resounding “no.”

Even when handicapped with an automatic transmission, Motorweek got the Prelude Si to 60 mph in 7.8 seconds. When tackling the slalom course, the electronically controlled rear wheel steer system made the Prelude contradict the notions we’d expect from a front-wheel-drive chassis. ABS brakes were still a more premium, uncommon feature back then, and the Prelude’s stoppers gave a modern performance in this metric. Just don’t call this ABS system by the old ALB moniker, as that went the way of the Betamax and the Laserdisc.

This Prelude had an optimism in its advancements, an unbounded spirit that faded a bit with the fifth-generation (1997–2001) Prelude. That’s because the next Prelude went back to being boxy, with an interior that felt far more Accord-like. It was even bigger and heavier than the previous Prelude, but wisely ditched the all-wheel steering setup for an impressive torque-vectoring front end (called Super Handling) that has proven itself to the point of mainstream popularity in these modern times.

Yet the last production Prelude still feels like a step back from the bubble economy model it replaced. Those door handles were still unique in the Honda hierarchy, but their look was just as toned down as the rest of the design. The understatement didn’t stop the sales figure’s downward spiral, and this famous Honda sports coupe died in 2001. Let the more upright Accord coupe gobble up what’s left of its market share, proclaimed Honda!

But the story doesn’t end in 2001, thankfully: There’s a new Prelude hybrid in the works. The modern powertrain ensures this car’s DNA is relevant to a modern audience, even if it lacks the iconic nature of VTEC engine timing. When it arrives on our shores, the Prelude’s latest iteration shall be even more monumental than the fourth-generation’s move upmarket. Honda clearly wants a premium priced performance coupe in its ranks, which is nice to see these days. They’d be forgiven for making CUVs like the Pilot, CRV, HRV, and Passport and never looking back. But no, they want to make a bold introduction to something that we can really sink our teeth into.

A foreshadowing to greatness, if you will. And thank goodness for that.

***

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The introduction of the battery-powered Honda Motocompacto scooter has gotten people talking about its spiritual, if not motive, predecessor, the gasoline-powered and oddly shaped Motocompo folding scooter, made from 1981 to 1983. If you know your history, you’re aware that the Motocompo was considered a bit of a failure when it was sold. However, it spawned a global cult following, with 40-year-old examples going for more than many new motorcycles cost. Not so surprising, then, that Honda looked to it for inspiration.

It is surprising, though, that the Motocompacto was not designed to stow inside the hatch of the motor company’s cute little EV, the Honda e. Why? Because the Motocompo was designed to fit inside the groundbreaking Honda City urban car, making the scooter a “trunk bike” (トランクバイク / トラバイ, toranku baiku / tora-bai), if you will. Actually, one could also say that the first-generation City was designed to fit the Motocompo, not the other way around.

The Motocompacto is not the first time Honda has made an electric version of the Motocompo. In 2011, at the Tokyo Auto Show, Honda showed the Motor Compo, a battery-powered foldable suitcase-scooter. Like its namesake, the Motor Compo could be stored inside a small urban car—in this case, the Micro Commuter concept—allowing the single-seat EV to share a battery with the scooter.

Honda’s idea to use a fuel-efficient small car to do most of a commute and then use an even more fuel-efficient companion scooter for last-mile transportation may actually date all the way back to 1965. A British Pathé newsreel from that year, featuring the little S600 coupe, shows that the two-door could accommodate both a set of golf clubs and, if you dismounted the handlebar, a Z series 49cc Honda “monkey” bike under the hatch.

It’s not clear whether the folks back at Honda headquarters in Japan were aware of that film, shot in the UK, though the use of the rare early Honda coupe and a Honda two-wheeler makes me think that the marque’s British distributor was involved, at the very least.

The actual story of how the little scooter came to be is a bit like the history of the Civic, another urban-branded Honda car. The Civic came about because a group of young engineers and designers persuaded Soichiro Honda, then close to retirement, that a new direction was needed if Honda were to be a credible automobile manufacturer.

Less than a decade after the Civic was introduced, after the 1973 oil embargo in the wake of the Yom Kippur War, fuel economy, always a factor in automotive sales, became a top priority. In April 1978, Honda’s research and development staff were given the commission to “produce the ultimate fuel-economy car for the 1980s,” according to the official history of the company.

By then, Japan had surpassed the United States in annual production of automobiles, but demand in the Japanese domestic market had softened. Honda was only selling about 300,000 units annually in its home market. Additionally, the success of Honda and other Japanese brands in the U.S. market led to voluntary import restraints, putting even greater pressure on Honda to build a successful new model for Japanese consumers.

In 1980, Toru Arisawa headed the advertising section of the Sales & Promotion Division at Honda’s headquarters in Tokyo. Two young designers came to his office and entreated him to help them. Not one to turn down such a plea, Arisawa accompanied them to the modeling studio in the Wako R&D center. Inside the highly secure studio was a full-scale clay model of an unconventional car that the developers called SA-7. It left Arisawa awestruck and dumbfounded. The vehicle was tall for its size, but instead of being ungainly, it was cute. Arisawa insisted that the clay model be preserved.

The 1978 design brief for the new car had five bullet points.

1. To create new demand beyond that of the existing market. Design a car that meets the public demand for resource and energy conservation, yet one that is especially aimed at young people as a fun, one-of-a-kind car.
2. Deliver a car with excellent base performance to satisfy the users’ quest for the best. In addition, make sure it presents a new kind of lifestyle.
3. Produce a car that young users —especially those who consider cars a daily necessity—will want to call their own.
4. Design a car that fits Honda’s image as a creative car manufacturer.
5. It must have a number of advanced features, and should have international appeal.

The design team knew what young users would want. Even after working on the car for two years, the average age of the design team was just 27 years. The designers felt strongly that they had met the objectives but they were worried that, because of their youth and lack of experience, Honda’s ranking executives would alter the design. They wanted Arisawa, Honda’s top marketer, to be their design’s advocate and keep its design pure.

“Blown away” by the design and believing it to be a return to Honda’s roots, he told them, “I won’t fail you. I’ll come up with something, ” and began to craft advertisements that reflected the unconventional nature of the car. There have been automobiles bearing the names of cities—the Chevy Malibu, Ferrari Berlinetta Boxer, and Pontiac Parisienne come to mind—but Arisawa took the bold step of naming the new urban car simply “City.”

In early 1981, when the R&D and marketing teams presented their work to Honda brass, Arisawa told them, “The SA-7 is the product of our young staffers, who have broken with established concepts. We will develop our advertising and promotional activities with presentations befitting such a concept. Please leave it to the young generation to take care of the SA-7.”

Unconventional seems to have been the watchword with the City teams. To appeal to young people, an attempt was made to create a City band, involving flying staff to New York City for auditions. Instead, however, the marketing team found out about an English ska band named Madness—most famous today for its hit “Our House” but then generally unknown in Japan—who had a bit of choreography they called the Centipede Dance. When the marketing team presented the idea to upper management, the response was, “Young man, tell me you are not serious!” The idea was rejected—repeatedly. But Arisawa persisted.

“Young people tell us they like it,” Arisawa told the executive in charge. “Old people say they don’t. But as long as we have 20 to 30 percent of the young with us, the goals of this car will be met. Please let us go ahead by using the youthful corporate image that Honda is known and respected for.”

With that, the executive relented, “All right, you’ve won my vote. Go ahead with the project. I will take the responsibility.”

Madness flew to Japan for two and a half days of filming and recording, including a scene doing the Centipede Dance to a catchy jingle that went “Honda, Honda, Honda, Honda.” The commercials were first previewed to dealers at a national meeting, and the reaction was positive. Once the commercial began to air, a popular nationally televised comedy show picked up the Centipede Dance and soon it, and “Honda, Honda, Honda, Honda,” became a national sensation.

When the City was officially presented to the public in November 1981, its most unconventional feature was revealed. The hatch opened to reveal that the storage compartment was designed to hold an optional, accompanying motor scooter they called Motocompo, that folded into a luggable size.

Folding scooters have been around for a while. The best known is the UK’s Welbike (sold in the U.S. by Indian as the Papoose), designed to be folded up into a tube and dropped by parachute to provide ground transportation to airborne infantry.

In the 1980s, traffic congestion was a serious problem in densely populated Japan. The City and Motocompo were designed together to address that issue. The idea was that you would drive the City would be driven to the, well, city limits, where you would park the car, unfold the Motocompo, and ride the scooter to your office. The sub-50cc engine displacement meant that you could operate it without a special motorcycle license.

As with the City, size and weight were key design factors. The Motocompo had to be light enough to be hoisted into the car and small enough to fit in it. The latter was addressed with hinges. The handlebars, seat, and pegs folded inwards, leaving the Motocompo in a roughly rectangular shape approximately 47 inches long, 22 inches high, and 10 inches wide. At 45 kg (99 pounds) the Motocompo didn’t affect the City’s fuel economy as much as a fully grown adult in the passenger seat would, but even with the City’s deeply plunging tailgate, designed specifically for the Motocompo’s access and storage (with straps, hooks, and even a custom cover), hefting it over the rear bumper was not an easy task.

The folding scooter was powered by a one-cylinder, 49cc two-stroke engine (with oil injection, not premix) used in other Honda scooters, rated at 2.5 hp and 2.75 lb-ft of torque. With a single gear ratio and an automatic clutch, it’s closer to a Briggs & Stratton–powered minibike than it is to a Vespa. Top speed is 18.6 mph (30 km/hr), but with just two and a half horses, that figure is highly dependent on the rider’s weight. It has all the equipment needed to make it street-legal, including indicators and a brake light. Those brakes, by the way, are drums front and rear. The Motocompo isn’t a hardtail; it does have a swingarm in back and a telescoping fork up front, but suspension travel is a bit limited. Kickstart only, likely because a starter and bigger battery would have made it even harder to get in and out of the City.

Fuel economy was outstanding—70 km/l, about 164 mpg—and at 80,000 yen, about $340 in 1981 currency (~$1150 today), the Motocompo seems to have been downright inexpensive. Perhaps that’s why Arisawa and his team actually thought the Motocompo, which was available both as an option on the City and as a standalone product, would outsell the car, 10,000 monthly units to 8000.

In reality, some months nearly twice as many Citys were sold, and 150,000 units were sold in the first two years. The Motocompo never sold more than 3000 units a month and less than 54,000 in total, despite all the clever promotion. Perhaps the Moto Compacto will do better than its combustion-powered ancestor. Like the Motocompo, Honda has priced the Moto Compacto very reasonably at $995.

Though the Motocompo went out of production in 1983, it was kept in the public view by You’re Under Arrest! a popular manga series that was published from 1986 to 1992 and adapted into a television show that ran for three years, three original video animation series, a full length animated film, and a live-action drama. In the series, police officers from the Metropolitan Police Department patrol the streets of Tokyo with their Honda City and Motocompo.

Of course, when something unusual becomes a cult item, rarity means increased value. If you think a Motocompo would make a cool paddock or car-show scooter for you, you can expect to pay somewhere in the mid-four figures, at least. At the 2020 Mecum motorcycle auction in Las Vegas, all three colors of the Motocompo were on the block, a white ’81, a yellow ’82, and a red ’84, that sold, respectively, for $6500, $11,000, and $5500.

(The ’82 and ’84 were both described as “brand new” so it’s not clear why one sold for twice as much as the other. The red ’84 was so original that it still had accessories in their original plastic bag. Perhaps the fact that the ’84 not only had never been ridden, but it also had never been started may have scared away a potential buyer who wanted to know that it actually ran.)

Mr. Motocompo, a division of Cycle Refinery in Lulling, Texas, also has a few in stock. They’re selling a set of all three colors of Motocompo, all “excellent restoration candidates” for $14,995.

All because of some imaginative young designers in the 1980s and a colleague who refused to give up on their idea.

***

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Honda announced 2024 model-year updates to the Ridgeline midsize pickup today, including the long-suspected addition of the TrailSport trim level, which promises to increase the off-road-worthiness of the unibody truck.

The TrailSport trim debuted in 2022 on the Passport SUV. At the time, the badge was nothing more than a veneer of adventure-readiness. With the 2023 Pilot, Honda got serious: The Trailsport-spec model got unique suspension tuning, serious off-road tires, and actual underbody armor.

The Ridgeline will get the full-fat TrailSport treatment, which is certainly an improvement, though not a license to book a weekend run to the Rubicon Trail. Opt for this Ridgeline trim (one of four for 2024: Sport, RTL, TrailSport, and the range-topping Black Edition) and you’ll get steel underbody protection; an off-road-tuned suspension with unique spring rates, damper valve tuning, and stabilizer bars; proper General Grabber A/T Sport all-terrain tires; and a unique grille.

There’s still no full-time 4×4 capability, and Honda’s i-VTM4 all-wheel-drive system remains a front-wheel-biased system, but Honda says that its engineers tuned the system at real off-road arenas such as the Imperial Dunes in Glamis, California, and in Dubai. The AWD system is standard on all Ridgelines and can shuffle as much as 70 percent of the engine’s 262 lb-ft of peak torque to the rear wheels. Honda also has a traction management system baked into the AWD running gear that can be customized for different types of terrain including sand, snow, mud, and paved roads.

During our test of a 2021 Ridgeline AWD Sport, we found the AWD system to be plenty capable when managing less-than-ideal conditions. We also came to appreciate the on-road composure that came from its unibody construction, unique in this segment unless you count the smaller Ford Maverick. (Where does “midsize truck” end and “small truck” begin? Discuss among yourselves.)

Ridgeline TrailSports will get a mesh front grille and blackout treatment for the door pillars and exterior mirrors. The front “skid garnish” (read: not a full-on steel skidplate) will be painted Pewter Gray, to match the color treatment on the 18-inch wheels. Other exterior differentiation includes a trim-specific paint color: Diffused Sky Blue, which we’ve seen on the Passport and Pilot TrailSports. It’s the paint color pictured here, and it’s quite tasteful.

Inside, Ridgeline TrailSports get orange ambient lighting and orange contrast stitching on the steering wheel, seats, and door panels. Honda’s TrailSport logo also comes embroidered on the front headrests and the standard rubber floormats.

Honda also baked a few updates into the entire Ridgeline lineup, including the word R I D G E L I N E stamped across the trick rear tailgate, which can open traditionally as a fold-down unit or swing out to one side like a big car door. There were tech updates to the interior, too, including a new 7-inch digital instrument panel, standard across all trims, and a new 9-inch color touchscreen for central infotainment duties that can support wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto.

All Ridgelines will also get a new, larger center console with an integrated armrest. The console does away with the folding armrests for each of the front chairs (a feature we quite liked on older Ridgelines, though the added storage is probably a plus), replacing them with a single trap-door-style pad for both front-row occupants to share. A new platform ahead of the cupholders and button-type shifter controls now offers accommodations for two large smartphones to lay side-by-side and charge wirelessly.

All 2024 Ridgelines will begin arriving at dealers this winter. Honda didn’t release pricing information at the time of this writing, so we would expect things to continue along roughly the same lines in 2023: Expect low-trim Ridgeline Sports to start around $40K, and higher-trim versions like the TrailSport or the Black Edition to ring in in the high-$40K mark or perhaps reach just inside the $50K range.

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Eighteen months after announcing its intent to build “affordable,” sub-$30K EVs that would go on sale in 2027, Honda and GM have scrapped the plan. “GM and Honda will search for a solution separately,” Honda CEO Toshihiro Mibe told Bloomberg TV. “This project itself has been canceled.”

According to Honda’s Q3 report, the Prologue and the ZDX, electric SUVs based on GM’s Ultium battery tech, are still slated to go on sale in North America as of early 2024.

Instead of a Nissan Leaf or Tesla Model 3 competitor, Honda will serve up “a mid- to large-sized EV” on a new, “EV-specific” architecture. It is scheduled to launch here in 2025, most likely assembled in Ohio, at one of Honda’s existing plants, with a battery pack built in North America by LG, for those good ol’ federal tax credits. (It’s all in the report, a PDF of which is linked in this press release.)

The decision underscores the popularity of the midsized SUV in America and the difficulty of making an EV to match up against, say, a base Honda Civic in price. (MSRP plus destination said Civic is $25,045.)

GM’s recent decision to delay full-volume production of its upcoming EVs—Equinox, Sierra, and Silverado—reflects similar market priorities: It’s easier to make money off a $50K or $60K EV than a $30K one.

What’s the reason for the failed partnership? Bloomberg reports that Honda’s CEO cited cost. The official statement insists the decision was mutual and that, of course, both companies remain committed to affordability in the EV market. However, GM’s production delay and the references to “swift decision-making” in Honda’s Q3 report suggest that the Japanese automaker may have grown impatient. Honda has proven it can get along with GM and has probably developed its understanding of battery technology and manufacturing along the way. We’d also wager GM’s current labor negotiations with the UAW are contributing to Honda’s uncertainty.

It isn’t cutting all ties with GM, however: yesterday, at the Japan Mobility Show, Honda CEO Toshihiro Mibe announced that, “Together with GM and Cruise, Honda is planning to launch a driverless ridehail service using the Cruise Origin, in Japan in early 2026.” Yup, the same Cruise that just got its autonomous vehicle testing permit yanked by the state of California, citing “unreasonable risk to public safety.”

Honda holds to its medium-term goal of producing 2M electric vehicles annually by 2030.

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Honda has encouraged enthusiasts to “keep your expectations high” as it showed off a precursor to the next Prelude.

You won’t be surprised to learn that the Prelude concept, just revealed in Tokyo, is electrified (a hybrid, in this case) but that doesn’t mean it’s going to be dull, assures Honda President and CEO Toshihiro Mibe. The car will “embody Honda’s unalterable sports mindset,” he says, adding that “The Prelude concept is a speciality sports model that will offer exhilarating experience that makes you want to keep going forever.”

The Prelude concept will “take the joy of driving into the full-fledged electrified future,” adds Mibe.

Exactly how it will do this remains a mystery as Honda provided no technical details to accompany the car’s unveiling, but, unlike several other concepts making their debuts in Japan, the Prelude’s design looks remarkably ready for the road.

It’s a fairly conventional coupe with elegant proportions that shies away from fussy detailing, just as the Prelude always has done.

As for when, or indeed if, we’ll get to see it on the road Mibe would only say, “we are diligently progressing with development”.

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The news: Honda has introduced a fully autonomous new electric vehicle.

The more detailed news: The vehicle is a zero-turn lawn mower.

Earlier this year, Honda successfully field-tested a proof-of-concept version of the Autonomous Work Mower (AWM) with a top U.S. commercial landscape company. To further advance the prototype AWM’s development, in 2024, Honda will begin a pilot program and is seeking companies to participate in assessing the AWM’s applicability to their work environments. Interested companies can contact Honda at autonomous_mower@na.honda.com.

The prototype Honda AWM combines “industry leading cutting performance and operator comfort with high location accuracy and obstacle detection,” Honda says. It is designed to help improve the efficiency of lawn care and landscape maintenance companies while offering an eco-conscious solution with zero-emissions. Capable of operating in manual or autonomous mode, when manually operated, the Honda AWM learns the mowing routes and patterns set by the operator. In autonomous operation, the AWM reproduces these routes and patterns, which can free up workers’ time to focus on more high-value tasks. The all-electric AWM supports Honda’s global goal of achieving carbon neutrality—net zero emissions—for all products and corporate activities by 2050.

The mower has a “Teaching” mode enables the operator to set up autonomous operation by manually maneuvering the AWM to create a mowing route map using Global Navigation Satellite System for accurate location recognition. The AWM learns the operator’s mowing route and patterns in “Teaching” mode.

An advantage of the AWM is that it will learn the entire worksite, allowing for high-quality lawn striping, position accuracy and safe operation. The operator can create different mowing route maps customized for multiple job sites, which are then saved to a secure cloud server. Equipped with a unique traction control system, the Honda AWM is capable of maintaining straight tracking on hills and rough terrains. Its differential two-motor traction control suppresses tire slip to achieve stable straight-line and turning performance even on slopes and rough terrain.

Though for now this seems like a technology targeting large-scale commercial applications, the thought of driverless mowers autonomously clipping Bermuda grass on the front lawns of suburban America is downright eerie. Honda could at least consider bringing back Asimo to drive the thing.

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Unveiled for the first time in all its L.A.-designed cuteness, Honda’s Prologue EV is the latest fruit of a partnership between Japan and Detroit, in which Honda builds a vehicle around a battery platform made by General Motors.

The tie-up is but one of many spurred by a surge in EV demand, as Aaron Robinson wrote back in July of 2022. Toyota and Subaru is another. Though the Prologue is later to market than either of its Japanese counterparts, hopefully the Honda avoids the infamy gained so quickly by the Toyota, whose wheels had a propensity to fall off. (We suspect excess paint in the lug nut recesses.)

If you’ve seen the Blazer EV, you’re looking at its cousin. We’ll cut to the chase: You want the Honda over the Chevy, because the Honda has CarPlay. (GM is dropping the system from all its vehicles beginning with the 2024 Blazer.) The iPhone mirroring goes further than before, too: As Apple promised back in 2022, you can project phone-derived navigation on multiple screens in the same car, in this case, onto the Prologue’s 11-inch digital instrument cluster (it comes standard).

Honda’s calling the Prologue its “first volume EV.” Honda probably wants the Acura ZDX, which is also GM Ultium-based, to sound all the more exclusive. Still, we expect Acura to make as many as you want to buy. The highest trim of the Prologue, the Elite, wears the biggest rims a Honda ever has: 21 inches.

The Prologue will start “in the upper $40,000s,” says Honda. For that figure, into which we have not calculated any incentives, you get a genuinely attractive vehicle, one that is significantly bigger than a CRV and roughly the same size as a Passport. Range is estimated by Honda at 300 miles, a figure likely based on the less-powerful of the two powertrains: The single-motor front-wheel-drive one. Honda will also stick a motor on the rear axle, if you want all-wheel drive, with 288 hp and 333 lb-ft of torque. We’re guessing the FWD version makes less, because Honda was silent on the matter.

The main thing to know, if you’re fine with the price and the power but concerned about the livability of an EV: You’re going to need a smartphone, and the HondaLink app. Honda has partnered with just about everyone you possibly can in the EV charging space, including Tesla, Electrify America, EV Go, and the multinational consortium including Stellantis. Your smartphone essentially becomes your credit card—the thing you need in-hand every time you want to “fill up” your car on the go. In short: When your dealer is bothering you to download the app, listen—it isn’t a promotional gimmick.

The best way to charge an EV is, of course, while you sleep at night. Honda has included three charging packages into the price of each Prologue, depending on how prepared your house (or rental property) is for an EV. All the packages equate to about the same value, and you’ll chose the best one based on whether or not you want money towards the installation of a charger at your house. In that case, Honda Home Electrification would love to help you. If you already have a charging setup at home, Honda will toss you $750 of public charging credits and send you on your merry way.

The Prologue will go on sale in early 2024. It will be built somewhere in the U.S., as you’d expect, and bought mostly by people in California, who will probably adore it.

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Sunday, September 24, 2023, marks 75 years since the Honda Technical Research Institute, founded by Honda Soichiro, was incorporated as Honda Motor Company. To celebrate its birth, we are revisiting this delightful story. It originally appeared on this site in May of 2020. Enjoy! — Ed. 

Sometimes, the most ordinary cars have the most extraordinary stories. Five years ago I spotted the golden-brown flash of an original first-generation Civic turning down a side street, and I gave chase. Good thing I did, too, because that one little Honda unraveled a hopeful tale that continues to surprise me.

Between 1973 and 1979, thousands and thousands of Honda Civics found their way into garages and driveways all across Canada and the U.S. It was the marque’s first real sales success and a common sight on the street. Since then, the original Civic has faded from sight, dissolved by rust. It was a casualty of economical roots. People tend to restore and preserve cars perceived as special or desirable; run-of-the-mill people-movers get used up and forgotten.

Not this people-mover. As I stood in a library parking lot in East Vancouver, looking over the survivor Civic, I couldn’t help but marvel at how it had been preserved. A 1977 model with the two-speed Hondamatic transmission, it was somehow flawless. The paint shone, the steel wheels were scuff-free, and the interior was a Japanese time capsule of mainstream 1970s transportation. Even weirder, the car wore ordinary-use license plates, not collector ones. Was this immaculate Civic a regular daily driver?

Hiroko Marunaka, the Civic’s owner, emerged from the library unsurprised to find someone admiring her car. She told me that this sort of thing never happened in reserved Japanese society, but Westerners were often friendly and curious about her car. They always had a Honda story to tell, a car they remembered from their youth. She’d become used to it.

I liked Hiroko immediately—she had a curator’s outlook. “I just really like old stuff,” she said, “Antique furniture, old buildings. I think about all the people that have lived in a place or touched something. Many people, including me, have loved this car.”

An international student from Okoyama, just outside Osaka, Hiroko had come to Canada to study nursing. She had christened the Civic “Kinjiro,” meaning “second golden boy” in Japanese. While in Japan, she’d owned a similarly-colored Toyota Hilux so pristine that Toyota had borrowed it for a heritage display. She took painstaking care to keep her beloved car clean and original.

About a month after our chance encounter, I met up with Hiroko and her ’77 Civic beneath the cherry trees of Vancouver’s Japantown. 1977 happens to be the same year that sakura cherry blossom trees were planted in Vancouver. The planting marked the 100th anniversary of the first Japanese immigrants to British Columbia, and also the official redress process for wartime confinement and property confiscation of Japanese Canadians. It also marked the beginning of the first Powell Street festival, the largest celebration of Japanese arts and culture in western Canada. This year, for the first time in forty-three consecutive years of operation, that festival has been canceled because of public health concerns surrounding the current pandemic.

On that sunny day, however, there were crowds thronging the streets. Cherry blossoms were scattered across the city, and the little 53-hp Civic chugged along through the city streets. I laughed to see the double-takes, people ogling at an ordinary little economy car as they glossed over the city’s frequently-seen Lamborghinis and Aston Martins.

To drive, the Civic felt like all early Hondas: light, and airy, and fun. There was nothing impressive about the car’s performance, but the scrappy Civic possessed a certain willingness as it zipped through traffic. Everywhere we went, people smiled. For a fuel-saving hatchback with a two-speed automatic, the Civic had far more charisma than the last supercar I drove.

As we puttered along, Hiroko told me of her plans to immigrate to Canada. The process was not so easy, she said, and her initial application had been turned down. She wanted to complete her professional training, which might be easier to do if she moved to the maritimes, where there was a nursing shortage. Funding the move would require selling her treasured Civic, but she had fallen in love with Canada and wanted to stay. If given the chance, she would leap at it.

The Honda Civic has been the most popular passenger car in Canada for nearly two decades now, and we’ve been building them in Ontario since the mid-1980s. The story of the Civic is, in a way, a Canadian immigrant success story. Once, it was an import. Now, it’s built here. I wrote up the story of Hiroko and her Civic for a national newspaper, touching on her hopes to move here and find belonging.

Somehow, that story ended up in the hands of Hiroko’s immigration case officer. They saw something perhaps previously missed. Hiroko got a call—her application would be granted.

The local first-generation Civic club had already assisted Hiroko with finding parts and a reliable mechanic for her car, and they came through again when it was time to sell Kinjiro. Setting a price was a bit tricky, as there were few comparable examples, but the car ultimately found a good home in the U.S., in the hands of someone who had also read the article about Hiroko’s Honda.

“I’m a bit sad that the beautiful Civic doesn’t belong to this country any more,” Hiroko wrote me, “But at the same time, I’m happy that I finally found the right person and passed my car to him. I’m leaving for Halifax next Monday, so this is actually the last week I stay in Vancouver. I’m starting to feel a bit bittersweet, but I’m officially a landed immigrant now, and I can’t wait to start a new chapter in my life.”

For the last four years, that was all I heard from her. In this job, you often cross paths with people, interact briefly, then move off on your separate orbits. With healthcare workers at the forefront of all our minds, I sent Hiroko a note, hoping she was doing well. She wrote me back to say that she’s returned to Vancouver and is working at St. Paul’s Hospital. She has become a frontline nurse at the hospital where both my children were born, helping those who need it most.

One small, once-ordinary Honda. One spontaneous meeting. One more reason to be always chasing cars.

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After much anticipation from the adventure motorcycle market, Honda has announced pricing and opened the order books for the new XL750 Transalp, which the U.S. market is meeting for the first time. The Transalp nameplate traces its roots back to 1986 and lived a full life until its cancellation in 2008. During that run, it was never sold in America, and it saw just one year of sales in Canada: 1987. Now, the mid-size adventure market is a little more crowded, but Honda seems to think the XL750 will slot right in, and on paper, we are inclined to agree.

For starters, the pricing is right in line with its competition: $9,999 MSRP. Yamaha’s Tenere 700 comes in at $10,299, and the Suzuki V-Strom is $11,349. All three settle on using two pistons to solve the power problem, but the XL750 Transalp is closer to the Tenere 700 in concept, using a parallel twin engine design. One plus for Honda riders: With a total displacement of 755cc, the Transalp’s engine bests that of the Tenere by 66 cubic centimeters. The Transalp engine also receives the vortex air duct mechanism from the CB750 Hornet model, an intake tract design that Honda claims gives the engine smoother running and more power from tip-in to redline. Output is expected to be 83 horsepower for U.S. models, down slightly from the 90 hp European riders get to enjoy.

The Transalp fills the middling void in Honda‘s lineup between the big-boy Africa Twin and CB500X, making Honda the latest to give shoppers the option of an adventure machine in whatever size they are most comfortable with. The Transalp is slightly let down by its lack of a standard quickshifter, though it is an option that can be added at additional cost. We like this as quickshifters are very fun, but also get why Honda doesn’t offer it standard; for adventure riding, they’re a bit overkill. Riders will have five selectable riding modes which engage the traction control, ABS, power output, and engine braking at differing levels. Also, U.S. buyers will have just one color option: black. Hope you like it.

If you do, shuffle over to your dealer or Honda.com to place an order as the ordering books opened September 20th. Delivers are expected to begin in October.

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Honda just announced that starting in 2024, its two racing firms, Honda Performance Development and Honda Racing Corporation, will join to create one super-organization that will oversee Big H’s racing efforts worldwide. The consolidation could be the tipping point that sees the brand return to La Sarthe, France for the coveted 24 Hour of Le Mans race in the future.

Effective as of the start of the 2024 motorsports season, Honda Performance Development (HPD), the brand’s North American racing arm, will be renamed Honda Racing Corporation USA (HRC US). The renaming helps place it in line with Honda’s Japanese racing entity, Honda Racing Corporation (HRC). The newly-named HRC US “will play an integral role in Honda’s global motorsports activities, which includes contributing to the company’s Formula 1 (F1) program,” Honda said in the announcement.

Founded in 1993 by American Honda Motor Co., Inc., HPD’s main mandate was to bring Honda motorsports to the North American continent in an effective and impactful manner. HPD focused first on IndyCar, which it still remains a part of today as one of two engine manufacturers powering the cars that do battle at great North American circuits such as the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, where HPD has won 15 Indianapolis 500s.

Today HPD’s oversight stretches far beyond open-wheel racing to other big-name series, such as the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, where the Acura ARX-06 GTP prototype cars do battle with the likes of Porsche, Cadillac, and BMW. (These GTP cars are important for something we’ll cover in a moment.) HPD also has a hand in Baja off-road racing, touring car championships, and various open-wheel feeder series.

Meanwhile, HRC, based in Sakura, Japan, is responsible for any Honda racing taking place anywhere else on the globe. Founded in 1982, the firm originally focused on motorcycle racing but has since expanded its responsibilities to include the Honda F1 power unit program. HRC currently supports the power units propelling this year’s runaway powerhouse, Red Bull Racing, and beginning in 2026, the HRC will partner with the Aston Martin Aramco Cognizant F1 team as their official engine supplier.

Beginning with that team switch in 2026, the renamed HRC US will play a role in the F1 power unit development and support, something that it had not previously done. “Our goal is to increase the HRC brand and sustain the success of our racing activities and we believe that uniting Honda motorsports globally as one racing organization will help achieve that,” said Koji Watanabe, president of HRC Japan.

Back to those prototype cars: When IMSA and the World Endurance Championship (WEC) announced the return of the GTP class for the 2023 season, part of the big appeal was that one chassis would be eligible to compete in both series. A single car could, at long last, take the checkered flag at the 24 Hours of Daytona, which is an IMSA-sanctioned race, and also the 24 Hours of Le Mans, a race that is governed by the WEC. Cadillac and Porsche, two of the manufacturers with factory efforts in IMSA, made the leap across the pond this year to do battle at the grueling French circuit. Acura, however, did not. After all, there is no Acura in Europe.

As David Salters, president of HPD explained to The Drive in an interview in spring, the reason behind the decision not to contest the 24 Hours of Le Mans came down to who had jurisdiction where. HRC technically oversees racing efforts in Europe, so it was not up to HPD—the folks responsible for the Acura GTP program—to decide one way or the other about Le Mans.

With the new restructuring, there’s a glimmer of hope for Honda’s return to Le Mans, a place it has not had a formal presence at since 2013. Let’s cross our fingers; the more manufacturers competing at famous racetracks around the world, the better. Honda’s plenty familiar with what it takes to win at many levels of motorsport, so seeing them back at La Sarthe should make the competition all the more fierce.

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Dreams and realities mix together endlessly in a gearhead’s brain. Some of our ideas are just projects that we ponder from time to time; others are potential ways to use whatever steel or aluminum bits are in our oily hands. Ideas often jump from realities to dreams and, less frequently, from dreams to realities. So when I had the chance to ride and wrench on the motorcycle of my dreams, how could I say no?

One idea that has been stuck in the crevices of my grey matter for decades is a CB750 cafe racer. I have no idea why I want to build one. When I was young, such a bike made sense. Young idiots like form over function: Bias-ply Firestone tires that offer a vintage look but harsh ride and questionable traction, paired with uncomfortable, thin seat cushions atop narrow fiberglass seat pans, ostensibly for weight savings. They have the confidence to remove both fenders while still saying, “No, I’m still going to ride it rain or shine,” with a straight face.

I know better now. Yet when a friend asked me to recommend a shop that could sort out a few nitpicks on his CB750 cafe racer, it was impossible to resist doing the job myself. By the time he and the bike appeared at the bottom of my driveway, I had already muttered, “I really got to build one of those.”

The Honda CB750 is such an interesting machine: CB for the model, 750 for the number of times you have seen one hacked up in a Craigslist ad, the copy including something about how the seller “never got it running right.” An infinite amount of CB750 cafe racers have been built, and somehow, even more abandoned during the build process. There are many variations on cafe racer, yet so many “builds” come out formulaic: ground-off passenger peg mounts, rattle-can black on everything that was easily unbolted. “Is free shipping included?” seems to be the bottom line. If you’re a regular reader of this column, you know that buying a cafe racer that is even a fraction built by someone else isn’t even a passing thought in my mind. The only situation in which I own a cafe racer is if I build one.

That decision sticks me in a weird spot. Am I really so confident in my ability to build something different, or at least not the same, from seemingly millions of cafe-racer builders? I cannot accept building something purely for form. The thought of compromising the performance—a lot of the common cafe racer mods these days do just that—is unfathomable to me. However, successfully merging function and form with my skill set and my budget seems like an exercise in futility. So the idea gets buried deeper and deeper in my mental filing cabinet.

The other week, I caught myself scrolling the archives of BikeExif.com. My brain momentarily short-circuited, and I time-traveled to late night shifts in the college library, when I would scroll those same pages when I was supposed to be cataloging books. The cafe racer has long captivated me, but my expectations of enjoying one have never been lower.

Days after my scrolling session, this sleek black CB was sitting on a rear stand in my garage, lifted to chest level on the motorcycle lift. A quick look revealed the oil leak noticed by its owner was just the shift cover plate, an issue easily solved with a small amount of Permatex and proper torque on the hardware. I did a quick, front-to-back check of nuts and bolts, sorted out the pickup on an aftermarket speedometer, and the job was done. But I didn’t call the owner just yet.

This bike was built pretty simply: stock foot controls, stock swingarm and forks. Tasteful. It functioned pretty darn good, too.

Again, maybe my expectations were insultingly low, but there were a lot of subtle things that made this bike stand out from other cafe racers I had seen. The straight-pipe exhaust actually had a very effective baffle: This Honda was quieter than my KTM 950 Adventure with its boom-cannon Akrapovič cans. The clip-on handlebars on the stock forks somehow had better ergonomics than the Clubman-style bars I had tried on similar builds over the years. A slim LCD display for tach and speed was neatly integrated in the top of the triple tree. It was all a little grown-up—the style without the compromise.

The build didn’t simply inspire me, it also knocked a little sense into my brain. A well-done project will always stand out, even if the parts individually do not. This bike sat on Hagon rear shocks, which had decent adjustability, and a seemingly stock front end that was nicely rebuilt. It rode like a 45-year-old motorcycle, which is to say quite nicely. “More” brakes or suspension weren’t needed. Having seen so many folks put any number of wild suspension setups on cafe builds over the years, even I had fallen victim to thinking that I would need something exotic. Looking at my friend’s build, I knew that the addition of stiff USD forks would only move the flex somewhere else in the chassis. Why would I fix what wasn’t broken just for the sake of potential performance?

Nope. Get realistic about what your dream actually is, and it might not stay a dream. I don’t need all those fancy parts, I just need a good base and a bunch of skills I already have. Oh, and a decent CB750 before the snow flies. Nothing says “fall” to a motorcycle fan quite like all the increasing number of Marketplace listings with the “great winter project” line. Those sellers know their audience is a bunch of dreamers.

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Honda, along with its luxury brand Acura, is the latest in a slew of major automakers to strike a deal with Tesla that allows it to use the Texas firm’s electric-vehicle charging network in North America.

Unsurprisingly, Honda simultaneously announced a new electric model for the U.S. and Canada that, like all Honda EVs from 2025 on, will be built with a Tesla-style charge port. The as-yet unnamed car will go on sale in 2025 and use the NACS, or North American Charging Standard, plug. (Elon went full send on that name, didn’t he?) Users will have access to Tesla’s network of over 12,000 Supercharger stations.

Honda’s upcoming EV will be the second promised by the Japanese manufacturer as part of its collaboration with GM, announced back in 2020. The first is the Prologue (pictured at the top of this story), which arrives for the 2024 model year and, like the upcoming 2025 car, will be built in GM plants (because tax incentives) on the Ultium EV platform, the same one that undergirds the new Hummer, the Escalade IQ, and the Silverado EV.

Since General Motors also announced in early June that its future EVs would use the NACS port and have access to the Supercharger network, Honda’s announcement isn’t really a surprise.

The Prologue, along with any other electric vehicles announced by Honda or Acura for 2024, will have a CCS port (Combined Charging System, the previous engineering standard for EVs) but will come with an adaptor that allows users to charge the car at a NACS station. It’s all part of Honda’s plan for North American domination, as we detailed last year:

In North America, Honda has laid out an aggressive timeline of EV introductions based on three initial phases leading to 2030 and ultimately to 100 percent zero-emission automobile sales by 2040: In 2024, begin sales of the Honda Prologue, co-developed with GM. In 2026, begin sales of Honda models based on Honda e:Architecture to be produced by Honda in North America. In 2027, begin sales of a new series of affordable EVs co-developed with GM, also produced by Honda in North America.

Ford was the first of the Big Three companies to hash things out with Tesla. The third of the triad hasn’t indicated that it wants to join the Supercharger party: Stellantis, along with BMW Group, General Motors, Honda, Hyundai, Kia, and Mercedes-Benz, is working to build its own network of EV chargers for North America. The numbers: At least 30,000 stations, compatible with both the NACS and the CCS ports, with the first chargers to become available in the summer of 2024.

Evidently, GM and Honda think that more is merrier when it comes to charging networks, and none of the other five brands in the multinational consortium have forbidden their partners to join forces with Tesla.

A newfound spirit of cooperation? If it means that electric vehicles become cheaper and easier to use, we’re all for it.

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Roadster lovers were spoiled for choice in the early 2000s. Following the surprise, smash success of the original Miata a decade earlier, automakers rushed to feed a growing hunger for dedicated, two-seat open-air sports cars. These days, the Honda S2000 is among the most beloved (and highest-valued) of these successors. In fact, for more than five years, pre- and post-refresh S2000s have sat atop the 2000s-era roadster market. So what’s this Honda’s secret sauce?

The front-mid-engine, rear-drive, six-speed-manual-only S2000 reached showrooms for the 2000 model year, which made it fashionably late to this topless party. The Germans were first to the jump, with the BMW Z3, Mercedes-Benz SLK, Porsche Boxster, and Audi TT all arriving by 1998. Each car had its merits—the Z3’s smooth straight-six, the SLK’s luxury appointments, the Boxster’s expert chassis balance, and the TT’s cutting-edge Bauhaus design. Leave it to Honda, however, to take the Miata’s formula of sports car purity and add a dose of high-revving thrill.

Based on the Honda Sport Study Model concept for the 1995 Tokyo motor show, and drawing influence from classic Honda roadsters like the S500 and S800, the S2000 prioritized light weight, balance, and responsiveness. The SSM concept drew inspiration from Honda’s Formula 1-winning race cars of the mid-1960s, which won acclaim for their compact and lightweight V-12 engines.

The S2000 does not pack a V-12, but its F20C naturally aspirated four-cylinder was nonetheless remarkable for its time. The aluminum-alloy, dual-overhead-cam engine featured Honda’s signature VTEC variable valve timing, along with a screaming 8800-rpm redline that yielded 240 hp and 153 lb-ft of torque from just 2.0 liters of displacement. Those numbers amounted to the highest specific output (power per liter of displacement) of any production engine in the world at the time.

Honda’s “high X-bone frame” and monocoque body allowed for the engine to be positioned as far toward the center of the car as possible, helping the S2000 achieve an enviable 50:50 weight distribution. Sixteen-inch wheels wrapped around 11-inch disc brakes, hiding double wishbone suspension all around. Known for its fantastic manual transmissions, Honda developed an all-new six-speed for the S2000 that included close-ratio gears, a short and direct-feeling linkage, and lightweight flywheel. A Torsen limited-slip differential came standard.

The car was an undeniable success, touted by media and owners alike for its unfiltered, unfettered sports car experience. Its $32,000 starting price was considerable at the turn of the millennium, when the Accord cost half that much. The S2000 was, however, about six grand cheaper than a comparable Z3, and roughly fifteen grand cheaper than a base-model Boxster. In typical Honda fashion, it was a car that overperformed for its price point and won legions of followers. More than 113,000 S2000s were sold globally until it went out of production after the 2009 model year, with U.S. customers accounting for 66,000 cars—more than half of the total run.

Rarity, then, is not a factor driving the S2000’s value and desirability. Instead, we’d argue, the motivating forces here are twofold: a carefully distilled driving experience and its uniqueness in the pantheon of Honda sports cars.

An S2000 at full blast is a singular experience. Even the 2007 AP2 car we drove at Michigan’s GingerMan Raceway, with its slightly tamer personality compared the earlier AP1, offers delightful sensations that the great-driving Boxster can’t match. The engine is the star—lively and fearsomely responsive to your right foot. Between 6000 rpm and its peak at 8000 rpm, the updated “F22C1” 2.2-liter produces a gorgeous, eager hum. AP1 cars take that sensation further with their higher redline, albeit at the expense of mid-range oomph and tractability on ordinary driving.

We were able to tackle most of the track in third gear alone. During our first passes on the front and back straight at GingerMan, however, we accidentally short-shifted a few hundred rpm shy of the limiter, trusting our ear instead of the F1-style digital tachometer. The shifter is picture-perfect, with short, deliberate throws and a more mechanical feel with each gear engagement than in a Z3 or Boxster.

The chassis, too, feels distinctive. You notice this mostly through the car’s balance, which remains consistent and predictable even at high speed and under heavy inputs. (AP2 cars are known to be more forgiving in this regard, following suspension changes to the original AP1 that in some customer hands resulted in unexpected oversteer.) Body roll is minimal. The S2000 changes direction seemingly the moment you command it to, dancing through a succession of tighter, faster corners with delightful disregard for inertia. Steering is electrically assisted but sniper-precise and mighty quick. Feedback via the Boxster’s and Miata’s steering wheel is perhaps more nuanced, but only the S2000 makes you feel like you’re wearing it rather than driving it.

Interior designers took a minimalist approach to the S2000s interior. It’s snug rather than cramped, but for longer road trips something like a Nissan 350Z would be more comfortable. Everything is arranged with the driver in mind. The tidy suite of climate controls are stacked next to the steering wheel. There is no typical center console, and even the radio is hidden behind a small plastic door. The steering wheel itself is small without feeling dainty, with thin yet still substantial-feeling rim. Leather trim on the seats and doors offers a slightly more premium experience than your typical 2000s Honda, which helped justify the S2000’s position above the Miata in the marketplace.

Looking at #2-condition (Excellent) cars, AP2 S2000 values surpassed the earlier AP1 in early 2022. One possible explanation for this phenomenon is that they’re newer and lower-mileage, as well as a bit more usable in daily driving thanks to the improvement in low- and mid-range torque.

No S2000 commands more dollars in the market than the Club Racer, however. This limited-run, special-edition S2000 was specially tuned for track work. Offered solely for the 2008 and 2009 model years, the CR represented a subtle but comprehensive overhaul of the entire S2000 package. At launch, American Honda executive vice president John Mendel called the CR “the closest thing you can get to a Honda-built racecar with license plate holders and a horn.” Changes included revised exterior aerodynamics, structural bracing and stiffening, a standard aluminum hardtop replacing the ordinary soft top, a quicker steering ratio, stiffer dampers and anti-roll bars, wider wheels (still measuring 17 inches in diameter), and a cloth interior with yellow stitching. Total weight savings amounted to 90 pounds.

In the CR’s case, rarity certainly plays a role in its appeal. Honda built fewer than 700 examples when production was cut short mid-2009, ostensibly in light of slowing sales following the global financial crisis.

An S2000 CR in Excellent condition now commands $108,000, an increase of 21.5 percent over the last year. For context, that’s the exact same price for a 1992 Acura NSX. A base AP2 S2000 over that same time frame has gained just 5.3 percent, costing $44,000 on average. This massive price leap for the CR exceeds even what we’ve seen from the Porsche Boxster Spyder and Cayman R, as well as the BMW Z3 M Roadster.

Jonathan Wong owns the white S2000 featured here. He’s had a blue 2008 CR in his stable since 2011, a car he’s casually and regularly tracked throughout his ownership. Wong picked up the white car a couple years ago after driving a friend’s modified S2000, eager to dive into a higher-mileage car that he’d feel comfortable tweaking as he saw fit.

“I knew there was a possibility that if I went down the modification hole, I may end up going farther than I originally intended to. Was I going to do those things to my still clean, low-mileage CR? I thought about it for a second, but I stuck with the promise I made to myself when I originally bought the car 12 years ago that it would remain stock.”

So far the only changes he’s made to his white 2007 are braided brake lines with high-performance fluid and pads, but he’s eyeing a set of Öhlins suspension to swap on when time allows.

For normal road driving, he already much prefers the standard S2000 to the CR: “My white S2000 is certainly more compliant compared to the CR,” he says. “There’s more give in the suspension, which is very appreciated while bumming around town and taking drives across the state. In the CR, after a driving a couple hours to and from GingerMan from metro Detroit for an open track day, I’d feel wrecked. That’s not the case in the white car, which is not itself a luxurious ride, but the difference is noticeable.”

Naturally, the CR has the edge on track. “The CR feels a touch more buttoned-up—crisper and more rapid to respond at turn-in. Weight transitions are quicker side to side and under braking. All of that stiffening and bracing don’t represent a gigantic leap over the stock car, but they sharpen an already sharp knife. The base car is still hugely enthralling to drive on a track, though, more so even today’s Mazda Miata with its high dose of body roll before the car takes a set.”

Regardless of which S2000 enthralls you most, all signs point to Honda’s roadster remaining a healthy collectible for the foreseeable future. Maintenance is not Civic-cheap, but it’s certainly more palatable than a Boxster or Z3, and the clean, frill-free styling has aged well since the car’s debut more than two decades ago. And for Honda die-hards in the U.S. especially, the S2000 represents an anomaly—the brand’s only rear-drive sports car on these shores since the Acura-badged NSX supercar. It’s a dedicated roadster on a specialized platform, a consequence of several driving-obsessed Honda engineers scrambling into a room and locking the door before the marketing wonks could claw their way inside. A Honda with the S2000’s particular combination of power, agility, and classic sports-car design is a special one, indeed.

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Seven of the world’s top automakers—BMW Group, General Motors, Honda, Hyundai, Kia, Mercedes-Benz, and Stellantis—are creating a joint venture to build up at least 30,000 EV chargers in North America, creating what they are calling a “best in class” charging network. The first stations are scheduled to open in the summer of 2024.

The joint venture, which “aims to become the leading network of reliable high-powered charging stations in North America,” will leverage public and private funds. The new charging stations will be accessible to all battery-powered electric vehicles from any automaker using Combined Charging System or North American Charging Standard (aka, the one Tesla uses and that others are rapidly adopting) and are expected to meet or exceed the requirements of the U.S. National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure program.

In line with the sustainability interests of all seven automakers, “the joint venture intends to power the charging network solely by renewable energy.”

Focused on customer comfort and charging ease, the stations will be in convenient locations offering canopies wherever possible and amenities such as restrooms, food service, and retail operations either nearby or within the same complex. A select number of flagship stations will be equipped with additional amenities, “delivering a premier experience designed to showcase the future of charging.”

Initial plans call for the deployment of charging stations in metropolitan areas and along major highways, including connecting corridors and vacation routes, aiming to offer a charging station wherever people may choose to live, work, or travel. The functions and services of the network will allow for seamless integration with participating automakers’ in-vehicle and in-app experiences, including reservations, route planning and navigation, payment applications, and more.

As more electric vehicles are introduced and the rate of consumer adoption increases, the demand for fast and reliable public charging grows in parallel. According to the U.S. Department of Energy, as of July 2023, there are 32,000 publicly available DC fast chargers in the United States for use by 2.3 million electric vehicles, a ratio of 72 vehicles per charger. The National Renewable Energy Laboratory estimates that 182,000 DC fast chargers will be needed to support 30 to 42 million plug-in vehicles expected on the road by 2030.

Said GM CEO Mary Barra: “GM’s commitment to an all-electric future is focused not only on delivering EVs our customers love, but investing in charging and working across the industry to make it more accessible. The better experience people have, the faster EV adoption will grow.”

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It can be so simple and so complex to explain why my garage is filled to the brim with a perfect, 50/50 mix of tools and broken stuff. Not long ago a close friend pointed out—immediately receiving a photo of the latest hulk of a project I was hauling home—that if I would stop buying junk bikes, I could probably afford something nice, ready to ride, and interesting. To which I replied:

“Yeah, but where is the fun in that?”

He wasn’t wrong, though. 1986–95 Honda XR250R motorcycles have begun to duplicate like rabbits around my garage. There are currently two engines sitting mid-assembly on the workbench and two running bikes posted up on stands. Carefully organized in tubs on shelves are enough parts to build two more complete bikes, plus spares for spares. That’s only the physical storage space: My web browser is full of bookmarks for random forum threads and chats where others have shared a sliver of knowledge that I will certainly need at some point in the future.

What started all of this? A dare from a few friends, when I sent along a Marketplace listing for a non-running XR250R that I thought I could bring back to life. They called my bluff and encouraged me to go buy the stupid thing. Four years later, here we are.

I’ve made a lot of money disappear in tiny increments to make these junky old bikes look and function as Honda intended. That sunk cost is not why I can’t get rid of them, though. The disappearing stack of cash is not the question, either; my bank account would be bled dry by something, so why not motorcycles, cars, and other projects?

Some of us wander through life like golden retrievers, taking interest in whatever is directly in front of us and forgetting about it a mere two minutes later. Then one day a thing enters our lives and we can’t let go. It’s interesting on a mechanical and perhaps a historical level, and we enjoy looking at it. If that thing is also something we can afford, it quickly ascends to become a part of our personality, perhaps our identity. It’s not always clear why we fell in love with what we do, and the less time I spend trying to figure that out, the better off I am.

Maybe you are like me: If a project is not requiring you to learn or grow, you get bored with it. Some of us seek out our vintage cars because they represent a comfortable space in which we are experts. Some love the wave of nostalgia that comes with operating antiquated machinery: When restored properly, those machines can offer something akin to time travel. The rest of us need the entertainment provided by continuous upkeep and restoration.

It really doesn’t matter why or how we enjoy the objects we do because, at the end of the day, they are just that—objects. That concert T-shirt is just cotton and ink, but since it stirs a positive memory in the brain, you deem it more valuable. Toss in all the times when something positive happened while you were wearing that shirt, and it becomes a prized thing. Thanks to my cadre of Honda XR250s, I’ve met some downright amazing people and had some wild experiences.

We all have to admit the opportunity cost of any path we choose. At some point, though, calculating that cost becomes a fool’s errand. And maybe, explaining our respective obsessions is even simpler: We do what is fun.

Rehabilitating and building up Japanese motorcycles of the late ’80s is just fun for me. For every hour I spend on the track or trail-riding one of my XRs, I have probably spent eight hours with it in the garage: The hour meter on my road-race bike reads 18 hours, and I didn’t stop racing it because I hated wrenching on it.

I can afford a bike that needs no fussing, but a motorcycle with no needs would likely struggle to hold my attention. It’s just the way my brain is wired. Once you figure out how yours works, you’re best to just roll with it. What’s the fun in arguing?

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Hang around car people for more than a few hours, and the conversation turns to engine sounds and exhaust notes. Everyone has their personal favorite, but a few soundtracks are favored by almost all. One is the characteristic scream of a V-10 Formula 1 car, whose engine’s crankshaft spins at nearly 20,000 rpm. The insane howl of these cars, which raced between 1989 and 2005, is a wild thing, but nearly three decades before, a motorcycle engine spun just as fast . . . with four fewer cylinders.

The six thimble-sized pistons in the engine of Honda’s 1960s-era RC166 bounce up and down at a frequency that puts each piston at top-dead-center over three thousand times per minute. Piston speed is in the range of 68 feet per second.

But, you say, most of the motorcycle engines during that era of Grand Prix racing were two-strokes; with no valves to operate, that kind of engine speed isn’t as impressive.

Wrong. Well, at least kind of. Most bikes of the ’60s were, but the 250cc RC166 had a double-overhead-cam four-stroke engine. Soichiro Honda was putting all of his company’s racing and production eggs in the four-stroke basket: He believed it, not the smoky and cantankerous two-stroke, was the future.

Since a two-stroke engine has a power stroke on every revolution of the crankshaft, and a four-stroke has a power stroke on every other, Honda engineers used additional cylinders and rpm to smooth the power pulses as they went back through the bike’s transmission and were eventually absorbed by the tire.

One of those power pulses likely wasn’t significant by the time it reached the contact patch; each of the RC166’s cylinders displaced merely 41 cubic centimeters. For scale, the combustion chamber of a Chrysler Hemi V-8 displaces 85 cc. Despite these minuscule pistons and valves, the engine in Honda’s RC166 produced nearly 65 horsepower. With Mike “the Bike” Hailwood holding the handlebars, the RC166 handily won the 1966 and 1967 Grand Prix championships. Sadly, after ’67,  Honda put its motorcycle GP program on pause, switching focus to Formula 1, where it worked to scale up some of the engine technology that it had used to create such dominant racing motorcycles.

The RC166 will always be remembered for more than its spec sheet; it was a wild feat of engineering that actually worked. Hearing its screaming exhaust note is just a reminder of what is possible when an engine designer puts their mind to a task.

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The Japanese car market is hands down the most interesting part of the collector car world at the moment. As an emerging segment, it’s more unpredictable, the rules are more fluid, and it skews far younger than the rest of the collector car market. All of this makes perfect sense given the fact that we’re talking about cars which as little as ten years ago weren’t on the radar of most traditional (read: older) collectors. But the people who grew up playing Gran Turismo and devouring the latest installment of the Fast & Furious franchise knew better, and taught the rest of the market a thing or two about what’s cool.

I’m hesitant to refer to it as the Japanese car market since that makes it sound far more monolithic than it actually is. In reality, it’s extremely diffuse, and a bit confusing, particularly for outsiders looking in. And frankly, although I’ve owned every flavor of early Z-car, I still fall into that category. Nevertheless, I can parse the market into some distinct categories and share some current trends.

Japanese Royalty

The established royalty of the Japanese car world consists of cars like the Toyota 2000GT, Mazda Cosmo, the Nissan Fairlady Z432, and early Skyline 2000 GT-Rs. The highest-spec, post-1970s Skylines, the Zanardi Edition Acura NSX, and the best of the MK IV Supra Twin Turbos, Subaru/Prodrive WRXs, and the Acura Integra Type R are probably destined for this group as well.

The 1960s and 1970s cars in this category represent the most stable part of the market. That makes sense, since these were the first cars to really take off and they’ve had ample time to find their buyers and evangelists. The established royalty seem fully priced at the moment, while the ’90s and newer cars seem to have no immediate ceiling, at least in the case of low-mileage, unmodified cars. Because of the demographic they appeal to, their best days are clearly in front of them.

U.S. Market Blue-Chippers

After the royalty, the bluest of the blue chip Japanese cars that were commercially available in the U.S. when new consist of the following: 1967 Datsun 2000 Fairlady Roadster, the Honda S600/800, the Datsun 240Z, the Z32 generation Nissan 300ZX Turbo, the Honda S2000 Club Racer, The third-generation (FD) Mazda RX-7, the second-generation (GD/GG) Subaru WRX, and the first-generation Acura NSX. R-Package NA Miatas should probably be thought of as near blue-chippers at this point, too. Though the Datsun/Nissan Z cars have seen values slip recently, most of the above are still at least modestly on the uptick, and all still have a significant upside.

The only impediment to collecting and enjoying these cars is parts support, which tends to lag behind other imported collectible cars, particularly those from BMW and Porsche.  Bargains are few and far between among the blue-chippers, but you don’t have to move that far down market to find some nearly equally interesting cars.  Either generation of Nissan 240SX (assuming you can find an unmodified one), and first-generation RX-7s seem like good deals. The RX-7 really was the spiritual successor to the 240/260/280Z and the price delta between the two cars just seems too wide at this point. Chalk it off to the usual rotary scare stories that seem effective in frightening people off.

Freakishly Low Mileage Examples of “Disposable” Cars

Most Japanese cars of the 1960s through the 1990s were simply low-cost (albeit high-quality) transportation and they were used as such, often racking up lunar miles in the process of being driven into the ground. While mechanically nearly bulletproof, cars that found homes outside of the West Coast usually saw their sheet metal dissolve after a few harsh, salty winters. Thus, the survival rate of once-numerous, fairly ordinary cars like first-generation Civics, Corollas and Accords is miniscule. Those that have survived tend to be street-parked, 300,000-mile-plus Los Angeles cars that evaded cash for clunkers and are still somehow able to pass smog.

With that, it’s no surprise that clean, low-mileage examples can bring eye-popping money via online auctions.  Need proof? A minty 32,000-mile California 1979 Honda Civic CVCC (with a two-speed automatic no less) sold on Bring a Trailer last year for $36,225 after fees. Simply have to have the best early Corolla out there?  A ’74 SR-5 Coupe with 29,000 miles drove bidders crazy recently on the same online auction site. This one was a five-speed manual, and predictably, also from Southern California. It made $37,275 after fees. Sales of low-mileage freaks are great fun to watch—who doesn’t like time-capsule early Japanese cars? In these kinds of sales, there’s just no telling whether a given car will set a record or fly under the radar. Cars sell for what they sell for, and each one represents a very limited opportunity—as many observers have noted, there may well be more Ferrari 250 GTOs extant than concours-condition early Civics.

Recently-Legal JDM

The car that’s captured the spotlight over the last couple years as the Japanese domestic market car to have is the Nissan Skyline R34 GT-R. The Nürburgring-bred R34 pushed the era’s boundaries for tech and performance, with some variants capable of sub-eight-minute Nordschleife times. American fans of the R34, and there are many, have been drooling over the few Show or Display cars that have made it here, and are counting the days until the 25-year rule kicks in.

The entry point for a Show or Display R34 GT-R, landed in the States with appropriate papers and customs clearances, starts around $200,000. While some speculate prices may come down as supply increases with more model years becoming legal, I wouldn’t count on it. This car is enjoying more than just a moment in the sun—it’s an icon that is now getting its due. I’m not sure the private import pipeline has the bandwidth to satisfy the truly voracious demand any time soon any more than the other side of the globe can satisfy Americans’ love for vintage left-hand-drive Land Rover Defenders.

It’s not just the GT-R dominating Japanese import headlines. The Mitsubishi Pajero Evo, a homologation sport utility special famous for Dakar Rally dominance, has recently reached 25 years of age and is making a splash in the U.S. market. The Pajero ticks a lot of boxes: it’s relatively rare at around 2500 units produced, its proportions, air scoops, and aero ooze personality, and sport utilities are now firmly a fixture in the collector world. We’ve noted three recent online auction sales of clean Pajeros for around $50,000, and we fully expect interest, and prices, to continue to grow.

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Via Insider

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IndyCar champ Alex Palou was initially unimpressed with the new 1.7-mile downtown Detroit street circuit, which the race adopted after years at the roomier Belle Isle circuit. “It’s too tight for IndyCar, it’s too short for IndyCar. There’s too much traffic, it’s too bumpy,” the Chip Ganassi Racing driver said Saturday.

Palou changed his tune on Sunday, after absolutely dominating the Detroit Grand Prix in his Honda-powered car. “It was a lot better than I expected,” he admitted.

The course is indeed narrow in some spots, in part causing seven caution flags that took out multiple contenders. But Palou handled his concerns by simply staying out front, leading 74 of the 100 laps. Will Power, who finished second, led 14 circuits. Felix Rosenqvist was third, while veteran Scott Dixon was fourth.

“The track was super difficult,” Dixon said after the race. This year’s Indianapolis 500 winner Josef Newgarden was tenth after a frustrating drive.

The event that immediately follows the blockbuster Indianapolis 500 always has a tough assignment to keep from being overshadowed by the world’s largest one-day event, trying to attract as many viewers and fans as they can. But Detroit put on a show, comparable to IndyCar’s most popular street race, the Grand Prix of Long Beach.

“Honestly Detroit did a tremendous job. The fans were amazing. I was mind-blown at how many fans we had today being a first-time event,” Palou said.

IndyCar returns to a natural terrain road course on June 18 with the Grand Prix at Wisconsin’s Road America, the longest track on the circuit.

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How do you convince teens to put down their phones and focus on their driving? By giving them a smartphone app, of course.

Initially it might seem a counter-intuitive move, but by connecting the driver’s phone to the car the Honda Driver Coaching app can perform real-time analysis of steering, braking, and acceleration, and provide instructions to the driver. The app includes a program of lessons, plus safety videos to watch (obviously, not while driving).

The app can also monitor daily driving, giving a score for each trip. The focus is on safety, but by gamifying sensible driving Honda hopes to motivate young drivers to improved their skills and reduce accidents.

“We created the Honda Driver Coaching app to take meaningful action to address a critical issue – that nearly one-third of U.S. traffic fatalities involve drivers under 25 years of age,” said MJ Foxley, Safety Strategy Leader of American Honda Motor Co., Inc. “With schools getting out and summer driving season just around the corner, we hope our new Honda Driver Coaching app can positively influence young drivers and the safety of everyone sharing the road.”

The Honda Driver Coaching is available free from the App Store and is compatible with the Honda Civic (2019-2020) , Insight (2018-2022), Accord (2018-2020) and 2023 or newer Accord, HR-V, Honda CR-V, Pilot, and Integra.

 

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]]> https://www.hagerty.com/media/news/honda-app-aims-to-make-teens-better-drivers/feed/ 4 https://www.hagerty.com/media/news/the-manifold/2023-05-31/ https://www.hagerty.com/media/news/the-manifold/2023-05-31/#comments Wed, 31 May 2023 15:00:06 GMT https://www.hagerty.com/media/?p=317049

Toyota recalls 96K Corolla Cross models for faulty airbags

Intake: Toyota Motor North America has announced a recall for about 96,000 units of its Corolla Cross compact crossover SUV for a front passenger airbag that might not deploy. The recall covers non-hybrid models from model years 2022 and 2023. Toyota recommended that owners not allow anyone to sit in the front passenger seat until an affected vehicle is inspected and the repair is completed. According to a statement from Toyota, the faulty airbag stems from a manufacturing error in the instrument panel. A Toyota spokesperson declined to comment on whether there have been any reported injuries, accidents, or deaths related to the issue. Vehicle owners will be notified by late July, according to Toyota, and the fix will involve a dealer inspecting and replacing the instrument panel if necessary.

Exhaust: Oh boy, more airbag issues. Because of the faulty airbag, the affected Corolla Cross models might not meet a very basic federal safety standard. The bit about declining to mention whether any injuries, accidents, or deaths are related to this issue gives us pause; normally that’s one of the first things an automaker makes clear when they announce a recall. If you own one of the affected models, please don’t let anyone ride shotgun until you get it fixed. — Nathan Petroelje

Scout hires key designer from Stellantis



Intake: Stellantis interior design chief Chris Benjamin has joined Scout Motors to lead design for the EV-focused Volkswagen brand that will specialize in utility vehicles and trucks, according to Automotive News. Benjamin becomes the chief design officer for Scout, which plans to begin vehicle production at a plant near Columbia, S.C., by the end of 2026. The brand said the first retail sales of its electric pickups and SUVs will start soon after.

Exhaust: “Chris’ work is prolific. For nearly 25 years, he’s brought to life vehicles that stand out on the road,” Scout CEO Scott Keogh said in a statement. “His thumbprints are all over many of the most beloved off-road vehicles in the market today. I’m confident that Chris will build on that experience as he defines the next chapter of design for Scout and electric utility vehicles.” — Steven Cole Smith

The ultimate Range Rover Sport gives good vibrations



Intake: If the rumble of its 626-hp 4.4-liter turbocharged V-8 engine isn’t enough, then owners of the 2024 Range Rover Sport SV can fire up “Body and Soul” front seats that are tuned in to the car’s 1,430-watt, 29-speaker Meridian Signature sound system. Artificial Intelligence-optimized software controls seatback transducers for what Land Rover calls “a multi-dimensional audio experience with wellness benefits.”

For more traditional seat-of-the-pants excitement the BMW-sourced eight-cylinder will power the SV to 60 mph from rest in just 3.6 seconds, with no letting up until 180 mph. It’s more than just a point-and-shoot SUV, however, with a 6D Dynamics active suspension system comprising pitch control, height-adjustable air springs, and interlinked hydraulic dampers which do away with the need for anti-roll bars. In the bends the SV achieves a “near-level body stance,” says Land Rover, while grip and comfort levels are also increased. New subframe and suspension links are fitted, and a revised steering rack has the fastest ratio of any car to wear the Range Rover badge. The SV rides lower than the regular Sport, even on optional, industry-first, 23-inch carbon fiber wheels, which are said to save 20 lbs per corner. Carbon ceramic brakes are also available for the first time on a Rangie. Externally the SV is distinguished by a new bumper with wider air intakes and a smattering of carbon detailing. Inside, the car can be completely customized, of course, and is offered with the brand’s new Ultrafabrics PU leather alternative.

Exhaust: Now fitted with the same motor as the latest BMW X5 M and X6 M, the Range Rover Sport really does live up to its name and might even give the updated Porsche Cayenne a run for its money. — Nik Berg

Alfa Romeo Tonale has a 33-mpg electric range



Intake: The plug-in hybrid Alfa Romeo Tonale has completed final EPA testing that shows an electric range of 33 miles and MPGe rating of 77. Total range of the Alfa Romeo Tonale with a full battery charge is 360 miles. Combined fuel economy is 29 MPG. “We are happy to announce the official EPA electric range of 33 miles and 77 MPGe for the Alfa Romeo Tonale, which will allow many of our customers to drive their daily commutes without tapping the fuel tank,” said Larry Dominique, SVP, Head of Alfa Romeo North America. “The Alfa Romeo Tonale represents the beginning of our transformation to greater electrification while staying true to the performance characteristics our customers expect from the brand.”

Exhaust: The Tonale’s performance is bolstered by a 15.5-kWh lithium-ion battery that drives a 90-kW electric motor on the rear axle with 184 lb.-ft. of torque from 0 rpm. Total output, says Alfa, is a best-in-class 285 horsepower and 347 lb-ft of torque with the 180-horse, 1.3-liter turbocharged four-cylinder gasoline engine. The 2024 Tonale is shipping to dealerships now, with a starting price for the Sprint model set at $44,590 including a $1595 destination charge. — Steven Cole Smith

Honda announces new SCL500, a middle-weight do-it-all machine with retro flair



Intake: Honda just announced the new SCL500 model being added to its already diverse motorcycle lineup. This new machine borrows the engine of the Rebel 500—and a lot of the chassis too—with a dose of vintage styling to make for a welcoming bike to riders of all skill levels. The long flat seat and high exhaust pipes call back to the original Scramblers of the 1960s. Honda is also saying that a robust factory accessories catalog will allow buyers to make the SCL500 their own without resorting to aftermarket parts, and with the MSRP set at just $6799, it is easy to see buyers opting for a few new parts right off the showroom floor.

Exhaust: Did the motorcycle market need another mid-displacement scrambler-style motorcycle? Probably not, but Honda’s reputation sells bikes and this parallel twin is approachable for new riders and has enough ground clearance that exploring beyond paved roads is possible. That’s a lot of utility and capability for the price.  — Kyle Smith 

 

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]]> https://www.hagerty.com/media/news/the-manifold/2023-05-31/feed/ 3 https://www.hagerty.com/media/news/the-manifold/2023-05-26/ https://www.hagerty.com/media/news/the-manifold/2023-05-26/#comments Fri, 26 May 2023 15:00:41 GMT https://www.hagerty.com/media/?p=316374

There will be no Manifold on Monday, Memorial Day. May we suggest you read this one twice?

Own a Ford EV? Soon, you can use Tesla’s Superchargers

Intake: Starting early next year, Ford EV customers will have access to more than 12,000 Tesla Superchargers across the U.S. and Canada, in addition to the over 10,000 DC fast-chargers that are already part of the BlueOval Charge Network. This will give Ford EV customers “unprecedented access to fast-charging,” the company says. Mustang Mach-E, F-150 Lightning, and E-Transit customers will be able to access the Superchargers via an adapter and software integration along with activation and payment via FordPass or Ford Pro Intelligence. And then in 2025, Ford will offer next-generation electric vehicles with Tesla’s North American Charging Standard (NACS) connector built-in, eliminating the need for an adapter to access Tesla Superchargers.

Exhaust: It’s an unprecedented tie-up between two competing EV manufacturers. It doubles the number of fast-chargers available to Ford EV customers starting in the Spring of 2024. “This is great news for our customers who will have unprecedented access to the largest network of fast-chargers in the U.S. and Canada with 12,000+ Tesla Superchargers plus 10,000+ fast-chargers already in the BlueOval Charge Network,” said Jim Farley, Ford president and CEO. “Widespread access to fast-charging is absolutely vital to our growth as an EV brand, and this breakthrough agreement comes as we are ramping up production of our popular Mustang Mach-E and F-150 Lightning, and preparing to launch a series of next-generation EVs starting in 2025.” — Steven Cole Smith

100 years later, the first Bentley to race at Le Mans just sold for nearly $4 million



Intake: The 24 Hours of Le Mans celebrates its centenary this June and so, too, does a 1923 Bentley 3 Litre that claimed fourth place in the inaugural race. Entered by Bentley test driver Frank Clement and Canadian World War I veteran John Duff, the car also set the fastest lap of La Sarthe at 66.69 mph. Chassis number 141 was only fitted with brakes at the rear wheels and the duo ran out of fuel at one point after stones punctured the fuel tank, making the near-podium finish all the more miraculous. The pioneering 3 Litre went on to live a less glamorous life as a tow vehicle and a hearse before being buried in a barn for decades. Rediscovered in early 1980, it was purchased by Australian collector Peter Briggs and fully restored to become a feature of his museum in Perth. Now chassis 141 is back in Britain having been purchased by an enthusiast for nearly $4 million.

Exhaust: This car’s Le Mans debut was a remarkable achievement that spurred W.O. Bentley to attack the arduous 24-hour race with full factory support. Between 1927 and 1930, the legendary Bentley Boys won four times in a row, but that never would have happened if it wasn’t for chassis 141. — Nik Berg

Lexus offers a glimpse of all-new GX SUV



Intake: Lexus has been typically coy about offering up little detail shots of the GX, such as one headlight, but this from-the-rear shot shows quite a bit of the SUV. There’s a light bar that goes across the hatch, some flared fenders, and a relatively sleek roofline. The Lexus GX debuts in full flower on June 8. They’ve also been sneaking small detail shots of the first-ever Lexus TX, a smaller SUV that also debuts June 8.

Exhaust: Here’s what we know, and suspect, about the three-row Lexus GX, which hasn’t had a significant update since 2009: The V-8 goes away, replaced by a V-6, likely with hybrid power and maybe twin turbos. Towing capacity is a selling point for current GX owners, so we’re expecting robust numbers there. We figure it’s being built on the LX chassis, knowing Toyota’s propensity for platform-sharing. The bottom line is, the ancient GX still sells well, so Lexus’ mandate is to bring in some new (read: younger) customers, without annoying the mass of GX owners already out there. — SCS

IIHS, Consumer Reports update list of good cars for teens



Intake: Consumer Reports and the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety have updated their list of the best first cars for teens. One list is for used cars, and the other is for new cars. The most useful list is likely the “good” used cars under $20,000. The used cars must have a good safety rating per the IIHS, and a good reliability record per the magazine. Interestingly, there are SUVs but no pickups are included on the used list.

Exhaust:  Among the recommended small cars, for instance: Kia Soul, Toyota Corolla, Chevrolet Volt, Honda Civic sedan, and Toyota Prius. Check the list here for the suggested model years. In midsized cars, it’s the Ford Fusion, Honda Accord coupe or sedan, Toyota Camry, Toyota Prius V, and the most likely choice your teen will campaign for, the BMW 3 Series sedan and the Audi A4. — SCS

Genesis moves all GV70 production to Alabama plant



Intake: Genesis announced that it would move the production of all GV70 models to its Montgomery, Alabama, plant. Starting with the 2024 model year, all GV70 models will originate from the plant, a shift from before when just the electrified GV70 was made there. Production of the electrified GV70 began earlier this year. Previously, the GV70 was assembled in Genesis’ Ulsan, South Korea plant. The Montgomery plant received an investment of over $300 million to enhance the facility, which added warehouse space and modifications to the stamping and weld shops for the creation of the GV70 vehicle bodies.

Exhaust: The electric GV70 had to be assembled here to qualify for some of the tax credit that the Inflation Reduction Act was offering, but the decision to move all GV70 production for the American market to U.S. shores makes a lot of sense. Other luxury players such as BMW and Mercedes also assemble some of their best-selling models stateside as well. — Nathan Petroelje

 

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]]> https://www.hagerty.com/media/news/the-manifold/2023-05-26/feed/ 5 https://www.hagerty.com/media/motorsports/r-c-enerson-on-racing-at-indy-its-friggin-difficult-seriously/ https://www.hagerty.com/media/motorsports/r-c-enerson-on-racing-at-indy-its-friggin-difficult-seriously/#comments Fri, 26 May 2023 13:00:10 GMT https://www.hagerty.com/media/?p=316038

R.C. Enerson is a racer. Any time there’s action, he wants to be on track.

Except last Sunday. Enerson, 26, wanted nothing to do with the Sunday activities, nor did any other driver. The Indianapolis 500 allows 33 cars, and last Saturday, organizers locked in the 30 fastest. Sunday was a mad scramble, four cars fighting for the last three starting spots.

The slowest of the four turned out to be veteran Graham Rahal, driving for his father, 1986 Indy 500 winner Bobby Rahal. But his team just couldn’t get the car up to speed. Graham was moved to tears—broadcast to the world, by the way—at the prospect of missing out on his 16th Indianapolis 500. He was comforted by his wife, former NHRA Funny Car driver Courtney Force, but still the tears flowed. That’s how important the Indianapolis 500 is.

(As it happens in racing, driver Stefan Wilson, brother of Justin Wilson, who was killed in a crash in 2015 at Pocono, crashed hard in Monday practice, breaking a vertebra. He underwent surgery Wednesday night and will make a full recovery, but he can’t race. His last-minute sub: Graham Rahal, who will have something to prove.)

Anyway, back to Enerson, a 26-year-old rookie with a handful of IndyCar starts under his belt. Two years ago, he was part of that desperate Sunday scrum. Like Rahal, he ended by packing up and going home. This year, no such problem. He’ll start Sunday’s race from 29th.



Fresh from the official rookie luncheon at the Speedway—“chicken parm, sitting on a pile of mashed potatoes”—Enerson suggested that he still has a lot to learn. Qualifying is relatively straightforward: four laps by yourself, wide open, just hanging on. Racing in traffic is a different beast.

“I’m definitely behind on learning how to run in traffic and getting used to that whole scenario. We just focused straight-up on qualifying the entire week, and yesterday was my first day running in traffic [at Indy], ever, and it was eye-opening.”

Enerson has raced, and won, in IndyCar’s feeder series, and that helped prepare him a little. “The amount of air wash you get is pretty similar, but you’re going way faster, so it’s really a pain in the butt. It’s friggin’ difficult, seriously.”

As for qualifying early, “That was great. That was our goal, to get into the show on day one.” Enerson’s four-lap average was 231.129 mph. He’ll start behind Devlin DeFrancesco and in front of Sting Ray Robb. (Yes, that’s his real name; his father liked Corvettes.) On the pole is Álex Palou, with a speed of 234.217 mph.



Enerson took most of 2022 off from racing, working as chief instructor at the family-owned racing school. He did some private coaching, too. “But a lot of our time was spent trying to put together a program. It’s so difficult to find opportunities, especially as popular as IndyCar is getting right now.”

Enerson and his father own the car he’s in, and they’ve teamed up with Abel Racing to help put the number 50 on track. Bill Abel owns a construction company in Kentucky, and it has been his dream, too, to enter the Indy 500. Together with Abel, the Enersons hired John Brunner, 59, an experienced team manager. Says R.C.: “We’ve known of Abel Racing, and [of] Jacob Abel when he was racing in the FR Americas series. We’ve known Bill for a long time—he’s very passionate about motorsports, and his son Jacob has aspirations of making it to IndyCar, so we kind of just floated the idea out there, and quite honestly, I thought he would say no.

“But we just started talking, and deciding we were going to do it around February. The car was in the shop so we just started prepping the car.” They still didn’t have an engine—there are only so many to go around, but Chevrolet stepped up with a powerplant.

This is the same exact car in which Enerson, a native of New Port Richey, Florida, tried in 2021 to qualify. The difference between not making the race then, and making it now, is preparation. All the cars are essentially identical Dallaras, and can only run Chevrolet or Honda engines. The real speed—those last two or three miles per hour—comes when a team tweaks everything it can touch.

“The fact that we were as fast as we were in 2021 is amazing—I mean, we got the car just 38 days before Indy practice. In boxes. There was no body fit, no polishing the floors, no work done on the uprights or the gearbox, and all of that equates to miles per hour,” says Enerson. “It’s all about the car being freed up, with the proper setup it takes to go after the speed.”



So how about the rest of the 2023? “We wanted to focus on Indy first. Then we’ll talk with the team and see if there’s any kind of plan we can come up with for the rest of the year. I highly doubt we’ll do any IndyCar races for the simple fact that there’s already 27 full-time cars, so we’ll just have to see. Some testing might be on the menu, you never know.”

While Enerson has been running open-wheel cars since his karting days, he did get a shot running a NASCAR Xfinity and a Cup car on road courses, and he raced a prototype sports car in IMSA.

“Yeah, I’m definitely interested in more NASCAR or IMSA racing,” says Enerson. “Since we’ll probably not do any more IndyCar races this year, I’m looking to see what’s available on the NASCAR side of things. IMSA seems pretty booked up at the moment, but obviously I’m hoping to be a part of as much racing as I can.”

Enerson recalls his first experience in the NASCAR Xfinity car. “Oh my gosh. It was in 2020 during COVID, so there was zero practice and no qualifying. You just randomly drew your spot, and I was starting behind [road racing ace] Andy Lally and in front of A.J. Allmendinger.” The latter is more of an accomplished NASCAR road racer than Lally, who is a former NASCAR Cup rookie of the year.

“I had never driven the car. I was buckled up on the grid, with the window net up, and the mechanic was on the radio saying, ‘This is how you start it …’ I’ve never been so unprepared for a race in my life. On the way out of the pits he was saying, ‘Turn the brake fans on,’ and I’m like, there are 15 switches in here, and none of them are labeled ‘brake fans!’”



There are no brake fans on an IndyCar, so he should be good on Sunday. “I’m so excited,” he said. “This is something I’ve dreamed about.”

Jewel will sing the U.S. national anthem at 12:24 p.m. ET, Jim Cornelison sings “Back Home Again in Indiana” at 12:36 p.m., and the 107th running of the Indianapolis 500 takes the green flag at 12:45 p.m. It airs on NBC.

Keep an eye on the number 50 car. R.C. Enerson would friggin’ appreciate it.

 

***

 

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]]> https://www.hagerty.com/media/motorsports/r-c-enerson-on-racing-at-indy-its-friggin-difficult-seriously/feed/ 1 https://www.hagerty.com/media/news/the-manifold/2023-05-24/ https://www.hagerty.com/media/news/the-manifold/2023-05-24/#comments Wed, 24 May 2023 15:00:05 GMT https://www.hagerty.com/media/?p=315629

BMW’s eighth-gen 5 Series brings two new EVs

Intake: BMW has revealed the new eighth-generation 5 Series, and part of the package is the premiere of two all-electric models, each dubbed i5. There are two variants: the i5 M60 xDrive model has 590 hp and can sprint from 0 to 60 mph in 3.7 seconds, with an estimated 256-mile range. The i5 eDrive 40 has 335 hp, and an estimated 295-mile range. The i5 M60 xDrive starts at $85,095 including shipping. The i5 eDrive 40 starts at $67,795. There are three other gas-powered 5 Series models: The 530i, the 530i xDrive, both four-cylinder models, and the straight-six-powered 540i xDrive. Coming to the U.S. in 2024 will be a plug-in hybrid system.

Exhaust: New features for these 2023 model year BMWs include the Highway Assistant, which allows “attentive hands-free driving at up to 85 mph.” And there’s the “World-first Active Lane Change with eye activation.” The global market launch of BMW’s new 5 Series will begin in October 2023. The new model has grown in length by 3.4 inches, in width by 1.3, and in height by 1.4. The wheelbase has been increased by nearly an inch to 117.9, a change which should improve passenger comfort, especially in the rear. —Steven Cole Smith



 

Aston Martin will get Honda power in new F1 deal

Intake: Honda will return to the Formula 1 grid in full strength as of 2026, when the Japanese company will supply powertrains for Aston Martin’s race cars. F1’s new engine regulations have tempted Honda back again, even though it could be argued that the firm never really left. Honda officially pulled out at the end of 2021, despite Max Verstappen winning the Drivers’ World Championship for Red Bull, and is still involved in supporting the energy drinks-driven team through 2025. From 2026, however, Honda Racing Corporation (HRC) will again offer full factory support to an F1 team. “In this project, HRC will design, develop, and manufacture the power unit and supply it to Aston. Aston will design, develop, and manufacture the chassis and other components,” said HRC President Koji Watanabe.

Exhaust: Why the U-turn? It’s all down to the more sustainable racing regulations that come into force in 2026. These rules shift the balance of F1’s hybrid setup, mandating an even 50:50 split between the power produced by the internal combustion engine (ICE) and the electric motors. The ICE unit will also be powered by 100 percent sustainable fuel. “This decision was made largely in pursuit of Honda’s goal of carbon neutrality, as the 2026 F1 regulations will demand the usage of electric power and other [sustainable sources] more than three times than the current regulations,” explains Watanabe. — Nik Berg

Ford backtracks, won’t kill AM radio



Intake: In a tweet, Ford CEO Jim Farley announced that the company will keep AM radio in all 2024 Ford and Lincoln models and restore it on two electric vehicles via a software update. Farley said the decision was made after speaking with “policy leaders” about the need for AM radio “as a part of the emergency alert system.” The company removed AM radio from the Mustang Mach-E and F-150 Lightning and planned to discontinue it on future products. “Customers can currently listen to AM radio content in a variety of ways in our vehicles—including via streaming—and we will continue to innovate to deliver even better in-vehicle entertainment and emergency notification options in the future,” he said.

Exhaust: Farley’s move comes a week after a group of bipartisan federal legislators introduced a bill to bar carmakers from eliminating AM broadcast radio on new cars and light trucks, citing safety concerns. The bill would direct NHTSA to issue regulations to mandate AM radio in new vehicles without additional charge. U.S. Senator Edward Markey, one of the sponsors of the bill, on praised Ford’s reversal. “AM radio is more than just an essential safety feature—it’s a free, accessible source for anyone to listen to music, news, sports and entertainment.” —SCS

Designed by F1 champ, new electric superbike will cost $87,000



Intake: Two-time Formula 1 champion Mika Häkkinen has partnered with Verge to create an electric luxury superbike that will be limited to just 100 units. A motor is located in the very futuristic-looking, hubless rear wheel, an arrangement that all but eliminates the drivetrain. Power is held in a 20-kWh battery that can be fast-charged in just 35 minutes and provides almost 220 miles of range. A full suite of riders aids include ABS, traction control, and customizable rider modes. Verge has a U.S. base of operations in San Francisco, California, but has yet to open a dealer location.

Exhaust: New electric motorcycles seem to be popping up from just about everywhere, and are currently targeted at well-heeled buyers. A startup with this price tag likely won’t have trouble finding buyers with a name like Häkkinen on board. Even with the bikes impressive specs, Verge may find this bike a tough to sell without a single U.S. dealer. — Kyle Smith 

Mercedes-Maybach goes dark with Night Series design package



Intake: Mercedes-Maybach has announced a new design package for its high-end models called the Night Series. The Night Series package is available on the 2024 Maybach S-Class, the GLS SUV, and the EQS electric SUV. It brings dark chrome styling elements with rose gold details, as well as an extravagant new wheel design and plenty of herringbone interior accents. The cars will still wear Maybach’s distinctive two-tone paint job, with silver up top. The double-M emblem is shot-gunned all over the vehicles, from the grilles to the fancy wheels. The Night Series package will be made available later this year immediately following the debut of the 2024 Mercedes-Maybach S-Class and the EQS electric SUV. The package will be made available for the GLS SUV early next year.

Exhaust: Once a relatively quiet form of ultra-luxury, Maybach is becoming quite shouty. It’s not our cup of tea, but the Maybach folks wouldn’t release a bold package like this without some data suggesting customers will love it. — Nathan Petroelje

NHTSA proposes pedestrian crash tests



Intake: The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has proposed updates to its New Car Assessment Program (NCAP) to include pedestrian crashworthiness tests, according to Automotive News. The updates would add tests to measure pedestrian protection in a vehicle collision, plus test the ability of advanced driver-assistance systems to prevent such a collision, according to NHTSA’s request for public comment issued Monday. “These proposed updates to NCAP are an important step in addressing the crisis of roadway deaths in America,” NHTSA chief counsel Ann Carlson said in a statement. “Vehicles must be designed to protect their occupants while increasing safety for those outside the vehicle, too.”

Exhaust: Pedestrian deaths have been on the rise in the U.S. in recent years, a trend blamed on worsening driving behaviors since the pandemic. Drivers struck and killed 3434 people in the first six months of 2022, the most recent data available. That amounted to an average of 19 fatalities per day. —SCS

California seeks EPA approval for ICE ban



Intake: According to an exclusive by Reuters, California is asking the Biden administration for permission to implement limits on ICE engine emissions, ending with a complete ban on gas-powered cars and trucks by 2035, “a landmark move that could speed the end of gasoline-powered vehicles, according to a letter seen by Reuters.” The California Air Resources Board, which approved the plan in August, asked the Environmental Protection Agency on Monday to approve a waiver under the Clean Air Act to implement its new rules that set yearly rising zero emission vehicle rules starting in 2026 and would end the sales of vehicles only powered by gasoline by 2035.

Exhaust: If California gets its way, only electric and hybrid vehicles could be sold in the state starting in 2035. The Biden administration has repeatedly refused to endorse setting a date to phase out the sale of gasoline-only vehicles. In the EPA approves the request, it’s likely that other states—including Rhode Island, Washington, Virginia, Vermont, Oregon, New York, and Massachusetts—may follow suit. —SCS

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]]> https://www.hagerty.com/media/news/the-manifold/2023-05-24/feed/ 11 https://www.hagerty.com/media/news/the-manifold/2023-05-16/ https://www.hagerty.com/media/news/the-manifold/2023-05-16/#comments Tue, 16 May 2023 15:00:19 GMT https://www.hagerty.com/media/?p=313707

Honda possibly brewing an S2000 successor

Intake: According to a new report from Autocar, there’s a chance that Honda will reveal a new sportscar in celebration of its 75^th anniversary, which is this year. The brand’s European vice president, Tom Gardner, told Autocar that Honda sees sports cars as a valuable part of the brand’s overall image. “We love performance, and we’re very grateful for the strong reaction we’ve had to the latest [Civic] Type R,” Gardner said. “Watch this space: [2023 is] 75 years—we had the S2000 at 50. Who knows…”

Exhaust: Honda previously told Autocar that the Type R brand will continue beyond today’s Civic Type R, though there’s no guarantee that the next model wouldn’t be an EV. Last year, Honda confirmed that it would introduce an electric successor to the Acura NSX and a new flagship style grand touring car as part of a wave of 30 new electric vehicles being launched globally by the brand by 2030. However, given that there’s only half the year remaining, if Honda were to reveal an S2000 successor, we’d expect to hear official news soon. Here’s to hoping! — Nathan Petroelje

This full-size Tamiya Wild One is no toy



Intake: Britain’s The Little Car Company is getting bigger. The firm, which makes the three-quarter-sized Bugatti Baby II and Ferrari Testarossa J for the offspring of wealthy car collectors is set to launch a new full-size machine for kids who never grew up. The Tamiya Wild One Max is a replica of the 1980s’ radio-controlled buggy that thumb-jockeys raced in their gardens and local parks, but scaled up to fit two adults. Fully electric, just like the original, it’s powered by a 14.4-kW battery pack and will be capable of 60 mph. Long travel suspension with all-round double wishbones means it’ll tackle the rough and tumble with ease but the Wild One Max will also be road legal in the U.K. and Europe, classed as a quadricycle. Weighing in at under 1000 pounds, an initial run of 100 Launch Editions will be built before other versions become available—potentially including a highly-appropriate home-build kit.

Exhaust: Here’s proof that electric cars can be a hoot and all it took was a pair of toymakers to get together and scale up their design. Some legacy car makers could certainly learn a thing or two from Tamiya. — Nik Berg

Average age of U.S. fleet swells to 12.5 years, report says



Intake: The average age of cars and light trucks in the U.S. has risen again this year to a new record of 12.5 years, up by more than three months over 2022, according to the latest analysis from S&P Global Mobility. The growth is in line with the firm’s prediction from last year that “constrained” new vehicle sales would continue to put upward pressure on the average age. This is the sixth straight year of increase in the average vehicle age of the U.S. fleet.  It also reflects the highest yearly increase since the 2008–2009 recession, which caused an acceleration in average age beyond its traditional rate due to the sharp decline in new-vehicle sales demand.

Exhaust: “Despite economic headwinds,” new vehicle sales are projected to surpass 14.5 million units in 2023, according to S&P forecasts, which is expected to curb the rate of average age growth in the coming year. “While pressure will remain on average age in 2023, we expect the curve to begin to flatten this year as we look toward returning to historical norms for new vehicle sales in 2024,” said Todd Campau, associate director of aftermarket solutions for S&P Global Mobility. — Steven Cole Smith

132,000 Jeep Cherokees recalled for fire risk



Intake: Stellantis has announced a recall for 132,000 Jeep Cherokees for an electrical short in the power liftgate module that could cause the vehicle to catch fire. The recall, according to a document filed by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), involves 2014–2016 model year Cherokees equipped with the power liftgate. Stellantis is warning affected owners to park their vehicles outside until repairs are made. A fix for the issue is still in development, according to the NHTSA filing, and as of April of this year, Jeep was not aware of any injuries related to the issue. Jeep will begin notifying dealers and affected customers in late June.

Exhaust: According to Automotive News, this is the third recall related to this issue since 2015. While nowhere near as substantial as the recall we covered yesterday involving 67 million vehicles equipped with potentially faulty airbag inflators, a vehicle that poses an increased fire risk is nothing to scoff at. If your daily driver fits the description above, park outside and keep an eye on the mail. — NP

Tesla still tops in California sales



Intake: Tesla continues to have the two top-selling vehicles in California, with the Tesla Model Y extending its number 1 sales lead and the Model 3 holding strong at number 2, says Electrek.co. But other manufacturers’ sales are picking up too, leading the state to a 23.2 percent market share for vehicles with plugs—19.5 percent battery electric vehicles, and 3.7 percent plug-in hybrids. The data comes from the California New Car Dealers’ Association, showing trends in auto sales. These trends have been interesting to watch from an EV perspective, given California’s status as the EV market share leader in the U.S., Electrek.co notes.

Exhaust: Tesla’s Elon Musk has been raising and lowering Tesla prices consistently in the past few months, gauging what it takes to maintain some movement in inventory. Apparently it’s working, especially with the Models Y and 3. — SCS

 

***

 

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]]> https://www.hagerty.com/media/news/the-manifold/2023-05-16/feed/ 7 https://www.hagerty.com/media/advice/piston-slap/piston-slap-a-civics-front-wheel-driven-pizzicato/ https://www.hagerty.com/media/advice/piston-slap/piston-slap-a-civics-front-wheel-driven-pizzicato/#comments Sun, 14 May 2023 13:00:29 GMT https://www.hagerty.com/media/?p=312633



David writes: 

Sajeev,

The car: A 2008 Civic with 143K miles. I’ve put 108K on the car since I bought it in January 2012.

The noise: I hear it whether the engine is on or off, and whether the car is rolling or still.

It sounds like: Imagine a bunch of rubber bands, and the sound they would make when you pluck them if pulled taut. These would be slender rubber bands, like the strings on a string instrument. I don’t hear it under acceleration, only when turning the steering wheel. And the frequency of pluck sounds increases with the speed of the turning of the wheel.

When I turn the wheel, I get maybe 5–6 plucking sounds per quarter turn. This symptom has probably been going on for 3–4 years. A year ago, I barely heard them if I was driving (as opposed to turning the wheel with the car stationary). Now I often hear them when I’m driving. They’ve gotten a lot louder in the last year.

I recently had some front “links” replaced. I suspect that if there had been ripped or leaking CV boots my mechanic would have told me, and I think he would have looked for that (but I will ask him). What say you?

Sajeev answers:

Well, that’s a new one for me, as I’ve never heard a front end noise that’s on par with the classical pizzicato! I’d normally think a car produces a clunking or clicking sound when the wheel is turned, which indicates bad CV axles. The rubber band pizzicato sound would likely come from a loading/unloading of a rubber part, and the sound must come from something with a fair bit of resonance when, ahem, plucked.

Ball joints won’t resonate. Neither will CV axles. Maybe the front anti-roll bar (i.e. swaybar) because that is a long hunk of metal. Some of them are also hollow, too. But I recently handled a pair of coil springs, summarily dropping them in a pile of metal scrap. Let me tell you, that sound was quite resonant.

The tone sustained for at least a couple of seconds … Could it be coming from the coil spring? If so, you have an issue with the front strut mounts (at the top) or the coil spring isolators (at the bottom). Which one could it be? The answer is wholly irrelevant. 



Here’s the thing: Taking apart the front struts to address the “pizzicato generator” is a waste of time. And time is money, if you’re paying someone to do this work. Instead, get a complete strut+spring assembly that bolts in place of the worn out part. A pair of these will set you back under $400 (online), and your local mechanic will thank you for it—nobody wants to compress springs unless they have to.

Plus, these drop-in kits are way better for the driver, as your dampers have deteriorated over the last 15 years and 143,000 miles. (Either you’ve noticed a change, or they’ve done so at a rate so slow that you could never tell.)

So the answer is clear: Get the benefit of new springy bits whilst addressing that errant pizzicato in your Honda’s front end! What say you, Hagerty Community?

Have a question you’d like answered in Piston Slap? Send your queries to pistonslap@hagerty.com—give us as much detail as possible so we can help! Keep in mind this is a weekly column, so if you need an expedited answer, please tell me in your email.

 

***

 

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]]> https://www.hagerty.com/media/advice/piston-slap/piston-slap-a-civics-front-wheel-driven-pizzicato/feed/ 2 https://www.hagerty.com/media/news/the-manifold/2023-04-26/ https://www.hagerty.com/media/news/the-manifold/2023-04-26/#comments Wed, 26 Apr 2023 15:00:41 GMT https://www.hagerty.com/media/?p=309034

New Toyota Tacoma has removable Bluetooth speaker

Intake: The teasers keep coming for the 2024 Tacoma, one of 2023’s most hotly anticipated vehicles. Most recently, Toyota has revealed that the newest version of its midsize pickup will feature a removable Bluetooth speaker made by JBL, which mounts into the center of the dashboard. JBL has been Toyota’s premium audio partner of choice for some time now, and we’d bet that this feature will be offered on higher-trim Tacomas, such as the Trailhunter, that was teased earlier this year. The 2024 Tacoma will, at least on some trim levels, offer a hybrid drivetrain, likely pairing the 48-hp, 104-lb-ft AC electric motor from the Tundra with some sort of four-cylinder engine. Expect the 2024 Tacoma to be revealed in full sometime later this year.

Exhaust: Though the new Tacoma won’t be the first truck to offer a removable Bluetooth speaker—Rivian’s R1T also does—it’s still a neat feature. If nothing else, fire up The Benny Hill Show theme song while you’re setting up camp. — Nathan Petroelje



Meet McLaren’s lightest, most powerful production car



Intake: McLaren has overhauled the 720S, cutting weight and adding extra grunt to make it the most lightweight and most powerful series-production car the company has produced. Now known as the 750S, the car is 66 pounds lighter and packs an extra 30 horsepower. McLaren claims that around 30 percent of the 750S’s components are new, including a new front splitter, air intakes, front and rear bumpers, and a revised active rear wing. Inside there are featherweight carbon-fiber seats, a column-mounted instrument display, and rocker switches to control drive modes. Apple CarPlay is now included—because McLaren is evidently smarter than Chevrolet—but most of the entertainment will come from the car’s 750-hp V-8 engine which drives the rear wheels and can launch the car from rest to 62 mph in 2.8 seconds and to 120 mph in 7.2. The electro-hydraulic steering has a quicker ratio, and the linked hydraulic suspension gets lighter springs and dampers and revised geometry. A track brake upgrade is optional which uses ceramic brakes and monobloc calipers from the Senna. It’s available to order now as a coupe or convertible, but prices have yet to be confirmed.

Exhaust: McLaren doesn’t namecheck the Ferrari 296 GTB in its launch material, but when it says the 750S has a “segment-leading power-to-weight ratio” and weighs “a remarkable 193 kg (425 pounds) less than its closest competitor,” it’s the Ferrari that the firm is referencing. We look forward to the first back-to-back test. — Nik Berg

2024 E-Class is more butler-like than ever



Intake: Mercedes’ new E-Class is here, with styling inspiration taken from the brand’s electric models and driver-assist tech taken from … well, Jeeves—if he were into techno and thought ChatGPT was neat. Not only will the ambient lighting pulse along with your tunes; spring for the dash-width Superscreen display, and you can take Zoom calls from the driver’s seat … when you aren’t using the dash to play Angry Birds or scroll TikTok. Tack on the MBUX Interior Assistant package, and Benz will fit two infrared cameras into the front of the cabin, allowing you and your passenger to instruct the car via gestures. You can also build “routines,” as Benz calls them, where a spoken command prompts the car to adjust the cabin conditions under certain conditions. Want the seat to blow cool air on you whenever outside temps are above 75 degrees Fahrenheit? Plug that into the dash, and set the spoken prompt as “damn, it’s hot outside.” The adaptive cruise-control system has even learned to edge off-center in a lane if an adjacent semi is oozing over the dashed white line.

The whole car is only slightly bigger than the one it replaces, just (.87 inches) longer between the axles. Nomenclature and engine choices remain the same: a 2.0-liter four-cylinder, now making 22 more lb-ft of torque than it did in the 2023 car, for the all-wheel-drive E350 4Matic; and a 3.0-liter six, with 7 more hp, for the all-wheel-drive E450 4Matic. Both engines are mild hybrids, thanks to an integrated starter-generator. The new E-Class will go on sale later this year.

Exhaust: A favorite detail: If you’re alone in the vehicle, the E-Class’s voice recognition system no longer requires you to preface commands with “Hey, Mercedes.” For those who relish a one-sided rant with themselves in the car, this could get … interesting. — Grace Houghton

Biggest Defender gets JLR’s best engine



Intake: Land Rover just announced that the 2024 Defender 130, the long-wheelbase version of its stalwart off-roader, is getting a V-8. Specifically, the 5.0-liter supercharged V-8 that’s also offered in the two-door Defender 90 and four-door, regular-length Defender 110. In the 130, the V-8 is detuned slightly, offering 493 hp and 450 lb-ft of torque, down 25 hp and 11 lb-ft. Performance figures are still plenty stout—the V-8-equipped Defender 130 will clip 62 mph from a standstill in as little as 5.4 seconds, according to Land Rover. The V-8 joins two 3.0-liter, mild hybrid straight-six powertrains for the Defender 130. Equipped with the V-8, the Defender 130 will start at $118,075, including destination. Orders are open now.

Exhaust: Folks shelling out six figures for a luxurious, off-road SUV certainly love their choice of power, so JLR’s decision to offer the V-8 across the Defender lineup is certainly a smart one … especially since it, along with all of the brand’s gas engines, may soon become extinct. — Nathan Petroelje

Honda zeroes in on electric motorcycles, GM alliance



Intake: Honda’s 2023 business briefing laid out the company’s plans to ditch internal-combustion engines by 2040, expand its procurement of battery materials, and continue the development of a fuel-cell powertrain. Other specific milestones included the launch of 10 electric motorcycles across global markets and the strengthening of its EV partnership with GM. That partnership will produce the 2024 Honda Prologue and the Acura ZDX, as well as several “affordable” EVs by 2027. In the meantime, Honda is developing its own EV platform that will debut in North America in 2025. Honda also plans to expand its software development, with its own vehicle operating systems (O.S.) debuting in those 2025 EV models.

Exhaust: Honda seems to be covering all the bases. We’re particularly interested in seeing which EV motorcycles make it to North America, as we’ve been impressed with the performance of LiveWire models and would like to see how Honda tackles the challenges of packaging an electric motorcycle. — Brandan Gillogly

***

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]]> https://www.hagerty.com/media/news/the-manifold/2023-04-26/feed/ 6 https://www.hagerty.com/media/news/the-manifold/2023-04-20/ https://www.hagerty.com/media/news/the-manifold/2023-04-20/#comments Thu, 20 Apr 2023 15:00:42 GMT https://www.hagerty.com/media/?p=306458



Civic Type R sets FWD record at Nürburgring

Intake: A 2023 Honda Civic Type R has set a new front-wheel-drive track record at the 12.9-mile Nürburgring Nordschleife circuit in Germany, considered the most challenging road course in the world. The Civic Type R, the most powerful Honda production vehicle ever sold in the U.S., lapped the track in 7 minutes, 44.881 seconds. The previous record was set six years ago by the previous-generation Civic Type R. The only performance difference from stock was the addition of  Michelin Pilot Sport Cup 2 Connect tires, which are available through Honda dealers.

Exhaust: Said Hideki Kakinuma, Civic Type R Development Leader: “Since the start of sales in Japan in September 2022, we have received numerous customer feedback from all around the world filled with amazement and joy, far exceeding our expectations. However, we still had one more mission to fulfill, which was to claim the title as the world’s fastest FWD car with a record Nürburgring lap time.” The 315-horsepower Civic Type R has starting price of $42,895. For comparison, the current overall street-legal lap record is 6:30.705, set by the Mercedes-AMG One at the ‘Ring last October. — Steven Cole Smith 



131,700 Ram pickups recalled for stalling issue



Intake: Chrysler is recalling 131,700 2021 Ram 1500 trucks in North America equipped with the 5.7-liter eTorque V-8 engines over the risk of stalling out. The powertrain control module software may create an incorrect fuel mixture in the engine, which can stall it, creating a potentially hazardous situation. The engine can turn off without warning, possibly causing a crash, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

Exhaust: As of March 30, one accident and no injuries were reported in relation to the issue. Owners will be notified by mail beginning June 2, 2023. Dealers will update the powertrain control module calibration software for free. — SCS

Maserati’s second EV, the Grecale Folgore, debuts in Shanghai



Intake: Maserati unveiled another all-electric vehicle at the Shanghai Auto Show this week. The Grecale Folgore becomes the second EV revealed by the Milanese firm, joining the GranTurismo Folgore which was revealed late last year. The Grecale Folgore is a compact luxury crossover, while the GranTurismo Folgore remains a slinky-looking coupe that reportedly boasts nearly 760 hp. Maserati has committed to making electric versions of all its models by 2025, as well as exclusively electric vehicles by 2030. That means there’s a battery-powered version of the MC20 sports car in the works, as well as an electric Levante, and the Quattroporte.

Exhaust: While Maserati’s electrification strategy appears more conservative than some of its rivals like Mercedes or Audi, the Trident-adorned cars are already quite attractive looking, so perhaps the team feels no need to radically reinvent the lines of these machines to show how they can look with battery power. We’re quite fine with that. — Nathan Petroelje

Certain VW, Rivian models qualify for tax credits after all



Intake: Left off the original list, Volkswagen and Rivian have confirmed that certain electric models they make are eligible for tax credits under the U.S. Treasury Department criteria, says Automotive News. All models of the 2023 ID.4 are eligible for the full $7,500 tax credit this year. Said Pablo Di Si, CEO of VW Group of America: “This shows that we made the right decision to localize production of the ID4 in Tennessee and invest even further in battery production, components and innovation.” Also, certain Rivian R1S and R1T configurations are eligible for a $3,750 credit. While the Rivian SUV and pickup start in the $70,000s, most are expected to be configured at sticker prices higher than the $80,000 maximum threshold. That would make them ineligible for the credit.

Exhaust: Under the Inflation Reduction Act, buyers who meet income thresholds can get a tax credit of $3,750 or $7,500 for new EVs assembled in North America that also meet stricter battery sourcing restrictions. Those rebates “ramp up over time, maxing out at 80 percent in 2027 for minerals and 100 percent in 2029 for battery components,” Automotive News says. It’s apparent the list of eligible models is a moving target, so expect more additions and subtractions over time. — SCS

Volvo now has the Waze, and the means



Intake: Volvo has become the first manufacturer to offer the useful Waze navigation and information app to U.S. drivers as part of the car’s infotainment system. “Our in-car app library just grew one app larger today as Waze becomes available to all Volvo cars with Google built-in around the globe. Our collaboration also brings the in-car Waze app to drivers in the U.S. for the first time,” the company says. There’s a one-time setup for Waze after downloading the app in the Google Play Store in your Volvo car. “No matter who’s driving the car and what device they use, navigation with Waze will be just one simple tap away.”

Exhaust: The in-car Waze app helps make things easier by avoiding phone-related distractions while continuing to offer the functionalities that you’ve come to expect from the Waze app on your mobile phone. Displayed on Volvo’s infotainment system, the in-car Waze app “utilizes more of the center screen in the Volvo user interface you’re most familiar with, making navigation more comfortable with a bigger and bolder eye-level display area.” — SCS

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]]> https://www.hagerty.com/media/news/the-manifold/2023-04-20/feed/ 3 https://www.hagerty.com/media/news/the-manifold/2023-04-19/ https://www.hagerty.com/media/news/the-manifold/2023-04-19/#comments Wed, 19 Apr 2023 15:00:13 GMT https://www.hagerty.com/media/?p=307153



Ford shows every color of new Mustang

Intake: Ford made an animated image to highlight the several shades of blue, gray, silver, and red, plus the requisite black and white, that will be offered on the 2024 Mustang. Two noteworthy shades are the iconic Grabber Blue, which returns for 2024, and Ember Blue, only available on the Dark Horse. The sheer volume of grayscale colors might put you in a somber mood, but at least Yellow Splash and Race Red can brighten up the EcoBoost and GT trim levels.

Exhaust: Take a look at Dodge’s kaleidoscopic palette for its rear-wheel drive performance machines, and you might hear a sad trombone playing as you watch Ford’s animation. (I’d take a Dark Horse in Mopar’s F8 Green.) But Ford and Mopar fans can both agree that no matter what the .gif’s creator says, if the first word of an acronym is “graphics,” you pronounce it “gif” and not “jif.” Because graphics are not ju-raphics. — Sajeev Mehta



Rivian to open charging network to public



Intake: A new report from Automotive News indicates that Rivian will open its rapidly growing, proprietary charging network to the public as early as next year, according to executives at the company. The Rivian Adventure Network currently has 30 sites using DC fast chargers that were developed and manufactured at the automaker’s Normal, Illinois, factory, but it has hundreds more in the works. CEO RJ Scaringe says the company is targeting 600 locations within two years, with six chargers at every location—sometimes more. He sees opening the network to the public as a way to help alleviate a massive pain point to EV ownership. “In the United States, there’s been a massive underinvestment in charging infrastructure,” said Scaringe on the tech podcast WVFRM earlier this month. “A year from now, the density of Rivian chargers will really help solve a lot of these core issues, and we’ll see third-party networks start to build up as well.”

Exhaust: If this sounds a lot like what Tesla recently did, that’s intentional. At a recent investor conference, Rivian CFO Claire McDonough suggested that Rivian could receive government funds, like Tesla did, to bolster its charging network—on the condition that the stations would eventually be open to the public. With charging infrastructure trailing EV adoption, this move is good news for anyone whose ride uses electrons instead of gasoline. — Nathan Petroelje

Honda Trail125 lightly refreshed for 2023



Intake: Honda’s powersports lineup is focused on many types of buyers, but those looking for fun, nostalgic rides don’t have to look much further than the Trail125, which is returning for 2023 with an updated engine that, Honda claims, increases efficiency. With electronic fuel injection and enough off-road capability to go just about anywhere, the Trail125 is an easy choice for anyone craving two-wheel adventure. Buyers looking for 2023 models don’t have to wait to get their hands on one; they can find the new Pearl Organic Green color at their local Honda dealer this month.

Exhaust: Continuing the Trail125 model seems like a no-brainer to us, and we are happy to see even slight updates that show Honda is not going to just let the model age out on its own. Combining the style of those classic ’60s models with modern suspension, braking, and engine tech is a winning package.— Kyle Smith

Mercedes-Maybach goes electric



Intake: Another one of the automotive landscape’s most luxurious nameplates is going electric. This new Mercedes-Maybach SUV, dubbed EQS 680, is based on the (slightly) more pedestrian EQS 580 SUV from Mercedes-Benz, but Maybach turns the swank to 11 with touches like an upright Mercedes star on the hood, 22-inch monoblock wheels, and two-tone paint with hand-applied pinstripe. Inside, things get even ritzier. Aside from the gargantuan 56-inch hyperscreen in the front, rear-seat occupants also get dual 11.6-inch displays mounted to the front seatbacks as well as a detachable tablet than can be used even while outside of the vehicle. Gorgeous Nappa Leather in all sorts of browns, whites, and tans can be selected, as can scores of natural wood decorative touches. Those lounging in row two will get heated, cooling, and massaging seats as standard, with the option to add things like calf massagers to their build. Champagne coolers, thermal cupholders, and the like are on offer—as they should be.

No word yet on battery size, but we know that the Maybach EQS 680 SUV’s two electric motors churn out a combined 649 hp and 700 lb-ft of torque and that Mercedes estimates roughly 350–370 miles of range.

Exhaust: Mercedes-Maybach was keen to highlight just how much engineering and thought went into the noise, vibration, and harshness (NVH) management for this ride—particularly for those sitting in the rear. Expect to be able to hear the bubbles in your champagne while on the go. How luxurious! — Nathan Petroelje

Lordstown motors resumes production



Intake: Lordstown Motors said on Tuesday that production and deliveries of its Endurance electric pickup truck resumed this month after a pause in February to fix some quality issues, according to Reuters. The Endurance pickup is targeted at the fleet market, though sales to private individuals are permitted. The Ohio manufacturer, which took over a shuttered GM plant, has been struggling to get production off the ground.

Exhaust: According to Reuters, Lordstown also said it has struck a deal with Amerit Fleet Solutions to provide service and maintenance for its fleet customers. The trucks are unique because they are driven by motors mounted on each wheel hub rather than placed on the front or rear axle. In January, the EV company forecasted that production would slow through its first quarter due to supply-chain issues, especially with respect to the availability of hub-motor components. — Steven Cole Smith

Audi will test new F1 engine this year



Intake: According to a new report from Automotive News, Audi revealed its plans to test its Formula 1 hybrid drivetrain before the end of 2023. The drivetrain, which is comprised of an engine, an electric motor, a battery, and an electric control unit, will be Audi’s first attempt developing at such a unit for F1 competition. The German marque announced last August, at the Belgian Grand Prix, that it plans to join the F1 grid in 2026, the first season for F1’s newest engine regulations.

Exhaust: Everything seems to be on track for the Four Rings’ maiden foray into F1. The hybrid drivetrain announcement is yet another confirmed component for its burgeoning Audi Formula Racing GmbH team—the German marque’s newest team founded for F1—which now employs more than 250 engineering specialists. Sauber, the Swiss motorsport engineering company, has already partnered with Audi. In addition to personnel, Audi plans to increase the footprint at the Competence Center Motorsport in Neuburg, Germany by adding a new building that adds over 32,000 square feet. The team’s launch date is still over two years away. What will be the next piece to fall into place? — Cameron Neveu

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]]> https://www.hagerty.com/media/news/the-manifold/2023-04-19/feed/ 5 https://www.hagerty.com/media/advice/piston-slap/piston-slap-a-fit-ting-end-to-wheel-bearings/ https://www.hagerty.com/media/advice/piston-slap/piston-slap-a-fit-ting-end-to-wheel-bearings/#comments Sun, 16 Apr 2023 13:00:25 GMT https://www.hagerty.com/media/?p=304134



Hagerty’s own Ronnie Schreiber writes:

Sajeev,

My 2015 Honda Fit is making an oscillating noise from the driver’s side front end when traveling in a straight line. Up on jack stands, in neutral, when I manually rotate the wheel on that side, I can hear a very regular clicking sound that to me sounds like a bad bearing, like maybe one ball bearing has been lost or disintegrated. At first I thought it was a wheel bearing, but the clicking reminds me of a bad CV joint, but bad CV joints make noise when you’re turning, not when traveling straight. What do you think?

Sajeev asks:

So just to confirm, you are not hearing any noises when accelerating from a standstill and turning either left or right?

Ronnie answers:

It doesn’t make the typical failing CV joint clack clack when turning, and I notice it more at speed than when accelerating. I’m pretty sure it’s a wheel bearing at this point, though there may also be some noise from the wear indicator on the brakes. I’ll know tomorrow after I drop it off at my neighborhood repair shop. I have almost 100K miles on the car and I haven’t had to spend a penny on repairs so I’m not really unhappy.

There was a time when I would have never taken a car in for brakes, bearings, or a FWD axle. I would have done the work myself. Of course that was when I was 30 years younger. If I had a lift I might consider it, but climbing under cars hurts. Hell, just pumping the floor jack to check things out the other day aggravated my rotator cuff.

Sajeev concludes:

Be it physical, financial, or time based restrictions, there ain’t no shame in letting someone else work on your car. Sometimes we just have better things to do, and that’s what a good local mechanic is for. Once you have one, just go right ahead and treasure them!



That said, I assume the mechanic will put it on a lift, find wiggle in the wheel(s), and order you a new set of wheel bearings. I assume it will be the front wheel bearings (because of the loads present in an axle doing both steering and acceleration), but who knows, maybe the rears are on their way out. No matter, these would be replaced in pairs, or perhaps you’ll do all four corners just in case you feel the others are on their way out. If you live where flooding is an issue like me, doing all four wheels is a very good idea.

 What say you, Hagerty Community? Think Ronnie’s ride is “fit” for some new wheel bearings?

Have a question you’d like answered on Piston Slap? Send your queries to pistonslap@hagerty.com—give us as much detail as possible so we can help! Keep in mind this is a weekly column, so if you need an expedited answer, please tell me in your email.

***

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The post Piston Slap: A Fit-ting end to wheel bearings? appeared first on Hagerty Media.

]]> https://www.hagerty.com/media/advice/piston-slap/piston-slap-a-fit-ting-end-to-wheel-bearings/feed/ 11 https://www.hagerty.com/media/news/the-manifold/2023-04-06/ https://www.hagerty.com/media/news/the-manifold/2023-04-06/#comments Thu, 06 Apr 2023 15:00:36 GMT https://www.hagerty.com/media/?p=303839

Second-gen Kona retains gas alongside electric power

Intake: Hyundai showed the 2024 Kona at the New York Auto Show, and to say the styling is polarizing is an understatement. Since we first saw the new base model in December, this debut was for the 2024 Kona Electric, the Limited, and N Line variants. Kona is positioned as an “upscaled multiplayer in the small SUV segment, led by a 201-hp, all-electric variant that offers advanced safety, convenience, and outstanding electric range of 260 miles based on preliminary Hyundai internal estimates.” (That’s a whole two miles more than the 2023 Kona Electric.) The ’24 Kona also offers a choice of two gasoline powertrains. The first is a 2.0-liter four-cylinder Atkinson-cycle engine that produces an estimated 147 hp, mated to a continuously variable transmission (CVT). The N Line and Limited trims offer a 1.6-liter, four-cylinder turbocharged engine generating an estimated 190 hp, with an eight-speed automatic. The second-generation Kona will arrive at U.S. dealers this summer, and the Kona Electric will be available in late fall.

Exhaust: In an unconventional move, Hyundai developed the new Kona platform with an electrified powertrain first, in line with the company’s accelerated electrification strategy announcement that it will bring 11 new Hyundai EVs to market globally by 2030. — Steven Cole Smith



Crosstrek heads to Wilderness, or wants to



Intake: Subaru’s most outdoorsy vehicles, each dubbed Wilderness, have a new sibling. If you remember the first installments in the Wilderness series, the Outback and the Forester, you won’t find any surprises in the Crosstrek version. The “Wilderness” name brings both cosmetic and mechanical changes to the 2.5-liter, 182-hp version of Subaru’s smallest SUV: Longer springs and shock absorbers bring a 0.6-inch lift, increasing ground clearance to 9.3 inches. Approach and departure angles improve by 2 and 3 degrees respectively, while breakover angle increases by 1.4 degrees. (Final figures: 20.0, 33.0, and 21.1 degrees.) The CVT sports a new, low final drive ratio of 4.111:1, down from 3.7:1. The white-lettered tires are the same found on the Outback and Forester Wildys—Yokohama Geolanders—wrapped around the same black, 17-inch five-spokes. Up top sits a roof rack rated for a 700-pounds (static), for all your rooftop camping desires. The biggest news to camping fiends is the towing capacity: Thanks to a transmission oil cooler, the Crossterness can tow 3500 pounds. Price-wise, the $33,290 Wilderness slots above the Crosstrek Sport but below the range-topping Limited and, like all other 2.5-liter-powered Subarus, will be built in the U.S.—a first for the Crosstrek model.

Exhaust: We really thought the next Wilderness would be an Ascent. Subaru’s three-row SUV is growing stale, while the Crosstrek just got a hefty (though not exhaustive) overhaul for 2024. But call us simps—this Crosstrek’s aggressive outdoorsiness is kinda adorable, and that water-resistant upholstery really does come in handy. — Grace Houghton

Off-roadiest Sierra swaps gas V-8 for turbodiesel six



Intake: GMC’s most off-road-oriented light-duty pickup is getting a heart transplant for the 2024 model year. The Sierra 1500 AT4X will now default to the 3.0-liter Duramax straight-six turbodiesel engine, which replaces the 6.2-liter gas-burning V-8, the only engine option for the ’22 and ’23 model years. (You can still get the 6.2 on the ’24 Sierra 1500 AT4X; it’s just an option.) The Duramax six is now in its second generation, with advancements including revised pistons, a retuned turbo, new injectors, and better thermal management features allow it to produce 305 hp and 495 lb-ft of torque, gains of 10 and 7.6 percent over the first-generation unit from two years ago. The engine joins other rugged off-road hardware on the AT4X including front and rear electronic-locking differentials, those magical Multimatic DSSV dampers, and a suit of underbody armor to help you pick your way through tricky trails.

Exhaust: While we always love a good GM small-block, the low-end grunt of this diesel is a huge plus off-road. Around 20 percent of all Sierra 1500s were optioned with the second-gen Duramax when it arrived last year on other Sierra trims, and GMC expects the take rate among buyers of the 2024 AT4X to be even higher. — Nathan Petroelje

Honda recalls almost 564,000 crossovers for frame corrosion



Intake: Honda has issued a recall for nearly 564,000 older CR-V models for corroding frames, according to Automotive News. The recalls cover 2007–11 CR-Vs that were sold or ever registered in salt-belt states including Connecticut, Illinois, Michigan, Ohio, Wisconsin, and more. According to the recall document filed with NHTSA, Honda says that the de-icing agents (salt or similar) “could enter the rear frame through drainage/positioning holes when the vehicle is driven through flooded areas or puddles at high speeds.” Over time, the accumulated mixture could cause corrosion to the frame’s internal structure, potentially resulting in the rear trailing arm of the CR-V’s suspension system falling off. Not great, though Honda told NHTSA that it has not received any reports of death or injuries related to the issue. The fix will involve dealers inspecting the rear frame for corrosion and determining a resolution based on whether the rear trailing-arm bolt can be removed. If the bolt can be removed, the dealers will attach a support brace to the rear frame. If the bolt can’t be removed, or if it falls off with the support brace, dealers will either further repair the frame or offer to repurchase the vehicle.

Exhaust: Owners of 2007–11 CR-Vs that would be affected by this recall will be notified starting on May 8. This is Honda’s 7th recall of 2023, and the total number of vehicles affected now climbs to 1.5 million. Earlier this year, Honda had to recall newer Pilot, Passport, and Ridgeline models for detaching sideview mirrors. This recall seems a bit more serious, so don’t delay getting to a dealer to get yours checked out. — NP

Where did all the cheap cars go?



Intake: That’s the title of a research piece on Edmunds.com that chronicles the frankly startling climb in car prices over the past five years. According to Edmunds, just 0.3 percent of new vehicles sold last month were $20,000 or less, compared to 8 percent five years ago; 4 percent of new vehicles sold were $25,000 or less, compared to 24 percent five years ago, and 17 percent of new vehicles sold were under $30,000 compared to 44 percent five years ago.

According to Edmunds data, the average transaction price for a new vehicle was $47,713 in March 2023, while five years ago, the average new-vehicle transaction price was $35,794, which translates to a 33 percent jump. We’re definitely paying more, and trucks and bigger SUVs are the main reason. Last March, 17 percent of vehicles sold were $60,000-plus, compared to 6 percent five years ago. And 10 percent of vehicles sold were $70,000-plus, compared to 3 percent five years ago. Trucks have made a startling jump: 50 percent of full-size trucks sold were over $60,000, compared to 5 percent five years ago.

Exhaust: Edmunds’ prediction: “Now that low rates are no longer available to enable higher-dollar purchases, demand will grow for lower-priced vehicles. American car shoppers may not have the same enthusiasm for them as much as their bigger, flashier counterparts—but they will find that these options are what’s actually financially feasible in today’s credit environment.” – SCS

***

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]]> https://www.hagerty.com/media/news/the-manifold/2023-04-06/feed/ 4 https://www.hagerty.com/media/news/the-manifold/2023-03-29/ https://www.hagerty.com/media/news/the-manifold/2023-03-29/#comments Wed, 29 Mar 2023 15:00:52 GMT https://www.hagerty.com/media/?p=302092

Lucid announces 18-percent staff cuts amid contracting market

Intake: According to a new report from Automotive News, electric car start-up Lucid has announced that it will lay off 18 percent of its workforce. The company responsible for ultra-high-performance electric sedans such as the Air Sapphire had about 7200 employees at the end of last year. Lucid cited shortcomings in 2023’s production forecasts and a major dip in orders as reasons for the belt-tightening. The company will reportedly communicate the details of the layoffs to workers before the week is out.

Exhaust: Decades-high inflation has forced buyers to second-guess major purchases like a six-figure electric sedan. Coupled with the fact that more established automakers are starting to hit their stride with EVs—which they can offer at lower prices, it’s looking like an uphill battle for fledgling EV makers like Lucid and Rivian. The latter announced a six-percent staff cut last month in a similar effort to curb costs. — Nathan Petroelje



Godzilla is going electric—sort of

【R32EV】vol.1
日産はR32型スカイラインGT-RのEV試作車製作に挑戦します。https://t.co/4eNjF3KdiI
この取り組みは、GT-Rに憧れて入社した技術者が「最高に好きなクルマに、今自分が関わる最新の電動化技術を載せて、もっとワクワクするクルマを造りたい」という思いから始まりました。#GTR #R32EV pic.twitter.com/pGBHqgeSBo

— 日産自動車株式会社 (@NissanJP) March 28, 2023

Intake: In a move that many fans may see as sacrilege, Nissan has developed an electro-modded R32 Skyline GT-R. A Twitter post from the Japanese firm confirmed, “Nissan will challenge the production of an EV prototype of the R32 Skyline GT-R.” Although the video has a clearly audible six-cylinder soundtrack, the tweet is accompanied by the hashtag #R32EV and a quote from one engineer saying “I want to build a more exciting car by adding the latest electrification technology that I am involved with to my favorite car.” There’s no further information for now, but we’ll keep you posted.

Exhaust: OEM electric resto-mods are becoming a thing. Ford and GM both offer crate e-motors, while Nissan’s partner Renault recently announced conversions for the classic 4, 5, and Twingo. While a factory-converted effort such as this GT-R might stir Skyline faithful to anger, don’t expect this to be the last time you see one of your heroes bolt on some batteries. — Nik Berg

1990s Holley R&D Fox-body Mustang up for auction



Intake: Holley is selling a little bit of modern hot rodding history on eBay, in the form of a 1990 Mustang LX 5.0 hatchback. The Fox-body Mustang is being offered up by Holley’s official eBay seller account, and it comes with a pretty fair assessment of its condition from both the photography and description provided. Holley states this automatic-equipped Mustang has 70,000 miles and has been returned to stock, aside from “aftermarket fuel lines and exhaust.” As of this writing, the leading bid sits at $8600.

Exhaust: Oh, the stories this little 5.0 from Kentucky could tell. I reckon each version of Holley’s vintage Systemax intakes, aluminum heads, and camshafts was installed to test their performance at the local Beech Bend Raceway. And they likely used this Mustang to test their competition, which was easily found on the pages of magazines like Muscle Mustangs & Fast Fords, because these model-specific magazines were precisely how countless 5.0 Mustang fans learned about the latest parts available for the Fox-body. The sheer volume of aftermarket speed parts made the Mustang more interchangeable than a Lego Technic kit. Hard to put a price on that, but we’ll know that number by tomorrow. — Sajeev Mehta

Honda recalls 330,300 vehicles for detaching side mirrors



Intake: A new report from Automotive News revealed that Honda is issuing a recall for 330,300 U.S. vehicles that may suffer from side mirrors that detach. The recall affects 2020–22 Honda Odysseys, 2020–22 Honda Passports, 2020–21 Honda Pilots, and 2020–21 Honda Ridgelines. According to the Honda recall document, the culprit is heating pads behind the side-view mirrors that can lose adhesion, causing the glass to be at risk of detaching. Honda has received 71 warranty claims related to the issue thus far, with no injuries reported. Owners will be notified by mail beginning May 8, instructing them to bring their affected vehicle to a dealer, who will replace the left and right side-view mirrors.

Exhaust: Honda’s side-view mirror supplier changed the heater pad and mirror back-plate adhesive tape in July 2021, according to Automotive News, but the issues appear to have persisted. If you own one of the vehicles mentioned above, mark your calendars for a quick trip to the dealer. — NP

Kia EV9 to launch with up to 379 hp and more to follow



Intake: Kia’s new flagship EV, the three-row EV9, will go on sale with a pair of powertrains. The Telluride-sized car comes with a 76.1- or 99.8-kWh battery pack which, in the lowest-powered Long Range version, sends 201 hp to the rear wheels. The all-wheel-drive EV9 GT-Line delivers 379 hp. There’s also a Standard Range rear-drive version with 214 hp. Based on Europe’s rather optimistic WLTP cycle, Kia claims that the maximum range is 336 miles, although the EPA estimate is more likely to be around 280 miles. Kia has also confirmed some other numbers for the EV9. It’s 197.2 inches long, 78 inches wide, and 69.1 inches tall, on a wheelbase of 122 inches. Wheel diameters of 19, 20, and 21 inches will be available. The EV9 will be offered in six- and seven-seat configurations and will be on sale in the U.S.A in the second half of 2023, with further details arriving closer to the on-sale date. If you can hang on until 2025, however, you’ll be able to get hold of a GT model, packing the same 576 hp as the EV6 GT.

Exhaust: There’s a dramatic difference in performance between powertrains that you’ll want to seriously consider if you’re going to utilize the EV9’s extra carrying capacity. In Long Range guise it will take 9.4 seconds to reach 62mph, in Standard spec it’s 8.2 seconds, while the GT-Line slashes the time to 5.3 seconds—if you pay for an over-the-air performance update. Expect the 2025 GT to take another couple of seconds off as well. If you’re hauling people and gear, it may pay to sacrifice a little range for daily drivability. — NB

***

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]]> https://www.hagerty.com/media/news/the-manifold/2023-03-29/feed/ 3 https://www.hagerty.com/media/great-reads/track-tested-honda-civic-type-r-vs-toyota-gr-corolla-morizo/ https://www.hagerty.com/media/great-reads/track-tested-honda-civic-type-r-vs-toyota-gr-corolla-morizo/#comments Wed, 22 Mar 2023 14:00:21 GMT https://www.hagerty.com/media/?p=299188

In this corner, a 315-hp, family-car track star from Japan!

In that corner, a 300-hp, econohatch track star, also from Japan!

Honda asks Toyota to step outside! Which Far-East street-fighter will come out on top in a back-alley brawl for the . . . 

Nah. That’s not it.

If you haven’t noticed, Hagerty does more than review new cars. Yes, this company’s media division is staffed by veterans of Car and Driver and Road & Track, but our approach to comparison tests is different. We conduct track tests not as battles, but from love for the deeper dive. We take a car to a closed course only when character or history demands.

On that note, meet two demanders.



The white car is a 2023 Honda Civic Type R. The gray one is a 2023 Toyota Corolla GR. The Honda and Toyota are members of a dwindling species—economy cars tuned for the speed-freak die-hards. The 300-hp Corolla is a similar-think spinoff of Toyota’s smaller GR Yaris, a homologation special not sold here and designed for a World Rally Championship effort. The 315-hp Civic Type R is a flared-fender uprating of Honda’s 158-hp Civic hatch.

Each machine weighs around 3200 pounds and offers, as factory option, a 19-inch version of Michelin’s excellent Pilot Sport Cup 2 dual-purpose track tire. Both our test cars were so equipped. If you’re not familiar, the Cup 2 is a factory fit on the Porsche 911 GT3 RS and the Chevrolet Corvette Z06. This is the most well-rounded street/track tire that money can buy. More important, it does not paper over suspension flaws or make a car look better than it is.

The Corolla was a one-of-200 Morizo edition; for $14,000 over the base GR Core model, this variant offers wider rubber, shorter gearing, Torsen limited-slip differentials front and rear, a more aggressively tuned suspension, 22 additional lb-ft of torque, and a 100-pound diet. It ships minus rear-window regulators, rear-door speakers, a rear wiper, and a second row of seats.



 

Before we hit the nitty-gritty, two quick notes on method:

1. Testing occurred during a two-day public lapping event at Alabama’s greatest roller coaster, the 2.38-mile Barber Motorsports Park.


Dozens of laps—in the dry, in a blinding downpour, and everywhere in between.

2. We did not chase data or lap times.


Publishable lap times and data require a degree of repeatability and focus unavailable in our test environment. That said, both the Honda and the Toyota were fitted with a Garmin Catalyst, a consumer-grade digital coach and logger, primarily to ensure fair treatment. (After we published our first Catalyst review last year, Garmin offered one to Hagerty free of charge. We declined but found the device impressive enough to buy two for company use.)

Testing was split between two drivers: Your narrator, an experienced amateur racer and longtime vehicle tester, took lead. Site director and executive editor Eric Weiner, a track-day enthusiast of moderate pace, brought the everyman perspective. The goal was to suss out how these cars would present, on a closed course, for real people.



In other words, with these cars, this test is only part of the story. A track is not a road; a public track day is not a private magazine test; the Morizo is not the base, open-diff G-Rolla; those amazing Michelins offer remarkable grip and life in ideal conditions but are mostly unsuited for everyday use. They are also less than ideal—albeit capable and progressive—in the wet.

Maybe that seems like too many caveats. We share them because your emails and comments have told us you want to know.

The cars were fantastic. Let’s dive in.

 

***

2023 Toyota GR Corolla Morizo

Meet the $51,000 Toyota Corolla. It makes 300 horsepower from just three cylinders. It has a turbocharger and four driven wheels. Those fender flares house fat (245-width) and thin (40-section) 19-inch tires. Top speed is electronically limited to 143 mph. A six-speed manual is the only available transmission.



If you happen to park this strange little rugrat at a race track or within sight of car people, you will certainly get approached and questioned, as we did:

I heard it was built for rally. It works at a track day?

Totally.

Fifty grand for a Corolla! 

But with the heart of, like, a rabid chihuahua.

Is the Type R faster?

Probably, at most tracks, as long as it’s not raining or snowing, but then, you know, the Civic doesn’t have bodywork like Blinky the Three-Eyed Fish from The Simpsons, nor does it spit gargly Porsche-like noise on a cold start. And we haven’t even talked about how the Toyota funk-hustles half-backward into a fast downhill.

I love it! Like mad science.

Right?



A base 2023 Corolla SE five-door costs $24,060. That car’s suspension has some hoots to it, but the rest is nothing special. Dead steering. The engine, a 169-hp four, is dull as a lead pipe and 20 horses shy of Just Enough.



WRC-tinted hot-rodding changes everything. The base Corolla makes do without the GR’s 9 extra feet of rigidity-adding structural adhesive. Or its extra floor bracing. Or its 349 additional body spot welds. Most of all, you cannot climb into a base Corolla and use a console rotary switch to adjust the front-rear torque split of the car’s two differentials and clutched center driveline coupler.

Because the base Corolla, being a front-drive hatch, does not have those parts.

Boo hiss, really, but then, 23 grand is only 23 grand, and we all have to serve somebody.

“This is an utterly ridiculous pop rock of a thing that I can’t believe we even get to buy here. And from Toyota, of all places! It’s the kind of thing Subaru would do, and then only at low spec and for stupid money.”

—Eric Weiner, Hagerty Media Executive Editor



The G-Rolla (for that is what we are calling it) uses the basic driveline engineered for the GR Yaris, a subcompact not sold in the U.S. The Corolla is 32 horses stronger; credit not just the added boost and intake tweaks but Toyota’s desire to minimize performance difference between the golf cart-sized Yaris (2800 pounds, 157 inches long) and the larger Corolla (the aforementioned 3200 pounds, 173 inches).

That full-time all-wheel-drive system, Toyota says, was simply whipped up, clean-sheet, to suit the needs of the Yaris when in green-flag privateer hands. It is not related to any other production Toyota hardware.

How unlikely, in the current year, for this odd little Blinky-the-rally-fish to meet America. 



If you want to like a machine like this, the downsides won’t matter. But they do exist.

The high-backed, heavily bolstered sport seats are comfy and decent, but the Honda’s similar chairs are more supportive. The Toyota’s cockpit seems darker, its plastics harder and more suggestive of low cost. Road and tire noise are substantial, and the ride can be flinty.

That little turbo-three is special, with a wallop of torque across the top third of the tach and fun midrange lag, but compared with the rest of the car, it can seem too quiet and reserved, often inaudible at speed with the windows down.



It goes on! As with most three-cylinders, the flywheel is heavy; downshift blips take an occasionally awkward boot of throttle, and rev hang is substantial. The electrically assisted steering is accurate but dull; its most useful bit of feedback comes whenever you hit the front diff with too much load, throttle, and steering at the same time, the wheel going momentarily heavy and dead.

It goes on even further! Depending on your perspective, the shifter is either charmingly mechanical or annoyingly clunky and heavy. Either way, the synchros can present as high-effort, as if the clutch wasn’t fully bled. (We checked; it was.) Wide pedal spacing makes heel-and-toeing a difficult, sideways-foot operation.

Again, Morizo G-Rollas lack a rear seat. That said, few people over 5-foot-8 eight can sit in the back of a current Corolla hatch for more than 40 minutes without desperately wanting out. You either know you need that bench or you don’t care. Upside: With the seat deleted, the car can carry four of its own wheels upright and secure. (We checked; it was neat.)



Those last three paragraphs contain deeply unimportant details that in no way detract from a fantastic and snorty spitball of a car, and we shall not speak of them again.

We will now discuss the effects of that console switch, because they are fun.

 

***

 

Your Cockpit-Switchable G-Rolla Torque-Distribution Options!



60:40 Front : Rear, Wet* Pavement: The safest wet setup, the most understeery, and the most brainless to drive. The car feels almost too forgiving and stable, except when it’s impractically not. Traction in this mode usually hangs on steering angle; all else being equal, the front tires generally light up first. Corner entry is finesse is everything.

60:40 Front : Rear, Dry Pavement: As in the wet, but faster and calmer. Like a bad CBS sitcom—kind of interesting at first, then you sigh and change the channel.

*Generally speaking, a broad-stroke summary over varied conditions, from standing water to partially dry “gray.”



30:70 Front : Rear, Wet: The most entertaining slick-track setup, if not the fastest. More sensitive in fast sweepers, feels the most on edge. Keeping the rear planted—or at least helpfully loose—requires more delicacy on brake and throttle, especially at high speed.

Predictably, this setup gives the least forceful drive off a wet apex. Rear-tire slides generally come earlier in the corner, and those slides take longer to recover on throttle, the front tires slower to pull the car straight. Corner exit is finesse is everything.



30:70 Front : Rear, Dry: Goofball raucous. As in the wet, but faster and more interesting. Your right foot makes fat drifts if you want. Lightly gimmicky but fun regardless.



50:50 Front : Rear**, Wet: A cheat code. Walking outside on the first day of spring. Waking up as a kid and hearing that school has been canceled. Your voicemail, clogged with messages from Sébastien Loeb, who has heard of you from across an ocean and wants to buy drinks.

The car pivots more freely, is more neutral on throttle, is fiendishly reactive to input changes but less forgiving of fools and loudmouths. Deep and late brake on a curb climb just sends the rear bumper snap! to a heading, makes you taller, smarter, thinner, faster.

Pair it with throttle at the right time and you become some kind of giddy tiny-car god, slewing around in tiny delicate bites of steering and wondering how much aftermarket boost the engine will take before a diff goes boom.

The Corolla seems to finally hit full special here. It wants bravery and begs commitment. If you know why it’s good for a rear axle to occasionally try to lead a car on the brakes, all the better. Full chihuahua.

**Track mode only.



50:50 Front : Rear, Dry: [Cackles.] 

 

***

 

Is a $51,000 Corolla for everyone? Hell no.

This one is lightly uncomfortable and impractical. It feels like a callback to the time when fast cars demanded compromise—when the good ones were so focused that they couldn’t be all things to all people, when they felt like they came from somewhere specific. You cannot drive a runt like this and take yourself seriously.

Anyone who has spent any time in modern cars knows that this quality is both rare and indescribably lovely. At Barber, between sessions, our crew attempted to describe it anyway. The process mostly produced phrases like “spicy-boy turbomonkey,” which land as total gibberish until you throw the Toyota around Barber’s hills and dales with the bit in your teeth, and then they kind of make sense. 



“The Civic you have to meet on its terms,” Weiner said. “It’s more serious, but the more you give, the more it gives back. The Corolla is like, Follow me into oblivion. And you willingly do. It’s wonderful.”

That second afternoon at Barber, while lapping, I began to recite a short song in my helmet. A looping script, repeated while jumping curbs and chasing down things with roll cages:

That’s a Corolla / how can you pass me / I’m a Corvette / That’s a Corolla / how can you pass me / I’m a Corvette / la la la la laaaaaaaaa.



If you have ever driven your socks off to put some gutsy small car deep into the mirrors of more expensive iron, you know one thing about that process:

It. Never. Gets. Old.

At this very moment, new G-Rollas are being bolted and welded into life on a dedicated line in Motomachi, Japan. Earlier this year, Toyota granted an indefinite production extension to the formerly limited-edition Circuit variant. American demand for the car has apparently exceeded company predictions. 

Which can only mean one thing: We’re not alone.

 

***

 

2023 Honda Civic Type R

Meet the $44,000 Honda Civic. It makes 315 horsepower from four cylinders. It has a turbocharger, driven front wheels, a Torsen limited-slip, and electronically adjustable shocks. It comes only as a hatchback, only with a six-speed manual, and only with red seats.

The front tires are steamrollers, 265 millimeters wide, reportedly the largest ever fitted to a production front-driver.

I couldn’t help noticing the absurd entry speed the Civic made with those suckers, then noticing that the fenders had room for more.



As with the Corolla, people kept walking over to look at it. But really only on the second day, after the rain stopped, once the car had turned laps on a dry track. And there was only one question:

Is it stock?

Yes, we said. Always with the same reaction: Really? Wow.



Who would guess they weigh the same? The Civic is 7.3 inches longer and 2.2 inches wider. Its 107.7-inch wheelbase stretches nearly 4 inches beyond the Toyota’s. The back seat is comically large, as if built for NBA players. The trunk is, to borrow the old Rolls-Royce descriptor, adequate.

Next to the Corolla, the Honda seems another species: school bus with wing stanchions? Championship White train car? Accord Type R?

With Hondas, Type R means the full boat, Racing, all the track speed they can build in under a warranty and a price just short of . . . uncivil. (Get it?) This is the fourth such Honda to be sold in America. First came the 1997–1998/2000–2001 Acura Integra Type R, naturally aspirated and raw. Next was the 2017–2021 Civic Type R, what Honda called FK8, built on the 10th-generation Civic.

The current Type R, the FL5, comes from Civic 11. The engine is an update of the FK8’s 7000-rpm turbo-four. 



That Integra, enthusiast shorthand ITR, was simple. Road noise and VTEC-backed engine snarl filled the cabin. The shocks seemed made of concrete and torque was out to lunch, but the engine wore an 8400-rpm redline and the rear axle honked into a fast corner like no front-driver before or since.

Except maybe this one.

The FK8, by contrast, was a turbocharged house cat. Wonderful at the limit, comfy and quiet everywhere else, no ITR anywhere.

The 2023 Type R is even comfier, more quiet.

We were slightly bothered by that at first. Later, once the car had been fired into Barber’s fourth-gear, fall-off-a-cliff Turn 1 a few times, nobody cared. 



It would be nice, of course, if that linear, torquey four didn’t sound like a vacuum cleaner. If it made the kind of naturally aspirated, high-pitched honk that once defined cars like this and lived nowhere else. It would also be nice if the wheelbase wasn’t a near match for that of an ’85 Cadillac Eldorado (look it up), if that dimension hadn’t grown almost an inch and a half since the FK8, if it was not 6.5 inches longer than the wheelbase of an Integra Type R.

Upside: A long wheelbase can aid stability under braking. So in this case, you can haul down from 130 mph with mad intent and trail the brake a toe-smidge into the entry of the aforementioned Turn 1, and it works as no stock Type R ever has.

The rear suspension is stiff enough to just pop into entry right there with you, surprisingly quick but welcome, like some balls-out SCCA front-drive production car with a rear sway bar like a sewer pipe. Perhaps like the Acuras that the one and only Peter “RealTime” Cunningham used to fire around in 20-years-ago World Challenge, when I was in high school and easily influenced by such things.

Or at least that’s what you tell yourself. It’s just a road car, heavy and comfy. Hints elsewhere at certain moments, though. Shrinks around the seat.



The Toyota, for what it’s worth, pulls the same trick in reverse. Where speed makes the Civic feel wider and shorter, the Corolla seems to grow taller and softer. It moves around more at max brake, is less forgiving in those moments, takes longer to stop. The Corolla’s gearbox also feels more durable; in traditional Honda fashion, the Civic wants a light touch, as if the shift forks were twigs.

Enough generalities. Specifics follow.



The bolsters on those red seats are tall and pointy. Firm foam wedges. Rolling legs over as you climb in is a bit of a hassle. Once in, though, you forget they’re there.

There is no turbo lag worth mentioning. That four-cylinder is nice and linear, anodyne but predictable. Little vibration makes its way to the cabin. Midrange torque is a long and smooth rise, accompanied by a hoarse and contralto from the intake. Output falls off just enough near redline to let you shift without watching the tach. 

Which is good, because windows down, in a helmet, you can’t really hear the engine.

At times, the Civic can feel lighter than the Corolla. It likes the same kind of scruff-neck treatment but is less fussy about inputs. Where the Honda pivots from your hips, the Corolla seems to turn from your shoulders. (Perhaps the roll centers are higher? I’ll call some engineers and get back to you.) 



Drive the cars back to back, over and over, watching tires and tenths, you’ll eventually wish for a blend. The Corolla’s mercury-skillet reactivity paired with the Civic’s higher-resolution shocks, its massive turn-in stability, its wheelbase. Where the Toyota can feel loose and wild-eyed, needing quick hands in a slide, the Civic is more composed. 

If you are committed, if you give all the big-boy front-drive inputs, it’s a joy.

The Honda’s three chassis modes—Comfort, Sport, and +R—alter steering assist, throttle response, and, critically, damper settings. The variations in steering and throttle are uninteresting and mostly down to taste, but the shocks matter. Sport is generally the best combination of useful and forgiving. The most aggressive setting, +R, initially presents as impractically stiff but can bring a slight uptick in entry speed under certain conditions. Either way, the car is shockingly quick to settle off curbs or fat compressions.

A big smack of unload as you track out over a blind fourth-gear hill and air piles under the front bumper? Done and dusted, don’t think about it, wheels and body calm before you notice.



Front grip and exit traction with the Cup 2s can prompt you to overuse them. The Honda loves high-speed, high-grip commitment, but the Michelins lose a smidge after running at max effort for a few laps, fall off a bit and don’t come back.

Some combinations of significant steering input and throttle let the diff put a bit of push into the car. As in the Corolla, the wheel will grow muddy at that point, except the Civic can’t shove torque aft like the Corolla, so the Honda slows more, scrubbing slightly wider. Next lap, as remedy, you enter the corner wider or later or tighter, the nose runs more free off the apex, problem solved.

In the wet, the rear slides . . . quickly. Comfort mode helps, the softer shock calibration adding grip and making slides less abrupt.

The rad little Type R-specific bar-graph tach graphic suggests the dash in a Honda S2000, and that’s a compliment.



Toward the end of the weekend, Eric rode with me for a session. Halfway through a series of sedate banzai laps, he leaned over, shaking his head.

“You are doing,” he yelled, over the open windows, “some insane s*** with this car!”

We blew over an entry curb as if it wasn’t there. “It’s not me!” I laughed. “Pirate Honda!”

Then we went off and hassled more Corvettes. Which is not a task at which one would immediately aim a Civic or a Corolla, but it worked with each, so there you go. 



“I suspect,” Eric said later, “next to the Civic, the Corolla is more satisfying on the road. It’s not as practical, but it’ll feel more special more of the time. The Toyota was fantastic at Barber, but as somebody who isn’t an amateur racer? The Civic just feels more reassuring.”

“The chassis transparency is what gets me,” I said. “Given how reserved the Civic is beneath, say, seven-tenths. So many front-drive cars, corners are basically just finding an entry speed and waiting on what the front tires can’t do. This is more reactive. Like how the French used to tune front-drive hatches.”

You actually have to work with the Honda, think, be smart. It’s why that last special bit of balance—that slippy vibrance at the limit—is so satisfying to find.



As we packed to head home, I was reminded of something. I owned an Integra Type R for a few years and loved it. The FK8, that last Type R Civic, felt nice but unrelated. This one isn’t a modern ITR, but it at least seems to have come from the same people.

Aimed at the crazies, like the Toyota, but subtle. To a point.

 

***

 

Two vastly different cars. All else being equal, at circuits that emphasize neither motor nor handling, they shouldn’t be far apart in pace. If our experience is any guide, the Civic will be slightly faster on a dry track.

In the wet, all bets are off. The Toyota’s traction brings glaring advantage, the ability to gap the Civic by whole seconds if the rain gets thick enough.



The Toyota is a car for one kind of person, the Honda for another. The former is a playful grin machine and handling chameleon. The latter is a business-first family sled with a secret.



With enough funding, of course—their MSRPs combined are still less than a new BMW M3—you could have both cars. Use one on Mondays, the other on Tuesdays, switch off all week. Keep them in nice shape, eyeing future resale, you could probably run that game for years and not lose money.

What you would lose is sleep—all those hours in bed, late at night, staring at the ceiling, trying to pick one for tomorrow.

***

 

2023 Toyota GR Corolla Morizo

Price: $36,995* / $52,640** (base / as-tested)

Highs: Chassis balance for the die-hards. Uncompromising focus. One of the last unique internal-combustion engines, in one of the last true enthusiast specials. Feels like the homologation special it is.

Lows: Powerplant can seem a shrinking violet. Heavy, clunky shifter. Steering feel needs a rethink.

Summary: An instant classic, and everything the internet hype says it is. (This is a compliment.)

 

*GR Corolla Core

**Morizo Edition

 

***

 

2023 Honda Civic Type R

Price: $44,390 / $46,625* (base / as-tested)

Highs: Chassis balance for the die-hards. One of the best-handling front-drivers since the Integra Type R. Fantastic seats. The more you give it, the more it gives back. Quiet and comfy, if that’s your thing.

Lows: The largest Civic in history. Engine sounds like an appliance.

Summary: An instant classic, and your narrator will eventually have one. (He would buy the Corolla if he didn’t have kids.)

 

*includes Championship White paint ($455), Michelin Pilot Sport Cup 2 tires (dealer-installed option, $1780)

 

***

 

Special thanks to Greg Miller and ReZoom Motorsports for hosting Hagerty at Barber Motorsports Park this February.

Hagerty paid for two full-price entries at the ReZoom day and received no compensation for this mention. Miller and crew run fine events with an emphasis on seat time, so if you need an intermediate- or advanced-level track day in the Southeast, look them up! —Ed.

The post Track Tested: Honda Civic Type R vs. Toyota GR Corolla Morizo appeared first on Hagerty Media.

]]> https://www.hagerty.com/media/great-reads/track-tested-honda-civic-type-r-vs-toyota-gr-corolla-morizo/feed/ 12 https://www.hagerty.com/media/new-car-reviews/2022-honda-passport-trailsport-review-semblance-and-substance/ https://www.hagerty.com/media/new-car-reviews/2022-honda-passport-trailsport-review-semblance-and-substance/#comments Tue, 21 Mar 2023 21:00:59 GMT https://www.hagerty.com/media/?p=298006

Off-road vehicles are having a moment. Chalk it up to a logical outgrowth of the SUV boom or a general desire to escape civilization and experience the outdoors. Either way, car showrooms these days could pass as REI warehouses.

Joining longtime outdoorsy brands like Subaru—and, more recently, Ford—is Honda and its burgeoning line of TrailSport vehicles. At present, however, this young trim package amounts to more semblance than substance.

What is it?

Let’s recap. The midsize Passport was the first Honda SUV to wear the TrailSport badge, which made its debut for the 2022 model year. The Passport itself launched three years prior, essentially a shortened Pilot with two rows of seating instead of three and a more “adventurous” focus.



The TrailSport trim offers further amped-up aesthetics compared with the standard Passport—orange and black badging, chunkier-looking tires, pewter-color 18-inch wheels, a trim-specific interior package with logo-embossed leather seating—and no major off-road upgrades.

Note the silver, front-end “skid garnish,” as Honda calls it; if you’ve ever ordered an omelette at a trendy brunch joint and immediately discarded the wee agglomeration of chives on top, you have a good sense of what the Passport TrailSport’s trappings bring to the table.



Honda, for its part, argues that the unibody Passport was already a capable off-roader, and that the TrailSport trim merely completes the package.

“Some may not realize the true rugged, off-road capabilities of our light trucks,” said American Honda’s Dave Gardner, executive vice president of national operations, in a press release. “Now they’re getting tough, rugged looks to match, and the addition of TrailSport will further enhance the off-road capability of our vehicles in the future.”

That future, Honda says, will include more aggressive tires, higher ground clearance, unique all-wheel-drive calibration, off-road-tuned suspension, and proper underbody protection.



These upgrades have already manifested in the new-for-2023 Pilot TrailSport. The 2022 model tested here is essentially a tougher-looking appearance package for what is a quite competent and well-executed midsize SUV. The standard 3.5-liter V-6 has plenty of shove, packing 280 hp and 262 lb-ft of torque, and the nine-speed automatic transmission helps return respectable fuel economy: 19/24/21 mpg city/highway/combined.

Starting at $44,265, the Passport TrailSport comes standard with Intelligent Traction Management (Snow, Sand, Mud, and Normal drive modes), onboard navigation, orange-trimmed leather interior, a power liftgate, roof rails, and 10-mm wider tracks (front and rear).

Our test vehicle included a few add-ons, including Sonic Gray Pearl paint ($395), a trailer hitch and crossbars ($616), and the Function Package ($288 for a cargo net, cargo cover, and first-aid kit).



Specs

2022 Honda Passport TrailSport

• Price: $44,265 / $45,564 (base / as-tested)
• Powertrain: 3.5-liter V-6; nine-speed automatic
• Output: 280 hp @ 6000 rpm, 262 lb-ft @ 4700 rpm
• Layout: Four-door, five-passenger, unibody SUV
• Weight: 4251 pounds
• EPA fuel economy: 19 city/25 mpg highway, 21 mpg combined
• 0 to 60 mph: 6.1 seconds (est.)
• Rivals: Toyota 4Runner, Subaru Outback, Jeep Grand Cherokee, Hyundai Santa Fe

What it does well:

Honda sees the Passport as a direct competitor to the long-beloved Toyota 4Runner. The latter is a proper, body-on-frame SUV whose principal engineering was done about a decade ago, which means it handles and rides like … a truck from about decade ago. This is fine if you are regularly hitting dirt roads and rough trails, but for ordinary on-road driving, the unibody Passport is a far more fluid and comfortable vehicle.



We piloted drove the Passport on an extended road trip from Michigan to Connecticut and found the Honda to be a stellar highway companion. The driving position is nice and tall, which helps all-around visibility in concert with generously sized side mirrors. Seats are plenty comfortable and supportive over many hours of driving.

The instrument cluster is a mix of analog and digital elements, with physical gauges for engine temperature and fuel level. The cluster screen primarily showcases engine speed via an easy-to-read horizontal tachometer, and the speedometer is a digital readout rendered in large, legible numbers.



In a lot of ways the Passport speaks to traditional Honda values of simplicity, thoughtfulness, usability, and durability. There are multiple options for storage on each of the SUV’s front doors, including multiple cupholders for beverages of different sizes. The center console features a large storage bin with a sliding cover that is easy to open and close. The primary display screen is a little dated, but it’s functional and there is a volume knob as well as physical climate controls. Second-row seating is plenty spacious even for taller passengers, and the trunk’s wide opening makes for straightforward loading and unloading of equipment.

Nothing about the vehicle feels especially cheap or cost-cut. The cushioned leather armrests on the doors (not to mention the handy fold-down armrests on the inner side of the front seats) seem like they’d hold up to reasonable abuse. As Aaron Robinson noted in his first drive of the Passport in 2019, one of this SUV’s biggest strengths is its quick steering, which makes the Honda downright enjoyable to flit through city streets and across country roads alike.



Changes we’d make:

Not a lot. (If Honda’s goal is to poach 4Runner customers, however, the lack of meaningful off-road hardware is a problem.) If there’s one major weakness in the Passport TrailSport, it’s the nine-speed transmission. Upshifts are not especially crisp or smooth in the lower gears, and the programming is so eager to maximize fuel economy that downshifts often come too late or not at all.

The TrailSport styling is judiciously executed and helps dress things up, but the Passport’s overall shape and body lines are a bit anodyne compared to those of the purposeful 4Runner or the handsome Jeep Grand Cherokee. In short, nobody is going to buy a Passport because it looks great or has the power to impress potential romantic partners. Boxier, more squared-off body lines would do wonders here.



Who’s it for?

At just under $45,000 and with no “gotcha” options in its order sheet, the Passport TrailSport is a solid value. It boasts a spacious interior that a family of four can fill with sports or camping equipment and pile into for road-trip vacations.

Though we only hit a few basic dirt trails while in rural Connecticut, we were impressed with the Passport’s sure-footedness and maneuverability. The torque-vectoring all-wheel-drive system and 8.1 inches of ground clearance should make it a more than capable workhorse on one-lane roads, snowy mountain passes, and mildly rocky landscapes, the latter of which it conquered in our 2019 test drive.



Those looking for true rock-crawling and mud-slinging capability will not find the Passport equal to, say, a Jeep Wrangler, but the Honda is a heck of a lot more livable than that 4×4 and can still hold its own in a variety of conditions.

When the Pilot’s more substantial off-road upgrades inevitably migrate to the Passport, the TrailSport name will mean a lot more. For now, it’s a good-looking appearance package that only increases the Passport’s appeal as a functional, versatile, all-weather midsize crossover. That’s reason enough to give it real consideration.



***

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]]> https://www.hagerty.com/media/new-car-reviews/2022-honda-passport-trailsport-review-semblance-and-substance/feed/ 5 https://www.hagerty.com/media/news/the-manifold/2023-03-20/ https://www.hagerty.com/media/news/the-manifold/2023-03-20/#comments Mon, 20 Mar 2023 12:00:45 GMT https://www.hagerty.com/media/?p=299529

2024 Acura Integra Type S will have 320 hp, 310 lb-ft of torque


Intake: Acura has revealed power figures for the 2024 Integra Type S. The sportier version of Acura’s smallest car will boast 320 hp and 310 lb-ft of torque from its 2.0-liter turbocharged inline-four engine, which will pair exclusively with a six-speed manual transmission. The YouTube teaser accompanying the announcement shows a new exhaust system with three centrally mounted tips, akin to the Honda Civic Type R. The Integra Type S manages 5 more hp over the CTR, but the brief glimpse of the rear end of the car indicates that this one won’t get a bonkers rear wing as you get on the Honda. Acura will debut the Integra Type S next month at the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach on April 14–16.

Exhaust: Note the pops and burbles from the exhaust in the teaser posted below; we hope that overrun noise makes it to production to give the Type S even more character. Our test of the regular Integra A-Spec Advanced revealed a car that hewed more towards a luxury Honda Civic Si than it did the high-revving, fiery Integra we all remembered. Perhaps the Type S will evoke more of the feelings of the Integras of yore. — Nathan Petroelje

Cost of damaged battery packs can write off the whole car



Intake: For many electric vehicles, there is no way to repair even slightly damaged battery packs after accidents, “forcing insurance companies to write off cars with few miles, leading to higher premiums and undercutting gains from going electric,” says Reuters. “We’re buying electric cars for sustainability reasons,” said Matthew Avery, research director at automotive risk intelligence company Thatcham Research. “But an EV isn’t very sustainable if you’ve got to throw the battery away after a minor collision.” Battery packs can cost tens of thousands of dollars and represent up to 50 percent of an EV’s price tag, often making it uneconomical to replace them.

Exhaust: Reuters says that some automakers like Ford and General Motors claim they have made battery packs easier to repair, but “Tesla has taken the opposite tack with its Texas-built Model Y, whose new structural battery pack has been described by experts as having ‘zero repairability.'” Tesla declined to comment. It’s definitely something to discuss with your insurance agent before you go electric. – Steven Cole Smith

SUV sales spur near-billion-dollar profits for Bentley and Lamborghini



Intake Bentley’s profits in 2022 rose €319 million ($341M) over its 2021 tally for a total of €708 million ($757M). Bentley turned over €3.38 billion ($3.61B), increased its sales by four percent, and delivered more than 15,000 cars. Meanwhile, in Italy, Lamborghini also had a record year, turning over €2.8 billion ($2.99B), which represents a 22 percent increase over 2021, and more than double the firm’s profit figure from just five years ago. The company delivered more than 9,000 cars for the first time in its history, with the U.S. remaining its biggest market.

Exhaust: It’s no surprise that the core sales for these two legendary names are no longer sports cars. For Bentley, the Bentayga SUV made up 42 percent of global sales while at Lamborghini the Urus took 60 percent — Nik Berg

We know all about Dodge’s Last Call vehicle…



Intake: …but we can’t tell you the details until 9 p.m. ET tonight, because it’s under an embargo. Suffice it to say that if you’ve followed all the Dodge Last Call teaser videos featuring an angry, unnaturally buff leprechaun, you likely have some idea of what’s coming at the announcement in Las Vegas tonight. Come back at 9 p.m. sharp and read all about it here. A tip of the hat to Dodge for making this reveal fun and exciting.

Exhaust: We can say this much: Dodge fans won’t be disappointed. Meanwhile, here’s a link to the final teaser, called Trip Wire. – SCS

Chip shortage production woes are winding down



Intake: Automakers cut just 2,400 vehicles from their production schedules worldwide last week due to chip shortages, one of the lowest weekly totals in months, according to the latest estimate by AutoForecast Solutions, says Automotive News. All of the new reductions occurred at European factories, with plants around the rest of the world getting a reprieve from the supply problems that have “ravaged factory and supply chain planning since early 2021.” Automakers are still coping with other supply chain problems, but they are less frequently blaming them on the semiconductor shortage, said Sam Fiorani, vice president of global vehicle forecasting at AutoForecast Solutions. “More than two years into this problem, it reflects poorly on a manufacturer or supplier who has not secured sourcing of chips,” Fiorani wrote in an email.

Exhaust: Automotive News says that about 714,600 vehicles have been cut from global production plans this year due to chip shortages. This latest report means dealers’ lots should be filling back up, and special orders shouldn’t take as many months to build. Good news for everyone. — SCS

Sebring endurance races prove new GTP cars’ durability and speed



Intake: There were two major sports car races at the incredibly rough and challenging Sebring International Raceway last weekend: the 1000 Miles of Sebring for the World Endurance Championship, the series’ lone visit to the U.S., and the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring for the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, its second outing since the relatively smooth-surfaced 24 Hours of Daytona. The two Toyota LMH cars, as expected, spanked everyone in the WEC race, but it was a genuine dogfight in the IMSA race, with Cadillac inheriting the lead after a dramatic late race crash just 20 minutes from the end took out both Penske Porsches and the Wayne Taylor Racing Acura, leaving the Action Express Cadillac the unlikely winner, followed by a BMW.

Exhaust: There were surprisingly few failures of the new hybrid system but there were a few issues, such as a mysteriously overheating Peugeot that had to be sequestered in a special area until the batteries cooled enough for mechanics to work on it. The competition was excellent, the weather ideal—predicted storms held off until the next day—and the crowd was massive both days. Well done. — SCS

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]]> https://www.hagerty.com/media/news/the-manifold/2023-03-20/feed/ 7 https://www.hagerty.com/media/news/the-manifold/2023-03-16/ https://www.hagerty.com/media/news/the-manifold/2023-03-16/#comments Thu, 16 Mar 2023 15:00:38 GMT https://www.hagerty.com/media/?p=298473

BMW’s next M5 will be all-electric

Intake: BMW’s next-generation 5 Series is ready for launch in October and, alongside mild-hybrid and plug-in hybrid versions, there is to be a fully-electric Five for the first time. What’s more, BMW Chairman Oliver Zipse has confirmed that there’ll be an M version powered only by volts. “A fully electric Performance model from BMW M GmbH will also be included in the new BMW 5 Series lineup,” he said. The 5 Series celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2022 and more than ten million have been sold worldwide since. The eighth will be the most advanced iteration ever and a major part of the “systemic expansion” of BMW’s electric-vehicle range.

Exhaust: Building another all-electric M car is an absolute no-brainer after the battery-powered, M-badged 4 Series proved to be a huge hit. “The all-electric BMW i4 M50 shows how BMW blends dynamic performance and electric mobility to perfection. It was the best-selling BMW M model worldwide in 2022,” said Zipse. —Nik Berg 

VW’s next Golf GTI will probably look like this



Intake: VW just showed the world this cute little concept, called the ID.2all. ID, in VW speak, means “all-electric.” The smaller the number that follows ID, the smaller the vehicle. This front-wheel-drive concept previews a sort of people’s EV—if those people live in Europe, that is—which VW will reveal in production form in 2025, hopefully with a roughly €25,000 price tag. The relevant bit for the U.S.? This tidy hatch previews VW’s new design language, and given that it’s “as spacious as a Golf,” it’s a pretty fair bet that the next GTI will look similar. The ID.2all was designed in what had to be a serious rush by Andreas Mindt, who stepped in as Head of Volkswagen Design only February 1 of this year, after VW CEO Thomas Schaefer decided he’d had enough of the previous design head’s retro schtick. That said, ID.2all is quite sympathetic to the traditional silhouette of the Golf: a happy, humanoid face, a dominant C-pillar, and an arrow-straight beltline.

Exhaust: The exterior may be quite handsome, but peek inside. Looks like Mindt got the memo about customers’ clamoring for real buttons, rather than haptic sensors. A real, push-it-and-it-clicks button to adjust cabin temperature? Don’t tell Schaefer, but it almost feels retro. —Grace Houghton



“Confuse onlookers” with Audi special edition



Intake: Audi of America is offering 75 copies of what’s referred to as the 2023 Audi RS e-tron GT project_513/2. “Customers now have the opportunity to drive a version of the e-tron GT that most closely resembles the prototype car. This limited edition leverages the original design used for global prototype testing with ‘e-tron’ camouflage script on both the exterior and interior, and is exclusive to the U.S. market,” says the automaker. It’s the first Audi to offer an exterior skinned and wrapped in camo from the factory. “Camouflage graphics are often used by Audi for initial testing, and are designed to create confusion for onlookers that may be looking to capture the latest glimpse into automotive exterior design and technology before it is made public.”

Exhaust: As special editions go, this one is pretty mild—and a little confusing, alright, consisting mostly of graphics inside and outside the car. Of course the EV already has 637 total horsepower, so you really don’t need a lot more performance. Price of the GT project_513/2 is $179,900, plus shipping and a $595 metallic paint charge. —Steven Cole Smith

Honda’s big seatbelt buckle recall



Intake: Honda is recalling 448,613 vehicles in the U.S. over front seatbelt buckles that may not latch properly. A manufacturing issue can cause the surface coating on the buckle to deteriorate and lead to the belt-release button to shrink at lower temperatures. The recall covers the 2017–20 Honda CR-V, 2018–9 Accord, 2018–9 Accord Hybrid, 2018–20 Odyssey and 2019 Insight, and the 2019–20 Acura RDX. No injuries have been reported as a result of the issue, but there have been 301 warranty claims.

Exhaust: Dealers will replace the driver and front passenger seatbelt release buttons or buckle assemblies. Owners who paid for repairs related to the issue will be eligible for reimbursement. Letters will begin going out April 17. —SCS

Automotive News proclaims EV startup boom “is over…”



Intake: “…and companies now are trying to avoid a bust.” The publication found that, “Of the 10 EV startups reviewed by Automotive News, only four have enough cash on hand to cover a year or more of operating expenses, and only a couple can cover more than two years of their cash burn, according to their most recently available Securities and Exchange Commission filings.” Several, including Nikola, Faraday Future, and Arrival have identified doubt about their “abilities to continue as a going concern.”

Exhaust: It’s a tough world out there for EV startups, now that major OEMs have fully embraced the electric market. “There’s definitely a sense of fatigue,” said Jeff Osborne, a senior analyst focused on the sustainability and mobility technology sectors at TD Cowen, an American investment bank owned by Canada’s Toronto-Dominion Bank. “These stocks, putting it bluntly, are dramatically out of favor. It’s very unclear who’s going to win.” —SCS

“Right to repair” lawsuits filed against Tesla



Intake: Reuters is reporting that Tesla has been sued in a pair of proposed antitrust class actions accusing the company of “unlawfully curbing competition for maintenance and replacement parts for its electric vehicles, forcing owners to pay more and wait longer for repair services.” The lawsuits, filed on Tuesday and Wednesday in federal court in San Francisco, “allege that Tesla designed its electric vehicles, warranties and repair policies to discourage owners and lessees from using independent shops outside of Tesla’s control.”

Exhaust: Tesla joins other manufacturers facing “right to repair” antitrust litigation over alleged exclusionary conduct. Cases have also been filed against Harley-Davidson and John Deere. Both those companies have denied claims, but Deere has already lost one case. Reuters reached out to Tesla for comment, and none has been forthcoming. —SCS

You can buy Paul Newman’s Volvo



Intake: Bring a Trailer is offering a 1988 Volvo 740 Turbo wagon that was acquired new by actor Paul Newman and subsequently modified with a Buick Grand National–sourced turbocharged 3.8-liter V-6, a Borg-Warner five-speed manual gearbox, and an Aero-style body kit. The car is finished in gray and features 16-inch Gemini wheels, lowering springs, a limited-slip differential, an HKS turbo timer, a power-operated sunroof, heated front seats, third-row seating, and air conditioning.

Exhaust: Connecticut dwellers like Newman and David Letterman preferred hot-rodded Volvos to help confound state troopers who might doubt their radar readings when a Volvo sped by. The auction ends Friday, and bidding, at this writing, is up to $26,000. Watch this space; we’ll be analyzing the final result in a separate article. —SCS



***

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]]> https://www.hagerty.com/media/news/the-manifold/2023-03-16/feed/ 8 https://www.hagerty.com/media/news/the-manifold/2023-03-15/ https://www.hagerty.com/media/news/the-manifold/2023-03-15/#comments Wed, 15 Mar 2023 15:00:30 GMT https://www.hagerty.com/media/?p=298143

Kia’s Telluride-sized electric SUV is funky, futuristic

Intake: Kia has released teaser photos of its EV9, but now we get to see the real thing, undisguised—and it’s impressive. Kia says the big EV9, its first three-row electric flagship SUV, “encapsulates bold styling and sophisticated elegance inside and out. The Kia EV9 represents a pivotal step forward in the company’s journey towards becoming a sustainable mobility solutions provider.” The big brother to the EV6 crossover-hatch will be built on Kia’s “Electric Global Modular Platform (E-GMP).” The Telluride-sized EV has a long wheelbase and low beltline, “and [the] completely flat electric vehicle architecture [has] facilitated the creation of generous space for all occupants to connect and relax with lounge-style comfort in all three rows of seats.”

Exhaust: The interior is impressive, especially the swiveling second-row seats, which we weren’t expecting to see on the production model. Mechanical details—power, range, etc.—will be released later this month. —Steven Cole Smith



At long last, legendary Porsche tuner RUF has a U.S. base



Intake: Five decades after Alois Ruf Jr. first visited the U.S.A., the German Porsche re-manufacturer has finally established a permanent base in Miami, Florida. RUF North America’s home will be at The Concours Club, a private circuit and country club in the city center, and will serve as an import, sales and distribution hub as well as a service facility. The RUF range currently comprises three cars: the SCR, based on the 911 SC; the CTR 3 Clubsport, on the Cayman platform; and the CTR Anniversary, which looks like a 911 Carrera but is actually built a round RUF’s own carbon-fiber monocoque. A tribute to the first Yellow Bird biturbo built by the company 30 years ago, it packs a 710-hp version of the 3.6-liter flat-six linked to a seven-speed manual transmission and weighs just 2755 pounds.

Exhaust: Back in 1970 Ruf arrived in Los Angeles with three tuned Targas and sold them all. Although a network of importers and dealers was established to support American hunger for RUF automobiles, the Miami shop is the company’s first factory-backed base in the U.S.A. —Nik Berg

Can you decipher Dodge’s fourth “Last Call” teaser?

Intake: The fourth of five teaser videos for Dodge’s “ultimate” performance car—the culmination of the manufacturer’s Hemi send-off—has dropped, and it’s pretty abstract. Called “Hemi Vice,” the evil cartoon engineer, minus the Leprechaun sidekick that appeared in earlier videos, uses a jackhammer on some glowing orbs, and it shows a screen with “2538 psi.”

Exhaust: Well. Huh. Could it be direct fuel-injection pressure? Maximum cylinder pressure, divided by eight? Stay tuned for the final video, which comes later this week. The debut of the actual car, which will be the final Hemi-powered Dodge, will be March 20. —SCS



Toyota’s hydrogen race plans go “up in flames”



Intake: Automotive News is reporting that a modified Toyota Corolla with a new liquefied hydrogen carbon-neutral combustion engine, which was to be raced at an endurance race this weekend, “went up in flames. Quite literally. The modified Corolla race car caught fire during testing because of a leak in a hydrogen fuel line.”

Exhaust: No one was hurt in the fire, and the driver escaped “after an emergency failsafe kicked in, Toyota said in a briefing Wednesday.” The car can’t be repaired in time for its debut at a five-hour race in Japan’s Super Taikyu series scheduled for March 19 at the Suzuka Circuit in western Japan. “Toyota president Akio Toyoda had planned to take a turn behind the wheel in the race,” Automotive News said, “as part of his push to promote clean-burning hydrogen combustion technologies as one route to achieving carbon neutrality. He has raced cars with hydrogen-burning engines since 2021.” Perhaps “hydrogen burning” is not the optimum way to describe the cars. —SCS

Honda gearing up plants for EV production



Intake: Honda has announced that after decades of building the Accord in its Marysville, Ohio plant, production will be moved to Indiana, as Marysville retools for EV production. Additionally, Honda says it will electrify the East Liberty Auto Plant and Anna Engine Plant, “leading to the start of EV production in North America. This EV Hub will play a key role in developing the company’s knowledge and expertise in EV production that will be shared across Honda’s entire North American auto production network in the coming years.”

Exhaust: This doesn’t mean that Honda is abandoning ICE production anytime soon, “as many Honda plants continue production of gasoline-powered vehicles.” Marysville has been producing Honda products since 1982. —SCS

Finally, a successor for Denmark’s only supercar



Intake: We last heard from the Danish company Zenvo in 2020 when they debuted the V-8 1177-horsepower TSR-S seen here; now comes an announcement that it will be building the Aurora. Not to be confused with the Oldsmobile model, this is a “V-12 hypercar featuring a modular design chassis with carbon monocoque and carbon subframes, plus Zenvo’s own gearbox with integrated hybrid drive. At the heart of Aurora will be an all-new 6.0-liter, twin turbo V-12 engine.” Top speed will be over 248 mph.

Exhaust: Yes, another supercar: Let’s see if it makes it to America. Zenvo says the Aurora will have “worldwide homologation,” so perhaps it will. No date or price or photos were shared. Two models will be offered: The track-focused Aurora Agil, and the street-focused Aurora Tur. —SCS

***

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]]> https://www.hagerty.com/media/news/the-manifold/2023-03-15/feed/ 4 https://www.hagerty.com/media/lists/can-you-decode-these-6-badges/ https://www.hagerty.com/media/lists/can-you-decode-these-6-badges/#comments Fri, 10 Mar 2023 15:00:14 GMT https://www.hagerty.com/media/?p=296407

A few weeks ago, we published an article that placed you, the reader, in a hypothetical traffic jam. All around you were cars from various eras and manufacturers, sporting badges with confusing or unknown meanings.

The mix of letters and numbers clinging to trunk lids and fenders with double-sided tape are a kind of a secret language that’s always satisfying to decode. More often than not, once we’re out of the car, or the mystifying acronym is out of site, we forget to search online for the solutions to these little puzzles.

So we decided to save you the time and give you the rundown on six more badges you might encounter in the wild.

Check them out!

COPO



If you know, you know that Chevrolet’s Central Office Production Order (COPO) system gave dealers the means to get cars from the assembly line that the company didn’t publicize or specify on its order forms. The system was initially meant for ordering fleet vehicles, but of course it was also manipulated to build hot rods.

The ZL1 code, for example, was what an aspiring racer needed on their order form to get the all-aluminum 427 big-block that was originally designed for Corvette race cars … but the engine shortly found a home in Camaros. ZL1, by the way, was never an official Chevrolet designation until 2012, when it became a trim on the baddest track-focused Camaro in the lineup.

VTEC



Engines are tuned for the jobs they need to perform. That could mean low-rpm response for pleasant city driving, high-rev shove for a track-slaying sports car, or stump-pulling torque for a work truck. But what if you need an engine to respond to a variety of situations?

Honda’s solution: VTEC.

The four letters stand for Variable Valve Timing & Lift Electronic Control System. The tech can be traced to the 1984 New Concept Engine program, and it became a staple of Honda engines in the 1990s.

Utilizing two camshaft profiles and a valve lifter that is only actuated during high-rpm use, VTEC engines functionally have two cam profiles that can be tailored individually for optimal performance across different rev ranges.



These days nearly every manufacturer employs some version of variable valve or lift timing, and even big V-8 engines like Chevy’s small-block can run on four cylinders to save fuel. Some variable setups have better reputations than others, but none has the following or associated lore of Honda’s VTEC, which young tuners to this day respect.

SH-AWD



2005 doesn’t sound like it was so long ago, but check your calendar. It’s been eighteen years!

The automotive landscape in the mid-aughts was radically different than today’s. All-wheel drive was just starting to become common in mainstream cars, and Acura was on the forefront of developing new technology to compete with that of longtime experts Subaru and Audi.

Short for Super Handling All Wheel Drive, SH-AWD doesn’t earn Acura any points for naming creativity. But the Japanese brand should be credited for designing one of the first all-wheel-drive systems with true torque-vectoring capability.



Technically an evolution of the VTM-4 (Variable Torque Management four-wheel drive) system that debuted in 2001, Acura’s SH-AWD can send up to 70 percent of engine torque to the rear wheels and actively distribute up to 100 percent of that torque to a single left or right wheel to aid handling and traction.

SH-AWD is still in use today, in everything from the MDX family hauler to the show-stopping NSX supercar.

SHO



Ford gave birth to a beast when it shortened Super High Output to SHO and stuck the badge on the back of the Taurus for 1989. Luckily, the Yamaha-built, 220-horsepower V-6 backed up the bold name, along with a sport suspension, upgraded brakes, and cast-aluminum wheels.

The SHO was supposed to only last a few years, but after selling 15,519 Taurus SHOs in the very first year—at a hefty price of $19,739 (equal to about $45,840 today)—it proved a special model worth keeping around.

The first-generation cars (1989–91) have already achieved collector-vehicle status. Ford even brought the moniker back for the 2010 model year until it died with the Taurus in 2019. With Ford now using its Focus-famous ST badge on sportier SUVs these days, could SHO be gone forever?

STI



Short for Subaru Tecnica International, this group was created in 1988 to develop a worldwide image of competitive motorsports associated with the Subaru brand. (No, we didn’t leave out the “h” in Tecnica. That’s how Subaru wants it spelled.) The abbreviation quickly became synonymous with the highest-performance cars Subie sold, and these cars made their mark on rally stages around the world.

Early STi cars were Legacy-based, but the platform swapped to the Impreza’s in 1992 and ultimately took the form of the 1994 Impreza WRX STI, which sadly didn’t make it to U.S. shores for sale until the 2004 model year. If turbocharged boxer engines shoved into rally-infused four-doors are your thing, the STI is your flavor of fun.

Though early examples are now bonafide collector cars, Subaru made the strange choice of discontinuing the STI (all caps, as of 2006) for this latest iteration of the WRX.

RFVC



Back to Honda-land, but this time we are talking two wheels … and a badge that is literally cast into parts rather than stuck on to a body panel.

The Radial Four Valve (combustion) Chamber is a complicated way of saying “hemispherical cylinder head,” but it did keep Chrysler’s patent lawyers off everyone’s back.



In an effort to improve airflow, the four valves that control air and fuel flow through the cylinder were canted outward slightly, making a shallow dome with its apex at the spark plug.

Honda wasn’t the first to develop this design and was arguably late to implement it when the new-for-1984 XR-series bikes hit the market. However, like so many other manufacturers, Honda was keen to highlight the technology as a bragging point in marketing efforts. This design is widespread across a variety of modern engines, but it’s the Hemi crowd that still toots its horn the loudest.

For its part, the RFVC casting can still be found on the Honda XR650L, which has remained virtually unchanged since 1993.

***

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]]> https://www.hagerty.com/media/lists/can-you-decode-these-6-badges/feed/ 67 https://www.hagerty.com/media/motorcycles/why-minibike-racing-is-the-most-fun-ive-had-all-year/ https://www.hagerty.com/media/motorcycles/why-minibike-racing-is-the-most-fun-ive-had-all-year/#comments Thu, 09 Mar 2023 14:00:59 GMT https://www.hagerty.com/media/?p=288166

There are endless social media groups out there, and the vast majority are best ignored. So when someone recommended that I join the Great Lakes Supermoto group and its events, I was skeptical. Then I watched a few minibike videos, curious, and joined the discussion.

The idea is simple: Take all the best parts of riding a motorcycle on a track, then put them in the dryer for 90 minutes. The track is smaller. The bike is smaller. The risk is smaller. The cost is about as small as racing gets. The takeaway? If these people are pretty hard-core about putting adults on children’s motorcycles, it’s for good reason.

Within that Great Lakes group, a smaller set of Michigan riders seemed to be having the most fun on any given weekend. So when a friend offered me a loaner Honda CRF50 and suggested I join the fun, I took him up on it. That first event changed my perspective on motorcycling. Between 15-minute rounds of open lapping, I watched as the fast boys cut fast laps and diced it up with real racecraft.

I also took a few minutes to catch up with American Motorcyclist Association (AMA) pro Carl Soltisz. Carl has been racing full-size bikes for 12 years and small ones for seven. He currently runs in the MotoAmerica series at tracks across the United States. I asked his thoughts on this whole “adults on tiny motorcycles” thing. Is it really worth doing for anything other than fun, I wondered?

A survey of what I learned is below. The short answer? Fun isn’t the whole point. But if that’s all you show up for, there’s more than enough!

 

***

 



Location, location, location.

Because the group I ran with is based in Michigan, and because the weather here refuses to behave consistently throughout the year, this whole circus takes place indoors. It also happens only during the winter—Michigan’s summers are short, and in the warmer months, everyone has better things to do.

Naturally, you don’t have to be in Michigan. Other states have similar minimoto groups, but the whole thing hinges on convincing a go-kart track to allow the circus to occupy the facility for a few hours. (Given the insurance and legal requirements, I assume this takes a really strong sales pitch.) Regardless, facilities often look the same: tire walls covered with plastic sheeting, to keep riders and drivers contained on course; a polished concrete track surface; and tight, twisty layouts.

All-out speed isn’t the point, in other words. At the same time, everyone is trying to go faster.



The bikes are selected and upgraded to reflect the track’s constraints.

With the Great Lakes Supermoto (GLS) group, that means the Honda XR50 or CRF50. Pint-size dirt bikes meant for kids and powered by an air-cooled, 50cc, four-stroke single. These little beasts ride on 10-inch spoked wheels and wear cable-operated drum brakes. They have three-speed clutchless transmissions and look a lot like a shrunken version of a larger motorcycle.

In fact, if it weren’t for the big, BMX-style handlebars, a photo from the right angle could make these little Hondas pass for a larger bike. At least, without a rider present. Add a person into the mix, you’ll see why the larger handlebars are all but required to put an adult onto a bike this small.

For the GLS crowd, the only other required changes are a set of tires, some safety wire for your oil drain plug and fill port, and a catch can for your carburetor vent. These final points may seem extreme for such small machines and the relatively low speeds reached—a stock CRF50 tops out around 30 mph—but oil or gas on track can be hazardous no matter how fast you’re going.



Oddly enough, the Shinko SR550 tire is the hot ticket for setup.

This Korean-made scooter tire is surprisingly soft and sticky, especially considering how it was engineered for scooters and comes only in a whitewall construction. It almost seems appropriate for the slightly ridiculous activities at hand.

Sure, there are blackwall tire options, but when I surveyed the paddock for inspiration for building my own CRF50, consensus held the whitewalls as the best tire for polished concrete. Other choices blended in capability on outdoor surfaces, but if you’re looking for the “hot setup” for indoor, the whitewalls are where it’s at. Add some heavier springs to replace the literally child-sized suspension, and ta-da! One of the cheapest track bikes you’ll ever see pass tech inspection.



Don’t write off minibikes because they’re small and slow.

Before that Sunday at the indoor kart track, I had never ridden one of these little Hondas. Children’s motorcycles are often used in race paddocks as pit bikes. Because they’re so affordable to own, keep running, and modify, they also often see hard use as play bikes.

In other words, many have been ridden hard and put away wet for years. I had never invested any time or money into buying a bike like this because I saw the breed as a novelty, and not a very entertaining one at that. Then riders like Carl set me straight and showed me what I was missing. They’re a riot.



“Whether it’s a big bike or little bike, they all share the same basic principles …”

“… and a lot of the skills transfer over.” That’s Carl. He’s not wrong. In fact, because the minis are so much smaller than big bikes, they’re actually less stable. Not least because the smaller wheels give a reduced gyroscopic effect at speed.

We often refer to minis as “twitchy.” And this twitchy-ness, Carl noted, actually helps train your muscle memory and reflexes, for reacting when things go awry.

 

Yes, things go wrong.

As the old joke tells it, there are two types of motorcycle riders—those who have gone down, and those who will. The idea holds true in racing. You’re extracting as much as possible from the bike, and that means that sometimes, you ask too much.

This brings us to one of the most beautiful parts of minimoto: These bikes crash relatively gently. At least, compared to big bikes. I should know: During my third lapping session, I focused on the track’s fastest corner, a left-hand bend taken wide open in third gear. Then things went a bit … less than ideal.



As with larger bikes, thinking more can make you faster.

Rather than accept my sloth-like pace for one corner of the kart track’s nine-turn layout, I elected to try different things each time through. Change my turn-in point? No difference. Alter my shift point leading up to the turn in hopes of settling the bike down prior to the turn? No change. Then I began making subtle changes to my body position, watching the result of each. The bike got quicker.

 

Crashing is never fun, but at least the penalties are small.

Remember how I said, just a few lines back, that the bike went quicker? That increase in speed lasted for a lap or two, before the front tire told me I was being greedy and set me to sliding.

I now know how it feels to have my inside knee suddenly weighted, no longer skimming the track surface. What it’s like as the handlebars flop right to the steering lock as you instinctively begin to counter-steer. And I know what goes through my brain as I lay in the middle of the track, working to get my bike off me as traffic comes ripping toward my head, around that last blind corner.

In that moment, I wouldn’t have believed this was a best-case scenario. But it really was. I popped upright, pushed the bike off track, took a second to laugh about it, then went right back out, back to lapping. On a big bike, unless you’re very lucky or very stupid or both, crashes aren’t just brushed off.

Indoor or outdoor, small bike or large, the mental game is the same.

Errors like my crash often happen when we are mentally and physically worn out, like at the end of a race. Carl told me that he uses minimoto to train for the mental focus of a full-size race. He’ll be on the starting line for the grueling Daytona 200 this weekend, an event where riders must be on race pace for more than two hours.

“It can be pretty difficult to maintain a high level of mental focus for that amount of time,” he said. “With minis, I can go ride at 100 percent pace for two hours, and it simulates the mental focus you need on a big bike [for that time] pretty well. Practice opportunities [like that] are plentiful with minimoto but much harder to find on big-bike tracks.”



The lap-to-dollar ratio is unmatched.

We can all agree that more track time is preferable to less. Cost is minimoto’s final selling point, and for me, it’s the one that sunk the hook.

My house has an equal number of big and little tracks within most driving distances. When I’ve run big bikes, track fees and mechanical upkeep have been about a fifth of the spend. Carl felt the same way.

“If cost/time weren’t a factor,” he said, “and I was solely focused on sportbike racing, then only riding sportbikes would be the way to go. There’s no better practice than actually riding the bike you want to race on. I would still ride minimoto though, because they’re super fun. Minis are a great, cost-effective, convenient alternative.”



Practice matters.

Almost anything worth doing requires some amount of learning and practice to reach a level of expertise—or even just enjoyment. Riding or racing a motorcycle is more extreme a challenge than most hobbies, just in terms of the landscape. Sitting atop a 45- to 200-horsepower machine going 80 mph while leaned over at 50 degree is basically the normal operating condition. To learn anything in that environment, you have to be comfortable enough to think constantly, not just react, and that’s just the bare minimum.

The idea of a low-consequence, high-fun, affordable option to clock time on that learning curve? Too few people look for it until it’s too late.

***

 

The idea of 4-hp motorcycles designed for 5 year olds being good for anything more than comedy can be tough to wrap your head around. The proof is in the pudding, though: Next to a big bike, it’s the same skills, the same muscles, and the same pace.

If you want to become a better racer or a faster rider in general, a faster or more powerful bike is the last thing you need. If you can go fast on a 50, you can go fast on just about anything. All the cool kids are doing it. Why aren’t you?



***

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The post Why minibike racing is the most fun I’ve had all year appeared first on Hagerty Media.

]]> https://www.hagerty.com/media/motorcycles/why-minibike-racing-is-the-most-fun-ive-had-all-year/feed/ 8 https://www.hagerty.com/media/events/lemons-and-radwood-beware-the-motorized-porta-potty-but-enjoy-the-cars-you-forgot/ https://www.hagerty.com/media/events/lemons-and-radwood-beware-the-motorized-porta-potty-but-enjoy-the-cars-you-forgot/#comments Wed, 08 Mar 2023 17:00:51 GMT https://www.hagerty.com/media/?p=295672

“Look out! Here comes the porta potty again!” someone shouted.

“Excuse me,” yelled the blue-hatted potty driver. “Coming through!”

He did. And then he was gone. And then he was back, then gone again, this time with six feet of toilet paper fluttering from the urinal.

If it’s a motorized porta potty, this must be Concours d’Lemons, a home for cars that time, and everybody else, forgot. It, along with RADwood, a less extreme show series for cars of the 1980s and ’90s, are situated on the first green of the formerly pristine Ritz-Carlton golf course at Amelia Island, just north of Jacksonville, Florida. On a couple of other greens are the 150 cars that make up the Amelia Island Concours d’Elegance, an event that has occurred each spring since 1996.



This year, on the Saturday before the real Concours is held on Sunday, a couple of greens were dedicated to everyman cars. Seriously, some of the Lemons cars were so nice it was hard to tell where Lemons ended and RADwood began, except for helpful signs. The porta potty—well, we have a pretty good idea where it belonged, though it did appear properly washed and waxed. It kept driving up to the valet parking area, no doubt confounding any number of serious-minded concierges.



Back to Lemons. “Would you like a gin and tonic? We’re drinking today,” said Patricia Schwarze of DeLeon Springs, Florida. Likely the pitcher of gin and tonic possibly influenced the Lemons Concours judges, who wear gold sashes, one of them reading “We accept bribes.” Her car was a button-cute 1965 Citroen, a tiny car that was designed to battle the Volkswagen Beetle. “It is cute,” Patricia agrees, “but I’m not sure the rear looks like it was designed by the same people who designed the front.”



Speaking of Beetles, Michael Shores of Fernandina Beach, Florida—everybody’s from Florida, and Fernandina Beach is just up the road—was showing his 1984 VW pickup, but it isn’t the one sold in the U.S. This one was built in Brazil and wasn’t imported to the States. “Look at the engine,” Shores says. “It’s just a Beetle engine, but stuck up front.” It is, which leaves a lot of room behind the grille.



Over there is a green 1976 Lancia Beta, an Italian that never quite caught on in the U.S. The car and its owner, Neil Claason of Jacksonville, are positioned behind a sign that designates the class: “Needlessly complex Italian.” Claason was planning to bring his 1991 Alfa Romeo, but, well, you know, the Lancia started. “Needlessly complex Italians,” he says.



Arguably the hit of the Lemons Concours was Gil Pepitone’s gold 1976 AMC Pacer. Pepitone, of Winter Springs, said he has done a lot of work on his car, which sort of goes without saying, it being an AMC Pacer.



Moving to the RADwood side, there’s David Wallens’ 1984 Porsche 911 Carrera. It has a BMX bike on top, a 1984 model that Wallens rode and treasures almost as much as his 911. “It’s all 1984,” he says, down to the specific IMSA sticker on the side window, and the vintage radar detector stuck to the windshield, which would do him absolutely no good on the drive home to Ormond Beach. The license plate is from 1984 in New York, where Wallens grew up, and the plastic license plate frame is from a long-defunct local Porsche dealership there, where Wallens rode his bike—possibly the one on the roof—one night to steal. He is hopeful the statute of limitations has passed.



Almost invisible—just as they were when they were among the most popular vehicles in America—is Jacksonville residents Graham and Ashley O’Conner’s white, two-door 1986 Honda Accord. These were once everywhere, and hardly anybody thought to save one. The O’Conners are the second owners, and the car is in lovely shape, given the fact it has 137,000 miles on it.

We are suddently interrupted by the porta-potty, traversing into RADwood territory. No problem here. This is a tolerant and inclusive bunch.



***

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]]> https://www.hagerty.com/media/events/lemons-and-radwood-beware-the-motorized-porta-potty-but-enjoy-the-cars-you-forgot/feed/ 8 https://www.hagerty.com/media/news/the-manifold/2023-03-03/ https://www.hagerty.com/media/news/the-manifold/2023-03-03/#comments Fri, 03 Mar 2023 16:00:33 GMT https://www.hagerty.com/media/?p=295132

Your six-speed Jeep may have a bad pressure plate

Intake: Jeep is recalling over 69,000 Wranglers (2018–23) and Gladiator pickups (2020–23) with manual transmissions because a problem with the clutch pressure-plate could cause a fire, says Consumer Reports. If the pressure plate for the clutch overheats, it could break, and hot debris could be expelled from the transmission case. This debris could cause a road hazard for other drivers, and could also cause a fire in the vehicle or the surrounding area if it comes into contact with an ignition source.

Exhaust: Before the clutch pressure-plate fails, drivers may notice a burning smell, clutch slippage, and/or a warning light on the instrument cluster. There is currently no repair available for the problem, but Jeep tells the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration that one is under development. If the clutch in your Jeep doesn’t feel right, stop driving the vehicle. —Steven Cole Smith



The electric Telluride cometh



Intake: OK, maybe Kia’s not calling this battery-powered SUV an electric Telluride, but the EV9 will be roughly the same size as that three-row best-seller. You’re looking at your first official teaser images of it here. No word yet on when you can buy an EV9, but at least we know that Kia wants to build it. The automaker will give us a timeline for availability and hopefully range/power details in late March. (We’ll know what it looks like, inside and out, in a few weeks.) Kia first hinted it would build this boxy electric SUV in November of 2021, with the Concept EV9 shown off in L.A. (Locale says a lot, huh?) As a one-off, the concept’s specs are hardly guaranteed to match those of the real-world version, but they at least signal intent: 300 miles of range, and a 350-kW charging system that can zap the battery from 10 to 80 percent in 20 to 30 minutes. Good luck finding a compatible charger that powerful …

Exhaust: You can learn a lot about an automaker’s culture by watching its concepts: Which ones make production, in what timeframe, and with what changes. Nobody was expecting the Concept EV9’s swiveling seats or B-pillar-less cabin to become reality—one’s expensive, the other defies crash standards—but, based on these black-and-white images, the profile, headlights, and taillights are almost copy-paste from the 2021 concept. Two years between concept and announcement of the real thing? Kia’s serious. —Grace Houghton



Production to resume on Ford Lightning



Intake: Ford said Thursday it will restart production of its F-150 Lightning on March 13 after it halted output of the electric truck after a battery fire in early February, says Automotive News. Ford has not set a date for resuming deliveries. Ford said as it “ramps up production, [it] will continue holding already produced vehicles while [it works] through engineering and parts updates.” Ford said a vehicle caught fire February 4 during a pre-delivery quality inspection in a company holding lot in Dearborn, Michigan, and the flames spread to two other trucks. The automaker halted production the next day.

Exhaust: Ford apparently traced the problem to the South Korean battery supplier, SK On. Ford previously said it was targeting annual production of 150,000 Lightnings by the fall of 2023, and it’s unknown if it will be able to reach that figure. —SCS

For sale: 1902 car that thinks it’s a train



Intake: The early 1900s were an interesting time for the automobile. It was caught between a rich person’s novelty toy and a practical machine to be used by the masses. Leaning hard to the former is this Sterand Loco listed on carandclassic.com. A car playing dress-up as a locomotive is always fun, and this one includes features that all steam enthusiasts love, like the air whistle, bell, single headlight, and connecting rods that make the rear wheels appear to be turned by steam power—though they are actually driven by a Rutenber gasoline engine.

Exhaust: While at first glance this Sterand is a mix of a misunderstanding and a Wish.com version of a Bentley Blue Train, it’s growing on us. Weird, but interesting … and unlike anything else you might see on the road. The selling dealer claims the loco-car has driven 12,000 miles so maybe there is some practicality, too. —Kyle Smith

Consumer confidence dropping in autonomous vehicles



Intake: Concerns about self-driving cars are significantly higher than they were last year, according to an annual automated vehicle survey just released by AAA. The survey reveals 68 percent of drivers are afraid of riding in a self-driving vehicle. That’s up from 55 percent in 2022, and the largest annual increase since 2020. “We did not expect such a dramatic shift in consumer concerns from previous years,” said Mark Jenkins, public relations manager for AAA, The Auto Club Group. “Though it isn’t entirely surprising, given the number of high-profile crashes that have recently occurred from over-reliance on current vehicle technologies.” AAA’s survey found that nearly one in 10 drivers believe they can buy a vehicle that drives itself while they sleep. AAA found that 22 percent of Americans expect a driver-support system—with names like Autopilot (Tesla), ProPilot (Nissan/Infiniti), or Pilot Assist (Volvo)—to drive the car by itself without any supervision.

Exhaust: The survey results highlight what a lousy job the manufacturers have done to educate consumers about autonomous driving. “Most new vehicles are equipped with some level of advanced driver-assistance technology, which can enhance the safety of motorists if used properly,” Jenkins said. “However, it’s important to clarify that there are currently no vehicles available for purchase that allow someone to fully disengage from the task of driving.” —SCS

Pair of “new” Honda motorcycles for 2023



Intake: U.S. riders will have two more options for mix-use fun with Honda’s announcement of the XR150L and CRF300LS. The first is a simple and durable 150cc single-cylinder model that is only new to the U.S. market. This XR150L has been for sale in the Asia, Australia, and New Zealand markets for some time and Honda hasn’t changed marketing strategy for the states. Its designed as an “affordable additional motorcycle for veteran riders, campground passage for outdoor-enthusiast families, or around-town transportation for those still relatively new to the world of powersports.” The CRF300LS is similar, but uses the established CRF300L and lowers the seat height to make it more welcoming to shorter or newer riders.

Exhaust: The exact seat height of the CRF300LS is yet to be released, but this is following a trend set by Kawasaki, which started offering lower seat-height versions of its KLX230 and KLR650. The stock height of a CRF300L is nearly 35 inches, so even riders with inseam to spare might find the “S” model a little more comfortable in off-road situations. The XR150L is a great value play for a person hunting for a basic motorcycle to have simple fun with both on- and off-road; MSRP is just $2971 and deliveries are expected to begin in April. —Kyle Smith

***

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The post Manual Jeeps recalled, you still can’t get an F-150 Lightning, fear of self-driving cars rises appeared first on Hagerty Media.

]]> https://www.hagerty.com/media/news/the-manifold/2023-03-03/feed/ 9 https://www.hagerty.com/media/news/cr-v-hybrid-racer-is-a-hondas-wolf-in-sheeps-clothing/ https://www.hagerty.com/media/news/cr-v-hybrid-racer-is-a-hondas-wolf-in-sheeps-clothing/#comments Tue, 28 Feb 2023 21:00:18 GMT https://www.hagerty.com/media/?p=293690

Answering a question nobody asked—What would happen if Honda put an IndyCar engine in a CR-V?—please allow the company to present the CR-V Hybrid Racer, presumably ready for an SUV racing series that is yet to be contemplated, let alone announced.

Billed as “an IndyCar wolf in CR-V clothing,” the Hybrid Racer will debut at this weekend’s Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg. As it is, the CR-V Hybrid Racer is expected to make several demonstration laps as it, uh, awaits the development of comparable 700-horsepower Nissan Rogues, Kia Sportages, Hyundai Tucsons, and Mitsubishi Eclipses. 

Meanwhile, since it isn’t April 1, here are some actual, real-life details: The Honda CR-V Racer uses a twin-turbo, 2.2-liter V-6 engine, which likely revs to a series-mandated 12,000 rpm. It uses the IndyCar’s mild hybrid unit and Xtrac paddle-shifted sequential six-speed transmission.



“When the Design Studio learned about this project, we had already established a great relationship with Honda Performance Development through other projects, including the Acura ARX-06,” said Dave Marek, executive creative director at Acura. “So this was—pardon the pun—‘Right in our wheelhouse’. It became a ‘what if?’ of keep the CR-V as is, but add some serious attitude with parts indicative of an Indy car.

“Then it was back to my childhood of never building model cars right out of the box,” Marek said, “by manipulating areas with DTM or Japanese Super GT cars in mind. I basically mocked up the idea in 3D then our amazing Digital Modelers made it work.”

Indeed, the design took a lot of manipulation. “From the beltline up,” Honda says, “the Hybrid Racer utilized a standard production sixth-generation CR-V steel body, including the glass windshield, windows and even the sunroof. The lower half is of carbon-composite construction, incorporating a massive front splitter and louvered, flared fenders. An equally large rear wing and butterfly half-cut doors on either side for the driver and passenger complete the bodywork.”



Front suspension is from the HPD-developed Acura NSX GT-3 Evo22, while rear suspension is adapted from a Dallara IR-18 IndyCar. It has Brembo brakes front and rear, and wears Firestone Firehawk Indy 500 Ultra-High Performance Summer Tires—285/35-20 up front, 305/35-20 out back. In all, it looks ready for the Pikes Peak hill climb, but no mention of that is made in the press materials.

Besides this weekend’s unveiling and on-track demonstration at St. Pete, look for the Honda CR-V Hybrid Racer to make appearances at other IndyCar events, including the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach (April 14-16); the Children’s of Alabama Indy Grand Prix (April 28-30), and the Honda Indy 200 at Mid-Ohio (June 30–July 2).

“This project vehicle is an IndyCar beast in Honda CR-V sheep’s clothing,” said David Salters, president and technical director for HPD. “It epitomizes Honda’s fun-to-drive ethos, showcases electrification and it just rocks our car culture roots and racing heritage!” he said, with an exclamation mark. The St. Pete IndyCar season opener is set for March 3–5.



The post CR-V Hybrid Racer is Honda’s “wolf in sheep’s clothing” appeared first on Hagerty Media.

]]> https://www.hagerty.com/media/news/cr-v-hybrid-racer-is-a-hondas-wolf-in-sheeps-clothing/feed/ 3 https://www.hagerty.com/media/lists/12-modern-collectible-vehicles-under-20000/ https://www.hagerty.com/media/lists/12-modern-collectible-vehicles-under-20000/#comments Fri, 24 Feb 2023 15:00:24 GMT https://www.hagerty.com/media/?p=292868



Let’s not kid ourselves: Being a car enthusiast can be a pricey endeavor. Like any hobby that involves expensive gear and gadgets (golf, photography, skiing, boating …), keeping a fun weekend car is often dauntingly expensive.

We’ve found 12 vehicles made in 1993 or later, each of which costs less than 20 grand in running and driving condition. Each has plenty of creature comforts, and some have real handling prowess. All are vehicles that you can enjoy owning, tinkering with, and possibly showing off at your local car show or caffeine-adjacent cruise-in.

We know that $20,000 is not cheap, but we’ve selected vehicles that are well-preserved for their age, with values based on the Hagerty Price Guide’s 1-to-4 vehicle-condition rating system. (For the full breakdown of our scale, click here.) Vehicles in #3, or Good, condition are very well maintained and ready to hit the road, though they will have cosmetic flaws visible to the naked eye. #2 condition, or Excellent, vehicles drive and present like new.

Let’s get started.

2006 Dodge Charger SRT8



#3 (Good) value: $16,900

It sure doesn’t feel like Dodge returned to Hemi-powered muscle cars 17 years ago, but here we are. The 6.1-liter Hemi in the early Chargers is down a bit on power compared to the current crop of 6.4-liter beasts, although the 425-hp output and snarling exhaust are enough to make you forget the comparison rather quickly. Also, the tall, aluminum intake manifold on the 6.1-liter easily makes it the best-looking third-gen Hemi to ever go into a Charger, so pop that hood every chance you get.

The earlier Charger models have just the right amount of brawny flair to make them stand out in a sea of FWD sedans. They’ve got to be some of the best buys in muscle sedans today.

1995 Subaru SVX L AWD



#2 (Excellent) value: $16,600

There were many strange and interesting vehicles to come out of Japan in the ’90s, so we’ll forgive you if you’ve forgotten—or never even knew—about the Subaru SVX.

The two-door, four-seat grand tourer was designed by Giorgetto Giugiaro, who also penned the DeLorean DMC-12 and original Golf. The SVX has a striking greenhouse dominated by curving side windows that necessitated a rather unique solution to allow the vertical portions to roll down. We drove one of these quirky coupes and enjoyed the smooth, 240-hp 3.3-liter flat-six and the stares that the rare coupe drew from confused onlookers.

Considering the SVX was a low-volume car and the sole recipient of its flat-six engine, this car might be expensive to maintain long-term. On the other hand, it does turn a lot of heads for 16 grand.

1993 Ford Taurus SHO



#2 (Excellent) value: $10,300

Who doesn’t love a sleeper? Ford pumped out hundreds of thousands of boring, reliable Tauruses every year, making it the most popular car in America from 1992–96. The majority of them were equipped with an automatic transmission and a 140-hp, pushrod, 3.0-liter Vulcan V-6. Optional on sedans and standard on the heavier wagon, the 3.8-liter Essex V-6 brought additional torque (but no additional power) thanks to increased displacement.

The SHO (Super High Output) model, on the other hand, featured a DOHC version of the 3.0-liter with an improved block and an all-new top end developed by Yamaha. Doubling the number of valves meant the V-6 could breathe a whole lot better, allowing it to rev to a peak of 220 hp at 6200 rpm. The additional 80 horsepower completely transformed the SHO and enabled it to sprint from 0 to 60 mph in under seven seconds when equipped with the manual transmission. In 1993, an automatic was optional for the first time and nearly 3 out of 4 buyers preferred it, with contemporary reviews from Motor Trend praising the automatic version’s smoothness.

Whichever SHO you pick, five-speed or auto, expect it to fly under the radar and bring a smile to your face.

1999 Ford Mustang Cobra SVT



#3 (Good) value: $16,000

The Ford Mustang GT has been a great performance bargain for years. For that reason, it’s easy to forget that, in the early days of the Modular V-8, the standard GT wasn’t terribly exciting. With its “Performance Improved” two-valve cylinder head, the 1999 Mustang boasted 260 hp, an increase from 225 hp the year before.

There was clearly more in Ford’s Modular V-8, and the 1999 SVT Cobra unlocked it thanks to DOHC, four-valve heads. The massive heads and imposing intake, topped with a coiled cobra, looked great under the hood, but owners were disappointed with the model’s performance. Ford recalled the cars and replaced the intake manifold, stating that the initial run of manifolds had been miscast and didn’t flow as intended. The factory made good with a new intake, cat-back exhaust, and a new tune, making the 320-hp 4.6-liter the most powerful naturally aspirated Mod motor to go into a factory Mustang until the fabulous Coyote debuted for 2012.

We’ve got good news for fans of convertibles: The droptop Cobra is even more affordable, with a #3 (Good) condition value of $14,900.

2000 Chevrolet Corvette



#3 (Good) value: $17,400

Corvette made several big moves when the fifth generation (C5) launched for the 1997 model year. Not only did chassis and layout improve by leaps and bounds, with the switch to a torque tube and rear-mounted transmission, but the fifth gen ushered in the LS1 V-8. This was the first application of the third-generation small-block, the only engine that had any chance at dethroning the original Chevy small-block as the go-to V-8 for the average Joe’s engine swap.

Low-mileage, well-preserved Z06s of this generation still provide excellent value, but enthusiasts have known about them for quite a while. It’s no secret that this 2023 Bull Market pick is a fantastic track machine. However, the base C5 still offers plenty of road-hugging grip, and it has a hatch that makes it a practical grand touring machine. (The trunk is pretty well known, at this point, for its ability to swallow two golf bags.) Plus, if you are so inclined, the Z06 suspension goodies are a bolt-on affair. Prices have softened a bit on the entry-level C5s, with values down 11 percent since October of 2022.

1991 Honda Civic Si



#2 (Excellent) value: $15,600

With a standard manual transmission and manual steering, the original Civic Si was a pure, mechanical joy. Later models added more finesse, but even with smoothed edges, they are still a visceral experience. We’ve seen prices for Honda hot hatches and coupes skyrocket over the last several years, and the prices for the 1991 model have gone up 25 percent since this time last year. For buyers of a certain age, these are prime collectibles. Get behind the wheel and you’ll understand why.

2004 Porsche Boxster S



#3 (Good) value: $18,000

Let’s not put too fine a point on this: It’s a droptop, mid-engine Porsche that you can drive for less than $20,000.

2009 Pontiac Solstice GXP



#2 (Excellent) value: $18,500

The Pontiac Solstice was made during a time when General Motors was taking risks and putting quite a lot of low-volume vehicles into production. Enthusiasts should take advantage of the spoils.

Yes, there’s a serious lack of luggage space thanks to some interesting packaging decisions that make this car rather impractical for a long trip, much less a daily driver; but the Pontiac Solstice and its Saturn Sky platform-mate are quite fun to drive, often described as smaller Corvettes. The Solstice GXP and its cousin the Sky Redline are powered by 260-hp, turbocharged Ecotec 2.0-liter inline-fours and their generous wheelwells can fit a decent amount of tire to provide lots of grip.

Values for these attractive convertibles are holding steady and a #3 (Good) condition GXP can be had for just about half ($10,700) of this list’s $20,000 threshold.

2006–2007 Subaru Impreza WRX



#3 (Good) value: $15,300

Subaru finally gave American buyers the chance to own a rally-bred WRX in 2002 and a generation of buyers has reveled in the nimble, AWD performance compact in both sedan and wagon versions.

WRX fans have lots of opinions on whether the Bugeye (2002–3), Blobeye (2004–5), or Hawkeye (2006–7) version looks best, and we can make arguments for all three of them. However, it was only the Hawkeye that got a displacement boost, using the 2.5-liter EJ255 rather than the 2.0-liter powerplant used by its predecessors. There’s a downside to the increase in displacement and torque that came from this new engine, as the mill is notorious for head-gasket issues. Hopefully by now these cars have enough miles for their owners to have sorted those out, and you’ll be able to find a driver-condition (or #3) car and enjoy AWD turbo motoring.

If you prefer a different look, and a bit more luxury, the badge-engineered Saab 9-2X Aero wagon uses the same 230-hp turbo four and has an identical price tag.

2002 BMW Z3 3.0



#3 (Good) value: $15,500

Sometimes Miata is not the answer. The most powerful non-M version of the classic BMW roadster, the 3.0-liter iteration of the Z3 packs an M54 inline-six that delivers a smooth 228 hp suitable for spirited driving or for road-tripping. Where else are you going to get an inline-six roadster at this price and with looks this striking? Prices are up just over five percent compared to a year ago, perhaps pulled in that direction by the less common Z3 coupe, whose values are up by more than 25 percent.

2006 Pontiac GTO



#3 (Good) value: $19,800

Imported from Australia, the 2004 GTO brought a capable chassis with independent rear suspension, a powerful V-8, and a comfortable interior—available in quite the color palette—to fill in while the Camaro was on hiatus. The GTO’s detractors bashed it for being a hot-rodded two-door version of a family sedan with some hood scoops thrown on, completely forgetting that the original 1964 GTO was a hot-rodded two-door version of a family sedan with some hood scoops thrown on.

Contemporary reviews from buff books were positive and the rather sedate design has aged nicely. While the car was launched in 2004 with a 350-hp, 5.7-liter LS1, 2005 and 2006 models received a 400-hp, 6.0-liter LS2, making them the most desirable models in the short production run. This one barely squeaks onto the list: Enthusiasts know a good thing when they see it, and prices have remained steady.

2003 Jeep Wrangler Rubicon



#3 (Good) value: $19,300

Not everyone’s idea of a weekend drive includes a road, so we couldn’t finish this list without a 4×4. The inaugural Jeep Wrangler Rubicon seemed like the perfect vehicle to wrap things up.

The 2003 model year saw not only the introduction of the Rubicon package, with its beefier Dana 44 axles, dual lockers, and 4:1 low-range, but also a mid-cycle update across the TJ Wrangler lineup that included an automatic overdrive transmission replacing the prior three-speed auto. Of course, a five-speed manual was also optional and the Rubicon’s deep low-range would make three-pedal crawling a much simpler affair. It’s been 20 years since Jeep launched the Rubicon trim, and the prices on the TJ (1997–2006) Rubicons continue to scramble up, so it might not be long before spending $20,000 on a TJ Rubicon means a trail-battered example that requires serious repair.

For those of you who want to spend less than $20,000, there are still plenty of viable project vehicles, especially if you don’t mind sacrificing some late-model conveniences. If you prefer to do some wrenching and restoring of your own, your options are even more vast. Scored a good deal on a modern collectible such as these? Let us know in the comments below.

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Check out the Hagerty Media homepage so you don’t miss a single story, or better yet, bookmark it. To get our best stories delivered right to your inbox, subscribe to our newsletters.

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]]> https://www.hagerty.com/media/lists/12-modern-collectible-vehicles-under-20000/feed/ 187 https://www.hagerty.com/media/news/the-manifold/2023-02-20/ https://www.hagerty.com/media/news/the-manifold/2023-02-20/#comments Mon, 20 Feb 2023 16:00:25 GMT https://www.hagerty.com/media/?p=291984

Stenhouse beats 30:1 odds to take 65^th Daytona 500

Intake: Journeyman driver Ricky Stenhouse, Jr., and Chevrolet beat 30:1 odds to win the 65^th annual Daytona 500 in overtime on Sunday, edging out 2015 winner Joey Logano in second, Christopher Bell in third, Chris Buescher in fourth, and polesitter Alex Bowman in fifth. Per usual, several major crashes took out some of the top names, leaving a fight for the finish that ended under the yellow flag. The single-car Stenhouse team is owned by JTG-Daugherty Racing, with the Daugherty being former NBA player Brad Daugherty. NASCAR returns to racing next weekend at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, California.

Exhaust: Stenhouse’s first NASCAR Cup race was in 2011, with 365 races run in total. This is the third win for the Olive Branch, Mississippi former sprint car driver. He won the summer race at Daytona in 2017. The 500 victory ended a 199-race winless streak for the 35-year-old driver whose most notable achievement outside auto racing was being driver Danica Patrick’s longtime boyfriend. — Steven Cole Smith

Honda building 800-hp CR-V



Intake: For reasons unknown, Honda has announced that it is building an 800-horsepower CR-V hybrid “track monster” that will be revealed on February 28. No, we don’t think you’ll be able to buy one. To wit: “The engineers at Honda Performance Development and Auto Development Center, and designers from North America Auto Design Division of American Honda have conceived and constructed the ultimate high-performance beast—the Honda CR-V Hybrid Racer project vehicle—a track monster with some 800 electrified horsepower.” While details are sparse, a careful look at some of the photos above hints that this thing might be a mid-engine car, and that close-up engine shot doesn’t look like an upright four-cylinder engine like you’d get in a regular CR-V. Is that maybe an old IndyCar V-6?

Exhaust: Honda hasn’t said what the CR-V will be doing, but our best guess is the Pike’s Peak International Hill Climb in June. Seriously, what else would you use an 800-horse SUV “track monster” for? Delivering (very hot) pizza? — SCS  

Ford’s Louisville assembly plant extends shutdown over Escape software issue



Intake: Ford’s Louisville Assembly plant, home of the refreshed Ford Escape and the Lincoln Corsair, will remain shut down through at least February 24 due to a software issue, according to Automotive News. The plant is currently in the pre-production phase for the new Escape and Corsair. In a letter to plant employees which was shown to AN, building chairman Brandon Reisinger said that the software issue was related to the vehicle’s instrument cluster. “We’re on a day-by-day basis right now and I know that’s frustrating,” said Reisinger’s letter. “The issue we’ve got, the cluster, is a software issue. It’s not a hardware issue. If it were to get out, it would not be something that would endanger anybody … But it would have the vehicles coming back to the dealership.”

Exhaust: Vehicles coming back to the dealership are exactly what Ford can’t have more of. Recalls and warranty work obliterated Ford’s bottom line last year, and CEO Jim Farley has been outspoken about his frustration with the quality issues and resulting costs. While we’re sure he’s not thrilled to hear about an idled plant, we’d bet it’s better than a future recall. — Nathan Petroelje

Rare AMG Hammer goes under the, er, hammer



Intake: One of just 30 AMG Hammers built is headed to auction and could fetch over $600,000. The 1987 AMG became the ultimate sleeper sedan of its day when AMG removed the standard three-liter six-cylinder engine from a 300E and replaced it with a hand-built 6.0-liter V-8. Based on the 5.5-liter motor from the S-Class, AMG increased its capacity and fitted it with a twin-cam cylinder head with four valves per cylinder for a net power output of 355 hp and 388 lb-ft of torque. Drive was sent to the rear wheels via a four-speed automatic transmission and rear differential lifted from the S-Class, and the Hammer’s 181-mph top speed made it faster than Ferrari Testarossa. Wisely, AMG also fitted sports suspension, upgraded brakes, and 17-inch rims. The car will be offered at Broad Arrow Auctions’ The Amelia sale on March 4 and is one of 13 examples believed to have been made for the U.S. market, actually assembled in Illinois at AMG’s American facility, rather than Afalterbach, Germany. With 32,600 miles now on the clock, the car has recently had a full overhaul by RENNtech.

Exhaust: When new, this car began life as a $39,5000 300E and turning it into a Hammer added a further $97,988.29. In today’s money that’s the equivalent of almost $370,000. An even rarer 1988 coupe version sold in August 2022 for $761,800, so Broad Arrow’s estimate of $575,000–$625,000 seems pretty plausible. We’ll find out just how big a hit it makes when the car goes under the hammer. — Nik Berg

VinFast to begin construction on N.C. factory



Intake: VinFast, the Vietnamese car builder, has received permits to allow construction to begin on its North Carolina factory to build electric SUVs for the U.S. market, Reuters said via Automotive News. The first phase of construction includes a $2 billion investment in a factory capable of producing 150,000 vehicles a year. Phase two will focus on battery production. The plant will employ 7000 workers, and construction should begin “soon.”

Exhaust: VinFast, which has been concentrating on the West Coast as the location of its rollout, is supposed to begin delivering its first batch of SUVs to U.S. customers later this month once the shipment arrives from Vietnam. — SCS

Inventory lower, prices higher in January



Intake: A study reports that new-vehicle inventory was lower in January from December but remained significantly higher than a year ago, according to Cox Automotive’s analysis of “vAuto Available Inventory” data. Asking prices for new vehicles set another record high in January. The total supply of new vehicles dipped to 1.73 million at the end of January, while the average listing price rose to $47,743 for a new vehicle during the same period.

Exhaust: Of the 30 best-sellers for the 30-day sales period, Cox said that Toyota, Kia, and Honda had the most models at the low end of supply. Starting at the very bottom were Kia Sportage, Honda CR-V, and Kia Telluride. Of the 30 best-sellers, the Ford Escape had the most inventory, followed by domestic pickup trucks and SUVs. —SCS

The post Underdog takes Daytona 500, Honda’s wild CR-V track monster, AMG Hammer heads to auction appeared first on Hagerty Media.

]]> https://www.hagerty.com/media/news/the-manifold/2023-02-20/feed/ 4 https://www.hagerty.com/media/lists/do-you-know-what-these-8-badges-mean/ https://www.hagerty.com/media/lists/do-you-know-what-these-8-badges-mean/#comments Fri, 17 Feb 2023 21:00:35 GMT https://www.hagerty.com/media/?p=291186

Sitting in traffic can be boring. There often isn’t much to look at. A few personalized license plates to decode, or maybe a pretty sunrise or sunset to soak in, at best. I find myself often trying figure out what the badges on the back of the cars in front me you mean.

While the badging on modern cars is largely meaningless, there was a time when automakers peppered alphanumerics all over a car’s doors, fenders, pillars, and bumpers. It was a form boasting that showcased the car’s technological advancements and performance to anyone looking.

Those signals could be quite complex. You might need a decoder book, an engineering background, and an MBA to make sense of these four- or five-letter jumbles. These acronyms and initialisms pertained to the car’s transmission, engine, all-wheel drive system, or maybe a modest option code that sounded more like a radio station you’d pick up in the far corners of Kansas.

Thanks for tuning in to 94.3 SH-AWD! Up next we have a brand-new track off Sting’s new album!

We put our heads together and came up with a selection of badges—some well-known, some more obscure—and hunted down what each one meant. Should you stumble across one of these examples while gridlocked, the list below should provide you with some neat trivia to impress (or bore) your passengers.

LTD



While cars can sometimes seem like a Life Time Decision, that is not what LTD stands for. Nor does it stand for Love, Togetherness, and Devotion, but we could all benefit from being Back in Love Again with a quality automotive emblem like the Ford LTD.

No matter, when trim packages were introduced, the labels needed to create a hierarchy, clearly outlining which models were the feature-packed examples. Ford thought the best way to do so would be to make plain that one particular trim was Limited, which shortened nicely to LTD on the 1965 Ford Galaxie. Apparently it worked; by the late 1970s the Galaxie moniker was gone, and the LTD became the King of Dearborn.

RS/SS



Just as Ford wanted to distinguish one trim as “Limited,” Chevrolet sought slice up the Camaro lineup in the late 1960s. Buyers could step up from the base trim to the RS, which stood for Rally Sport. Making the leap scored you hidden headlights, revised taillights, and some additional brightwork. From there, you could step up to the SS package, which was short for Super Sport and was targeted at buyers wanting additional power and handling capability.

4WS



When numbers enter into the mix, you know things are getting complicated. Four Window System? The emblem was mounted on the B-pillar, after all!

But wait, that doesn’t make sense because this bit of tech debuted on the two-door Honda Prelude coupe. It’s actually a shorthand for Honda’s four-wheel steering, first introduced on the Prelude for the 1987 model year. The entirely mechanical system dialed in a relatively small amount of counter-steering to the rear wheels at slow speed to improve the turning circle, and it could also angle the rear wheels in the same direction as the fronts at higher speeds for better stability.

OHC/FI



Five letters with a slash. Things are getting serious now! Or at least, Pontiac thought its tech was getting noteworthy with the combination of an overhead camshaft and fuel injection on the 1.8-liter fuel injected engines found in the J-body based Pontiac Sunbird. (This Opel-derived motor was also used in the Oldsmobile Firenza and Buick Skyhawk, but without Pontiac’s unique emblem.) Did many/most vehicles of the era feature at least one overhead camshaft and fuel injection? Well, sure. But were they advertising it on the front of the fender? Gotta respect Pontiac’s hustle.

SVT



Super Very Torque? I mean, you do only see this badge on quick cars. Born in 1991, Ford’s Special Vehicle Team (SVT) was a skunkworks division dedicated to niche high-performance vehicles. While not particularly a creative initialism, the team was responsible for some heavy-hitting machinery including the 1993 Mustang Cobra R, 2005–2006 Ford GT supercar, and the first Ford Raptor pickup. Ford formally closed down SVT in 2015, but the legacy of this badge will be remembered fondly in the hearts of Blue Oval fans everywhere.

ALB



Another Honda entry to the list, like the 4WS emblem, also appears on the B-pillar. While ALB sounds like a minor-league baseball organization, it’s not (we think). On Hondas, ALB was just a simple abbreviation for anti-lock brakes that predated the commonly used ABS (anti-lock braking system). Of course, ABS is ubiquitous and thus nothing to brag about, but ALB marks a time when it was something to be proud of.

HICAS and Super HICAS



Whoa, that’s a lot of letters! HICAS stood for High Capacity Actively Controlled Steering, a rear-wheel steering system that Nissan first introduced on the 1986 Skyline GTS coupe. The system utilized the power steering pump to push fluid through a hydraulic circuit that would adjust the angle of the rear rollers based on input data from speed sensors. Starting with the R33 (1993–97) Skyline, the system swapped out the hydraulic controls for an electronically actuated system, which Nissan subsequently dubbed Super HICAS.

XR4ti



Where do we even start here? It is often safe to assume that ‘X’ is representative of ‘experimental’ in the land of European Ford and 1960s Lincoln-Mercury products—just pay no attention to the fact that Nissan came out with the Xterra and BMW stepped in with X-branded crossovers to muddied everything up. This particular string of letters does indeed start with ‘experimental,’ though it was only truly experimental for the North American market. From 1985 to 1989, Ford imported the three-door Sierra XR4i model and labeled it a Merkur XR4ti.

Long story short, XR4ti stood for Experimental (X) Racing (R),four cylinders** (4), Turbocharging (t), and fuel injection (i). That makes for a pretty cool package, but when shortened it looks more like a letter salad. Bob Lutz probably coulda been a little clearer with this one. That said, the 4 originally meant that it was the high performance version of the Ford Sierra, which was called the XR4.

You might be more likely to see these particular emblems at a RadWood event than in an everyday traffic jam, but knowledge is power nonetheless. We do occasionally have to eat and sleep, so we admit that what we’ve discussed here is a fraction of what is out there in wild, waiting to be decoded. Help us expand the list with a comment below and share your knowledge!

**There’s some intentional confusion here, as the “XR4” in XR4ti was originally designated as the largest of the three experimental racing creations from Ford of Europe. There was the smaller Escort XR3 and Fiesta XR2 before it. So you can either refer to it as four cylinders in American parlance, as it makes complete sense with the “t” and the “i” after, or the original definition of it being a larger hatchback in Ford’s performance portfolio. 

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Check out the Hagerty Media homepage so you don’t miss a single story, or better yet, bookmark it. To get our best stories delivered right to your inbox, subscribe to our newsletters.

The post Do you know what these 8 badges mean? appeared first on Hagerty Media.

]]> https://www.hagerty.com/media/lists/do-you-know-what-these-8-badges-mean/feed/ 155 https://www.hagerty.com/media/hagerty-community/according-to-you-the-best-engine-youve-ever-experienced/ https://www.hagerty.com/media/hagerty-community/according-to-you-the-best-engine-youve-ever-experienced/#comments Wed, 15 Feb 2023 15:00:41 GMT https://www.hagerty.com/media/?p=290599

In our last installment of According to You, you shared with us your personal thoughts on some of the worst engines you’ve ever experienced. Some answers were expected, but others took many of us by surprise. Hopefully, today’s installment stokes a similar passion—albeit on the positive side of things. We asked for the best engines you’ve experienced, and the answers you gave us were fantastic.

Truly fantastic, to the point we often bundled multiple engine votes into their respective families. Let’s get to it.

Ford inline-six (300 and 200 cu in)

The amount of positive feedback for the 300-cubic-inch Ford inline six-cylinder was a welcome but expected byproduct of our question. These motors get the job done and are very, very hard to kill, endearing themselves to many of you. We also threw in a shoutout for the smaller 200-cu-in version:

Sam: “Ford 300 I6 Dependable and reliable. Very long lasting.”

Sajeev Mehta: “An excellent choice. I loved the 300 once they added port fuel injection and an overdrive automatic transmission to it, that made it perfect for so many uses.”

Wesley: “I’ll add a 3rd vote to that… Still running a 300 6cyl today. She’s untouched other than careful maintenance for the past 31 years.”

James: “Yep the Ford 300 six. Grandad bought a 68 F100 with it and I now have it and it just keeps on running.”

Cday: “My ’65 Mustang has the 200 I6 with 5 main bearings. Bulletproof bottom end and the engine will never die. Easy to work on with easy-to-find parts make it a home run.”

Volvo “Red Block” B21 slant-four

The Volvo Redblock is a legendary motor that lived a long, successful life. Hagerty Community Member Forty2 had a bittersweet moment to share with us, as we apparently asked our question at the right time. RIP to this Volvo 240:

“My ’91 240 was hauled off to the boneyard today (still running but with a smushed-in rear) due to a crash last week, but after a quarter-million miles that engine (and everything else containing oils) never leaked a drop, ran strong (as much as it could anyway), no smoke, fired within one crank of the starter, and will hopefully live on under another Volvo hood.”

Cummins B-series/Dodge 5.9-liter diesel

D. Dewald offered a diesel engine whose longevity has played a big part in its well-deserved reputation:

“The best engine experience for me has been the 5.9L Cummins 24VHO turbodiesel in my 2001 Dodge 2500. Day after day of efficient operation; pulling trailers as needed in the summer and pushing snow through Upper Peninsula winters. After 21 years it still has the original pump and injectors at 230k miles, still runs like new and will probably go to 500k as long as the rest of the truck doesn’t rust away.”

Nissan VQ V-6

Hagerty Community member Det gave us a late-model Japanese motor with an unforgettable naturally-aspirated sound and classic performance traits:

“Various versions of the Nissan VQ (3.0, 3.5, 3.7) in the U.S: I even enjoyed the 3.7L in the last gen NISMO Z even though it lacked high-revving smoothness.”

Small-block Chevy V-8 (especially the 327)

Don’t get me wrong, the small block Chevrolets that are smaller than 327 cubic inches have nothing to be ashamed of. But our readers offered wonderful feedback on the later, larger, more powerful, and subsequently more popular versions of this world-famous engine from Chevrolet.

Marvin: “327 chevy in a 1964 Corvette, 365 hp with a close ratio transmission and 3.70 gears. Redline was 6500 rpm and it would do 65 mph in 1st, 85 in 2nd, 105 in 3rd, and top out at 125-130. Strong engine and very quick!”

Rick: “1969 Z/28 302 bad to the bone back in high school.”

9K2164S: “Chevy 327 with solid lifters, big Holley and single plane intake rowing through a four speed at 7,000 RPM. I’ve owned most all the common Chevy small blocks from 283 through 400 and the 327 was, like the Three Little Bears, “just right”.”

Stephen: “I’m old school and I really enjoy the 302 in my 69 Z28.”

Ken_L: “All of the older small block Chevy engines I owned have been good to me. Current 48 year old one with 90,000 original miles runs great, but will need new valve seals sometime.”

Greg Ingold: “The GM 5.7 “Vortec” engine is really good. Have a close friend with over 300,000 on his 5.7 equipped truck and I’ve had two GMT400 trucks with it that I sold with 250,000 miles on the clock and I still see one of those trucks driving around town today. Only real flaws I’ve experienced is that the intake gaskets leak coolant eventually, but the upgraded ones the aftermarket sells permanently fix that and the funky distributor cap is corrosion prone, so buying the expensive OEM-grade caps upon replacement are an absolute must. They might be low on power by today’s truck standards, but unless you actively try to kill one, they just last.”

BMW inline-six

BMW made so many delightful inline-six motors that you simply have to recognize multiple versions in a single post. I love them all, as they are so expertly balanced that they often feel as smooth at redline as they do at idle.

Audiocage: “A couple of favorites: The inline-6 in an E36 M3. Smooth as silk, and rubber-band-like pull.”

James: “I test drove a euro spec/grey market M635CSi in 1997. It was the only time I’ve ever spontaneously thought “that’s a mechanical symphony I’m hearing”.”

Isaiah: “I had a E46 M3. The motor in it was awesome.”

Paul: “I LOVED my E46 M3 and that S54 motor that went along with it. Absolutely bulletproof and sung like an angel. I wish I had kept it longer!”

Byron: “BMW S38 3.6L (US market) DOHC 24 valve inline-6. De-tuned naturally aspirated F1 engine w/ individual throttle-bodies: 345hp (chipped) in my 92 M5, but it could reliably deliver up to 1,000hp on a turbo. Ran like a watch for 180k miles under my ownership. “Right now” throttle response. Sounded so nice, I would often turn off the stereo when alone on the interstate. Perfectly tolerant of endless Boston “stop & go” traffic jams.”

Julian: “M88/3 in my BMW M635. Stock they are a little more powerful than when fitted to the original M1. Mine has had some Dinan work to further enhance it.”

Chrysler Pentastar V-6

Base model engines don’t get nearly enough love in our society! The Pentastar V-6 makes 292 horsepower which, since this is SAE net calculations, is likely more oomph than the majority of vintage muscle cars. They move well, and they get the job done. As MPH302 put it:

“Just traded my 2012 Challenger at 205K and only because I wanted another one before they stop making them. Absolutely nothing done to the motor except spark plugs and religious preventive maintenance.”

Mazda K-series V-6

The Mazda K-series was a finesse player on par with the BMW inline-sixes mentioned above. But they met a demand for cheaper cars that normal people could afford right off the showroom floor. Be it the tiny 1.8-liter in an MX3 or a 2.5-liter in a Ford Probe GT, these engines provided countless hours of fun for countless people. Or, as Robert put it:

“1995 Mazda 626 DOHC 2.5-liter V-6 with 5-speed: this jewel of an engine had a dual powerband, only fairly strong at the bottom, but came on the cams at 4000 RPM and screamed to a 7000 RPM redline. Incredibly smooth, sounded great, totally reliable (and, in the 626, a sleeper that didn’t attract police attention). Not suited to the automatic transmission as low-end wasn’t strong enough, but with the excellent-shifting 5-speed it came alive. The car cruised at 100 MPH effortlessly but served just as well as a grocery-getter.”

Jaguar inline-six

The Jaguar XK twin-cam inline-six was a beauty to see, hear, and experience from behind the wheel. Denying this is to deny oneself the joy of automotive perfection, or as Leo put it:

“The smooth power, the wonderful sounds and the beauty early on of polished cam covers and porcelain coated exhaust manifolds still uplift me after more than 45 years of working with them.”

Small-block Chrysler V-8

Hagerty Community member Rick recommends the small block 318 and 340 V-8s from Chrysler, which have actually taken hold with a new generation of fans in Japan. The “Dajiban” (a Japanese colloquialism for “Dodge Van”) in Japan is usually powered by the 318 cid small block and it’s wonderful to see a non-HEMI Chrysler cut out a unique slice of the world’s shared love for American V-8s. Plenty of you expressed your love for these awesome eights in the replies to our question:

Audiocage: “And a Dodge 318 that Simply. Wouldn’t. Quit. It’s probably still running strong.”

Tom: “My choice, late 60’s early 70’s Mopar 340 small block. I put 95000 miles on my ’70 Challenger, 4 speed, which I reluctantly sold during the oil embargo. Every mile with that high revving small block was music to my ears. I missed it so much I got another in 1985 which I still have to this day.”

Spike: “My ’70 Duster 340 was an awesome, sweet ride! It could beat many GM & Ford 5.7L powered vehicles. Only problem was the hydraulic valves began to float at about 135mph.”

Raymond: “Dodge Van 318 V8. I don’t know if they are still made yet. I’ve had six of them in my work vans and religiously change the oil and they never failed me. Can’t even say they never got me to work or I had to miss a job. Just routine maintenance and ready to roll.”

GM LS-series V-8

Of course we had to include the iconic LS-series engine from General Motors. Luckily, the Hagerty Community had plenty to say about this workhorse:

BMD4800: “My favorite is my turbo LS3 based 416 stroker. Previously procharged, it is a lesson in absurdity. With a (relatively) mild cam, (relatively) decent idle quality and the ability to pass tailpipe test if needed, it’s pretty streetable. But it is infinitely more brutal than a solid roller cam 540 big block Chevy with a nitrous hit out of the hole. Diesel engine torque with so much under the curve it is borderline excessive. It pulls like a F4 off a carrier deck, just plain brutal torque. It is the quintessential American Car: too much power, too little handling ability. It is goofy without traction control, but I’m not a big race in traffic kind of guy.”

You sound like our kind of crazy, BMD4800.—Ed.

MJ: “Been around long enough to have driven cars with most of my favorite engines. But the best so far is in my 2006 Z06. That 7.0-liter motor is just a wall of power everywhere and in such a light chassis (especially by today’s sports car standards). It boggles my mind that all you need to own one of these is a valid driver’s license.”

Porsche Flat Six (Air and Water cooled)

Porsche’s flat-six, be it air- or water-cooled, is easy to fall in love with. You don’t have to be a kid on the sidewalk to understand it, and the Hagerty Community came out strong for flat-sixes of all kinds:

Franko: “Porsche/VW flat 6 (and 4!) cylinder engines are air-cooled delights. It’s surprising how they have lasted the test of time. Racing, daily drivers, off road, etc. they have done it all & excelled! Even aircraft & boat power!”

Clint: “Best engine with the best sound I’ve ever experienced was the 2-liter carbureted flat-six in my old 1966 Porsche 911 with sport exhaust and K&N-type un-silenced air cleaners. Foot to the floor from a stop, up to the 7200 RPM redline, it sounds like ripping canvas, with an overlay of hollow metallic “pop-pop” sounds from the six-barrel Webers. It was as tough as a little anvil, and with a heart of pure gold.”

Michael: “I was fortunate enough to drive a Porsche GT3 RS (991.2) on a race track. Four-liter flat 6 with over 500 horsepower and a 9 thousand RPM redline. As the RPM’s climb, the mechanical melody and rapid acceleration rise with it. Between 8 and 9 thousand RPM sounds like a muffled Porsche cup car. The entire powertrain worked flawlessly.”

Oldsmobile Aurora V-8

The 1990s came up with some amazing engines that were the perfect blend of old-school muscle and modern refinement. Here’s Hagerty Community member Rhodent’s take on the matter:

“I think my favorite engine in combination with the car was a ’95 Olds Aurora 4.4, all aluminum, DOHC, fuel injected. Wonderful, comfortable, stable cruiser. It would cruise from Austin to San Antonio at 90 and it was like sitting in my recliner.”

Detroit Diesel 6V71

Not all great engines come in cars, or as Joe put it:

“Detroit Diesel 6V71 2 stroke: used in many buses and other commercial vehicles back in the day. Very simple and reliable, the sound is unmistakable!”

GM 60-degree V-6

The 60-degree V-6 from General Motors had a great run, starting off as a premium motor for GM’s front-wheel drive vehicles in the 1980s (and the Pontiac Fiero!) and a mid-level upgrade for the early 3rd-gen F-bodies. Towards the end of its thirty year production run, the 60-degree mill was reborn as the “high value” V-6, with a 40 percent bump in size that gave its more advanced replacement (GM’s High Feature, 3.6-liter, V-6) a run for its money. For less money, which speaks volumes about its impressive design. Hagerty Community members far and wide came to respect this mill for what its worth:

Mike: “2.8 V-6 from my 1988 Oldsmobile Cutlass Supreme International. Loved the look of the intake manifold. Really miss that car!”

Jack Burton: “The 2.8 Fieros are great, as are the 2.5 Iron Duke cars, despite what the internet would have you believe. Both tremendously reliable engines, wrapped in a vastly underrated, and fun, package.”

hyperv6: “Note too my 2.8 HO in my Fiero. While it is nothing radical, it has been fully reliable and moves the car along well but sounds like an exotic engine. Many question if it is a V8. Pontiac did well on the exhaust on that one.”

Buick 3800 V-6

Not to be outdone by its smaller sibling, the Buick 3800 V-6 really came into its element as a premium engine for all things less-than-Cadillac. Be it supercharged or naturally aspirated, it had several fans in the Hagerty Community:

ap41563: “My vote would be for the Buick 3800 Series II. It has needed nothing for 18 years other than oil changes and regular service items. It runs smooth and has nice power off the line. At 70 to 75 mph it returns over 30 mpg. It never skips or misses a beat and it’s not overly complicated. It follows the KISS principle and I think I will probably still be daily driving it 10 years from now.”

TG: “I would say #1 is the 231/3.8/3800 Buick V6. After having owned several examples, they are robust, capable of north of 200K miles, and deliver decent power for a V6.”

Ford/Yamaha “SHO” V-6

Since we are on the subject of 1980s-era V-6 engines from Detroit, perhaps the most famous mill is the monster made by Yamaha from the blueprint of Ford’s 60-degree Vulcan V-6. Comparing a mere 3.0-liter pushrod Vulcan to the one in the Taurus SHO is like measuring ground beef against sirloin steak, but Mike gave us even more reasons to love the Super High Output V-6:

“Had three Taurus SHO manuals, 90, 93 and 95. Loved the Yamaha engine–and the castings are beautiful. I was in the aluminum casting business then. MN State Patrol let me out of a 105 in a 55 in NW MN in my ’93. I was just at Arctic Cat engineering and I was let off in exchange for a bit of info about their new engine … then the following winter the same patrolman saw me in the local restaurant. “Are you being a good boy?” he asked lol.”

Big-block Chrysler V-8 (Wedge & Hemi)

Have we been spending too much time on “wimpy” V-6s for your taste? If so, can we make it up to you?

C.J: “Many years ago I installed a 426 Dodge wedge into street rod, a bulletproof engine along with the 727 torque flight, drove to all the street rod nationals from 1974 to 1982,never a problem, street raced it, lost very few races, it pissed off a lot of Chevrolet guys because my 426 was in a 1935 Chevrolet master two door sedan.”

Paul Kafer: “I am in my 70s and have had many cars and built most of them up for better performance. One of the ones I remember best, was a ’69 Roadrunner that originally came with a 383-ci engine and A833 4-speed and 3.23:1 rear gear. Of course, that wasn’t good enough. I pulled the engine and rebuilt it with 0.030″ over 12.5:1 forged pistons, polished crank, H beam rods, ported heads, adjustable rockers and HD push rods to accommodate the biggest solid lifter cam Iskenderian could fit into that engine. It was all balanced for high rpm use. I had a tunnel ram with a pair of Holley center squirters on top of it and Hooker SuperComp headers channeling the exhaust out through a set of 3.5 in pipes. I installed a set of 4.56:1 gears in the back and went hunting every Saturday night. That thing was really too radical for everyday use, but I drove it anyway. It wouldn’t hit on all cylinders until it was above 4000 rpm. The cam powerband was listed as 6500 to 8000 rpm, but it sounded so good getting there. It also fouled the plugs in short order driving on the street. I had to carry extra plugs with me in case I actually got an offer to race later. Totally impractical, but totally fun and wonderful to hear going WOT down the strip or an empty rural road. Yes, times were different then.”

Honda Motorcycles

Motorcycles make some fantastic noises and put down power like no car ever could. So what do you think of these Hondas, offered up by the Hagerty Community?

Tinge of Ginge: “The 919 4-cyl in my old CB919. Torque like a twin, but better top end. And with the right exhaust, sounded amazing. One of the only bikes I regret selling.”

Robert: “1999 Honda CBR1100XX, the engine would pull cleanly from 1500 to the 9500 redline in 6th gear. (About 35mph to 185 or so). Smooth, quiet and reliable. Able to get 50 mpg just poking along on a back road.”

Toyota 22RE four-cylinder

The Toyota R engine family has made life-long friends around the world, which is why Hagerty Community member Joseph said,:

“The Toyota 22REs I have had in both 4Runners and Hilux pickups have NEVER disappointed me!”

Chrysler Slant Six

How could we not include the Slant Six? That said, Hagerty Community member Rob mentioned its predecessor, as he knows you could “never kill” the 1946–1955 Dodge/Plymouth six-cylinder flathead. But the motor that replaced that one? Let’s say that it had big shoes to fill, and did that very well. Perhaps Luther said all that’s needed about the Slant Six:

“1972 Slant Six in a Dodge Demon: Indestructible, several times went way past the 120 mph mark, and still wish I had the little car.”

Suzuki Tl1000 twin

Let’s get back to motorcycles again, as this Suzuki clearly deserves our attention:

TalkingPie: “I haven’t personally experienced much in the way of impressive car engines, but I did enjoy a couple of stirring motorcycle powerplants. My Suzuki TL1000S was a characterful twin – the rumble of a twin at low RPM, but it also spun to over 9,000 RPM. I like stock exhausts and you didn’t need noisy mufflers for that bike to sound distinctive. 125 hp isn’t much in the bike world but it was still good enough for high 10 second quarter mile times in the hands of pros.”

Nissan QR 2.5-liter inline-four

I’d like to end this episode of According to You on a more thought-provoking note. A Nissan Versa Note, perhaps? Dad jokes aside, consider the workhorse Nissan Altima, a car that is truly the Rodney Dangerfield of the automotive industry. Well, at least one member of the Hagerty Community understands:

Brian: “This may not be common, but I had a 2011 Nissan Altima 2.5L 4 cylinder with over 275,000 miles on it when it got rear ended and totaled. It was still running strong. My first experience with CVT tranny, which also amazingly lasted for 201,000 miles. I did like the smoothness of the ride without the usual shift points. It also had a manual shift gate which actually made it a rather peppy car, considering.”

***

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]]> https://www.hagerty.com/media/hagerty-community/according-to-you-the-best-engine-youve-ever-experienced/feed/ 229 https://www.hagerty.com/media/entertainment/2023-super-bowl-car-ads-touchdowns-field-goals-and-fumbles/ https://www.hagerty.com/media/entertainment/2023-super-bowl-car-ads-touchdowns-field-goals-and-fumbles/#comments Mon, 13 Feb 2023 17:00:22 GMT https://www.hagerty.com/media/?p=290400

The 2023 Super Bowl had a little bit of everything: incredible plays, controversial calls, and an outcome that wasn’t decided until the final seconds. As for the annual “game within the game”—the highly anticipated and ultra-expensive commercials—we felt a little short-changed when it came to the automotive-related ads. Or we were feeling that way until Stellantis saved the day with its Ram masterpiece.

To our disappointment, some heavyweights sat out this year and watched from the sideline like the rest of us. We get it. In these uncertain economic times it’s tough to justify paying $7 million for a 30-second spot—there are stockholders to answer to and all that. So, since we can’t tell manufacturers how to spend their money, we’ll just say this: We missed you, Ford, Toyota, Honda, Hyundai, and Nissan.

More importantly, we needed you guys on the field, especially after you helped raise the advertising bar with some extremely effective commercials in 2020, ’21, and ’22. With that said, it’s hard to imagine anyone beating Ram this year, so maybe the rest of y’all did the right thing.

Congrats to the Kansas City Chiefs, who defeated the Philadelphia Eagles 38–35, and to those 30- and 60-second spots that entertained us.

TOUCHDOWN

RAM: “Premature Electrification”

Hands-down the best automotive Super Bowl commercial of 2023, Stellantis scores a touchdown (and a two-point conversion) for its absolutely hilarious spoof on ads for men’s performance-enhancing drugs. Narrated by comedian Jason Jones, the commercial debuts the production version of the Ram 1500 REV electric pickup on the same day that Stellantis begins accepting online orders for the truck. 

With Jones leading the discussion, we hear from couples who bought early EVs and realized too late that the cars just don’t have the juice to consistently get the job done, a malady called “Premature Electrification.” While RAM’s new electric pickup won’t be available until sometime in 2024, the promise from Stellantis is that a solution is on the way, and it’s definitely worth waiting for. There’s even a drug-like disclaimer at the bottom of the screen: “Ask a professional if Ram 1500 REV is right for you. Reserve today at RamREV.com.”

We could say so much more, but words cannot compare to watching it for yourself. Do it. Now.

GM & Netflix: “Why not an EV?”

Will Ferrell does it again. Two years after he nailed his “No Way, Norway” rant on behalf of General Motors’ electric vehicles, he’s back alongside a selection of Netflix stars to promote—you guessed it—GM EVs. What does one have to do with the other? We’ll let Ferrell explain.

“General Motors is going electric,” he says in the 60-second commercial, as Army of the Dead zombies swarm his GM Sierra EV Denali. “And Netflix is joining in by including more EVs in their movies and shows. It’s the least they can do. So if you’re going to get swarmed by an army of the dead, why not get swarmed in an EV?

“Ow! I said no biting!”

We later see Ferrell (in a fleet of GM EVs, some of which aren’t available yet) in Squid Game, Bridgerton, Queer Eye, and posing as Dustin Henderson in Stranger Things. The commercial ends with Ferrell, now a zombie, sharing a ride with the monster who bit him in the first scene.

“Oh, Gordon, you kill me. You literally did kill me.”

This one killed us too. In a good way.

Jeep: “Electric Boogie”

Not quite as good as Ram’s gem, but this fun EV commercial from Jeep secures Stellantis’ position as Super Bowl LVII car-commercial champion. Focusing on Jeep’s Wrangler 4xe and Grand Cherokee 4xe plug-in hybrid electric SUVs, the commercial blends the future of automobiles with great retro music. The remix of Marcia Griffiths’ 1983 hit “Electric Boogie,” which includes reggae artist Shaggy, is so good that even the wildest of jungle beasts can’t help but dance along. Naturally, Jeep is hoping you dance all the way into the showroom.

Sam Adams: “Your Cousin’s Brighter Boston”

Before you say it, we know this isn’t a car commercial. But we’re so desperate for something good that we’re making an exception, especially since we saw some cars in it. Better still, it reminds us of Hyundai’s hilarious “Smaht Pahk” from 2020, which plays big on the wicked awesome stereotypes of Bostonians’ accents and not-always-friendly personalities.

If you’re from Boston, and you hate this, our apologies. Maybe you’d rather hug a New Yorker? Regardless, we laughed at this alternate reality of a “Brighter Boston.” It’s so well done, in fact, that we even remember the product that was advertised. Let’s all raise a glass to Sam Adams.

FIELD GOAL

Kia: “Binky Dad”

Kia is pretty proud of its 14th Super Bowl commercial, explaining in a pregame press release that “the new 2023 Kia Telluride’s rugged and refined personality is on full display in this action-packed tale of everyday heroism.” Hmmm. The commercial is cute, yes. And mildly entertaining. But while we can all relate to the poor dad who “forgot the binky” and went to great lengths to go back and get it, is that effort heroic? Maybe to his wife and baby daughter. 

Regardless, the unexpected ending saves this one, even if it doesn’t exactly drive home the tagline: “Kia Telluride X-Pro. More ruggedly capable.”

If you disagree and you’re looking for more, we’re told that three alternate endings are available exclusively on TikTok. Considering Kia is paying $233,333.33 per second for the TV version, we’re guessing we’ve already seen the best one.

Universal: Fast X trailer

There’s a small part of us that wonders how this saga is still cruising—didn’t we go to space last time around? Nevertheless, Fast X popped into the Super Bowl ad mayhem with all the hallmarks of the franchise: cars, action, explosions, and Dom Toretto’s favorite: family.

The recipe is familiar at this point, but it’s familiar in the way that an old, well-worn sweatshirt is—a little corny, but welcome nonetheless. The usual cast of wild cars is on full display, from svelte Alfa Romeos and McLarens to Dom’s inimitable Dodge Charger and more. (If we were betting people, we’d have money down on an appearance of Dodge’s all-electric Daytona SRT Concept, made public in August of ’22.)

While the YouTube trailer was just 60 seconds long, there’s a full trailer out for the new Fast X movie as well, which you can view here. Fast X hits theaters May 19.

Uber One: “Diddy makes a hit song”

Again, this isn’t exactly an automotive commercial, but it slips in on a technicality since an Uber driver requires a motor vehicle. In this one, Sean “Diddy” Combs is asked to make a hit song—a song, not a jingle, since “Diddy don’t do jingles”—on behalf of Uber One, a membership program for Uber and Uber Eats. 

He auditions potential collaborators like Montell Jordan, Kelis, Donna Lewis, and the Norwegian comedy duo Ylvis, who sing Uber-focused versions of their own hit songs before Diddy settles on Haddaway’s “What Is Love” version. “Uber One. Uber One saves me, saves me … way more.” 

In the end, Uber marketing execs don’t look exactly thrilled with the finished product, but one of Combs’ sidekicks makes it clear that “Diddy is excited.” We’re not sure who wins on this one, but the ad is amusing enough and effective enough to earn a field goal, if only because we can’t get that dang jingle—we mean hit song—out of our head.

WeatherTech: “We All Win”

Here’s one thing we can always count on this time of year: WeatherTech’s high-quality automotive products and get-’er-done crew will roll out a Super Bowl commercial, and the spot will almost always be patriotic. Don’t ever tell America that it can’t. WeatherTech proves that it can. Again. That’s gotta be good enough for a field goal.

FUMBLE

Paramount: Transformers: Rise of the Beasts

Shown moments before kickoff, the Transformers trailer got off on the right foot by showing us a sweet early-generation Porsche 911 … and things went down from there. The seventh installment of the action series is scheduled to hit theaters on June 9 with a new breed of Transformer—the Maximal—as the earthly battle continues between Autobots and Decepticons. But we had to find that out on our own. As for the commercial, we didn’t see anything to get excited about after our first glimpse of the 911.

Everyone else: “Missed Opportunity”

When we first heard the news that the Super Bowl was going to be light on automotive commercials, we were bummed out, of course. Now we’re wondering if those who skipped it are feeling a little remorseful. When you add it all up, the entire night was about as good as it gets for a sporting event that rarely lives up to the hype: great game, entertaining halftime (you go, Rhianna), and strong ads overall.

While we still have the microphone, Bradley Cooper and his mom trying to sell T-Mobile and Ben Affleck working the Dunkin’ Donuts drive-thru were the cherries on the Sunday. (Yes, we meant to spell it that way.)

Think we nailed it? Think we blew it? Since opinions are like belly buttons, you must have one. Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below. (And if you disagree, please keep it civil, folks.)

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]]> https://www.hagerty.com/media/entertainment/2023-super-bowl-car-ads-touchdowns-field-goals-and-fumbles/feed/ 50 https://www.hagerty.com/media/automotive-history/honda-heritage-center-celebrates-marysville-and-made-in-america/ https://www.hagerty.com/media/automotive-history/honda-heritage-center-celebrates-marysville-and-made-in-america/#comments Fri, 10 Feb 2023 15:00:12 GMT https://www.hagerty.com/media/?p=288416

It’s not unusual for an automobile manufacturer to build a museum to house their history and chronicle their accomplishments. What’s unusual is for a foreign company to build a museum honoring its U.S. manufacturing legacy. Honda of America Manufacturing has done just that on the sprawling grounds of its massive 3.6-million-square-foot Marysville Auto Plant just outside of Columbus, Ohio. Known as the Honda Heritage Center, the museum is very much worth a visit—and not just for native Ohioans like me.

Built in 1982, Honda’s Marysville Auto Plant is far from the only example a foreign manufacturer putting down manufacturing roots on our shores. Fiat built cars in Poughkeepsie, New York between 1910 and 1917. From 1921 to 1931, Rolls-Royces were built in Springfield, Massachusetts. And Volkswagen took a swing at churning out Rabbits, Jettas, and Golfs in Westmoreland, Pennsylvania from 1978 to 1987. Marysville, however, is among the largest, longest-running, and most successful of such endeavors.

Over the last four decades, over ten million Hondas have been built at the Ohio plant. The Honda Heritage Center, across the street, is dedicated to celebrating the cars—and the people—who made that possible. Naturally, most of the cars honored here were built a stone’s throw away. But the museum also showcases plenty of other historical models as a matter of context, such as an N600 and a first-gen Civic: two cars that made Honda into a household name in the United States.



Walk around the display floor and you’ll also find nods to Honda’s rich North American motorsports history, including a Comptech NSX, a Honda-powered Indy car, and a 2005 Odyssey that was campaigned in NASA racing by a team of America Honda engineers from another facility in Alabama. As it turns out, that beefy 3.5-liter V-6 can haul more than just groceries.



Exhibits chronicle everything from Honda’s advanced manufacturing techniques to a cut-away HondaJet and even the friendly-looking humanoid robot, Asimo. Of course, the museum’s collection of 1980s, 1990s, and early 2000s Honda and Acura vehicles is astonishing.



Even the lobby greets visitors, with a 1998 Acura Integra GS-R finished in Sonic Blue Pearl. After spending its earliest days as a press loaner, it was then utilized by the Honda School in Troy, Ohio to teach future Honda technicians diagnosis and repair procedures. Now, it enjoys a comfortable retirement as a museum piece. Not a bad life for any car, especially considering the fact that most Integras were subjected to far rougher treatment at the hands of two to three generations of angst-ridden, ham-fisted teenage tuners.



Nearby sits a row of Honda cars and motorcycles, highlighting the earliest Honda models sold in the U.S. (the Cub motorcycle, the N600 commuter car) along with some of the earliest Hondas built in Ohio (1980 Elsinore CR250R dirt bike, 1982 Accord). I’ve owned my fair share of early ‘80s Honda iron, so this Accord caught my attention. Looking at its like-new fit and finish, I can see how Honda—and the Accord specifically—became darlings of magazine testers in period.



In the round center display of the inner gallery, the museum shows off various landmark Honda engines. At the front of this area is a set of handprints from company founder Soichiro Honda himself, an impression made in concrete upon his final visit to the United States before his death in August of 1991. A recurring theme throughout the Honda Heritage Center is Honda Japan’s belief in the value of its investment in both the Marysville plant and the workers who staff it. As appreciation goes, it sure beats a pizza party.



Some outsiders had their doubts as to whether the American-built Hondas could stack up to their Japanese counterparts, but Honda brushed this aside. The third-generation Accord coupe (1986–89) is a testament to that confidence, and the museum is home to the very first example built. If you wanted an Accord coupe by 1988 and 1989, it was exclusively built in Marysville. Cars destined for the Japanese market featured an eagle crest badge on the B-pillar that proudly denoted the car’s American origin of this “U.S. Coupe.” From Japan’s perspective, at the time, this was a major, even exotic selling point.

For the fourth-generation Accord (1990–93), a station wagon variant entered the fray that was sold and marketed in a fashion similar to the coupe, with a nearly identical badge on the C-pillar. A fifth-generation Accord wagon (1994–97) shares exhibit space with the first Accord coupe, nestled against a diving wall. On the other side of that wall, you’ll see a pair of Acura coupes—a first-generation Legend (1986–90), and the Legend’s eventual replacement, the U.S.-built Acura CL. A Japanese luxury brand was a new concept to Americans when Acura debuted in 1986; now, every Acura model is built here, from the new Integra to the MDX SUV.



Other highlights include a row of American-built Honda motorcycles, including the mighty inline six-powered Honda CBX. This row of motorcycles is bookended by an original 1975 Civic and a 1987 CRX Si. While the CRX was built in Suzuka, Japan, it was designed here in America to satisfy American tastes. Initially conceived as an economy car, the CRX became a cult classic with the addition of a more powerful 1.5-liter engine. It’s not a stretch to say that the tuner car subculture owes a massive debt of gratitude to this car.



Other displays include a second-generation NSX and the Acura Sedan Design Study, a concept car that never toured the show circuit but was nevertheless highly influential. It’s a subtle, sweeping shape, with many details that inspired the current Acura design language. While many concept cars disappear into the ether, Honda is proud to display this one.

The Honda Heritage Center every Thursday from 10 AM to 3 PM. It’s free to visit, but we recommend budgeting a few bucks for the vintage Honda T-shirts and model cars offered in the gift shop. As car museums go, the Honda Heritage Center isn’t exactly the largest, so visiting isn’t a multi-hour affair. Don’t let that fool you, though; there’s oodles of history here, and decades of sweet-driving little Hondas (like this ’86 Civic Si) testify that big things come in small packages.



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]]> https://www.hagerty.com/media/automotive-history/honda-heritage-center-celebrates-marysville-and-made-in-america/feed/ 1 https://www.hagerty.com/media/news/the-manifold/2023-02-08/ https://www.hagerty.com/media/news/the-manifold/2023-02-08/#comments Wed, 08 Feb 2023 16:00:24 GMT https://www.hagerty.com/media/?p=288540

Mustang Dark Horse flaunts exclusive blue paint and host of interior flourishes

Intake: We’ve just gotten our first look at the interior of the Mustang Dark Horse, as well as info on two stripe options for the high-performance coupe plus a trim-exclusive paint color. The vinyl stripe option, shown in the rendering of the red car above more closely follows the body lines on the hood, while the painted stripes are wider and extend onto the roof and decklid. Exclusive to the Dark Horse model is a new Ember Blue exterior paint, which will shift color dramatically depending on the angle you’re viewing it and what light is hitting the paint.

Inside, an anodized blue shift knob sits atop the six-speed manual, or, if you opt for the ten-speed automatic, you’ll get shift paddles with a similar treatment. The flat-bottom steering wheel is wrapped in suede and features indigo contrast stitching, mimicking the accent stitching elsewhere in the cabin. Opt for the Mustang Dark Horse appearance package and you’ll get Recaro performance seats with indigo bolsters and that same accent stitching. Other trim pieces in the Dark Horse will be blacked out instead of silver as they are on lesser Mustang models.

Exhaust: Ford knows that personalization is a cornerstone of the pony car market and we’re always glad to see colorful interior options, especially when they’re as tastefully done as this. That color-changing blue paint and the painted-on stripes will likely become sought-after options when these performance ponies inevitably become collector’s items in the future. — Brandan Gillogly



Honda issues recall for more than 114,000 vehicles for wonky rearview camera



Intake: Honda issued a recall for more than 114,000 vehicles due to a faulty rearview camera that may not display correctly, according to a report from Automotive News. The affected vehicles include the 2018–20 Honda Fit hatchback and the 2019–2022 Honda HR-V crossover. According to the filing submitted to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), Honda says that an error in the audio display power circuit may cause a failure in the rearview camera that will result in no image being displayed on the central infotainment screen. Honda says that 205 warranty claims related to the issue were filed between March 20, 2018, and January 6, although it also noted that no injuries or deaths related to the issue have been reported. Honda notified dealers on February 3, and it will start notifying owners of the recall on March 13. The fix will be to get your Fit or HR-V to a dealership, where they will reprogram the unit, manufactured by Denso Ten America Ltd., with updated software.

Exhaust: Mirrors and your ability to turn your head mean you can still back into and out of parking spots safely, but having a working rearview camera certainly is a plus. If your vehicle is affected, make a plan to get to a dealership soon; the fix doesn’t seem like it will take a long time. — Nathan Petroelje

Tremec jumps into EV fray with 800-hp drive unit



Intake: Tremec, the maker of some of the best manual and dual-clutch automatic transmissions in the business, is casting an eye toward the future. The company recently unveiled a new electric drive unit that could serve as a direct replacement for gasoline-burning powertrains in sports cars, according to a report from Automotive News. The twin-motor electric drive unit can reportedly make as much as 800 hp and help a car hit speeds of 180-plus mph, all while weighing just 243 pounds—roughly half of what the gas-burning setup typically weighs in sports car applications. Tremec makes gearboxes for everything from the Camaro to the Mustang to the C8 Corvette and more, but Matt Memmer, Tremec’s director of global engineering and platform management, told AN that the amount of time he and his teams are spending on electrification has gone up by a factor of 10 in the past two years. “We’ve created an advanced engineering team to focus on electrification,” said Memmer. “We’re putting more and more people into that group.”

Exhaust: With promising results like this, the shift seems to already be bearing fruit. That said, many automakers are using in-house developed electric motors, so Tremec may need to be patient to find an OEM in need of the solution that it can provide. As much as we love a good snicky Tremec six-speed, we can’t fault the company for looking at what’s coming down the road. — Nathan Petroelje

Style meets function with Praga’s ZS 800—but only for a few



Intake: Czech Republic-based Praga just announced today that it will be producing a limited run of just 28 units of its new ZS 800 motorcycle. The bike features an air-cooled 773cc parallel-twin engine and is styled to be a modern interpretation of the 1928 Praga BD 500. Despite the vintage looks, the components are all modern, with forged carbon wheels and titanium exhaust. The engineering team even went so far as to create hydraulic drum brakes for the period-correct look with modern stopping capabilities. Pricing matches the exclusivity of production, at $92,188 plus tax.

Exhaust: With a rigid rear and girder-style front suspension—even if it is sprung by an Ohlins shock and titanium spring— the ZS 800is a hard sell for anything other than style, but this bike does pull off the vintage look a lot better than most other modern bikes produced to look old. We doubt that many will be ridden anyway, as we expect most buyers to park this feat of engineering and materials next to their Praga Bohema hypercar in a collection. — Kyle Smith

Mazda prices the new straight-six-powered CX-90



Intake: Barely a week after Mazda introduced its new 2024 CX-90 crossover, we now know what it will cost and the fuel mileage. The entry-level model, the surprisingly well-equipped CX-90 3.3 Turbo Select, begins at $40,970, including the $1375 destination charge. It’s powered by a turbocharged 3.3-liter inline-six that produces 280 hp. It’s matched to an eight-speed automatic transmission and standard all-wheel drive. Mileage is EPA-rated at 24 mpg city, 28 mpg highway, and 25 mpg combined due in part to its mild-hybrid system. At the top of the line are the 340-hp Turbo S models, with a $53,125 starting price. That goes up to $57,825 for the Premium and $61,325 for the Premium Plus.

Exhaust: Mazda dealers have badly needed a fresh SUV in this size and price range, and a tip of the hat to Mazda for not just doing a basic update on the CX-9, but coming out with a much-changed (and we’ll bet much-improved) crossover. — Steven Cole Smith

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]]> https://www.hagerty.com/media/news/the-manifold/2023-02-08/feed/ 6 https://www.hagerty.com/media/news/the-manifold/2023-02-06/ https://www.hagerty.com/media/news/the-manifold/2023-02-06/#comments Mon, 06 Feb 2023 16:00:53 GMT https://www.hagerty.com/media/?p=287730

Lamborghini sends off its V-12 in style

Intake: Series production of Lamborghini’s normally aspirated V-12 ended when the last Aventador rolled off the line, but the Raging Bull isn’t quite done with its marvelous motor. There’s a final Sant’Agata send-off in the form of two unique cars called Invencible and Auténtica. Think of them as the Aventador’s greatest hits double album as the duo present a variety of design features from previous special editions. The huge rear wing is inspired by the Sesto Elemento while the Reventon and Veneno influence aggressive angles, and the ground-snorting stance and hood are a reference to the Essenza SCV12. Invencible is a coupe and Auténtica is a roadster, but aside from that the two cars are essentially the same, using the carbon tub and running gear from the Aventador. There’s all-wheel drive and all-wheel steering, with a seven-speed transmission, but the undisputed star is the naturally-aspirated 6.5-liter V-12 engine, installed for the very last time without the aid of forced induction or hybrid assistance. In final specification, it produces 780 horsepower to go out with quite a bang.

Exhaust: In truth, it’s not the end of this engine, more of a new beginning as it will reappear very soon with added electrification. In the same announcement, the company confirmed there are “just a few weeks to go before Lamborghini’s first hybrid super sports car makes its debut.” We don’t yet know whether it will use a Sián-style supercapacitor or a more conventional battery pack, but we do expect the car to feature a near-silent fully-electric mode as well as the ability to use the extra power for even more explosive performance. — Nik Berg



Consumer Reports reveals its list of the 10 most satisfying vehicles



Intake: According to Consumer Reports, the Chevrolet Corvette C8 is the most satisfying vehicle to own, based on a study of reader responses asking whether they would buy or lease the cars again. The Corvette is followed by, in order, the Porsche 911, Rivian R1T, Ford Maverick Hybrid, Hyundai Ioniq 5, Polestar 2, Toyota 86/Subaru BRZ twins, Toyota RAV 4 Prime, Mazda Miata, and the Dodge Challenger.

Exhaust: Half the vehicles are enthusiast models, the rest are good hard-working vehicles. Hard to argue with anything on the list, but the relatively new Polestar 2 is a surprise. — Steven Cole Smith

Ferrari left hanging in an elevator shaft



Intake: A Ferrari Roma, the $243,000 2+2 mid-engine coupe, was stuck in an elevator last week when there was a problem at Ferrari of Palm Beach in West Palm Beach, Florida. According to the Palm Beach County Fire Rescue’s account: “A car elevator malfunction caused a car to hang in the elevator shaft. Crews had to first mitigate a fuel leak. This involved setting up portable standpipes and cutting the power to the business. Once the leak was mitigated, Special Operations worked with Kauff’s Towing and their new rotator wrecker to remove the car from the elevator.  Kauff’s 45-foot boom and multiple 50,000 pound winches were the right tool for the job.”

Exhaust: Hats off to Kauff’s Transportation Systems, who are clearly the people to call when your Italian exotic gets stuck in an elevator. The good news: There were no injuries, except for the silver Roma. The bad news: That’s unlikely to buff right out. This will be a good test of how comprehensive the dealership’s insurance coverage is. — SCS

Rivian lays off 6 percent of workforce amid tightening EV landscape



Intake: Rivian announced last week that it will lay off six percent of its workforce to curb costs, according to Reuters. Rivian has already had to grapple with falling cash reserves, a weakening economy, and supply chain difficulty, all of which have led to the need to trim down costs. CEO R.J. Scaringe notified Rivian employees via email. In the note, he said that the company would be focusing its resources on ramping up production of the R1T and R1S vehicles, and on reaching profitability.

Exhaust: Rivian has been hurting for a while now. The stock is down 90 percent from its peak in November of 2021, and the company has been hemorrhaging cash as it attempts to navigate the complicated path from start-up to full-fledged automaker. Let’s hope Rivian can forge ahead quickly; its products are some of the more impressive ones to come from the new wave of automakers hoping to get in on the EV action. — Nathan Petroelje

“Do not drive” directive for some older Honda and Acura models



Intake: Tens of millions of vehicles with Takata airbags are under recall, says the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Long-term exposure to high heat and humidity can cause these airbags to explode when deployed. Such explosions have caused injuries and deaths. With that in mind, NHTSA has issued a “Do not drive” directive to owners of certain older model Honda and Acura models that haven’t been returned to the dealer for the recall.  “If you have a vehicle with a recalled Takata Alpha airbag, you must get it repaired now—for free. These inflators are two decades old now, and they pose a 50 percent chance of rupturing in even a minor crash. Don’t gamble with your life or the life of someone you love—schedule your free repair today before it’s too late,” said NHTSA Acting Administrator Ann Carlson. The vehicles in the “do not drive” directive are the  2001–2002 Honda Civic and Accord; the 2002 Honda CR-V and Odyssey; the 2003 Honda Pilot and Acura 3.2 CL, and the 2002–2003 Acura 3.2 TL.

Exhaust: A 50 percent chance of rupturing? We won’t take those odds. Acura/Honda Customer Service can be reached at 888-234-2138 or by visiting their Takata website. —SCS 

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]]> https://www.hagerty.com/media/news/the-manifold/2023-02-06/feed/ 7 https://www.hagerty.com/media/motorsports/helio-castroneves-the-fire-still-burns/ https://www.hagerty.com/media/motorsports/helio-castroneves-the-fire-still-burns/#comments Fri, 03 Feb 2023 15:30:55 GMT https://www.hagerty.com/media/?p=287345

We’re blasting down the 2100-foot straightaway in a race-prepared BMW M2 at the Concours Club’s new track in Miami, Florida. The driver comes to a right-hand kink. Hands light on the steering wheel, he flicks the car through the kink without lifting, then brakes hard for a hairpin. Correcting a slight skid, the driver’s car control seems almost telepathic.

Normally I’d be nervous, but I glance over and notice the driver’s Indianapolis 500 winner’s ring—he has four, and no one has more—and his Rolex watch. He has three of those now, as of last weekend, when he became the first driver to win the Rolex 24 at Daytona sports car race three consecutive years.



Helio Castroneves is smiling, which is not unusual. He’s 5-foot-8, ropy, not particularly muscular. His workouts target endurance more than sheer muscle mass. In television interviews he comes across as a very nice guy, animated but genuine. What you saw when he competed in, and won, Dancing with the Stars in 2007 is what you get in person.

It is, in fact, difficult to cheer against the driver known as “Spiderman,” a nicknamed earned from his penchant for climbing the catch fences at tracks after a victory. He did it again, at age 47, on January 29 at Daytona International Speedway.

“It’s a very tough sport. You lose more than you win,” Castroneves said. “It did touch me. That’s why I love this sport. It is very hard and when you get to win, you celebrate.”



Castroneves won his third Rolex 24 in the Meyer Shank Racing Acura, co-driving with Tom Blomvquist, Colin Braun, and his Meyer Shank IndyCar teammate, Simon Pagenaud. The car qualified on the pole and led repeatedly to the win, finishing 4.2 seconds ahead of the other Acura, fielded by Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti Autosport.

“This team is amazing. This is absolutely a dream come true,’’ Castroneves said after the race. “So happy to start the year like this.”

Castroneves gets back behind the wheel at the March 5 IndyCar season opener, where he’ll drive a Meyer-Shank Honda in the Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg, a race he’s won three times. After that, he’ll run the full IndyCar season, and as the only active driver to have four wins at the Indianapolis 500 (the others are A.J. Foyt, Rick Mears and the late Al Unser, Sr.), Castroneves would love to make it a record-setting five. Though he has never raced in NASCAR, he had been hoping to find a ride for the Daytona 500 on February 19, but he ran out of time. He said he may well go as a spectator and shoot for 2024 to drive in the Great American Race. He will also compete in the summer made-for-TV SRX series, which he has also won in. “I’ll race most anything,” he said.



As we pull into the pits, Castroneves parks the BMW and a hostess greets us with a cold towel and a bottle of water. That isn’t because I’m with Castroneves, it’s just part of the service.

About that Concours Club service: The venue had a quiet opening in July of 2021, and it continues to grow on its 75 acres located on the edge of the grounds of the Miami Opa-Locka Executive Airport, a short distance from downtown Miami. The airport is home to plenty of celebrity-owned airplanes, including Jennifer Lopez’s private jet, but the real advantage of the location is that the Concours Club has no noise, lighting, or late-night restrictions.

It was founded by attorney Neil Gehani, CEO of Trilogy Real Estate Group in Chicago and a part-time Miami resident, and managed by Aaron Weiss, the club president. The membership list—and no, you can’t look at it—is a who’s who of South Florida car-enthusiast millionaires-and-beyond. Some decline to be identified even within the club. On the list of the five fastest laps turned by members, numbers three through five are listed as “Anonymous.”

Certainly one of the only race tracks that employs a Master Sommelier and a members-and-guests-only gourmet restaurant on site, presided over by Brad Kilgore, described by the Miami Herald as “one of Miami’s most celebrated chefs,” the Concours Club prefers to take on new members who have been recommended by current members.

Naturally, membership comes at a steep cost. The initial fee is $375,000, with annual dues of $35,000. “That is as of today,” said Susana Olmos, the club’s director of marketing. It did not sound like the price is expected to go down anytime soon.

That’s for a basic membership, and while that covers a lot, if you want one of the 41 Auto Lofts—your collector and race cars on the bottom, a luxury condo upstairs—you’ll need to ante up a lot more if there is still one available: “By the time you publish this, they should all be sold,” Weiss said. Less expensive car storage is offered, with round-the-clock security and state-of-the-art fire suppression systems. Plenty of members have car collections, which many prefer to keep at the track. Walking through the club garages is like going to a high-end car show.

While most every aspect of the Concours Club is state-of-the-art, the term certainly applies to the track itself, a smooth, tight, technical circuit that can be run in seven different lengths and configurations. Most impressive is the operation of the track and the instruction offered by multiple on-staff pro drivers, including veteran Oswaldo Negri—a Brazilian (like Castroneves) who won the 2012 Rolex 24 at Daytona and raced at the 24 Hours of Le Mans.

There is no flagman. Literally dozens of cameras line the track, making remote operation possible, as does “semi-autonomous predictive electronic flagging software.” Instruction is also remote; Weiss personally knew race drivers who died in crashes with students while instructing from the right seat, so all instruction is done from a constantly-monitored control center via video monitors and radios in the cars. Instructors get real-time data, so they can tell students that they did better on a turn this lap than they did on the last one.

“It’s every bit as constructive as coaches riding in the car with members, maybe more so,” Weiss said. Also, some of the members’ rides either have no right seat, or the space inside is so tight that fitting two adults would be a challenge.

Back in the main clubhouse—the style is not remotely ostentatious—we sip a sommelier-selected glass of wine and talk about racing and life and the Concours Club. “I’ve never seen anything like this place,” said Castroneves, who is club member number 4. He brought a friend from his sponsor’s company, AutoNation, to the club, “and this is a guy who loves to critique things. He found nothing to critique here.”

Castroneves was born in Sao Paulo, Brazil in 1975, and was just five when he discovered auto racing, an interest he inherited from his father, Helio Castro Neves, Sr. (the younger Helio changed his surname to Castroneves in 2000 because the media was confused by the two last names, he said). His car-dealer father earned enough money to buy a small stock car team in Brazil, and often smuggled his son into races in the trunk of his car wearing a custom-made fire suit and matching helmet.

At age 10, Castroneves began racing karts, and progressed up the ladder as far as his father’s money could take him. The senior Castro Neves sold practically everything he had to help fund his son’s racing. Eventually sponsors entered the picture, and Castroneves raced in Europe before coming to America to race Indy Lights and then IndyCars.



The rest is, as they say, history. Castroneves signed with team owner Roger Penske in 2000 and that partnership lasted for 20 years. Now Castroneves is signed to Meyer Shank Racing, a much smaller team than Penske’s but one that can obviously get the job done. It doesn’t hurt that Castroneves is a master at communicating what he needs in a car to the engineers and crew.

“I might be the one in front of the cameras, but racing is teamwork. It’s the team that gets you that opportunity. You can’t win a race without great pit stops, and great preparation—again, everything starts at the shop. Those guys make it happen. Going 235 mph in an IndyCar, I have to be able to trust that every screw has been tightened.”

Castroneves may be the same age as NFL quarterback Tom Brady, but unlike Brady, Castroneves isn’t ready to hang up his helmet.

How much longer, Helio? “I don’t know. As long as I have the fire. I don’t want to stop, take a year sabbatical, then come back. That’s not for me. That’s wrong. Once I’m out, I’m out.”

But not now, he said. “The fire, it still burns.”



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]]> https://www.hagerty.com/media/motorsports/helio-castroneves-the-fire-still-burns/feed/ 3 https://www.hagerty.com/media/news/the-manifold/2023-01-27/ https://www.hagerty.com/media/news/the-manifold/2023-01-27/#comments Fri, 27 Jan 2023 16:12:08 GMT https://www.hagerty.com/media/?p=285877

Audi’s latest concept goes from crossover to truck with the push of a button

Intake: What a bizarre and intriguing concept to come from such an unexpected source. This is the fourth concept in a series of four from Audi, and it’s called the Activesphere. A “four-door crossover coupé with an astonishingly versatile body design is now making its debut.” The “highly elegant car is more than a mere luxury-class sports car,” as the Sportback rear of the Activesphere “can turn into an open cargo bed  at the touch of a button, perfect for carrying recreational equipment such as e-bikes or water and winter sports gear.” In other words, press a button and it’s a pickup truck.  It’s a U.S. creation, conceived at the Audi Design Studio in Malibu, California. Studio manager Gael Buzyn and his team are the creative minds behind the project. The idea: “The Activesphere is unique. It is a new type of crossover that cleverly combines the elegance of an Audi Sportback, the practicality of a SUV and true offroad capabilities,” if he does say so himself.

Exhaust: It’s electric, of course, and we’ll never see such a vehicle from Audi, but Subaru could maybe pull it off. Still, says Oliver Hoffmann, Member of the Audi Board of Management for Technical Development: “As a perfect all-rounder, the Audi Activesphere concept is ideally suited for the high demands of a future-oriented generation of Audi customers – people for whom individual mobility and sustainability are not mutually exclusive. “ —Steven Cole Smith



Colin Chapman’s own Lotus Elan could be yours



Intake: A 1972 Elan +2 owned by Lotus founder Colin Chapman will go to auction in the U.K. in February. The car is finished in its original Tawny paintwork with a contrasting silver roof and an oatmeal vinyl interior, while the dashboard is a single piece of walnut veneer. When the Elan +2 was launched in 1967 its job was to move Lotus upmarket and perhaps even tempt buyers away from the likes of Jaguar. For that reason, it was the first Lotus not also offered in kit form for DIY mechanics to assemble. Although it was larger in every dimension than the original Elan, the +2 stuck to its founder’s lightweight principles and remained an agile, entertaining drive, just with a dash of luxury never previously available. Chapman drove the car for its first 6,600 miles and it then spent many years at the Lotus museum before being sold into private hands. Less than 400 miles have been added since and the car still wears its original Dunlop SP tires. For sale at Silverstone Auctions on February 25 it is estimated to fetch £60,000–£70,000 ($74,000–$86,500) and joins seven other celebrity Elans on the block whose previous owners include Peter Sellers, Jochen Rindt, and Rob Walker, as well as the car driven by Diana Rigg as Emma Peel in The Avengers.

Exhaust: Despite its importance in repositioning the Lotus brand the Elan +2 has never quite had the same appeal to collectors as the two-seater S1. The Hagerty valuation guide shows that a #1 Concours S1 would be worth $54,600 while a +2 in equivalent condition would fetch $10,000 less. Being owned by Chapman himself this car will, no doubt, buck the trend. — Nik Berg

Ford recalls 462,000 SUVs for rearview camera issues



Intake: Ford is recalling more than 462,000 SUVs globally for rearview cameras that may be defective. The recall involves Ford Explorer and Lincoln Aviator SUVs from the 2020–23 model years and Lincoln Corsairs from 2020–22, all of them equipped with a 360-degree camera. The recall covers almost 383,000 vehicles in the U.S. Ford said it is aware of 17 minor accidents that may have resulted from the defect. The video output of the cameras may fail, preventing the rearview camera image from displaying and increasing the risk of a crash while in reverse, according to a recall report submitted Monday to NHTSA.

Exhaust: Ford really doesn’t need any more recalls, but fortunately this is a minor one, and apparently can be fixed with a software update. — SCS

Public Citizen is still mad at Toyota



Intake: Ralph Nader’s Public Citizen advocacy group has been openly protesting Toyota and its chairman, Akio Toyoda, since Toyoda said we should pump the brakes a bit before we push everyone into electric vehicles prematurely. They picketed the Washington, D.C. auto show where Toyota was showing the new Prius, claiming that Toyota, almost criminally, should have made it all-electric, calling the new car “a monument to pollution and stagnation.” Now that Toyoda has said he will step aside from the CEO job in April, Public Citizen is still at it. Says Deanna Noel, climate campaign project manager, about Toyoda’s replacement, Koji Sato: “This change of leadership appears to signal Toyota knows it’s far behind on EVs and must rush to remake itself… Along with committing to a 100 percent ZEV future, Mr. Sato must reverse Toyota’s anti-climate lobbying and commit the company to clean up its supply chain and protect human rights. Without a clean, fossil free, and equitable supply chain, ZEVs will fall far short of meeting climate imperatives.”

Exhaust: No comment, aside from: Give it a rest.  — SCS

First days of Mecum Vegas motorcycle auction bring shocking prices



Intake: The Mecum Las Vegas motorcycle auction is the largest motorcycle-specific auction and was primed to sell over 2000 bikes this year. The sales reports are just starting to cross our desk, and there are a few sales of note already: a 1973 Kawasaki Z1 900 sold for $55,000 (plus buyer’s premium), and a 1972 Honda CL350 equipped with the “Flying Dragon” dealer-installed gas tank and side panels netted $72,000. If sales like this are any indication, it is shaping up to be a wild year.

Exhaust: “Prices that were shocking last year are being eclipsed by double or more in some cases this year. And that’s only Thursday of the auction week,” says Hagerty senior information analyst James Hewitt. That Z1 sale is $20,000 over the current #1-condition pricing, so the seller is likely quite happy to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Z1 model with a payday like that. The CL350 Flying Dragon is a truly odd instance as a #1 (Concours) Condition CL350 is $10,000 and the dealer-installed Flying Dragon parts can still be sourced NOS for prices in the $3000–5000 range. Since these were not factory parts, there is no way to tell the bike was originally sold with these wild-painted parts so it rarely bumps value in this significant way. — Kyle Smith

Integra Type S prototype will bow at Daytona



Intake: Acura will debut a camouflaged version of the forthcoming Integra Type S at the Rolex 24 Hours of Daytona this weekend. The car will be wearing a special camouflage wrap and will be in the paddock the entire weekend, also serving as the lead car for the start of the race. The Integra Type S will be powered by a larger four-cylinder engine than the standard car (2.0-liters vs. 1.5-liters) that Acura says will produce north of 300 horsepower. Expect a lot of the mechanical bits on the Type S to come from the new 2023 Honda Civic Type R. More details about the car will arrive closer to launch later this year.

Exhaust: If our time with the new Civic Type R is any indication, the Integra Type S should be an absolute riot to drive. We’re a little worried about pricing, however; The Civic Type R already clears $40,000, and there’s a real chance we might be looking at a $50,000 front-wheel-drive compact here. Still, it will be neat to see the car out in front of the packed field for this weekend’s endurance race. Let’s go racing! — Nathan Petroelje

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]]> https://www.hagerty.com/media/news/the-manifold/2023-01-27/feed/ 15 https://www.hagerty.com/media/news/porsches-75th-birthday-throwback-civic-hybrid-due-in-24-toyotas-new-ceo/ https://www.hagerty.com/media/news/porsches-75th-birthday-throwback-civic-hybrid-due-in-24-toyotas-new-ceo/#respond Thu, 26 Jan 2023 16:00:06 GMT https://www.hagerty.com/media/?p=285536

357 Concept honors Porsche brand’s first car

Intake: 2023 marks 75 years since Porsche began its journey. The car that started it all was the 356, and now the firm is paying tribute to its first production model with a concept dubbed the 357. Porsche designers have attempted to echo the humpback shape of the 356. The result is a noticeably larger and wider 357. The 356 had a purity of purpose, a lightweight form with uncomplicated lines, in which form followed function to create an iconic beauty. While the 356 was a true original, the 357 is based on a Cayman GT4. It boasts some steampunk-esque design elements, such as rounded headlamps and an interesting grille pattern at the rear. The magnesium alloy center-lock wheels are worth geeking out over, and the large graphics are fun in a cartoonish way, too. The 1948 car made do with a 1.5-liter boxer-four from Volkswagen, but Porsche’s 2023 homage has a 493-hp, four-liter flat-six engine that makes five times the power of its ancestor. It’s a reminder not just of how much we’ve gained in the last 75 years, but what has been lost as well.

Exhaust: “Thinking out loud about the future is one of the core missions of Style Porsche. Design studies are the pool of ideas that feed the design of tomorrow,” says Michael Mauer, vice president of Style Porsche. We love the idea of a modern 356, but the 2023 execution lacks the simple daintiness of 1948. The end result is a little blubbery, and the combination of old and new just doesn’t feel as resolved in this design. Still, expect many more special projects to bow before the year is out—nobody celebrates a birthday quite like the folks in Stuttgart. —Nik Berg



Honda hones off-road, hybrid models for 2023



Intake: Honda has laid out plans for its product lineup in 2023. Amidst the slew of tweaks and forecasts, two noteworthy items—from opposite ends of the vehicular spectrum—caught our eye. The first is that the Honda Passport SUV and the Honda Ridgeline pickup will both receive TrailSport trims. Although the TrailSport name first appeared on the Passport in 2021, it was just a set of tires and a few body flares. With the debut of the fourth-generation 2023 Honda Pilot, however, the TrailSport upgrade got serious, adding a one-inch lift, meatier tires, a re-tuned all-wheel-drive system, steel skid plates, and more. Expect the same treatment to be doled out to the new 2024 Passport SUV and the Ridgeline pickup.

On the other end of the spectrum, we now have concrete confirmation that Honda is planning to bring the Civic hybrid to our shores—albeit in 2024, not this year. The Civic Hybrid has been on sale in Europe for a little while now, but until yesterday, it wasn’t confirmed for the U.S.—only rumored. According to a report from Car and Driver, the Civic Hybrid will be sold alongside the purely gas-powered version and will come in both sedan and hatchback versions.

Exhaust: Honda is aiming to achieve a 50 percent hybrid/non-hybrid mix for its three core models, the CR-V, Civic, and Accord in the coming years, so it’s not a stretch to say that the Civic Hybrid is Honda’s most important forthcoming model. That said, off-roady uni-boxes are all the rage these days—see Subaru’s Outback Wilderness—so the Passport and Ridgeline TrailSport models might be more noteworthy in the near term. At long last, like the lifted Subaru, Honda’s TrailSport treatment is finally more than just the vehicular equivalent of a flannel shirt in the woods. — Nathan Petroelje

Quarterly earnings call: It’s good to be Tesla



Intake: Tesla CEO Elon Musk, on Wednesday’s quarterly earnings call, said demand for Teslas is beyond strong. “We’re currently seeing orders at almost twice the rate of production,” Musk said, according to Automotive News. “We’ve actually raised the Model Y price a little bit in response to that.” That was after lowering the price by $13,000 as part of a 20 percent across-the-board cut to ensure demand stays strong and counter increased competition from other manufacturers. Net profit for the quarter was $3.69 billion, or $1.07 per share, compared with $2.32 billion, or 68 cents per share, a year earlier.

Exhaust: Musk did say to not expect the Cybertruck in any sort of large volume until 2024. “We do expect production to start sometime this summer,” Musk said, “But I always try and downplay the start of production because start of production is always very slow.” — Steven Cole Smith

Lexus chairman to take over Toyota



Intake: The chief executive of Toyota Motor Corporation will step down as head of the company his grandfather founded, the Japanese automaker said today, turning over the company to the president of Lexus. According to Reuters, Lexus head Koji Sato, 53, will become chief executive of Toyota on April 1, as Akio Toyoda becomes chairman. “The issue of who would take over from Toyoda, the 66-year-old grandson of the company’s founder, had increasingly been a focus for investors. But the timing of the succession announcement was a surprise,” Reuters said.

Exhaust: Toyoda has been the subject of criticism for his approach of moving more slowly toward all-electric vehicles and applauding high-mileage hybrids like the Prius. Whether Sato can quiet that criticism remains to be seen, but to our way of thinking, Toyoda’s point that not every consumer is immediately ready or able to flip the switch to full-electric is entirely valid. – SCS

Game on: No changes to BoP for Rolex 24



Intake: One of the main reasons why the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship holds a three-day “Roar Before the Rolex” mandatory test prior to the Rolex 24 at Daytona is to gauge the competitiveness of the field, car against car. If one model is significantly faster or slower than its competitors, IMSA can use its Balance of Performance modifications to speed up or slow the outliers by increasing or decreasing engine power, fuel capacity, weight, aero, or other adjustments. IMSA must have liked what it saw because according to SportsCar365, the only adjustment made was a slight increase in fuel capacity for the BMW M4 GT3.

Exhaust: There was some thought that IMSA might speed up the new Porsche 911 GT3 R cars, as they were at the bottom of the qualifying list, with the fastest Porsche 2.8 seconds slower than the pole-winning Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo, but it didn’t happen. This could be a long race for the seven 911s. – SCS

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]]> https://www.hagerty.com/media/news/porsches-75th-birthday-throwback-civic-hybrid-due-in-24-toyotas-new-ceo/feed/ 0 https://www.hagerty.com/media/news/the-manifold/2023-01-24/ https://www.hagerty.com/media/news/the-manifold/2023-01-24/#comments Tue, 24 Jan 2023 16:00:58 GMT https://www.hagerty.com/media/?p=284768

Hennessey H650 package gives GM full-size SUVs 650 hp

Intake: Hennessey just announced its H650 upgrade for the Cadillac Escalade, GMC Yukon, and Chevrolet Tahoe and Suburban siblings that takes each SUV’s 6.2-liter V-8 up to 650 hp with a 2.9-liter supercharger, charge cooler, upgraded pushrods, and a stainless steel, cat-back exhaust. The company claims the H650 package knocks a second off quarter-mile elapsed times and the upgrades are backed by a three-year, 36,000-mile warranty.

Exhaust: If an Escalade-V is a bit too flashy for you, or if you can’t get your hands on one of those 682-hp luxo-cruisers, then Hennessey’s upgrade seems like the next best thing. The $27,950 price tag for the package and its installation is quite steep, but it’s $10,000 less than the step between the Escalade-V and the next-highest Escalade trim—although the Escalade-V adds more than just power. If the H650 package makes the six-two sound as mean as the “LT4.5” found in the Escalade-V, Hennessey may be onto something. — Brandan Gillogly

“Nomads” hurt automakers’ brand loyalty



Intake: A study by S&P Global has identified eight automotive brands that are subject to the “nomad challenge”—in other words, they struggle to hang on to first-time customers for a second or third purchase. Such consumers may be “nomads,” migrating from one brand to the next. The eight afflicted brands are Acura, Mercedes-Benz, Ram, Dodge, Audi, Mazda, GMC, and Volkswagen. Tesla leads the pack of manufacturers that have strong brand loyalty: just 39 percent of Tesla customers buy their next vehicle from a company other than Tesla. “Brands that fail to transform nomads into loyalists not only lose out on the immediate sale to the nomad but also [on] the future loyalty benefit they could have provided as loyalists,” said Erin Gomez, associate director of consulting for S&P Global, speaking to Automotive News.

Exhaust: Besides at Tesla, the study says customer retention is also high at Subaru, Jeep, Kia, Hyundai, and BMW. It’s critically important to hang onto customers once you make that first sale, and some brands are doing better at it than others. — Steven Cole Smith

Time-capsule Lamborghini Countach goes under the hammer



Intake: A 1990 Lamborghini Countach 25th Anniversary Edition which has covered less than 160 miles since new, despite having three owners in the last 33 years, will be a star of RM Sotheby’s Arizona auction on January 26. The car’s original bill of sale shows that it was delivered to its first keeper with 138 km (82 miles) on the odometer and that it cost $275,000 at the time. In 17 years of ownership, the Lambo accumulated just eight miles before it was sold back to Clark Motor Company in Ohio, the dealer which originally supplied it. The Countach was sold again in 2010 and lived in a private collection until 2020, when the current owner bought it. In all, less than 80 additional miles have been added to the clock since the Countach was first delivered. Its 5.2-liter V-12 engine won’t even be run-in, although the car has had a recent service to confirm all is in working order. RM Sotheby’s estimates this time-capsule Countach will fetch $750,000–$1 million.

Exhaust: In the unlikely event that the next buyer wishes to actually drive this Countach, the first thing he or she will have to do is replace the 33-year-old Pirelli P Zero tires. But, let’s face it, that’s not going to happen. This Lamborghini will simply be transported to another climate-controlled private collection and never be seen in public until prices have risen sufficiently for it to be auctioned off again. And those prices likely will rise—quite quickly. Values of #1 (Concours) and #2 (Excellent) condition Countaches have more than doubled since late 2021, and it’s not unreasonable to expect the values of these wedgey wonders to continue to climb, even if the growth isn’t as dramatic as it was during 2020–2022. – Nik Berg

Volkswagen wants a rugged electric 4×4 based on the Ford Ranger



Intake: According to a new report from Autocar, Volkswagen has revived plans to build a rugged, electric 4×4—known internally as the ID. Ruggdzz—underpinned by a ladder-frame chassis borrowed from the Ford Ranger. The ID. Ruggdzz was first revealed at a media event in 2019, although the project was put on hold in late 2020 due to the rocky launch of VW’s first EV, the European-only ID. 3. The Ranger chassis currently forms the bones of Volkswagen’s Amarok, a mid-size pickup sold globally outside of the U.S. In an interview with Autocar at the launch of the new Amarok in South Africa in December, VW Commercial Vehicles CEO Carsten Intra noted engineers were indeed working on getting the Amarok/Ranger platform to accommodate electric motors and batteries. The timeline for the debut of the ID. Ruggdzz is unclear.

Exhaust: What would such a project mean for the revived Scout brand, Volkswagen says will bring an all-electric, off-roady pickup and SUV to market here in the States? As of late last year, Volkswagen was busy courting Taiwanese electronics powerhouse Foxconn as a partner for Scout EV production. It seems unlikely that VW would also ask Ford to hop in bed for such a deal, so in our eyes, this ID. Ruggdzz is an entirely separate model. Despite Scout’s extremely American brand cachet, wouldn’t it make more sense to jump through the hoops to make its truck a global model? — Nathan Petroelje

Maserati Grecale starts under $65,000



Intake: Maserati has priced the all-new Grecale SUV. It starts at $63,500 for the entry-level GT trim. That gets you the base, 296-hp, turbocharged four-cylinder—you’ll have to upgrade to the $102,500 Trofeo if you want the twin-turbo, 526-hp V-6, or you can slot in between the two models with the $72,900 Modena, which has a 325-hp four-cylinder. For reference, the larger Levante GT with the V-6 starts at $90,700. Shipping is not included in the prices.

Exhaust: To our way of thinking, under $65,000 seems pretty reasonable to be able to tell people you drive a Maserati, but you won’t impress too many of them if you mention you only have 296 horses. — SCS

Honda forms new business division to accelerate EV shift



Intake: Honda is creating a new business unit within the company to speed up Big H’s shift to an all-electric future, according to a new report from Automotive News. The new unit will consolidate Honda’s strategy for electrification and the development of new automobiles, motorcycles, and power products such as generators. Part of the shift will also involve combining six regional operations into three larger ones: North America, China and other associated regions including Japan, and a region that covers the rest of Asia and all of Europe. Condensing regional operations aims to “rapidly develop the implementation of resource shifts in accordance with the future lineup strategy in line with the electrification acceleration,” a spokesperson told AN in a briefing. Last year, Honda said it wanted to roll out 30 new EVs globally by 2030, in which it would also be producing 2 million EVs annually.

Exhuast: Lots of corporate speak in that last sentence but you can translate it thus: “We’re behind the competition when it comes to getting EVs to market, and these moves are going to help us play catch-up.” Honda does already have a partnership in place with General Motors that will produce one EV by 2024 (the Honda Prologue) and another model for Acura (called the ZDX) due the same year, but it needs to gather steam in producing its own EVs following the early fruits of the GM partnership. — Nathan Petroelje

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]]> https://www.hagerty.com/media/news/the-manifold/2023-01-24/feed/ 6 https://www.hagerty.com/media/maintenance-and-tech/tunnel-vision-hondas-aero-testing-home-in-ohio-is-state-of-the-art/ https://www.hagerty.com/media/maintenance-and-tech/tunnel-vision-hondas-aero-testing-home-in-ohio-is-state-of-the-art/#comments Tue, 24 Jan 2023 14:00:55 GMT https://www.hagerty.com/media/?p=284091

Opened in March, Honda Automotive Labs of Ohio (HALO) in East Liberty, Ohio offers the automaker’s engineers a fresh opportunity: to optimize efficiency and performance in their own backyard. Located fewer than ten miles from the massive Marysville manufacturing complex, Honda’s $124 million investment seems sensible from a logistical standpoint alone.

Prior to HALO, Honda engineers spent much of their time traveling to various wind tunnels around the world. They’d ship prototype cars, sensitive equipment, and some of the smartest brains in the business to far-off locales for testing. After decades of this practice, Honda opted to take lessons learned and build an advanced, custom-outfitted facility from the ground up.



Late last year, Honda gave us a tour of HALO. When we arrived, engineers were hard at work developing next season’s aero package on a Honda IndyCar.



It’s a pleasant place to spend time, and to hear the engineers tell it, that’s out of the ordinary. Most wind tunnels look more or less the way they do in the movies, especially the control rooms, which are depicted as cramped, dark, lonely places. These tend to be big, expensive facilities, and in the design phase employee comfort did not always rank high on the priority list compared to more quantitative metrics. Not at HALO; the control room is a sprawling, wide-open affair, with elevated, stadium-style seating that gives staff a clear look at what’s going on behind the glass.



The break area, off to the side of the testing area, is sunny and open-feeling thanks a state-of-the-art feature known as “windows.” It doesn’t take much to keep an engineer happy, but several told us they’re thankful that Honda went the extra mile here.



Next, we passed through the bank vault-style control room door into the belly of the beast. Air moves through the wind tunnel via an oval-shaped circuit (pretty much any picture you snap here would make for seriously evocative album art) with the main room at the end of the route somewhat resembling the front stretch of a race track. Here, cars and (sometimes, we were cryptically told, “other stuff”) are positioned on a stainless steel belt in the center of a large rotating turntable. The turntable rotates to simulate driving at various yaw angles, while the belt (essentially a gigantic treadmill) helps to simulate real-world driving and control the boundary layer of air underneath the vehicle, ensuring test accurate results.

HALO can test with wind speeds ƒt 190 miles per hour, which means the belt is moving very fast indeed. As you can imagine, any slight imperfection or irregularity in the surface could prove dangerous. Technicians are thus forbidden from wearing shoes on the belt, and test vehicles have their tires coated in Teflon so they don’t leave behind a residue.



Through a garage door from the main tunnel, we walked down a long corridor where vehicles are prepared for testing. The staging zone is populated with lifts, workstations, a Hunter alignment rack, and even a wash station for cleaning vehicles. That last piece is more important than it might seem; dirt on the car can alter test results, not to mention the previously mentioned potential for damage to the sensitive belt. Flying debris doesn’t mix well with expensive turbine blades, either.

Oh yeah, the turbine. Walking back into the main room, we began following the one-eighth mile path that makes up the wind tunnel. After the first set of bends, we met the enormous turbine, a behemoth driven by a 5-megawatt (that’s 6700 horsepower) electric motor, capable of up to 250 rpm and generating wind speeds of up to 190 mph. Each of the turbine’s twelve carbon-fiber blades is nearly as tall as an adult human; we had to duck a little to walk underneath the hub into the downhill, sloping back stretch leads into a massive bank of heat exchangers (mounted diagonally for additional surface area). Then, the path continues around the final set of corners and up into the main testing room.



The main testing room also contains the “infield,” to house necessary equipment: a spare belt, microphone arrays, and other testing gear. The HALO wind tunnel was designed from the ground up to be easy to reconfigure, and that extra thought and effort pays dividends when it’s time for a changeover. Switching from aerodynamic testing to acoustic testing was once, in other facilities, an all-day affair; now it takes less than an hour. Like anywhere else, time is money.



The microphone rigs, set up for acoustic testing, are impressive in their own right. Over 500 exterior microphones (and another 50-plus inside the vehicle itself) record sound levels inside and outside the vehicle. There’s also a large robotic arm that can be positioned nearly anywhere in the testing room, to which engineers can mount all manner of sensors to record data while the wind tunnel is in use.

American Honda has more plans the pipeline for HALO for the next year or two, but representatives were mum on details. Third parties, however, will soon be able to rent the facility. Honda even built a website, halowindtunnel.com, to show off the wind tunnel to potential clients. There’s an e-mail contact link we were even tempted to click, but the cash we need to muster for a day’s rental is surely steep. Looks like we won’t be wind testing the aero mods on our Lemons racing project car any time soon …

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]]> https://www.hagerty.com/media/maintenance-and-tech/tunnel-vision-hondas-aero-testing-home-in-ohio-is-state-of-the-art/feed/ 2 https://www.hagerty.com/media/hagerty-community/our-two-cents-the-most-underrated-vehicle-on-the-market/ https://www.hagerty.com/media/hagerty-community/our-two-cents-the-most-underrated-vehicle-on-the-market/#comments Fri, 20 Jan 2023 19:00:29 GMT https://www.hagerty.com/media/?p=283477

Challenging the staff at Hagerty Media with loaded questions has become a thing here at Our Two Cents. The mission is to inform and entertain the reader, and this time is no different. I asked everyone for their opinion on the most underrated vehicle currently on the market. Not a very loaded question, you say?

Consider the fact that we are staffed with several overachieving over-thinkers. There were concerns, as it wasn’t clear if I meant a new, used, or properly classic vehicle. Okay fine, you guys can pick one or give me all three. We have experienced some seriously underrated new vehicles, we all know what we’d buy if a used pre-owned car was in our future, and we all believe there’s a classic that’s clearly in need of more recognition.

Sam Smith: C5 Corvette



The mythical man himself, Editor-at-Large Sam Smith, came in hard with one of the most underrated performance cars on the market. Nicely done, Sam:

“Most underrated vehicle new or used? For real people? The C5 Corvette. Period, bar none, full stop. If you know, you know; if you don’t, you probably read that line and made a face.

There are cars with better steering and more refined ride and handling, cars with interiors that don’t feel ported over from some forgettable 1990s GM SUV, cars quicker off the line and more forgiving at the limit. But in dollars per horsepower, in reliability, in all-out (and accessible!) pace, in moddability, in the ability to make you feel special at the wheel. They should be more expensive. The only reason they aren’t: GM built a lot of them, and Corvettes carry a certain…image. Which not everyone wants.

Whatever. Great car. And they’re everywhere, at reasonable prices, in good shape.”

Conner Golden: Lexus LC, Shelby GT350, Bentley Continental R



Our Features Editor decided to present a new, used, and classic offering for this episode of Our Two Cents. His points are rather convincing:

“New: I can’t really think of an underrated new car, considering you are still unable to walk into a dealership and purchase a new, enthusiast-oriented vehicle without additional dealer markup or some other hassle on the showroom floor. Maybe the Lexus LC 500? It’s very much an Aston Martin as told by Lexus. Incredibly special interior for a mass-production car, distinctive and original design that borrows from nothing, incredible fit and finish, and a wonderful high-revving, free-breathing V-8.

Used: pre-owned metal that’s underrated has to be 2016–2018 Shelby Mustang GT350. It’s an incredibly cool car that absolutely will be a collector’s favorite in the near future. Cars with modest miles (sub 30k) are still “only” hovering at or around $5000 above original MSRP. Get ‘em while you can, folks…

Classic: The most underrated collector car has to be the 1993–2002 Bentley Continental R. My God, this was the most expensive production car for a few years, and you can purchase a nice-ish example for between $35,000–$50,000. These things were $271,000 when new—in 1992 dollars! They have incredible road presence, and were handcrafted at every detail. They drive like the nicest, softest F-150 you’ve ever experienced, but I can’t think of a better trans-continental bruiser for road trips. It’s ruinously expensive to maintain, but for $45,000 or so, you should have plenty in the budget left to keep it chugging along.”

Eddy Eckart: 1993–02 Camaro/Firebird (F-body)



Senior Editor Eddy Eckhart hit the same nail that Sam Smith did, only at a more affordable asking price, with an extra pair of seats for kids. (Or very compliant adults.) Not showing appreciation for these F-body products would be a crime, even the earlier models with the LT1. Perhaps especially the LT1, as they are much less desirable but still pack a helluva punch. No matter, here’s what he said:

“Fourth-gen F bodies are one of the most overlooked used/near-collectible performance cars right now. The highlight—for me, anyway—is the 98–02 Camaro SS (I’ll take a ’99 in Hugger Orange with t-tops and a six-speed, please). Third-gen cars, led by the IROC Z, have seen values take off, but the better-in-every-measurable-way 93–02 cars have remained relatively steady. They’re excellent cruisers, and with the manual transmission can get close to 30 mpg on the highway. Go to a drag strip or a road course and you’re bound to see one—Camaros and Firebirds of this era are excellent platforms for any kind of racing. And who doesn’t like T-Tops?

The only downsides are that they’re a little under-braked and the looks—especially the WS-6 Trans Am—aren’t for everyone. Go get you one before the word gets out!”

Kyle Smith: Honda XR650L



Editor Kyle Smith does a good job representing motorcycles amongst the car-obsessed masses here at Hagerty Media, and he certainly picked a winner in our book:

“For me it’s the Honda XR650L. I admit my bias as I am a documented Honda XR fanatic, but the tried-and-true nature of an air/oil cooled 650cc thumper that can still be purchased right off the showroom floor for $7k is pretty amazing. It’s a go-anywhere, do-anything machine that (for someone with a tall enough inseam) can be a one-bike solution for any two-wheel fun you seek. Throw in that the 650L has been relatively unchanged since its 1993 introduction, so parts and knowledge are plentiful, and suddenly low-mile used 650Ls become an amazing deal.

New or used, I just can’t see a situation where an XR650L is a bad choice for a person looking to have fun on a motorcycle.”

Nathan Petroelje: Honda Element



Associate Editor Nathan Petroelje has utility on his mind. It’s snowing at his house in chilly northern Michigan right now, and we’ve had to deal with him complaining about subjecting his Mitsubishi Montero‘s carpeted interior to the salty, sandy mix of crap underfoot more than we deserve. But we’re starting to think all of his whining was just him setting up the long game to swoop in and pitch this loveable toaster—well played, sir.

“I tend to think of underrated as it relates to the whole ‘you don’t know what you have until it’s gone’ sentiment. Yes, the Honda Element was nearly peak toaster-on-wheels (though the outright throne belongs to Scion’s xB in that department), but it was also deeply utilitarian, friendly as the day is long—this was a Honda, after all—and neat and funky in its own way. Folks drove the wheels off these things—several hundred thousand mile examples are commonplace. But if you could find a low mile example, particularly one with all-wheel drive? Between four driven wheels (with good winter tires!) and those plastic floors, and you’ve got yourself a wicked little winter warrior that will put a smile on your face perpetually. They’re not terribly expensive—four-figure ones are plentiful, and a great daily driver can be had for right around $15,000.

They have cult followings in certain areas, but by-and-large, I think they’re overlooked and underappreciated by society in general—for the mindset of the product planners, and for how useful they were.

Now, if only we can get big H to gin up a modern take on this quirky design!”

Sajeev Mehta: Elantra N, Aztek, Mark VIII



Okay here’s the deal: I don’t think my beloved co-workers are taking my questions seriously enough. A Corvette’s depreciation curve very rarely sinks low enough to reach that true “bargain” status. Everyone’s gonna want a Bentley in theory, and there are plenty of repair shops that will keep them running for a reasonable fee (considering the asking price for parts, that is). My beef stems from underappreciation via depreciation and neglect.

New: The Hyundai Elantra N has all the car guy cred needed in its track-tested bones, and they come with a manual transmission and a wicked pair of front buckets. But will people line out the door for one like a Mustang, VW GTI, or more expensive metal that provides no more fun per dollar than the little Korean that could? Well, perhaps that’s a possibility. But while all new cars seem to hold their values better these days (when’s the last time you saw an advertisement for Truck Month?) it’s a safe bet that the N-spec Hyundais will depreciate harder than anything else in its class. Which leads to neglect . . . and scrappage . . . and a seriously rare and underrated classic in the coming years.



Used: Do you think all crossover utilities are kinda awful? If so, how much worse was the Pontiac Aztek? Sure, the styling is disturbingly crude, which is what we all focus on. But the absolutely vulgar commitment to functionality and practicality cannot be understated. It’s based on a GM’s ubiquitous U-body minivan platform, so the seats pop out with ease. The Aztek was designed for camping, for crying out loud! Be it classic Fiat Multiplas, Malaise-y AMC Pacers, or the Pontiac Aztek, these underrated statements to neglect and depreciation usually get their day in the sunlight—eventually. But the Pontiac can’t get there soon enough, because I reckon it’s aging better than your average crossover utility from the 2000s. Simply put, it deserves better than a death next to an early Ford Escape in the junkyard.

Classic: The Lexus LC reminded me about my personal bias toward the Lincoln Mark VIII. I’ve owned two, and my current one feels as good as a new car (ancient four-speed gearbox notwithstanding) in terms of performance and eye-catching styling. Yet these minimalist, 280-plus-horsepower machines lack the classic car cache of their wood-paneled Lexus and Mercedes counterparts. I reckon they sell for less than a Northstar V-8-equipped Cadillac Eldorado that’s about to munch on a head gasket, too. If I’m right, that’s the textbook definition of an underrated automobile.

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]]> https://www.hagerty.com/media/hagerty-community/our-two-cents-the-most-underrated-vehicle-on-the-market/feed/ 149 https://www.hagerty.com/media/opinion/mechanical-sympathy/i-cant-abandon-this-giant-crappy-motorcycle-and-ive-tried/ https://www.hagerty.com/media/opinion/mechanical-sympathy/i-cant-abandon-this-giant-crappy-motorcycle-and-ive-tried/#comments Wed, 18 Jan 2023 18:00:19 GMT https://www.hagerty.com/media/?p=282452



Sitting right in front of the garage door, perfectly centered under a warm incandescent 60-watt bulb, sits 850 pounds of five-speed, four-cylinder, three-shades-of-brown Honda Goldwing. It’s the motorcycle equivalent of a sad old shop dog. It mainly just sits around, but you know there will come a time—and soon—when it will be sent to a nice farm in Ohio.

I take pity on the Goldwing, but only when my tolerance for its bullshit stacks up high enough. This is the other side of tolerance stackup. If you’ve know that term, you probably heard it used in reference to a mechanical assembly that involves bearings or some other component that requires precise calculation to ensure a proper fit.

Think of something like a solid-lifter valvetrain in a cam-in-block V-8 engine. Change the deck height of the engine by milling the surface, add a thinner head gasket, and switch to an aftermarket roller-rocker cam, and a stock-sized pushrod will no longer be the correct length. You often cannot calculate correct sizing until you assemble all those parts, either, as the tolerance on each is a window, sometimes defined in thousandths of an inch, and those thousandths can stack up and create a very ill-fitting assembly.



Sloppy assemblies are side effects of production budget. Machining everything perfectly every time requires time and precision that is incredibly expensive to do at scale. In this garage, tolerance stackup is totally different. Here it is best described as the slow buildup of willpower required to accomplish jobs that are just plain unfun. That triple-brown Goldwing is a collection of exactly those.

In the middle of a busy summer, it got parked under that light, blocking the garage door. It became a nuisance—I had to roll its great heft around anytime I needed access to both garage doors. There was, and really is, no great place to park this behemoth.



This bike might photograph well, but it is scruffy. If you find Sam Smith’s Weissrat BMW project heroic, know that this Goldwing is truly garbage. There are missing and broken parts galore, yet the bike still runs. The wiring is hacked up. The seller provided no maintenance history, so the timing belt has likely been the same one for all of the 81,000 miles this bike has travelled. It got fresh fluids and a quick carb refresh when it arrived in my garage, and … nothing else. Then I took it on thousands of miles’ worth of adventures, waiting for the day it would leave me stranded.

It never has.

Often it would strand itself at home. I guess technically that is still stranding me, but the situation is not truly inconvenient, so I’m not sure. The latest instance was the expected culprit: the rack of four Keihin CV carburetors. It had reached a level of internal gunk buildup that meant the carbs acted more as air restrictors than as air/fuel mixing devices.

This bike gets the cheapest of everything, and that includes gas. Ethanol, the dreaded E word, had conspired to wreak havoc inside the carburetors’ bowls and passages. I knew this back in September. I took months to actually pull the rack of carbs.



The process is a pain in the butt. From removing the chrome farkles added by previous owners to re-routing the push-and-pull throttle cables so that they don’t bind when the airbox is installed, doing the job right takes all my patience. If just one piece of my proverbial mental assembly is out of spec, my will power evaporates and I avoid that project for another week.

My acquisition of this GL1100 is rooted in a joke. An off-hand comment about how cheap and shitty it was. A challenge to a group of friends that if they raised the funds to procure it I would not only get it running but do something stupid with it—a road trip, or jump, or any number of bad ideas involving a $450 vintage motorcycle.

Instead it became something I actually loved having around—a commuter whose hard luggage had plenty of space for anything I needed to carry, even if they weren’t waterproof any more. It is also the only motorcycle I have that is honestly street-legal and capable of highway speeds.



Even when I tried to let the Goldwing die, I couldn’t. Instead, I recruited a friend to help me push the stupid thing onto my motorcycle lift so I could clean and reassemble the carbs. This winter has been so mild I can still commute on this beast, so imagine my excitement when it fired right to life.

Then I went to start it this morning. The starter clutch died, and now the bike won’t start. A Goldwing’s starter clutch is chain-driven on the tail end of the engine and accessing it requires a lot of disassembly. The tolerance stackup inside that clutch finally hit the point it no longer works, and guess what? So have I. Sorry, Goldwing. I just don’t see my tolerance for the annoying parts of that repair building up anytime soon.

I’ll wait a bit, anyway. Maybe the way I’m measuring how annoying the job will be is wrong and I actually can tolerate the task. We’ll see. For now, it’s back under that lonely light bulb, blocking the garage door.

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]]> https://www.hagerty.com/media/opinion/mechanical-sympathy/i-cant-abandon-this-giant-crappy-motorcycle-and-ive-tried/feed/ 10 https://www.hagerty.com/media/news/we-watched-acura-build-the-final-nsx-supercar/ https://www.hagerty.com/media/news/we-watched-acura-build-the-final-nsx-supercar/#comments Mon, 16 Jan 2023 21:00:00 GMT https://www.hagerty.com/media/?p=279931

Del Close, the famous improv coach who taught John Belushi, Dan Aykroyd, Bob Odenkirk, and countless others the ins and outs of comedic timing, died in 1999, just five days before his 65th birthday. While he slowly succumbing to emphysema in the hospital, his acolyte, Bill Murray, organized an unusual birthday party—a living wake, at which all of Close’s friends and former students gathered to pay tribute to the man who taught them how to be funny. From his deathbed, Close had the rare opportunity to truly take stock. The partygoers, in turn, were able to say their goodbyes in person with no regrets. The party is memorialized in a home video that now resides on YouTube. At the very beginning, Close, on the phone with members of the Upright Citizens Brigade comedy troupe, states: “You know, as I leave it, I begin to realize that we really haven’t done such a bad job.”



By the time that you read this, the second-generation Acura NSX will already be dead. We were lucky enough, late last year, to attend Acura’s living wake of the final NSX, a metallic gray Type S with serial number 350/350. We had the opportunity to witness that final car begin its life as a welded aluminum subframe before its slow, methodical journey through each assembly station at Honda’s Performance Manufacturing Center in Marysville, Ohio.

The death of a supercar is always a sad day. We do not begin to truly appreciate what we treasure most in this world until it is gone. When a beloved celebrity dies, fans, family, and colleagues are ready to offer heartfelt condolences. There’s generally a sense of regret that we never told those we’ve lost just how much they mattered while they were still with us.

 



Honda’s Performance Manufacturing Center (PMC) is deeply tied with into the history of the second-generation NSX. The factory was designed in concert with the car itself, optimized for the express purpose of building a modern Japanese supercar in the rolling farmland of central Ohio. All things come to an end however, and it was noted during our tour that the PMC is not “the NSX factory.” PMC, Acura maintains, has a long and exciting road ahead of it (more on that later).

PMC is nestled in the shadow of the big Marysville Honda plant, sprawling over four million square feet. PMC itself is just 180,000 square feet, and it serves as a clinically-clean showpiece of Honda’s manufacturing capabilities. By comparison, the big NASCAR Cup Series teams—Hendrick Motorsports, Joe Gibbs Racing, and others—occupy shops over twice as large. PMC was built to show off Honda’s manufacturing muscle, and similar Chevrolet’s Performance Build Center inside the Bowling Green, Kentucky factory, much of the work here is done by hand. Robots number in the single digits, most of them being tasked with welding the NSX’s space frame. Each NSX features 860 MIG welds, with many more rivets and screws—all set and tightened by human hands—holding the car together.



When we pulled up to PMC on a Wednesday morning, I expected to encounter a sense of melancholy looming over the operation as I toured the facility. Instead, I walked into a celebration. The PMC employees, hand-picked from the big Honda factory looming behind them, walked around in spotless white coveralls with a palpable sense of pride and purpose. The NSX has been a staple of their working lives for the past five years, but they’re eager to see what comes next.



Incidentally, the only employees of PMC without promising job security are the welding robots. Future PMC Edition cars—limited-run, hand-built versions of existing Acura models like the TLX and MDX—will have their unibody structures pre-finished at the big Honda plant next door and delivered as bodies-in-white, with about two hours of hand-fitting to adjust the already-industry-standard panel gaps to perfection. (Similarly, Honda Civic race car shells will have roll cages welded in by professionals at this facility.) For the time being, the welding robots, tucked into stations behind metal cages framing darkened inspection glass, will lay dormant.



Beyond the welding stations, you’ll find “closures,” or areas where the doors, hood, and trunk lid for each NSX are completed and prepared for paint. This zone, along with many others in the plant, blend old-world craftsmanship with modern technology. If you’ve viewed any YouTube footage of small-scale sports car factories like Morgan’s Malvern facility, you’ll know precisely what I mean. The surgically-clean factory is well-stocked with all manner of high-tech equipment, but the final touches are handled by human hands and inspected with human eyes. Each car spends roughly four hours in each assembly process, from welding all the way through to final assembly.



Beyond the closures station, a row of nine tanks is lined up to clean the bare metal and apply an even layer of e-coat primer to the unibody and the closures. The car is dipped in each tank and allowed to drain before moving on to the next one. The water tanks get progressively cleaner, removing impurities from the shell and allowing the e-coat to adhere properly. The process is very thorough, and I was surprised to learn later that this is one of the major bottlenecks at PMC. Just a handful of cars can make it through the e-coat process in a single shift, and only two or three completed cars make it out of the facility each day. Despite the comparatively small size of the facility, each NSX is fully assembled indoors from start to finish, not seeing the light of day until it leaves the adjacent storage facility.



Next, the completed unibodies are attached to a dolly and seam sealer is applied. Each NSX will remain married to this dolly for the duration of its assembly process, until wheels and tires are added towards the very end. Incidentally, one of the final touches for each NSX is the rear Acura badge. NSX buyers who opted to participate in the Acura Insider Experience had the opportunity to tour PMC as I did, culminating in the completion of their own custom-ordered NSX. Then, these Insiders get the privilege of applying the Acura badge and the individually numbered engine plate themselves. Owners who opted to stay home were treated to detailed photos of their NSX as it moved through each assembly process, with a final photo of the completed car in front of a giant American flag, accompanied by a large poster featuring the sequential build number of each NSX Type S … That same procedure was followed for the Acura-supplied photos seen here, albeit with a bit more gravity and fanfare.



Following seam sealer, the assembly process begins, with the paint and body shop running concurrently. The body shop, which sits roughly in the center of PMC, uses robots to apply paint, with a final coat and any required touch-up applied by an expert painter. Once the paint has dried and cured, numerous inspection stations, lit by bright fluorescent lights, expose minor imperfections to be noted for repair. A separate room filled with more fluorescent lights and high-speed buffers is hard at work polishing the paint to a level of perfection rarely seen outside the show-car circuit. The painted panels for each car are kept together on a covered cart, and are some of the last components applied to each NSX to prevent damage during assembly.

A subtle PMC trademark is their ability to mask incredibly sharp, fine lines on body panels. When you notice the two-tone black detailing on the NSX Type S, such as on the rocker panels and beneath the headlights, it’s worth noting that those aren’t separate components, but instead carefully masked and painted details.



Assembly of each NSX begins from the inside out, with interior and electrical components being among the first items fitted to the bare shell. Shortly thereafter, the roof and engine cover are fitted. The panel surrounding the door—comprising the pillars and rocker panel—is the only exterior body panel that isn’t bolted into place. Instead, a robot applies sealer, and two factory employees carefully lift the panel, align it with a jig, and place it on its respective side of the car. The jig will remain in place as the bonded panel’s adhesive cures.

Once the panel is suitably bonded, each NSX moves to a station with a lift, where the engine—and its attendant subframe—is bolted into place. The engines are built at a nearby facility, and pre-broken in. Theoretically, a new NSX owner could start their car for the first time, bounce off the rev limiter, and do no damage. Each bolt on the subframe is tightened to spec with a digital torque wrench, which records the torque spec of each bolt for each NSX. This, possibly better than any other operation in the PMC, displays the ideal synergy of cutting-edge tech and old-world craftsmanship.



From there, the NSX begins to take on a recognizable shape as final assembly steps bolt the front subframe, remaining body panels, and trim in place. Shortly after the wheels and tires are bolted on, each NSX goes through the wheel alignment process. The technician in charge of this uses a special ergonomic chair that hangs below the alignment rack and was patented specifically for this purpose. Then, the headlights are aligned, and each NSX goes through a rigorous testing regimen that includes an engine dyno, a shock dyno, and a water intrusion test.

At the end of the assembly line, we were greeted by a red and black Acura TLX with bronze wheels – PMC’s next project. Just 350 TLX PMC Edition cars will be built, to the same standards as the NSX. Previously, the PMC had taken short breaks from NSX production for similarly short runs of similarly hand-assembled MDX and RDX models. Acura representatives were eager to show off the black-painted roof panel. Unlike many cars, the roof panel on the TLX isn’t separate; it’s brazed into place, joining the pillars on both sides as one panel. This is extremely difficult to get right, and the black-painted roof has become something of a PMC trademark.

That level of pride in the small details that others may not notice is a hallmark of how PMC operates. Twenty years ago, it would have been unthinkable to imagine a Japanese company building their best products among the endless cornfields of the American Midwest. After visiting PMC, we can’t imagine them doing it any other way. There’s a contagious sense of pride that you feel after seeing the employees of PMC go about their work. As an Ohio native, I’m more than little proud that something like the NSX was built in my backyard.

As I leave PMC and the NSX, I begin to realize—we really haven’t done such a bad job.



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]]> https://www.hagerty.com/media/news/we-watched-acura-build-the-final-nsx-supercar/feed/ 4 https://www.hagerty.com/media/motorcycles/the-motorcycle-that-honda-lost-millions-building/ https://www.hagerty.com/media/motorcycles/the-motorcycle-that-honda-lost-millions-building/#comments Wed, 11 Jan 2023 18:00:21 GMT https://www.hagerty.com/media/?p=281209

As enthusiasts, we often catch ourselves wishing manufacturers would build something without the accounting team’s input. Just think of what could be! The splendor of a concept that goes straight to production and then rolls out to dealer showrooms for us consumers to purchase and tool about town on. Something that is truly cool and unique.

That’ll never happen … again.

Mainly because Honda learned its lesson from the Rune. Back in 1995 Honda rolled a concept called Zodia into its booth at a Tokyo show. The wild cruiser garnered the standard attention and also standard, “That’s neat, but nothing like what we’ll see in showrooms”-type comments.

Then in 1998 a bike called T1 appeared. It captured a similar feel and showed that Honda just might be serious about this wild cruiser thing. Look a the T1 and you’ll probably see more VTX than anything but that was only because in the background the T2 was being formed. Like the T1, the T2 was based around the Goldwing flat-six engine. It was an aluminum twin-spar engine and Pro-Link rear suspension that was a staple of Honda during the time. This was the same decade where Honda decided oval-piston 750cc engines were something worth developing, so when the public said the T2 was great there was not much more prodding needed.



The reaction was strong. Really strong. People loved it.

There were two more largely forgettable concepts, but T2 was the one that made the most impact. As the team pivoted towards producing something like T2 the news came down from on high that the normal shackles of production would be unlocked and design would take precedence. Cost be damned, build a factory custom cruiser like never before! Enter the Rune, and the start of wild financial adventure at Honda. Ryan at FortNine recently rode one and gave a little insight as to how wild these big bikes are.

See, with design being paramount there is very little parts sharing. Seemingly every part is crafted to look one-off and unlike anything else Honda had built, was building, or would build. The front suspension alone cost more than some of the smaller displacement Honda bikes that were in showrooms at the time. The two front shocks are even side-specific, with the right holding the main spring while the left controls damping and has a lighter sub-spring. The bike appears absurdly long and the extremely low 27.2-inch seat height only exacerbates the wild proportions.



That stubby yet flowing exhaust was created using lost wax casting, an incredibly time- and material-intensive process that creates parts one at a time at an absurd cost. From the switchgear on the handlebars to the curved multi-core radiator, the Rune has numerous one-off bits and pieces that compile to create a nearly 900-pound motorcycle that is unlike anything else Honda would build.

So what is the Rune then? A middle finger of an executive on the way out the door who greenlit an absurd project as a final task? Honda trying to cash in on the wild custom chopper craze of the early ’00s? Something even wilder?

No, the truth is stranger than fiction here. It’s a motorcycle made to be ridden and make a statement when it’s parked. It does that second part in spades. Whether or not that unspoken statement is in your language is personal and up to you. Regardless of how you feel about it, the Rune stands out as one of the times, if not the time, that a manufacturer threw out logic. I guess we can’t complain that Honda didn’t do exactly what we asked for, even if it didn’t age as well as other contemporary designs.



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]]> https://www.hagerty.com/media/motorcycles/the-motorcycle-that-honda-lost-millions-building/feed/ 8 https://www.hagerty.com/media/market-trends/the-usdm-ep3-honda-civic-si-is-still-a-great-buy/ https://www.hagerty.com/media/market-trends/the-usdm-ep3-honda-civic-si-is-still-a-great-buy/#comments Mon, 09 Jan 2023 15:00:37 GMT https://www.hagerty.com/media/?p=280864

What’s this? An early 2000s Japanese performance hatch that’s … affordable? In this market? Imagine that. Some lucky duck just paid $17,500 for a clean, one-owner 2002 Honda Civic Si with only 38,000 miles on the odo.

It’s tempting to connect this to the overall cooling collector car market. Our December market rating update showed slight decline for the third month in a row, the first time we’ve seen a streak like this since March 2020. But the (relative) bargain-basement price paid for this plucky little Civic isn’t a symptom of that. We don’t track the EP3-generation Civic (yet) in our valuation tool, but a quick flip through both Bring a Trailer and Cars and Bids’ completed sale archive shows this most recent blobular Si hatch hit exactly where we might expect it to, despite the explosive value growth of the preceding sixth-gen Si.



Compare this spotlight sale to that of a 2004 Civic Si sold on Cars and Bids back in August. That car wore both a rare Si Performance package and the same mileage as the most recent sale, and an active bidding gallery pushed the car just over the $20,000 mark. Meanwhile, the last EP3 sale on BaT was a 61,000-mile silver hatch that claimed $14,700.



What’s the deal? Based on the Hagerty Valuation tool’s $33,900 average for a previous-gen Civic Si in Condition #2 (Excellent), it might appear that enterprising enthusiasts are stealing these EP3 Civics for a five-figure discount. We turned to Hagerty Price Guide Editor Greg Ingold, our in-house Japanese collector car expert (and avowed Civic slappy) for the low-down on what makes this both a great buy and lesser-than when compared to the Si it replaced.

“EP3s are interesting because Honda/Acura fans often—and rightfully so, in my opinion—accuse Honda of nerfing the Si to pump up the [Acura] RSX Type S,” explained Ingold. “Both are K20-powered, but the [EP3] Si made 40 fewer HP than the Type S, and VTEC engagement was at a comically low point in the rev range for a Honda.”



That low VTEC engagement isn’t just marketing; power is unchanged over the B-series engine it replaced, but the EP3’s K-Series 2.0-liter upped the torque at the low-end for a more usable and “punchy” experience around town, where we do most of our driving. That said, critics are quick to point out the EP3’s questionable cost-cutting switch to MacPherson struts in the front suspension over the prior double-wishbone design, exacerbated by a 150-pound weight penalty compared to the old coupe.

Let’s not dogpile. Much of this weight gain came as a result of increased structural rigidity, with the EP3 Si packing a 95-percent boost in torsional rigidity and 22 percent spike in bending rigidity. Also, the hatch’s spunky console-mounted shifter won as many fans as it did detractors, but you can’t claim the car doesn’t have character.



Ingold agrees. “I think a hot hatch with low miles (when you consider it is a Honda) for under $20,000 is a bargain in this market,” he muses. “EP3s in the mileage range of Cars and Bids’ Civic seem to be selling in the $15,000–$20,000 range. There are cars with 10,000-20,000 more miles that have sold for more than this one, so I think it was a good buy.”

Is there room for the EP3 Civic Si grow? Naturally, but the underdog Japanese hatch remains a spot of rare affordability on the growing portfolio of investment-grade Japanese classics.

 

Via Hagerty Insider



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]]> https://www.hagerty.com/media/market-trends/the-usdm-ep3-honda-civic-si-is-still-a-great-buy/feed/ 2 https://www.hagerty.com/media/news/the-manifold/2023-01-05/ https://www.hagerty.com/media/news/the-manifold/2023-01-05/#comments Thu, 05 Jan 2023 16:06:56 GMT https://www.hagerty.com/media/?p=280547

Honda and Sony form new brand Afeela

Intake: The new Honda/Sony joint venture electric car company will be known as Afeela, because “At the heart of this mobility experience is the word feel,” says Sony Honda Mobility boss Yashuhide Mizuno. Announcing the new brand at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Mizuno also unveiled its first vehicle, which, going against the grain, is more sedan than SUV. Mizuno confirmed that the car would be available to order in 2025, with deliveries beginning in 2026, but few details were forthcoming. Honda is bringing its safety and driver assistance to the party, while Sony takes care of entertainment and interactive features, such as a media bar above the front bumper which displays information to people outside the vehicle. Sony is working with Epic Games to utilize its Unreal Engine graphics for the car’s displays, while 45 cameras and sensors will be deployed to feed the car’s safety systems. The promotional video above shows a kind of Lucid-lite vehicle with a spartan but spacious interior dominated by infotainment screens and a yoke-style steering wheel, suggesting it will have a steer-by-wire system. The exterior also reveals a prominent front-facing monitoring system, presumably LIDAR to drive the car’s autonomous capabilities.

Exhaust: This is a recipe for strong collaboration, even if the name is a little weak. A Playstation and powerful audio entertainment system for passengers and, hopefully, a dash of driving joy from Honda could well prove a winner in the EV market where new brands are popping up every day. — Nik Berg

Stellantis to build Archer Aviation’s electric air taxi



Intake: Stellantis has announced that it will build startup Archer Aviation’s electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) taxi, according to Reuters. The Midnight aircraft can carry four passengers and a pilot over a range of 100 miles and will be manufactured in Covington, Georgia from 2024 and beyond. Initial production targets are to produce 2300 aircraft annually, said Stellantis and Archer in a joint statement. Stellantis will also provide up to $150 million in equity capital for Archer to draw from at its discretion over the next two years, provided certain business milestones are reached. The automaker will also increase its stake in Archer through stock purchases in the open market, although Stellantis CEO Carlos Tavares said the company would only maintain a minority holding in Archer rather than going for a majority takeover.

Exhaust: As startups flock to the air taxi space, automakers in search of expanded mobility portfolios are proving to be attractive investment partners. Hyundai Motor Group has partnered with aerospace supplier Honeywell International to develop avionics systems for its own air taxi group, and in November, Airbus inked a deal with French carmaker Renault to develop new battery and hybrid tech that the two hope can be used for cars and planes. — Nathan Petroelje

Nearly 16 percent of new car buyers have a record $1000 monthly payment



Intake: Data from the website Edmunds.com says that more consumers than ever are ending up with monthly car payments in excess of $1000 a month, thanks to high prices and high interest rates. A whopping 15.7 percent of consumers who financed a new vehicle in the fourth quarter of 2022 committed to a monthly payment of $1,000 or more—the highest it’s ever been—compared to 10.5 percent in Q4 2021 and 6.7 percent in Q4 2020.” A startling 5.4 percent of consumers who financed a used vehicle in Q4 2022 committed to a $1,000+ monthly payment—also a record high—compared to 3.9 percent in Q4 2021 and 1.5 percent in Q4 2020.

Exhaust: We’re thinking that being a repo person might not be a bad career choice in the next couple of years. — Steven Cole Smith

GM back on top in 2022 sales race



Intake: It was a tough year for everybody, but data compiled by Automotive News and TrueCar show it wasn’t as bad for GM as others. Bolstered by a strong December, GM sales were up 2.5 percent for the year, while last year’s leader, Toyota North America, was down 9.6 percent. Taking a major hit due mostly to the lack of computer chips was Honda, down 32.9 percent. Stellantis was down 12,9 percent, Nissan 24.5 percent. Within GM, Buick took the biggest hit, down 42.4 percent, while Cadillac was up 13.9 percent, and Chevrolet up 5.7 percent. Ford, which just released its figures today, was down 2.2 percent.

Exhaust: 2022 will go down as one of the strangest years in car sales. Prices were up; incentives dropped by 71 percent because dealers were selling everything on the lot without them. TrueCar says the average transaction price for Q4 was $45,239, compared to $38,397 one year ago. — SCS

Barrett-Jackson to auction off first 2024 Ford Mustang GT



Intake: The first 2024 Ford Mustang GT, VIN number 001, will be auctioned off for a diabetes charity at Barrett-Jackson in Scottsdale later this month. The car will be available at no reserve. It’ll be lot number 3004, and it should go under the gavel at about 7:30 p.m. local time on Saturday, January 28.

Exhaust: The entire sale price of this vehicle will benefit the charity JDRF, the leading global organization funding type 1 diabetes (T1D) research. Nice way to get a collectible and help out a good cause. — SCS

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]]> https://www.hagerty.com/media/news/the-manifold/2023-01-05/feed/ 10 https://www.hagerty.com/media/automotive-history/in-the-moment-flute-around-and-find-out/ https://www.hagerty.com/media/automotive-history/in-the-moment-flute-around-and-find-out/#comments Thu, 01 Dec 2022 23:00:25 GMT https://www.hagerty.com/media/?p=273472

Welcome to a new weekly feature we’re calling In the Moment!

This all started in Slack, the messaging software we use for staff communication. Several weeks ago, Hagerty’s editor-at-large, Sam Smith, began kicking off our mornings by plopping a random archive photo into our chat room. 

In addition to being a lifelong student of automotive history, Smith drinks a lot of coffee. Each photo he dropped into the conversation was accompanied by a bit of caffeine-fueled explanation. 

We liked these drops a lot, so we’re sharing one here each Thursday. Enjoy, and let us know what you think in the comments! —Ed.

**

There are many stories about Soichiro Honda. This one just happens to end in a party.

And $50,000 in booze.

And a year he spent getting his friends drunk and playing the flute. 

The guy always seemed so cheery in pictures. Maybe it was all the . . . fluting?



Meet Mr. Honda, Soichiro, the man who built the company. The photo above was taken in 1976, at a Tokyo press conference. The man on the left is Edson Arantes do Nascimento, a.k.a. Pelé, the soccer legend. The man sitting behind Pelé founded, to quote Wikipedia, “a Japanese public multinational conglomerate manufacturer of automobiles, motorcycles, and power equipment.”

Still, Honda was so much more than an industrialist. Just as Pelé was so much more than a guy who kicked a ball. 



In the Moment traditionally focuses on a single photograph. We pull apart the story behind the image, zooming in literally and figuratively. The photo at the top of this page was taken in 1966. It shows a Honda Formula 1 car in the pits at Monza. The shutter snapped open on the first weekend in September, during the Italian Grand Prix. 

I found this picture several years ago, almost by accident, while poking through the Getty Images archive. I saved it for a few reasons. For one thing, it shows Richie Ginther. Ginther was an undersung talent, a one-time mechanic from California who ended up driving Formula 1 cars for Ferrari and winning in F1 for Honda.

Your narrator is a sucker for a good bootstrap underdog.



More important, however, this photograph is Kodachrome. To paraphrase Star Trek, I am and shall always be a sucker for good Kodachrome.

In photography, pigment is never the whole point. Just as black-and-white does not automatically make an image art, color does not guarantee additional emotion or meaning. Here, though, it brings something to the table. 



Look at the warmth! That light, the Italian sun in fall! Imagine what these people were thinking: Ginther, in goggles and an open-face helmet, a steely-eyed missile man. Those men at the wall, in those striped suits, focused.

The car is a Honda RA273. That white bundle of snakes behind him is the exhaust for a 3.0-liter V-12. When this photo was taken, that engine design was only a few seasons old, the company’s first powerplant with more than four cylinders. The engineering inside it was little more than a shot in the dark.



Nineteen sixty-six was Honda’s third season in F1. The marque’s V-12 had debuted in 1965, at 1.5 liters. The year before, 1964, the team had been embarrassingly down on power. The twelve was born of men determined to not fall short again. In 1965, with 230 hp, that 1.5 gave Honda more power than any other team on the grid.

Monza is a fast place; modern Formula 1 cars regularly average more than 160 mph over a lap. In ’66, the track was the same basic length but even faster, an undiluted beast. Its 3.5 miles of asphalt held just five corners. (There are currently 11, including three chicanes.) During the ’66 Italian GP, in a 360-horse Ferrari with treaded tires and no aerodynamic aids whatsoever, Englishman Mike Parkes qualified on pole with a 91-second lap. He averaged more than 140 mph. 

At Monza in ’66, Ginther finished seventh. Still, the 273 was flawed. Overbuilt out of caution, to withstand the 3.0-liter’s power, it was more than 500 pounds over that year’s rule-mandated minimum weight. Corners were a problem.



Those Japanese mechanics! The dirt! The man at left wears a hint of a smile.

Forgive the digression, but I keep coming back to the power of color. The photograph below was taken in the same place as that Kodachrome shot, on the same weekend. It depicts the same car, the same mechanics—even Ginther, just above the right rear tire.



Same basic lighting, nice composition. A good exposure. But nowhere as powerful, right?

Again, color makes a difference. But only when it . . . makes a difference.



In the mid-Sixties, Formula 1 was not yet an international megasport. It was more like a globetrotting form of well-funded club racing, with some cars built in renowned factories and others from independent shops the size of your house. The many-headed hydras of sponsor money and TV coverage had yet to change everything.

Crucially, Japanese carmakers were not yet a global force in new cars; their efforts sold well at home but were too small and fragile to really succeed overseas. Motorsport was another problem entirely, even without the cultural stigma. Much of midcentury road racing was populated by erudite upper-crusters who thought certain ethnicities didn’t “belong” in certain circles.



The red! The cursive Racing Team on the pockets! The way shadows fold across those stripes! F1 teams did not dress like this.

Four-wheeled grand-prix racing was then 60 years old, but no other Japanese manufacturer had ever stepped to the table. In retrospect, that step could only have come from one firm.

Soichiro Honda founded the Honda Motor Company Limited in 1948, at the age of 42. The brand found international fame building motorcycles. In 1954, Honda the man made a public announcement: His company would soon race its motorcycles at the Isle of Man.

This island, off the western coast of England, is perhaps the most storied location in all of motorcycling. Its annual Tourist Trophy race was first run in 1907 and still runs today. The TT is known for a lot of things—not least a seemingly insatiable appetite for blood—but it is primarily recognized for asking much of rider and machine. Each lap is more than 37 miles, on public roads closed for the purpose. In the 1950s, British and Italian bikemakers had a lock on handling and specific output—power produced by a given displacement—and so their bikes dominated.



Honda wanted to go to the TT because he had always wanted to go. He had dreamed since childhood of racing on a global stage. He would later tell interviewers that he took his bikes to the island because he knew race wins would break open the lucrative American and European markets. Those wins, he said, would help make his company “respectable.”

Fun word, respectable. I like the Google definition: Regarded by society to be good, proper, or correct.

As if that regard were actually the same as being those things.

At Honda, the TT program was given to a man named Kiyoshi Kawashima. He had little racing experience. “Anyone who was a respectable engineer,” Kawashima once said, “wouldn’t have considered getting into anything so reckless as competing in the Isle of Man TT race. As for us, from the Old Man on down, none of us were respectable.”



I laughed when I read that.

Honda entered its first IoM TT in 1959. The event marked the firm’s first world-championship race. The bikes weren’t fast enough. One rider crashed. Kawashima went back to the drawing board. For the next year, 1960, he and his men committed to a full grand-prix season. 

The advancement here is remarkable. A year later, in ’61, Honda won two motorcycle world championships. By 1967, the company’s two-wheeled comp department had notched 138 G.P. wins and more than 34 world titles. Its production bikes were selling well in America. The marque was two years away from releasing the 1969 CB750, a roadgoing motorcycle that would essentially birth the term “superbike” and help kill the British motorcycle industry’s market dominance deader than hell.

The race cars, though—they were still a problem. 



Naturally, Honda was in Formula 1 because Mr. Honda wanted to go there. Ramp-up was nonexistent. There was no study of lower classes, no steeping in a ladder system of slower race series. Soichiro simply aimed for the biggest game in town. That 3.0-liter V-12 in Ginther’s car represented only the second time Honda engineers had designed an engine larger than 800 cc. (The first was the company’s 1.5-liter F1 V-12 of ’64 and ’65.)

In 2022, everyone knows the Accord and the Civic. Some people know that Ayrton Senna won a few F1 titles in a Honda-McLaren. That Monza shot was early days. It would take years for Honda to become a major player in the sport. Or in carmaking, period—the brand wouldn’t officially start selling new cars in America until 1970.



But What About That Fifty Grand of Booze?

So: We have now a good picture of the man’s motorsport accomplishments. But who, exactly, was he?

Soichiro Honda was born in 1906, in the city of Hamamatsu, about 150 miles southwest of Tokyo. Countless books say things like, “he was fascinated with engines,” or “he believed in the power of dreams.” Nice ideas that tell you nothing about the guy himself.

What does tell you something: In 1914, while in second grade, Honda saw an airplane for the first time. He responded to the sight by going home and making a pair of flying goggles from cardboard. Then he cut a propeller from bamboo and stuck it on the front of his bicycle. The kid then proceeded to “fly” that bike around his town for weeks, goggles and all, terrorizing locals.

As a young adult, Honda moved to Tokyo and became a mechanic. In the 1920s, he built a race car powered by an 8.0-liter aircraft V-8. In the 1930s, knowing little about metallurgy, he founded a company to manufacture piston rings. Quality-control problems appeared early on; Honda worked long hours trying to solve them, virtually living at the factory. He fell into despair, grew his hair long from indifference, became something like a hermit. He would later describe this period as the most difficult time in his life.



Honda had long despised schooling and found formal education frivolous. At a low point with the ring problem, he caved, cold-calling a technical school in his hometown, to ask for help. He befriended a professor at that school and became a student again, attending lectures on engineering.

Nine months after those first piston-ring troubles, Honda solved the problem. The company grew. World War II began. In 1941, Honda’s firm was placed under government control, and Toyota acquired a 40-percent stake.



Near the end of the war, Honda’s factory was bombed heavily. Shortly after, what remained was all but destroyed in an earthquake. In 1945, Japan surrendered. The country was blanketed in despair. Honda’s hard work was literally in ruins, but he made a conscious choice to stay positive. He sold his remaining 60-percent stake in the company to Toyota. What he got in return wasn’t much—around $2.4 million in modern dollars.

As Tetsuo Sakiya writes in his excellent Honda Motor: The Men, the Management, the Machines: 

[Then, Honda] announced he was going to spend a leisurely year . . . [he] thought the Japanese were too agrarian-minded and knew of little else but hard work. 

Perhaps to demonstrate a more exuberant approach to life, he spent [more than $50,000 in 2022 dollars] on a large drum of medical alcohol. The drum was installed in his house, where he made his own whisky, and he spent the next year partying with friends and playing the shakuhachi (a Japanese wind instrument). 

In 1946, Honda started over. He founded a technical research institute. Three years later, he dismantled that institute and used the proceeds to start a motorized-bicycle company. He didn’t know much about motorized bicycles.

A short while later, he pivoted to motorcycles. He didn’t know much about those, either.



Let’s pull all this down to basics:

1. Man faces poor luck but cashes out alright

2. Knowing everyone is suffering, man uses his good fortune to buy his friends an industrial quantity of free booze (a.k.a. flute around and find out)

3. Man decides to keep learning. He builds an ambitious thing, which evolves into another ambitious thing, which then evolves into another ambitious thing

5. Prosperity results, so he thinks, Why stop now?

6. Jump-cut to: The TT win, the CB750, the first Honda Civic, wild success in America, McLaren-Honda, VTEC, the Acura NSX, the list goes on.

 

***

 

I am reminded of a quote from the British writer C.S. Lewis. And of an old friend. When I was 25, I took a magazine staff job under an editor named Jean Jennings. It was my first time working at a desk. I was nervous, didn’t know how to behave.

After a few weeks on the clock, Jean pulled me aside. Stop thinking so much about “the rules” of being in an office, she said; just be yourself. That’s all anyone remembers anyway.



Now the Lewis:

“Critics who treat ‘adult’ as a term of approval . . . cannot be adult themselves. To be concerned about being grown up, to admire the grown-up because it is grown-up, to blush at the suspicion of being childish; these things are the marks of childhood and adolescence . . . 

Young things ought to want to grow. But to carry on into middle life . . . this concern about being adult, is a mark of really arrested development. When I was ten, I read fairy tales in secret and would have been ashamed if I had been found doing so. Now that I am 50, I read them openly. 

When I became a man, I put away childish things, including the fear of childishness and the desire to be very grown up.”  —C.S. Lewis 



Remember Kawashima, again: None of us were respectable. 

People laughed when Honda went to the Isle of Man, laughed when he entered F1 and the American market. As if there was some reason a Japanese company shouldn’t be in those places.

Take your shot. Try the big ask. If everything goes to hell, buy drinks for your friends. Illegitimi non carborundum. 

We think we know what will happen if we don’t stick to the rules. That is not always the same as actually knowing.

Have a good day, guys!

 

—Sam

The post In the Moment: Flute around and find out appeared first on Hagerty Media.

]]> https://www.hagerty.com/media/automotive-history/in-the-moment-flute-around-and-find-out/feed/ 30 https://www.hagerty.com/media/new-car-reviews/2023-honda-civic-type-r-review-just-keeps-getting-better/ https://www.hagerty.com/media/new-car-reviews/2023-honda-civic-type-r-review-just-keeps-getting-better/#comments Tue, 15 Nov 2022 21:00:25 GMT https://www.hagerty.com/media/?p=269934

It’s a car-review cliché whenever a new hot hatch hits the market to say that it’s finally “grown up” or “matured.” You may be tempted to believe that about the 2023 Honda Civic Type R. After all, the last generation’s boy-racer outfit is gone in favor of a more subdued look. But make no mistake—this new Type R is cut from the very same cloth as its predecessor. Honda has simply enjoyed the benefits of a much-improved Civic platform, smoothed over the outgoing car’s few kinks, and dialed in its behavior and response. After driving the new Type R on mountain roads outside Sonoma, California, as well as on the track at Sonoma Raceway, it’s hard to deny that Honda has improved this already great machine in every meaningful manner.

The arrival of any new Type R Honda is a momentous occasion, but the outgoing iteration hit the scene with quite a lot more fanfare. Why? Because that model, launched in 2016, was the first Civic Type R ever sold on U.S. shores. Prior to that, Americans’ only exposure to this flavor of high-performance Honda was the high-revving, race-bred, stripped-out Acura Integra Type R of the late 1990s. People went bananas when the Civic Type R—offered in Japan and Europe, but long accessible to U.S. fans only in video games like Gran Turismo—was in the showroom at their local Honda dealership.

That Type R, based on the tenth-generation Civic hatchback, lived up to the hype. When new, it set the record for the fastest front-wheel-drive car around Germany’s Nürburgring race track. A unique “dual-axis” front suspension design all but eliminated torque steer. Yet despite the Type R’s prodigious capabilities, the car retained its inherent Civic-ness—comfortable, practical, and everyday-drivable. Sure, it looked like a 12-year-old designed it in the back of his social studies notebook, but the adults willing to pay $40,000 for a compact Honda arguably wanted to experience the dream car of their youth.



More sedate styling is a common personality trait across Honda’s 2023 lineup, and the result in the Type R is a car that looks much more of one piece and not tacked-on with needless vents and fender flares. Nevertheless, only the front doors and roof are shared with the ordinary Civic hatchback. The effect in person is not so dramatic, but next to a regular Civic, the Type R has more of a magnetic presence. The new spoiler, if there is any design misstep, doesn’t quite visually mesh with the rest of the vehicle, but it no longer blocks the driver’s view out of the rear glass.



On paper, the engine doesn’t seem like a dramatic upgrade in performance. Whereas the outgoing Civic Type R, launched for the 2017 model year, served up 306 hp and 295 lb-ft of torque from its 2.0-liter turbo-four, the new car boasts 315 hp and 310 lb-ft from an evolution of the same K20C engine. The increased output is in part thanks to a new turbocharger design, with 10 percent better intake airflow, and a redesigned exhaust with 13 percent better flow. The biggest update, however, is to the cooling system. Owners of the outgoing Civic Type R reported heat-soak issues under extreme track driving conditions that prompted Honda to increase the grille opening by 13 percent and update the radiator core for the car’s mid-cycle refresh. The 2023 car keeps things chilly with a 48 percent larger grille opening, bigger radiator, more robust fan, and longer intercooler core.

You feel the difference in engine performance on the road. Throttle response in the low end is snappier than before, thanks largely to an 18 percent lighter flywheel, and there’s considerable punch when boost and peak torque hit at 2600 rpm. Our drive took place on a wet and cold morning, following a considerable storm the night before, which meant plenty of large rocks and patches of gravel lurking around corners. Even going uphill and regularly slowing to avoid hazards, we could leave the transmission in third gear and rely on low-end torque to keep momentum. The Type R didn’t need more grunt, but the 15 extra lb-ft is most welcome. The car’s personality transitions from basic commuter to slick canyon carver with seamless confidence.



What the last Type R really demanded was a better engine note, which Honda addressed with the redesigned exhaust and active valve system. The four-cylinder sounds noticeably more eager and enthusiastic under acceleration, although Honda engineers did admit that engine noise is computer-synthesized and pumped in through the speakers. The Type R lacks the active noise cancellation feature present in other Civics, so it’s true that you can better hear the exterior exhaust note from inside the car. More pleasant than before? Sure, but the bar was pretty low. Nobody will buy a Type R because it sounds great.

This chassis is the Type R’s golden ticket. Thanks to a number of refinements, along with the new eleventh-gen Civic architecture, Honda managed to preserve the hot hatch’s athleticism and reflexes while taming some of its twitchiness during hard driving. Wheelbase grows 1.4 inches, while the track width increases 1 inch up front and 0.75 inches in the rear. Rather than stick with 20-inch wheels, Honda downsized to 19s and opted for a 0.5-inch wider footprint. Reduced weight was a major reason for the decision, but the smaller rims also lower the car’s center of gravity and ride height. Big impacts over potholes no longer make you wince. The 20-mm wider tires—a bespoke 265/30 R19 Michelin Pilot Sport 4S—offer more grip than the Continentals did. (A spokesperson from Honda Japan indicated that customers demanded Michelin tires because of the brand’s “reputation for technical prowess.”)



Specs: 2023 Honda Civic Type R

• Price: $43,990 (including destination)
• Powertrain: Inline four-cylinder with turbo, 16-valve DOHC VTEC; six-speed manual
• Horsepower: 315 hp @ 6500 rpm
• Torque: 310 lb-ft @ 2600–4000 rpm
• Layout: Front-wheel drive, four-passenger, four-door touring hatchback
• Weight: 3188 pounds
• EPA-rated fuel economy: 22/28/24 (city/hwy/combined)
• 0–60 mph: TBA
• Top speed: TBA



Track-focused Michelin Cup 2 tires are available for order at dealers, as well. Honda wanted to show off the new rubber on the California drive, but with temperatures hovering between 40 and 50 degrees, it was deemed a safety hazard. Still, we learned more about the chassis on Sonoma Speedway than on the road route.

Our first couple of sessions in the morning were mired in significant wet and cold, conditions which proved rather dicey on this highly technical circuit and its considerable elevation and camber changes. Honda asked us to go out initially in Comfort mode, the softest drive setting behind Sport and R+. (There is also a new Individual mode that allows for specific adjustments to steering, engine response, auto rev-matching behavior, and adaptive dampers settings.) Traction and stability control saved our bacon in a handful of instances, and only later in the day, when temperatures rose and the track dried out, did we switch into R+, which dials back the threshold of intervention.

This is about as good as a modern front-wheel-drive car gets. You sit low, with plenty of glass around to give a sense of clear visibility. Turn-in is lively, and the steering communicates plenty about what the front tires are doing. The helical mechanical limited-slip diff carries over from the last generation, allowing for fairly generous throttle input during corner exit without pushing the front end wide. There’s almost nothing in the way of body roll, and slight adjustments to throttle and steering in the mid-corner help manage the rear’s willingness to subtly rotate. Once you adjust to the surprisingly sensitive throttle, brake, and wheel, the car is more forgiving than it initially seems.



Sonoma isn’t particularly hard on brakes, but we never had a problem and enjoyed the firm pedal feel. Shifting is a lovely affair, as well, with a nicely weighted gear knob and clearly spaced gates. Honda’s chief engineer says that even better shift feel was a priority, prompting his team to cast the shifter body from aluminum rather than from plastic, as in the standard Civic. And, boy, were we grateful for the quick-acting auto rev-match; on one straightaway we missed a 3-4 shift and mistakenly entered second. The engine automatically screamed to high heaven, scaring us enough to keep the clutch pinned and avoid grenading the engine. Phew.

We got about 20 laps around Sonoma in total, all in a lead-follow setup in the wake of a pro driver. We’ll hold off on any definitive statements about the car’s capability until we can turn loose a bit more freely, but our initial impression was positive. This car is agile, responsive, fun to drive fast, and reasonably forgiving of mistakes. We can’t ask for much more without expecting to significantly impact daily drivability, which is a hot-hatch non-negotiable.

Perhaps the most meaningful update to the ordinary Civic for this generation is the interior, and the Type R experience certainly benefits from those changes. The instrument cluster is now all-digital but simple to read and understand regardless of what display mode is on the screen. The F1-style shift lights mounted at eye level make every rev to redline feel special. Whereas the outgoing Type R steering had a suede microfiber wrap with red inserts, the new helm is leather-wrapped. It feels great in the hands and is sized appropriately, neither dainty nor cartoonishly fat.



Aside from the all-red bucket seats, aluminum trim around the shifter, and a handful of other small touches (the serialized plate is pretty cool), this isn’t far off from what you get in the Sport Touring trim. Consider that a compliment, and even with the Type R’s heady $43,990 price tag, you won’t feel shortchanged. The Golf R uses better interior materials but suffers from a terrible user interface, and the cheaper Elantra N is more feature-rich. Neither come even close to the Civic’s sheer clarity and ease of use. The back row is also genuinely huge, and with the seats folded there is surely enough room for a full set of wheels and tires. If we have any complaint, it’s that the front seats should really be heated in a car at this price point. At the same time, they’re immensely supportive and all-day comfortable. The thigh pad is angled slightly upward for additional support, and it’s even split into two cushions accommodate body motions during high-g driving.

At the risk of gushing, there’s little to nitpick about this latest Type R, leaving aside the unavoidable dealer markups. Honda improved essentially all of the previous car’s precious few shortcomings, increasing the ride comfort, upping the engine output, refining the cooling system, and making the interior a lot more user-friendly. Good thing, too. Toyota’s rally-bred, turbo three-pot GR Corolla is a highly compelling hot hatch alternative. For its part, Honda is happy to play in the sandbox with some company. “We welcome the competition!” American Honda president & CEO Noriya Kaihara told us. “It encourages us and reminds us to continue to build special cars like the Type R.”

A little friendly rivalry? We like it. If anything, it’ll make sure the rowdy-as-ever Type R doesn’t grow up too fast.

2023 Honda Civic Type R

Price: $43,990 (including destination)

Highs: Precise shifter, supportive seats, responsive brakes. Immense performance envelope without sacrificing approachability.

Lows: High price, and good luck finding it at sticker. Competitors have heated seats.

Takeaway: A home run of a hot hatch. The Type R badge carries a lot of weight, and this king of Civics should be proud to carry the mantle.



The post 2023 Honda Civic Type R Review: Just keeps getting better appeared first on Hagerty Media.

]]> https://www.hagerty.com/media/new-car-reviews/2023-honda-civic-type-r-review-just-keeps-getting-better/feed/ 13 https://www.hagerty.com/media/news/the-manifold/2022-11-10/ https://www.hagerty.com/media/news/the-manifold/2022-11-10/#comments Thu, 10 Nov 2022 16:00:07 GMT https://www.hagerty.com/media/?p=268492



2023 Honda Accord looks sleek, goes heavy on hybrid

Intake: Honda has done a complete redesign of the Accord for 2023, and it looks and sounds impressive. “The all-new 11th-generation Accord is essential to our lineup as a critical driver of brand loyalty, and with hybrid models representing 50 percent of sales, a key part of Honda’s electrification strategy,” said Mamadou Diallo, vice president of auto sales for Honda. That electrification strategy is the hybrid Accord, which has a 2.0-liter gas engine and two side-by-side electric motors. Combined, it’s rated at 204 horsepower. The base engine is a turbocharged 1.5-liter four-cylinder, rated at 192 horsepower. The standard transmission is a CVT; no manual is offered. The car is “longer and sleeker,” Honda says, than the 2022 model. The interior is new, and the suspension has been upgraded. The Accord will be available in six trim levels, starting with the turbocharged LX and EX and topped by the hybrid-powered Sport, EX-L, Sport-L and Touring.

Exhaust: Possibly the best-looking Accord yet, the 2023 model has a distinctive, non-Honda look front and rear. The styling and the thrifty powertrains should keep the Accord on the best-selling car list, where it has been for the last five decades. — Steven Cole Smith



Audi’s biggest, nicest SUV finally adopts the family name



Intake: Audi has announced a new name for its flagship electric SUV. Formerly known as the e-tron, the vehicle will now be called the Q8 e-tron to signify that it’s the top of Audi’s electric-only lineup. The move places it in line with the regular Q8, the most expensive SUV you can buy from Audi that still runs on dino juice. The refreshed Q8 e-tron boasts a redesigned rear electric motor and optimized aerodynamics that should help boost range for both the regular SUV and the sportback models. In the U.S., the lowest trim of Audis big EV is the Q8 e-tron 55, which boasts an all-wheel-drive setup via two electro motors. It’s good for 402 hp and 490 lb-ft of torque in Sport mode. There will be a spicier version called the SQ8 e-tron, which packs three electric motors—a 166-hp unit up front and dual 131-hp motors out back—that will produce 496 hp and a whipping 718 lb-ft of torque. Both trims draw power from a 106-kWh battery pack. Audi is aiming for certain models of the Q8 e-tron to clear 300 miles of EPA-estimated range—a major step up from early renditions of this machine. The new Q8 e-tron will arrive in the U.S. next April, with pricing to be announced closer to the launch date.

Exhaust: Audi has had a tough time packaging and communicating its EV products to buyers. The e-tron started as a single SUV, but then you had the e-tron GT, a gorgeous swooping sedan that shared its underpinnings with the Porsche Taycan but was otherwise unrelated to the SUV save for the four-ring badge. Perhaps Audi has decided that reverting to a more conventional nomenclature (see Volvo, who nailed this on the first try with rival model EX90) is the best way to un-muddy the waters. Will it be enough? — Nathan Petroelje

Toyota teases next hybrid hatchback



Intake: Toyota teased an upcoming hybrid hatchback on social media with a minimalist outline of its profile and a date, November 16, which coincides with the Los Angeles Auto Show. Toyota didn’t even mention the word “Prius” but we all know that it’s the fifth-generation hybrid hatchback that it’s going to show off.

Exhaust: Toyota has promised a solid-state battery before 2025, and the Prius uses a small battery, so that would be the logical first commercial application of such technology. The current Prius Eco achieves its 58 mpg city, 53 mpg highway, and 56 mpg combined EPA rating thanks to an Atkinson-cycle 1.8-liter four-cylinder and a 0.75 kWh battery. No matter what kind of battery is used, we expect Toyota to continue its trend of increasing efficiency with each generation. — Brandan Gillogly

Getting the full tax credit for your new EV might be harder than you think



Intake: If you are thinking of buying an electric vehicle or a hybrid and automatically assume you are due a $7500 tax credit, you should think again. Or, more constructively, you should read this story on Elektrek.co titled, “Here’s every electric vehicle that qualifies for the current and upcoming U.S. federal tax credit.” The idea in theory is quite simple, the story says: “All electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles that were purchased new in or after 2010 may be eligible for a federal income tax credit of up to $7,500,” according to the U.S. Department of Energy. But it isn’t that simple. “You cannot simply go out and buy an electric vehicle and expect Uncle Sam to cut $7500 off your taxes in April. In reality, the amount you qualify for is based on both your income tax as well as the size of the electric battery in the vehicle you own.” The new Inflation Reduction Act means “there are a lot more parameters to be mindful of, like the requirement that the EV must be assembled in North America.”

Exhaust: And there’s another caveat: “For example, if you purchased a Ford F-150 Lightning and owed say, $3,500 in income tax this year, then that is the federal tax credit you would receive. If you owed $10,000 in federal income tax, then you would qualify for the full $7,500 credit.” Note the “three little words” that the government slips in front of the $7,500 credit – “may” and “up to.” – SCS

Suzuki announces new 776cc DOHC twin engine for 2023 GSX-8S and V-STROM 800DE



Intake: With increased emissions requirements and riders demanding ever more levels efficiency and technology, packaging has become more important than ever for motorcycle manufacturers. Hence why Suzuki announced this week that a new parallel twin has been born and will be found in two 2023 models. The 776cc engine sports a 270-degree crankshaft and twin balance shafts for smooth running and great traction. Of course it features throttle by wire and other standard features of modern engines, but interestingly, one of the big leaps forward for this compared to the V-twin of previous Suzuki engines is the ability to package a more efficient and power-boosting airbox with the newfound space behind the engine.

Exhaust: Suzuki put the lines far enough apart to read between with the inclusion of “permits design flexibility so Suzuki’s designers can create ideal chassis geometry for a variety of motorcycle types” in the press release. As an owner and lover of the SV650, this engine is likely a hint that the V-twin sporty standard is on the way out. I won’t mourn the loss of one of the worst kept secrets in the motorcycle world just yet, but I admit I am preparing for the eventuality. — Kyle Smith

Mercedes-AMG ONE says take that, Porsche



Intake: The Formula 1-derived Mercedes-AMG ONE hypercar just stomped the Nürburgring lap record for a road-legal production car by more than eight seconds. (Sadly, the car will not be road-legal in the U.S.) The 6:35.183 time for the full 12.94-mile lap bests the previous record, set by a Porsche 911 GT2 RS with a special performance package developed by Manthey Racing, which set a 6:43.300 on the same layout. Driver Maro Engel achieved the blistering lap on the AMG team’s final attempt of the day, which began just 30 seconds before the track was set to go cold. He had already broken the lap earlier that day but felt there was more in the car. Most impressive: the track was still wet in areas, which made for tricky conditions. The AMG ONE is powered by a 1.6-liter turbocharged V-6 coupled with an extremely advanced hybrid system that uses four electric motors for a combined system output of 1063 hp. Just 275 units will be built, and all have been spoken for at roughly $2.7M a piece.

Exhaust: Engel and the team of engineers accompanying him had to figure out the best times and locations to deploy the hybrid energy, where to recoup that energy, and where to let loose the drag reduction system (DRS) that boosts straight line speed. In some places, that meant abstaining from the maximum possible speed the interest of energy management. Looks like they’ve made the right calls. The on-board video below is truly mind-bending. — NP

 

The post Honda’s sleek new Accord, Toyota’s next Prius, Suzuki’s new engine appeared first on Hagerty Media.

]]> https://www.hagerty.com/media/news/the-manifold/2022-11-10/feed/ 8 https://www.hagerty.com/media/news/the-manifold/2022-11-08/ https://www.hagerty.com/media/news/the-manifold/2022-11-08/#comments Tue, 08 Nov 2022 16:00:12 GMT https://www.hagerty.com/media/?p=267795

Honda’s biggest SUV grows up, gets outdoorsy

Intake: With the 2023 Pilot, Honda has fulfilled its promise to unveil four new SUVs this year (if you count the CR-V Hybrid as a distinct model). The Pilot completes the incrementally bigger progression, which began with the pint-sized HR-V, which is now Civic-based. Like the updated HR-V and CR-V, the P-LT—sorry—wears a new suit. The C-pillar is the most obvious differentiator; it’s now body-colored rather than blacked out. Inside, there are even more pixels, centered around a landscape-oriented touchscreen (7- or 9-inches, depending on trim) perched on a dash showcasing clean, horizontal lines. Honda offers five, down from six, flavors of Pilot, ditching the Special- and Black-edition models and rebadging the cheapest one as Sport, rather than LX. At the middle of the lineup now sits the Trailsport model, which aspires to outdoorsiness more than any Pilot before it. With suspension lifted one inch and tuned for off-pavement driving, this model gains steel skid plates, all-terrain tires, and Sand and Trail modes. Hill Descent control is now standard on every Pilot. You can go even further with a Honda Performance Development (HPD) package, which adds bronze wheels, fender flares, and snazzy decals. Despite its pretentious to trail-bombing, expect the fourth-gen Pilot to be even comfier on road: Honda extended the wheelbase (by 2.8 inches) and moved both front and rear wheels further apart, side to side: 1.1 inches in front, 1.4 in the rear. Bigger brakes, a bit more horsepower from its V-6, and wide-ranging improvements to reduce noise, vibration, and harshness, complement the growth spurt.

Exhaust: It’s a much more assertive, handsome look for Honda’s biggest SUV, and a fashionable dose of ruggedness, but those who truly want the most practical hauler of kids and the odd sheet of plywood will stick with the Odyssey. Sales suggest Honda’s made the right call, however: The Pilot surpassed the minivan in sales in 2017 when the veteran Odyssey first dipped below 100,000. It’s been slipping ever since. –Grace Houghton





Electric Moke Californian priced at $41,900



Intake: 45 years since the original Mini Moke Californian went on sale the British beach car is back in the U.S.A. Now powered by batteries the 44-horsepower eccentric EV has a top speed of 50 mph, making it highway-legal. Range is just 80 miles, however, so any adventures will have to be restricted to mini breaks. Charging takes four hours on a Type 1 charger, and the Moke Californian will be sold under the 2015 Low Volume Motor Vehicle Manufacturers Act, so just 325 will be imported each year. Build slots can be reserved now for a $990 deposit.

Exhaust: It’s a little over half the price of the classic Mini Recharged, but it’s also a little over half the car so we can’t imagine too many Californians braving the Pacific Coast Highway in the Moke. But for beach town hipsters looking for a guilt-free way to zip between the smoothie bar, yoga studio and surf spot, the Moke might be just the ticket. –Nik Berg

Aston Martin and Brough Superior announce another two-wheeled track tool



Intake: Following the sell-out of its AMB 001 co-lab Aston Martin and Brough Superior have once again teamed up for a run of circuit-only superbikes. The AMB 001 Pro has 25 percent more power than its predecessor at 225 horsepower, thanks to its 997cc twin-cylinder motor which has been milled from AL 5000 solid billet aluminum. This material provides extra stiffness for the structural engine, while a new cylinder design with wet liners improves cooling. Further tweaks have been made to the Aston Martin-designed bodywork to improve aerodynamics. “It’s a beautifully simple formula,” says Aston’s design boss Marek Reivhman. “Form plus technology equals performance. When you push something to the very edge of capacity, and do it seamlessly, the resulting experience can have you breathless. There is no separation between the advanced materials, design and technical capabilities of the bike. We’ve achieved this fluidity again with Brough Superior for those who desire a track superbike like none other. The rider is part of this moving sculpture and will literally feel as though they are part of the track when laying atop the AMB 001 Pro”. Only 88 AMB 001 Pros are to built, and all will be to the same specification with a Verdant Jade and carbon colorway inspired by Aston’s racing models.

Exhaust: The Aston Martin brand is certainly growing with the famous winged logo appearing on whiskey labels, apartment complexes, powerboats, personal submarines, and now bikes. It’s not, however, appearing on as many cars as it would like, with sales dropping in the first half of 2022 and China’s Geely stepping in to snap up shares and shore up its future. –NB

Niki Lauda’s Ferrari for sale



Intake: Says the post by Austrian auction house Dorotheum: “What are the chances of a young fellow at the tender age of 24 getting a brand-new Ferrari as a company car from his employer? Really, really poor, one would think, unless your employer’s name is Enzo Ferrari and you’re Niki Lauda, and you’ve just signed a contract as a Formula 1 driver with ‘il Commendatore’.” The car Lauda received, a 1973 Ferrari 365 GT4 2+2, chassis number 17517 and engine number 00817, was silver when he got it, and was subsequently repainted dark red by a subsequent owner, the son of a Ferrari importer.

Exhaust: The car goes up for online auction in 10 days. Starting price, but certainly not the sales price, is 30,000 euros, or about $30,700. –Steven Cole Smith

Tesla recalls 40,000 cars for power steering issue



Intake: Tesla is recalling just over 40,000 2017-2021 Model S and Model X vehicles due to the possibility of losing power assist to the steering. The company has released an over-the-air software update to recalibrate the system after it began rolling out an update last month to detect unexpected steering assist torque, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Tesla said it is unaware of any injuries or deaths related to the problem.

Exhaust: It’s handy that some recalls can be handled over the air. So far in 2022, Tesla has issued 17 recalls potentially affecting 3,418,596 U.S. vehicles, according to NHTSA. –SCS

Kindred Motorworks teams with CORE for electric power



Intake: Kindred Motorworks, the San Francisco Bay-area producer of modernized vintage vehicles, announced that it has partnered with Idaho-based KORE Power, a developer of battery cell technology, to supply battery modules for the electrified models in the Kindred lineup. The first two vehicles resulting from this partnership are the Kindred VW Bus and the Kindred 3100 pickup truck, both of which will be offered exclusively as EVs. Said Rob Howard, Kindred Motorworks’ founder and CEO: “This agreement locks in our battery supply for the next several years of vehicle production and we hope to further expand this relationship as we grow.” Kindred will use KORE Power’s VDA 355 format battery modules, which are compact, standardized modules already in wide use by various OEMS. Selecting the VDA modules gives Kindred Motorworks the flexibility to build custom battery enclosures that complement the architecture and design of different classic cars and trucks.

Exhaust: Both vehicles will be available for pre-order this month. Full disclosure: Hagerty is one of Kindred’s investors. –SCS

The post Honda’s bigger Pilot, another Aston Martin motorcycle, Niki Lauda’s Ferrari for sale appeared first on Hagerty Media.

]]> https://www.hagerty.com/media/news/the-manifold/2022-11-08/feed/ 4 https://www.hagerty.com/media/new-car-reviews/2023-cr-v-gives-honda-fans-no-reason-to-shop-elsewhere/ https://www.hagerty.com/media/new-car-reviews/2023-cr-v-gives-honda-fans-no-reason-to-shop-elsewhere/#comments Tue, 18 Oct 2022 13:00:41 GMT https://www.hagerty.com/media/?p=261830

Honda’s sixth-generation CR-V has some big shoes to fill. Since it was first launched in 1997, the compact crossover was Honda’s number-one-selling model in the United States. Since 2017, it has been the best-selling Honda in the world. It’s fair to say that the 2023 model introduces Honda’s most important CR-V generation yet, especially considering it’s going up against heavyweights such as the Toyota RAV4 and newcomers like Mazda’s athletic CX-50.

To see how the new CR-V improves over its predecessor, Honda invited us to drive the 2023 CR-V in and around Santa Barbara, California. The vehicle we spent most of our time with was a well-equipped, Sport Touring model. For 2023, EX and EX-L trim levels will be powered by a 1.5-liter turbocharged four-cylinder that produces 190 hp and 179 lb-ft of torque. Their MSRPs start at $32,355 and $35,004, respectively. Sport and Sport Touring models will use a hybrid powertrain that pairs a naturally aspirated, 2.0-liter four-cylinder with a pair of electric motors for a total of 204 hp. Their MSRPs start at $33,695 and $39,845.

Notably absent is an LX trim. Honda has been selling everything it can build and half of its vehicles are sold before they hit the dealership lots. As such, the budget-friendly LX has been put on hiatus for now. It was planned, and Honda knows what it will include and omit to make this frugal offering hit the right price point, but it’s not in the works for 2023.



 

2023 Honda CR-V Sport Touring

• Price: $39,845/ TBD (base / as-tested)
• Powertrain: 2.0-liter, naturally aspirated I-4; two-motor hybrid
• Output: 204 hp combined, 247 lb-ft 0-2000 rpm
• Layout: Four-door, front-engine, five-passenger, FWD or AWD unibody crossover
• EPA fuel economy: 40 city/35 mpg highway, 37 mpg combined
• Rivals: Toyota RAV-4, Mazda CX-5, Mazda CX-50, Hyundai Tucson, Ford Escape, Chevrolet Equinox, Subaru Forester

From the outside, the 2023 CR-V looks like an all-new vehicle. Underneath, it’s almost completely redesigned as well. It stretches 2.7 inches longer overall and its wheelbase is 1.6 inches longer thanks to a new rear floor module with reinforced rear spring and trailing arm mounts. Nearly everything in front of the firewall is new, including the chassis rails and an aluminum subframe that is lighter and 15 percent more rigid than before. The 2023 model is also slightly wider, with both front and rear tracks widened by 0.4 inches as a result of new subframe assemblies.



On paper, the hybrid drivetrain seems very similar to the one found in the outgoing CR-V, and it is. However, this updated powertrain is more efficient and more powerful. While it adds just three total horsepower over the previous-generation system, it flattens the torque curve of the combined output, churning out an additional 15 lb-ft of torque from 0 to 2000 rpm compared to the outgoing two-motor hybrid system. It’s also able to send half of the system’s power to the rear wheels for a true 50:50 split in power, compared to the 2022 CR-V’s 60:40. The 2023 hybrid powertrain changes also allow the engine to directly power the wheels under a wider range of circumstances. There’s still no traditional transmission or CVT in the Hybrid drivetrain, instead, two motors take up that role and act to power the car, absorbing the difference between engine speed and wheel speed, while also generating power to keep the 1.1-kWh lithium-ion battery charged.

The improvement in the hybrid drivetrain is apparent behind the wheel, where throttle response is smooth and acceleration is linear. The electric motor boosts low-end performance and the CR-V feels, appropriately, almost like an electric car. Mamadou Diallo, Honda’s vice president of auto sales, gave us the rundown on the CR-V’s sales success and told us that Honda expects 50 percent of CR-V models to be hybrid. Honda hopes that these hybrid models will serve as a stepping stone, and that many 2023 CR-V buyers will move to an EV for their next purchase. To bridge the gap, the hybrid models use Braking Mode, found on the shift pattern after Drive, which is almost a one-pedal driving mode. The vehicle will still creep when using Braking mode, so it’s not totally like an EV, but regenerative braking is increased. Even in Drive, extra brake regen can be employed by using paddles mounted behind the spokes of the steering wheel. We found them useful when coasting down long, steep grades.



The ride is compliant enough to soak up imperfections in the road and firm enough to keep the crossover from wallowing through windy roads. Honda aimed for this to be the most fun-to-drive CR-V yet and did a great job of planning a route that showed that a compact crossover can grip the road without tossing around its occupants. On the highway, Honda’s multiple tweaks to NVH have resulted in a very quiet ride with little powertrain noise. We briefly watched the powerflow chart in the center screen that charted the charging and discharging of the batter and, as expected, the transition between all modes was totally seamless. The EPA rating for the all-wheel-drive hybrid powertrain like the one we were driving is an impressive 40 mpg city, 34 highway, and 37 combined. We didn’t fill up to check, but the driver information told us that even at a brisk highway pace keeping up with traffic returned mileage in the high 30s. For those wanting even more efficiency, a FWD version will increase those miles-per-gallon numbers to 43/36/40.



The front seats provide a nice amount of bolstering without being confining and offer an impressive range of adjustability. At six feet, three inches tall, our tallest driver (and your author) found that, unlike a lot of compact vehicles, the seat did not need to be moved all the way aft to provide sufficient legroom. The 2023 CR-V had more than enough seat travel to accommodate. There was also a journalist in attendance who was a few inches taller and he was also impressed by the roominess. Likewise, ample headroom in the front, even with the standard sunroof, allowed for the seat to be moved up high enough that the door sill could serve as a comfortable armrest.



Rear seats are equally comfortable and offer an abundance of legroom, even when adjusted to the rear of their travel to fit a tall driver. Accommodations in the back row are roomy and comfortable, if not quite as plush as up front. There’s just less soft-touch trim to be found as the door panels are finished in kid- and pet-friendly plastic rather than matching upholstery. Speaking of kid-friendly, Honda designed the second-row seats to swing wide open, nearly 90 degrees, to allow for plenty of room when securing and removing a child safety seat.

There are at least 10 steps of adjustability in reclining the rear seats, but the bolt-upright setting is really meant for providing a vertical front bulkhead for cargo. The adjustment is made using the same mechanism used to fold the seats flat: levers at the top outboard corners of the seats. Reclining while seated is a bit awkward—not only is the lever in a shoulder-wrenching place, but any rearward pressure may cause the seat to suddenly assume the most reclined position.

In our brief time with the CR-V we were pleasantly surprised by just how well larger passengers fit in the vehicle; the aforementioned rear seat adjustment was our only real gripe. The hybrid powertrain on the CR-V Sport will likely be a huge seller, as it offers both better performance and increased fuel economy.

Turbo-powered 2023 Honda CR-V models are currently on sale, with Hybrid deliveries coming shortly.

2023 Honda CR-V Sport Touring

Price: $39,845/ TBD (base / as-tested)

Highs: Well-thought-out packaging, taught but forgiving suspension, assertive exterior design.

Lows: Rear seat recline is awkward. Value seekers will have to wait for an LX trim to be offered.

Takeaway: Roomier, more efficient, and more powerful than its predecessor, the 2023 model gives current CR-V customers no reason to shop elsewhere.

The post First Look Review: 2023 CR-V gives Honda fans no reason to shop elsewhere appeared first on Hagerty Media.

]]> https://www.hagerty.com/media/new-car-reviews/2023-cr-v-gives-honda-fans-no-reason-to-shop-elsewhere/feed/ 9 https://www.hagerty.com/media/news/the-manifold/2022-10-13/ https://www.hagerty.com/media/news/the-manifold/2022-10-13/#comments Thu, 13 Oct 2022 15:09:57 GMT https://www.hagerty.com/media/?p=260841



Ford brings #VanLife in house with the 2023 Transit Trail

Intake: Ford Pro CEO Ted Cannis announced via Twitter yesterday that Ford’s Transit Van would venture into the world of factory-backed #VanLife with the 2023 Transit Trail. The Transit trail will, according to Ford, come “equipped with its new adventure-seeking capability alongside interior and exterior enhancements providing do-it-yourselfers and motorhome distributors a turnkey canvas direct from the factory.” The Transit Trail will be assembled in Missouri alongside the more blue-collar-focused Transit and the E-Transit vans. From that statement, it sounds like this one will still be gasoline-powered, utilizing either Ford’s naturally aspirated 3.5-liter V-6 or potentially the EcoBoost twin-turbo 3.5-liter V-6. In a teaser video released to YouTube, we can see that the Transit Trail appears to have some meaty off-road-oriented tires. You can spec a Transit with all-wheel-drive, and we’d expect that to be at least an option, if not standard, on this camping model. When the 2021 Ford Transit arrived, Ford announced three new packages—The Transit Motorhome Prep package, the RV Prep package, and the Adventure Prep package—each intended to court the growing swathe of buyers who wanted an off-grid adventure rig. It sounds like the Transit Trail will take things up a notch and perhaps be a fully kitted-out offering right from the word go.

Exhaust: Van living is still increasing in popularity as more folks seek to leverage remote working opportunities to go and see all the beauty that this country (and Canada, and Mexico) have to offer. There are plenty of aftermarket firms already using the Transit as a platform to build out camper vans, and Ford clearly thinks that offering the right mix of content directly from the factory as a specific model is a path to increased revenues with the Transit lineup. We’re inclined to agree. — Nathan Petroelje

Alpine concept is the hydrogen road racer of the future



Intake: French sports and race car maker Alpine hasn’t given up on internal combustion just yet. The company famous for its lightweight A110 coupe believes that clean-burning hydrogen could be the future fuel for its road and race cars. Its Alpenglow concept car, which will make its public appearance at the Paris Motor Show, takes inspiration from the brand’s Formula 1 and World Endurance Championships competitors for its rakish closed cockpit design. No details of the powertrain have been disclosed but Alpine did confirm that somewhere under that wild bodywork is an electric-assisted ICE. “Alpenglow’s mighty and lavish design hints at what Alpine cars will be like tomorrow and at our vision for motor sports moving forward. With hydrogen technology on board, we are strengthening our commitment to a responsible future and to keeping driving pleasure as real as ever,” says Alpine CEO Laurent Rossi.

Exhaust: Battery electric vehicles are weighty and resource-hungry, as we all know. By contrast, hydrogen is the universe’s most abundant element, so as long as it can be released cleanly and efficiently it could well be the perfect fuel. Saving the sounds and sensations of internal combustion that make driving such a joy would be a spectacular bonus, so good on Alpine (and Toyota) for pursuing this approach.—Nik Berg

Coming soon: Jessi Combs’ Fastest Woman on Earth documentary



Intake: The Fastest Woman on Earth is an HBO Max documentary about Jessi Combs, who, among other things, went after land speed records in a jet airplane-turned-car called the North American Eagle Supersonic Speed Challenger, a converted 52,000-horsepower F-104, ground-bound by the removal of its wings. On August 27, 2019, Combs was killed in a crash at the 13-mile Alvord Desert dry lake bed in Southeast Oregon when there was some sort of failure in the front wheel assembly. She was a popular figure on television, driving a Bugatti on Jay Leno’s Garage, and hosting the All Girls Garage, Mythbusters and Overhaulin’ TV series. A talented fabricator and racer, Combs won a lot of off-road races. Her jet car was viewed by some racers as particularly dangerous, which turned out to be true. “I’m not afraid of dying,” she says in the documentary, “but I’m not ready to die. It’s not as glamorous as it seems. If you’re chasing adventures, you’re going to sacrifice having a relationship. I can’t have a family and try to break a land speed record.” Jessi Combs was 39.

Exhaust: Combs lived life on her terms, and The Fastest Woman on Earth should be an inspiring film. She was awarded the Guinness record for going 522.783 mph before her crash. It begins streaming on HBO Max October 20. Here’s the link to the two-minute trailer on YouTube. — Steven Cole Smith

Software tweaks to 2023 Porsche Taycan bump range by 14.2 percent



Intake: Porsche’s Taycan will get more efficient with the same hardware for the 2023 model year. According to the automaker, “incremental software improvements since launch” will give certain Taycan models more than 10 percent better range than indicated by current EPA ratings. The biggest winner is the Taycan Turbo Cross Turismo, which gains an additional 29 miles of range, but every nearly every model save for the Taycan GTS Cross Turismo and the Taycan GTS sedan will see some improvement. A couple notables: The mind-bending Taycan Turbo S sedan sees range grow from 201 miles to 222 (up 10.4 percent); the more everyman Taycan sedan with the Performance Battery Plus (the 93.4 kWh battery pack, versus the normal 79.2 kWh pack) sees range jump from 225 miles to 242.

Exhaust: If you’ve got a 2020, ’21, or ’22 model year Taycan in the driveway and feel left out, take heart: Porsche spokesperson Calvin Kim confirmed to Hagerty that the older cars will benefit from the software tweaks to the ’23 MY car as well. Kim clarified that although the older Taycans would enjoy increased efficiency because of the update, the EPA rating for those older cars will not change because Porsche isn’t going to re-homologate a 2021 MY car through the EPA test cycle. What’s more, the update will also bring other features of your older Taycan—infotainment, control interfaces, etc.—up to the ’23 spec. And, it will enable more modules within the car (performance and safety modules not included) to be able to receive over-the-air (OTA) updates in the future. Technology, man. — Nathan Petroelje

Sony and Honda’s first EV will be built in the U.S.A.



Intake: Honda and Sony have confirmed that their joint-venture electric car will be built in North America with deliveries beginning in 2026. Sony Honda Mobility is the name of the new collaboration, but it’s not yet clear what badge will appear on the car itself. Honda is set to take care of manufacturing at a new EV production hub in Ohio, while Sony’s responsibility will be centered on software and electronics including imaging, sensors, communications, and entertainment.

Exhaust: If you think BMW’s plans to offer in-car video gaming are bold, just think of what the inventors of the PlayStation will come up with. Just imagine how, in a few years time, your Sony-Honda could drive you to your destination while you play Gran Turismo. —NB

BMW updates the M 1000 R track weapon for 2023



Intake: In years past, achieving a higher top speed and better drive out of corners was the type of problem that you’d normally solve with more engine. But for the 2023 M 1000 RR, BMW took a different look at the problem, instead putting the emphasis on improved aerodynamics. With unchanged engine output, the new M bike will be slipperier in a straight line while also having more downforce—even at full lean in a corner. Another nice upgrade is the option for forged wheels in place of the standard carbon fiber hoops, which can make using this machine as intended a little less stressful, depending on your tire guy. All this speed comes with an MSRP of $32,995 plus $695 destination and is expected to hit the U.S. market this January.

Exhaust: Motorcycles hit a point where horsepower was no longer the problem many years ago, and it’s been an aerodynamics race ever since. Those manufacturers in the MotoGP paddock seemed to have the advantage, but BMW is not letting its lack of top-tier entry slow them down one bit. High-downforce cars are typically a next level challenge to drive, and we can only imagine what a high-downforce motorcycle would be like. Is the M 1000 R so capable it likely cannot be fully utilized by mere mortals? Probably, but who doesn’t want to ride the hero bike? — Kyle Smith

The post Ford’s big #VanLife bet, Jessi Combs’ documentary, Porsche Taycan’s range improvements appeared first on Hagerty Media.

]]> https://www.hagerty.com/media/news/the-manifold/2022-10-13/feed/ 4 https://www.hagerty.com/media/news/the-manifold/2022-10-06/ https://www.hagerty.com/media/news/the-manifold/2022-10-06/#comments Thu, 06 Oct 2022 15:00:29 GMT https://www.hagerty.com/media/?p=258758

Ford Mustang Supercar breaks cover

Intake: It may have required a trip halfway around the world to see it, but here’s the seventh-generation Mustang Supercar in the flesh. It’ll be racing this weekend at the Bathurst 1000 at Mount Panorama in Australia in what’s now called the Repco Supercars Championship, formerly known as the Australian V-8 Supercar Championship. The car, which closely resembles the GT3 and GT4 Mustangs that will be racing in the states in the IMSA and SRO series, “is more closely aligned with its road-going brethren than ever before, including being powered by a 5.4-liter 600+horsepower Ford Coyote V-8 production-based engine,” Ford says. The engine is mated to an Xtrac six-speed transaxle. The car uses a three-piece spaceframe with removable front and rear sections.

Exhaust: Get used to seeing these track-ready 2024 Mustangs in racing guise, starting on the Rolex 24 at Daytona weekend in January, where they’re expected to compete first in the IMSA Michelin pilot Challenge on January 28. “The reveal of the Mustang Supercar is the first of many, with Mustang to race in GT3, GT4, NASCAR and NHRA competition globally,” said Mark Rushbrook, global director of Ford Motorsports. “Mustang has been an iconic brand on and off the track for 58 years and its legend will continue around the world. We always say Mustang was born to race, and that is more true today than ever.”—Steven Cole Smith



Acura opens up reservations for handcrafted  TLX Type S PMC Edition



Intake: Just 300 2023 Acura TLX Type S PMC Editions will be built at the brand’s Performance Manufacturing Center which crafts its mid-engine NSX in Ohio. Of those 300, 100 each will be built in three colors curbed from the NSX: Curva Red with Ebony interior, 130R White with Red interiors, and Long Beach Blue Pearl with Orchid interior. Today marks the opening for the first reservations, which will be for the Curva Red models. Reservations for 130R White versions will open November 9, with Long Beach Blue becoming available December 8. PMC models will come standard with the Type S’s turbocharged, 355 horsepower engine and all-wheel drive along with exclusive content for the PMC Edition, including carbon fiber decklid spoiler and rear diffuser, copper-finished Y-spoke wheels, Berlina black roof and door handles, black chrome exhaust tips, a numbered PMC Edition serial plate, and carbon fiber interior trim. Acura hasn’t given a specific MSRP for these loaded sport sedans, but their release noted that it is, “expected to be in the low-to-mid $60K range.”

Exhaust: These cars are stunning and the color combos offer excitement that is often missing in late-model sports sedans. With just 100 of each color combo, these will be snapped up by Acura fans in no time. The mid $60,000 price range, however, puts these cars into consideration with some serious performance models from the competition, including Audi and BMW, as well as the from the six-speed manual CT4-V Blackwing  from Cadillac. —Brandan Gillogly



Vespa introduces a new Vespa GTS with the highest-horsepower engine ever



Intake: Go ahead and say it: Awwww! Yeah, there’s something about a little red Vespa that’s just as cute as a kitten, before it starts to sharpen its claws on your table leg. This is the Vespa GTS, the “Vespa family patriarch,” the company says, and you can get the GTS Supertech (below), powered by a liquid-cooled engine with electronic injection. The 300 HPE model delivers more than 23 horsepower, the most powerful engine in Vespa history, though admittedly that is not a real high bar to clear. The steel body is mated to an entirely new front suspension, and there’s a new touring-level seat. There’s keyless entry and new instrument panel. They should be in showrooms soon, with a starting price of just over $7000.

Exhaust: It’s only been four years since the last Vespa GTS was launched, but the Italian company seems to have made some significant strides to counter a market filled with competitors and copycats. I’d like to have a Vespa, if for nothing else to park it in my living room and look at it. —SCS



Car haulers want new weight limits because electric vehicles are heavy



Intake: You already know that the spike in diesel fuel is making everything delivered by truck more expensive, but Reuters uncovered a new and growing concern: Electric vehicles are heavy—the Ford F-150 Lightning weighs about 1600 pounds more than a comparable gas-powered pickup, due to the weight of the batteries—and truckers are dealing with decades-old federal limits that can easily be overtaxed by a load of EVs. “The truth is we will not be able move as many electric vehicles under the current weight limit. That could mean more trucks on the road, delays in orders and increased costs,” Sarah Amico told Reuters. She is executive chairman of Jack Cooper, among the largest car haulers in North America. The American Trucking Associations has asked lawmakers to increase the 80,000-pound weight limit by 10 percent, to 88,000 pounds, saying the current weight limit is unsustainable given the trends.

Exhaust: This could be one more reason why you’ll be paying more for that Ford Lightning. Oh wait, you already are: Ford just increased the base price of the Lightning for the second time since it was introduced last year—this time by nearly 11 percent, from $46,974 to $51,974. As expected, Ford blamed supply chain issues and inflation, but didn’t mention one central factor: At the introduction, Ford simply priced the truck too low. —SCS

Honda previews the Prologue



Intake: Honda is giving us a look—but not much more—of the upcoming Prologue electric SUV that goes on sale in 2024. The Prologue “will complement Honda’s light truck lineup, positioned above CR-V and alongside Passport, offering generous passenger and cargo space,” the company says. It’s an attractive vehicle, with 21-inch wheels an a panoramic sunroof. It’s about eight inches longer and five inches wider than the new CR-V, and it’s available with all-wheel-drive. “Our goal was to create a clean harmony based on a rugged SUV image by coordinating the colors and materials to express neo-rugged design styling that’s familiar to our customers and uniquely Honda,” said Masaki Sumimoto, design lead for color, materials, and finish. “Neo-rugged” appears in the press release several times. We’d say mission accomplished: It isn’t as cute as a Vespa, but it’s clean and stylish in a neo-rugged way.

Exhaust: Honda has a keen eye toward electrification. Honda will introduce 30 new EVs globally by 2030, with a global sales volume of 2 million units. In North America, Honda has laid out an aggressive timeline of EV introductions based on three initial phases leading to 2030 and ultimately to 100 percent zero-emission automobile sales by 2040: In 2024, begin sales of the Honda Prologue, co-developed with GM. In 2026, begin sales of Honda models based on Honda e:Architecture to be produced by Honda in North America. In 2027, begin sales of a new series of affordable EVs co-developed with GM, also produced by Honda in North America. —SCS



The post Here’s the Mustang Supercar, Honda Prologue EV previewed, new Vespa cute as a kitten appeared first on Hagerty Media.

]]> https://www.hagerty.com/media/news/the-manifold/2022-10-06/feed/ 6 https://www.hagerty.com/media/news/the-manifold/2022-09-12/ https://www.hagerty.com/media/news/the-manifold/2022-09-12/#respond Mon, 12 Sep 2022 15:00:44 GMT https://www.hagerty.com/media/?p=251884



If there’s demand, Mercedes-AMG may keep the V-8 after all

Intake: Electric vehicles may be all the rage these days, but if you still want a V-8 near the end of the decade, there might be hope—provided you’re willing to shell out the big bucks. In an interview with Carsales.com, Joerg Bartels, vice-president of vehicle development at Mercedes-Benz said that there is still room in future product plans for the wonderful 4.0-liter twin-turbo V-8 that’s found in many AMG models such as the AMG GT, the G 63, and more “If there’s still a customer demand [for petrol V-8s] in some regions, and it’s still part of our offering, why should we stop it?” Recall that Mercedes has laid out a plan to be carbon neutral by 2039, and that it has said that it will be a purely electric brand by 2030. These remarks would seem to fly in the face of that goal, but it’s clear that Bartels feels that so long as the carbon emissions from such V-8-powered cars could be offset by the wave of EVs arriving to market soon, there’s no need to axe something that customers would clearly still want. (We’ve reached out to Mercedes-Benz for comment on the matter and will update this story once we’ve heard back.)

Exhaust: The implication here is that choosing the V-8 would still come at great expense to you, the buyer. That’s not necessarily surprising, as most of the Mercedes-models that still offer an eight pot at all are in the high-five-figure or low-six-figure range, pricewise. In spring of 2021, Mercedes-AMG announced that its days of gas-only performance would soon end, and that it was introducing electrification into the drivelines of its performance vehicles to aid sportiness—but really, to protect against tightening emissions regulations worldwide. Bartels’ comments don’t specify whether those V-8s that may exist after 2030 will include an element of electrification, but it’s extremely likely that they would. Still, the notion of that herculean engine pressing on is good news to our ears—and those of Aston Martin. — Nathan Petroelje



Porsche’s F1 plan gets parked by Red Bull



Intake: Only weeks ago Porsche was so confident that it would be on the Formula 1 grid for 2026 that it even trademarked “F1nally”, but now hopes have been dashed after the German sports car maker failed to agree terms with Red Bull Racing. Porsche wanted to buy into the current championship leading team, but Red Bull insisted on maintaining its independence, seeing Porsche as an engine supplier only. “The premise was always that a partnership would be based on an equal footing, which would include not only an engine partnership but also the team. This could not be achieved,” reads a Porsche statement. In response Red Bull team principle Christian Horner told motorsport-total.com, “Porsche is a great brand but the DNA is quite different. During the talks it became clear that strategically we don’t fit together.”

Exhaust: This probably isn’t the end of the story. “With the finalised rule changes, the racing series nevertheless remains an attractive environment for Porsche, which will continue to be monitored,” Porsche says. With Audi seemingly taking over the Alfa Romeo-branded Sauber F1 team, the only non-factory teams that could be options are Alpha Tauri (which is effectively the Red Bull junior team and comes with the same baggage), Williams (which has tight links with Mercedes-Benz) or possibly Haas (currently using Ferrari power). Meanwhile, Red Bull has re-opened the door to Honda. “Honda are a great company. They announced their withdrawal from F1 to focus their attention on the electrification of their products, moving away from the combustion engine. So you would assume if they were to look at returning to F1, that would have to be taken into account. Whether or not there was some interest potentially on the battery side, and any potential synergies there, it could be an interesting discussion,” Horner told Autosport. – Nik Berg

Eighth-gen Lexus RX gets with the times



Intake: The king of luxury crossovers is getting a new suit. Lexus’ RX returns for its eighth generation with a new schnoz, bigger bones, and a rehauled infotainment system. Setting aside the Civic-esque grille, the RX breaks no new stylistic ground. In skeleton and infotainment, it finally gets with the times. Gone is the old, Camry-derived platform; the 2023 RX rides on the ubiquitous (because modular) GA-K architecture, maintaining its length but gaining 2.36 inches in wheelbase. Inside, the frustrating trackpad controller disappears. Whether you opt for the base, 9.8-inch screen or the 14-incher, all commands are performed via touch or voice. A plug-in hybrid model joins the RX fold for the first time. The alphanumerics denoting powertrains have changed to reflect that: 350 denotes either a front- or all-wheel-drive model with the also-new turbo four; 350h, available only in AWD, pairs a naturally aspirated gas four-pot with a nickel-metal hydride battery; the 450h+ is the plug-in, AWD hybrid variant, using a lithium-ion battery; and the 500h F Sport Performance AWD uses yet another engine, a 271-hp inline four paired with a 80kW rear motor and a nickel-metal hydride battery, to yield 366 hp and 406 lb-ft of torque.

Exhaust: Four different engines for four different models? Lexus can afford such luxuries for its cash cow. Journalists have always crabbed about one feature or another on this midsize mainstay, but this SUV has stolen the wallets of at least 100,000 U.S. buyers a year since 2013. We lived with the new infotainment system for a week in the RX’s baby brother, the NX, and the sleek, modern arrangement should only boost the RX’s appeal among the smartphone-acclimated; older generations may need to conscript a grandchild for an initial tutorial. — Grace Houghton

Audi will axe the R8 for an electric supercar



Intake: The clock is ticking for Audi’s flagship R8 supercar, with production set to finish by the end of 2023, reports Autocar. Fans of the four rings will be pleased to hear that the R8 will be replaced by the middle of the decade with an even more potent, race-derived machine, although it will be powered by electrons, not hydrocarbons. Audi Sport boss Sebastian Grams told Autocar that some 60 percent of the car’s components are similar to GT3 race cars, adding “What we are trying to do is get as close as we can to that ultimate feeling of racing.”

Exhaust: Just as Audi’s current top-flight EV, the E-tron GT, shares a platform with Porsche, it’s likely that any two-seater supercar will also borrow from the sister company. Porsche has already shown its Mission R EV concept racer from which the electrified Boxster and Cayman will be derived and it could also underpin the ultimate electric Audi. —NB

Honda releases new 750cc twin engine, Hornet chassis yet to be seen

Intake: Until late last week, the rumors that Honda was brewing a new 755cc engine were just rumors paired with sleek video of a teased Hornet model. Now the engine has been announced—and what an engine it is. The new 755cc mill is just 10 cubic centimeters larger than Honda’s current parallel twin in this class of bikes, but it manages 34 more horsepower—92 to the older engine’s 58. The Hornet bike is still referred to as a “concept” by Honda, but signs continue to point to solid progress on the model and a timely introduction.

Exhaust: The Hornet model is traditionally a standard design with handlebars and engaging riding dynamics. This compact and powerful new heart bodes well for what the final model will be. The motorcycle industry’s premier show, EICMA (an Italian acronym for the International Motorcycle and Accessories Exhibition), takes place six weeks from now; we’re holding out hope that Honda will reveal the Hornet at that show. While that’s half the waiting game, the other half will be sitting tight to hear whether or not the Hornet will be coming stateside. Cross your fingers. — Kyle Smith

The post AMG V-8s may carry on, Porsche parks F1 entry, Audi axes R8 for EV supercar appeared first on Hagerty Media.

]]> https://www.hagerty.com/media/news/the-manifold/2022-09-12/feed/ 0 https://www.hagerty.com/media/news/the-manifold/2022-09-07/ https://www.hagerty.com/media/news/the-manifold/2022-09-07/#respond Wed, 07 Sep 2022 15:00:44 GMT https://www.hagerty.com/media/?p=250634

Report: Hybrid, AWD Mustang dead

Intake: Ford is going to debut the a new Mustang next week in Detroit. The seventh-gen pony is expected to ditch its exclusive platform in favor of the rear-drive-based architecture that currently underpins the Ford Explorer and the Lincoln Aviator. Both existing offerings on that platform have hybrid and all-wheel-drive capability, and it was expected that both systems would appear as options in the Mustang family, but now, according to AutoForecast Solutions, an industry analysis firm who spoke with AutoWeek, those two variants are now dead. Instead, it’s now expected that the pony car debuting next week will be purely gasoline-powered for the duration of its six-to-eight-year lifecycle, after which it will jump onto the Mach-E’s all-electric platform. According to Automotive News, Ford told suppliers that it will stretch the Mustang’s lifecycle from six to eight years, likely meaning this is the final gas-powered pony car.

Exhaust: What irony: Eventual EV conversion aside, the heretical, all-electric Mustang SUV just saved the rear-drive, manual-gearbox, V-8 coupe from a hybrid fate.—Nathan Petroelje

Does this Honda sports car foreshadow a baby NSX?

.@Honda sports car spied, looks like a baby NSX: https://t.co/KmDOGfPG1P pic.twitter.com/KkehwcsfW6

— Car and Driver (@CARandDRIVER) September 7, 2022


Intake: Photos have surfaced of a wild-looking Honda sports car in a darkened office park. Shared with Car and Driver by a new father who went on a late-night stroll, the evocative coupe looks like a scaled-down Acura NSX, but it clearly wears the big H badge. Late this spring, Honda announced a grand plan to allocate more than $40 billion globally towards the electrification of its entire lineup. Among the cars teased were two shapely sports cars, each wearing a Honda badges. One of these is likely the all-electric NSX—which will wear an Acura badge here in the states but a Honda badge elsewhere. The other remains a mystery, although the shadowy, front-engine silhouette of the image below doesn’t match neatly with the images in the tweet from Car and Driver embedded above. The shaping and position of the latter’s cabin imply a mid-mounted powertrain, but what exactly would be under the hood is yet to be seen.

Exhaust: If we’re optimistic, Honda is readying a mid-engine coupe with the 315-hp 2.0-liter turbo four from the newly announced 2023 Civic Type R. More likely, this will have a battery-electric powertrain. That said, this stunning machine could just be a design exercise, and it may never reach anything beyond that. Still, what’s enthusiasm without a little bit of dreaming? An electric Honda S660 sounds like a riot…—NP



Ferrari’s V-12 not-an-SUV bows next week

 

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A post shared by Ferrari (@ferrari)

Intake: Those craving a family-hauling Ferrari will be glad to know that, next Tuesday, the Purosangue will finally be revealed. Per usual, we expect the OEM to hold back details such as fuel economy, pricing, and trim structure, but we will at least get a good look at this four-wheel-drive machine on September 13. Ferrari has already confirmed that this not-an-SUV-but-also-not-a-station-wagon will be powered by a naturally aspirated V-12 at launch. A hybrid V-8 is soon to follow, however, so that you and your friends can cruise through the heart of London, filling the generous trunk with Givenchy bags, and not suffer emissions fees.  

Exhaust: Ferrari insists this is not an SUV and, for once, that’s not just PR speak. The Purosangue, though hardly a pureblood, does have precedent in the modern Ferrari canon: The GTC4Lusso (below) and, before that, the FF. Each was a four-seater with either a V-8 or a V-12 spinning all four wheels. A Ferrari you don’t feel guilty—or unsafe—taking to the ski slopes? Apparently, it’s a winning recipe. —Grace Houghton



SCE builds its most unorthodox Yenko yet



Intake: Specialty Vehicle Engineering (SVE) is building 100 supercharged Tahoes and Suburbans for the 2023 model year as limited-production Yenko SC models. Half will use hand-built 5.3-liter V-8s good for 700 hp, and the other 50 will use hand-built 6.2-liter V-8s that produce 800 hp. Each engine features a forged rotating assembly and upgraded cylinder heads. The Yenko SC package also includes upgrades to the brakes and suspension, as well as unique 22-inch wheels and Yenko badging inside and out. Customers can have their Yenko SUV built on both two-wheel- and four-wheel-drive platforms and the package can be based on LS, LT, RST, Z71, Premier, or High Country trim levels.

Exhaust: SVE, formerly SLP, has been building high-performance GM vehicles for 35 years, but this is the first time they’ve put the Yenko name on an SUV. The company has previously offered a Yenko Silverado package with similar power numbers. With just 100 being produced, these will be a rare sight, but they might not be quite as collectible as their muscle car ancestors from the ’60s, even if they are faster. —Brandan Gillogly

The post Report: Hybrid and AWD Mustang dead, Purosangue bows next week, unorthodox Yenkos appeared first on Hagerty Media.

]]> https://www.hagerty.com/media/news/the-manifold/2022-09-07/feed/ 0 https://www.hagerty.com/media/news/the-2023-civic-type-r-wont-pack-much-more-power-than-before/ https://www.hagerty.com/media/news/the-2023-civic-type-r-wont-pack-much-more-power-than-before/#respond Thu, 01 Sep 2022 01:00:40 GMT https://www.hagerty.com/media/?p=249365

Finally! Honda is feeling generous and opened the taps to give us some tangible specs for the 2023 Civic Type R, which is, as expected, the most powerful Honda production vehicle ever offered in the U.S.

On sale this fall, the all-new Type R, based on the 11th-generation Civic hatchback, is much easier on the eyes than the outgoing model. Horsepower is 315, torque is 310—an improvement of nine horsepower and 15 pound-feet of torque. Earlier this week, a leaked Japanese brochure on the Type R reproduced on a fan website pegged horsepower at 326; if that’s true the U.S. will make do with a less-powerful version.



Oh, well. “Under its new vented aluminum hood,” Honda says, is a studlier version of the K20C1 four-cylinder engine. Horsepower, torque and acceleration response are improved by a redesigned turbocharger, increased air intake flow rate, and a new, more efficient exhaust system that features a straight-through design and an active exhaust valve. The size, shape and number of the turbocharger’s turbine wheel blades have been optimized along with the flow path of the intake charge, enabling the turbocharger to generate pressure more efficiently and in a wider range.



A larger grille opening, a bigger radiator and a new large-diameter fan improve engine cooling. “To further strengthen the driver’s connection with the car,” the active exhaust valve opens at higher rpm to heighten and enhance the sound of the engine, which was not that invigorating in the outgoing model.

The Type R’s six-speed manual transmission—no automatic is mentioned or expected—is matched to a lighter flywheel and a revised rev-match system that “ensures perfectly paired rev-matching when shifting down through the gears.” The gearbox gets a high-rigidity lever and optimized shift gate pattern. There’s also a standard helical-type limited-slip differential.



“Type R is very important for Honda as the pinnacle of our factory performance and an irreplaceable brand that enables enthusiasts to experience Honda’s racing spirit, and seek the ultimate in speed and driving pleasure,” said Hideki Kakinuma, global Civic Type R development leader. “The all-new Civic Type R will continue that legacy, leveraging Honda’s racetrack-proven engineering to deliver extreme performance and passion, both on the road and on the racetrack.” The car recently set a new production-car front-wheel-drive track record at Suzuka, home of the Japanese Grand Prix.

With the Civic Hatchback as a starting point, the Type R’s performance is increased by a significantly more rigid body structure. The wheelbase has been extended 1.4 inches; now measuring 107.7 inches, it’s the longest wheelbase in its class.

Its front and rear tracks are also significantly wider by one inch in the front and three-quarters of an inch in the rear. There’s a retuned dual-axis strut front (brilliantly designed to mitigate torque steer) and multilink rear suspension. The Type R’s two-piece front brake rotors reduce unsprung weight. Brake cooling is also improved, and a retuned brake booster enhances feel and controllability.

Drivers can switch between four pre-set performance settings, selecting different modes for the engine, steering, suspension and engine sound. In addition to Comfort, Sport and R+ Mode, a new “Individual Mode” enables customization.



Outside, the Type R was designed in Japan with input from aerodynamic development members of the HRD Sakura Super GT team. Its exterior is also more aerodynamically efficient, generating additional downforce. The body is eight-tenths of an inch longer, half an inch lower and six-tenths of an inch wider. Wheels are 19-inch matte black alloys with wider Michelin Pilot Sport 4S tires. The new wheels use a special “reverse rim” design that supposedly improves the stability of the tire contact patch under load.

All body panels ahead of the A-pillars are new and unique to the Type R, including a new more aggressive front bumper design. Wider rear doors are exclusive to Type R and a reshaped rear bumper makes room for the signature triple round-exhaust outlets. There’s a redesigned rear spoiler with aluminum stanchions and a new rear diffuser. The Type R will be offered in five colors: The traditional Championship White, Rallye Red, Boost Blue, Crystal Black Pearl, and Sonic Grey Pearl.





Inside, the CTR’s iconic red seats, carpet, and trim return alongside a redesigned aluminum shift knob and a serialized Type R plate on the dash. Front seats are lightweight with firm bolsters and “suede-effect” upholstery.

A new meter design is exclusive to Type R’s +R mode and allows the driver to obtain necessary information instantly, with the engine rpm and gear position placed at the top. An illuminated rev indicator is located above the gauge cluster. There’s a new nine-inch HD touchscreen with wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto compatibility. A Bose Centerpoint premium sound system is standard.



Exclusive to Type R, an enhanced version of the Honda LogR Performance Datalogger combines the Type R’s onboard computer and sensors with a new built-in vehicle app. Honda LogR no longer requires a smartphone app, so drivers can use the on-board system or connect to their smartphone for added capability and data sharing. Key features include a stopwatch to record lap times, a tire friction circle in 3D motion that displays the maximum tire force the vehicle can achieve, and a scoring function that helps drivers improve their skills on the track. Users can share their lap times and data with other Type R owners.

The new Civic Type R is built at the Yorii Plant in Japan, and the Type R’s K20C1 engine continues to be built at Honda’s Anna Engine Plant in Sidney, Ohio.

Honda gives us the obligatory, “Pricing and additional details on the 2023 Honda Civic Type R will be provided closer to launch this fall,” but we know the last-gen Type R started at about $40,000, and a limited-edition model cost just over $45,000. We’re pretty sure the new Type R will fall into that range, but best of luck getting one of the first models for list price.



The post The 2023 Civic Type R won’t pack much more power than before appeared first on Hagerty Media.

]]> https://www.hagerty.com/media/news/the-2023-civic-type-r-wont-pack-much-more-power-than-before/feed/ 0 https://www.hagerty.com/media/news/the-manifold/2022-08-31/ https://www.hagerty.com/media/news/the-manifold/2022-08-31/#respond Wed, 31 Aug 2022 15:00:13 GMT https://www.hagerty.com/media/?p=249141

Civic Type R to pack 326 hp, according to leaked brochure

Intake: Though Honda unveiled the 2023 Civic Type R a few months ago, the automaker did so without specifying power output from 2.0-liter turbocharged four-cylinder. Now, a supposedly leaked Japanese brochure posted to an 11th-generation Civic forum indicates that the new top-dog Civic will boast 326 hp, a gain of 20 ponies over the outgoing version. Torque is also up, from 295 lb-ft up to 310. The brochure reveals that the final drive ratio will drop slightly, from 4.111 to 3.842. Although cars tend to get heavier with each new generation, the new Civic Type R won’t gain much heft; the brochure indicates a curb weight of just 3153 pounds, up a mere 32 pounds over the outgoing CTR. (That said, curb weight can be calculated differently in different countries, so don’t take that 3153 figure as definitive for the U.S.-market car.) UPDATE, 9PM ET: Honda announced this evening that the U.S. Type R will get 315 hp and 310 lb-ft of torque. Whether the Japanese-market car gets 326 hp remains to be seen.

Exhaust: Honda has already announced that the Civic Type R is the fastest front-drive car to lap its Suzuka test track, and that it would soon attack the Nurbürgring Nordschliefe in attempt to knock down that lap record as well, which currently stands at 7:40.1, accomplished by a 2019 Renault Megane RS Trophy-R. Hot hatches may be a dying breed, but we’re thrilled that Honda is giving its wild sport compact another go. The forum post also speculates that early production through April 2023 is likely to be around 6000 units, although there’s a rumor that Honda is considering upping that number to 10,000 units due to high demand, particularly in the Japanese market. The more the merrier, we say, especially if Toyota is going to limit GR Corolla production. — Nathan Petroelje



Six-figure FJ Cruiser highlights fever pitch of Toyota 4×4 market



Intake: A 2014 Toyota FJ Cruiser sold for $108,000 including buyer’s premium on Bring a Trailer yesterday—yes, you read that right—making it the first six-figure FJ Cruiser sale we’ve seen. The Trail Teams treatment was a limited-edition package for the FJ, and this one had just 245 miles on the clock. Toyota produced the Trail Teams FJ from 2008–14, although it didn’t offer one in 2009. The package would debut a unique color each year and feature a color-matched roof instead of the white roof found on more modest trims. When Toyota announced that 2014 would be the final production year for the FJ Cruiser in the U.S. market, it unveiled the Trail Teams Ultimate Edition, which included a few special touches above even the previous model years that got the Trail Teams treatment. The unique color was Heritage Blue, meant to evoke one of the original FJ40 Land Cruiser’s factory paint color. There was also a unique white grille bezel, again a nod to the FJ40. Things got gnarly in the suspension department: previous model year Trail Teams FJs had Bilstein shocks developed by Toyota’s TRD racing department, but the Trail Teams Ultimate Edition got remote reservoir shocks that raised the vehicle a tad higher. A host of interior flourishes like a “One of 2500” plaque made it clear that you’d sprung for peak FJ.

Exhaust: New, these brutes sold for $37,455. Netting nearly three times that as a collector car less than a decade later? Not a bad return on investment! It also marks a milestone moment for the FJ, according to Hagerty Valuation analyst Adam Wilcox. “This sale solidifies the FJ Cruiser as a real-deal collectible,” he says. “They have had a cult following since new, but this result will push the retro 4×4 into the mainstream eye.” Classic Toyota 4x4s have been on a hot streak for several years, and that hype has been transitioning over to newer and newer models—FJ80 Land Cruisers are now selling for Fj60 and FJ40 prices. It’s no surprise to see the FJ Cruiser, which was a bit of an oddball retro play, get swept up in the fray. — NP

The first solar car debuted 67 years ago



Intake: In June, we told you about Lightyear, the Dutch startup that plans to build a solar-powered car called Lightyear 0. As intriguing as the car is, the concept isn’t as cutting edge as you might think. In fact, the world’s first solar-powered automobile debuted 67 years ago. On this date in 1955, General Motors’ William G. Cobb demonstrated his 15-inch “Sunmobile” solar car at the General Motors Powerama auto show in Chicago. Cobb’s little Sunmobile introduced, however briefly, the field of photovoltaics—the process by which the sun’s rays are converted into electricity when exposed to certain surfaces. When sunlight hit 12 photoelectric cells made of selenium (a nonmetal substance with conductive properties) built into the Sunmobile, an electric current was produced that in turn powered a tiny motor. The motor turned the vehicle’s driveshaft, which was connected to its rear axle by a pulley.

Exhaust: It’s kind of mind blowing that the auto industry’s search for a cheaper and cleaner alternative to fossil fuel has been in the works for at least seven decades. While Cobb’s solar car concept wasn’t exactly embraced by the auto industry in 1955, perhaps he planted a seed that will come to fruition as we look to the future of transportation. While solar cars have their limitations, especially when it comes to range, the times they are a changin’, so perhaps Lightyear’s timing will be better than Cobb’s was. — Jeff Peek

Mercedes-AMG V-8s stick around through 2023



Intake: Scuppered by supply chain issues since the end of 2021, the herculean twin-turbo V-8 found in Mercedes-AMG 63 products will remain available for the 2023 model year. The 603-hp, four-liter bruiser will be available in the G-Class, E-Class sedan and wagon, C-Class coupe and cabriolet, plus the GLS, GLE, AMG GT, and the SL. Only the C-Class sedan is exempt, making use of a two-liter, four-cylinder, 402-hp unit in its flagship C43 model instead.

Exhaust: It’s good news for fans of big block Benzes who get a last chance to pick up a V-8, but it won’t last long. The next AMG 63 will have half the cylinder count, but with an added hybrid kick for an estimated 670 hp. You win some you lose some. — Nik Berg

Bonkers Brit wants to build a Spitfire-powered racer



Intake: A British artist is aiming to become the first person to build a race car around the Rolls-Royce Merlin engine from a WWII-era Spitfire fighter plane. Piers Dowell is best known in the U.K. for his stunning motorcycle helmet paint jobs, but has spent six years designing the Fighter Ace. It will be powered by a 27-liter supercharged V-12 engine with up to 2000-hp, which Dowell already owns, installed in a tubular steel chassis with independent suspension and Girling disc brakes. Drive to the 21-inch rear wheels will be via a three-speed manual gearbox with planetary overdrive. A target weight of under 3000 pounds mean the Fighter Ace will certainly fly. Although it would never be road legal, Dowell hopes the car will one day run at events such as the Goodwood Festival of Speed and is currently seeking funding. “Every year I’m at the Goodwood Festival of Speed I keep saying, what this event needs is a car with a Spitfire engine!” he told Goodwood Road & Racing.

Exhaust: We’ve seen the tank-based Rolls-Royce Meteor V-12 fitted to cars before, but Dowell claims that the Fighter Ace will be the only vehicle ever made with a genuine Merlin motor from a Spitfire and he reckons it will be spectacular. “A cross between the Beast of Turin and Ken Block’s Hoonigan,” he says. Now he just needs someone with deep pockets to make it happen. — NB

 

The post Civic Type R power figures leaked, AMG V-8s stick around, a racer with an airplane heart appeared first on Hagerty Media.

]]> https://www.hagerty.com/media/news/the-manifold/2022-08-31/feed/ 0 https://www.hagerty.com/media/news/the-manifold/2022-08-29/ https://www.hagerty.com/media/news/the-manifold/2022-08-29/#respond Mon, 29 Aug 2022 15:00:26 GMT https://www.hagerty.com/media/?p=248233

Callaway Cars will supercharge your C8 Corvette to Z06 territory

Intake: Callaway Cars, the Old Lyme, Connecticut-based tuning house behind the iconic 255-mph Sledgehammer C4 Corvette, has announced a supercharger kit for the C8 Corvette. The kit was previewed to attendees of the Corvettes at Carlisle event in Pennsylvania, over the weekend. Configured for the C8 Corvette’s LT2 V-8, which already has 495 hp and 470 lb-ft of torque, the supercharger system will come with its own three-year/36,000-mile powertrain warranty that supplements the Corvette’s existing warranties. Callaway says the kit will undergo final engineering tweaks, emissions compliance testing, and performance wringing in the coming months, at which point the final figures for power gains and performance improvements will be announced. Interested in juicing your C8 with some supercharger whine and a heap of extra grunt? Callaway is taking $1000 deposits for serialized production slots now.

Exhaust: Callaway has already announced a performance upgrade for 6.2-liter and 5.3-liter V-8-equipped GM vehicles such as the 2021–23 Chevy Suburban and Tahoe, the 2022–23 Chevy Silverado, the 2021–23 GMC Yukon and Yukon XL, as well as the 2021–23 Cadillac Escalade. The $24,95-and-up kit uses an Eaton supercharger and adds as much as 182 hp to the 6.2-liter-equipped models. Using those power gains as a reference point, we may be looking at a nearly 700-hp C8 Corvette. That’s north of Z06 territory! (The eagerly anticipated C8 Corvette Z06 boasts 670-hp from a 5.5-liter flat-plane-crank DOHC V-8.) Yes, the Z06’s appeal lies in more than just its yowling engine but consider this: The base C8 1LT starts at $65,595 including destination. If the Callaway bits come in at roughly the same price as its current kit, you’re looking at just over $90,000 for a car with even more power than the Z06—which we’ve already confirmed will be a six-figure car. The Callaway upgrade may be the better choice for cost-conscious, power-hungry clientele. — Nathan Petroelje



Honda, LG Energy Solution joining forces to produce EV batteries in the U.S.



Intake: Two years after announcing a partnership with General Motors to produce two future Honda EVs, Honda has announced a $4.4 billion joint venture with LG Energy Solution to build a new battery manufacturing facility in the United States. The plant aims to have an annual production capacity of approximately 40GWh, enough to power 800,000 vehicles by 2030. The pouch-type batteries produced at the new plant will be supplied exclusively to Honda facilities in North America. Its location has not yet been determined, but construction is expected to begin in early 2023, with a goal of starting mass production of advanced lithium-ion battery cells by the end of 2025. By producing the batteries in the U.S., Honda will qualify for the increased EV tax credits by meeting the more stringent requirements of the recently enacted Inflation Reduction Act. However, Honda has been consistently critical of the pro-union subsidy plan because it offers higher credits for union-built EVs, and Honda does not use union labor.

Exhaust: Honda and LG Energy officials ignored the elephant in the room and steered clear of political differences when announcing their partnership. Instead, the two say they are focused on their “shared belief” that expanding local electric vehicle production and ensuring the timely supply of batteries will put them in the best position to target the growing North American EV market. We can’t argue with that, regardless of any additional outside factors that may have played into their decision to join forces. — Jeff Peek

That goofy GT350 mule was indeed packing a Godzilla V-8

Intake: Months ago we saw a Shelby GT350 test mule with a bizarre hood bulge, which Ford is now confirming housed the 7.3-liter “Godzilla” truck engine. Ford Performance employees feature the REVan Evan YouTube channel show how the prototype, which prior to this integration was sitting around otherwise unused, blends a manual transmission calibration for the crate V-8. Those looking for a stick-shifted Godzilla crate motor will get the chance in the fall (the automatic is already available), but one look at the Shelby and it’s clear the truck’s intake manifold is a major issue. Fear not: Ford Performance is making more a car-savvy intake with a straight-shot throttle body.

Exhaust: As Hideto Ogata said in the famous movie, “You have your fear, which might become reality; and you have Godzilla, which is reality.” The act of fitting it to a manual transmission is a given for a crate motor, but the new intake manifold that will fit in more applications is beyond delightful. Will this OHV Ford soon rival the ubiquity of the LS swap? We shall see. – Sajeev Mehta

Scottish startup has its sights on the U.S.A.



Intake: Scotland isn’t exactly well-known for its automotive industry, but new EV manufacturer Munro Vehicles wants to change that. The firm has developed an $88,500 commercial 4×4 and is targeting North American businesses in mining, farming, forestry, and even oil. Munro’s 376-hp electric off-roader features permanent four-wheel drive and locking differentials to give it serious go-anywhere ability with zero tailpipe emissions. The range is limited to around 170 miles, which is why the company is going for the commercial market. Munro will build just 50 cars in 2023, with half set for export to the U.S.A. and Canada, but the firm plans to scale up to 500 units in 2024, and 5000 by 2030. Should demand outstrip supply, then Munro will produce knock-down vehicle kits which could be assembled in the U.S.A and allow it to qualify for the latest $7500 EV tax subsidy.

Exhaust: Munro hasn’t released key information such as payload and towing capacity, but it’s hard to see how it can compete with the likes of the Rivian R1T or the Ford Lightning. They’ll need the luck of the Irish—sorry, Scottish—to succeed. —Nik Berg 

One Lady owner Ford Escort fetches over $850,000 at auction



Intake: A 1985 Ford Escort RS Turbo driven by Her Royal Highness, Diana, Princess of Wales for almost three years has just set a right royal record at Silverstone Auctions in the United Kingdom. The People’s Princess was quite the Blue Oval aficionado, but this was her fastest Ford. Diana’s engagement to Prince Charles gave her an Escort Ghia, while this Series 1 RS Turbo was an early family car, with the young princes William and Harry often riding in the rear. Up front would always have been an officer from the Royal Protection Command, known as SO14. According the auction house, the RS Turbo was a stealthy black instead of the standard white at the royal family’s request. SO14 had previously vetoed the princess’s first choice of a red Escort cabriolet. In May 1988 the RS was returned to Ford and sold internally to a manager, appropriately named Geoff King. Later the Escort was offered as a prize on radio station, before being picked up by the latest owner in 2008—a Mr. Windsor. Having collected the whopping £730,000 ($852,000) fee for the car, he could almost afford his own castle now.

Exhaust: A study by Hagerty U.K. confirmed Princess Diana as the most powerful member of the monarchy when it comes to commanding a premium for royally-appointed automobiles. Tallying up four sales, the number crunchers reckoned that having the People’s Princess as a previous owner increased the value of a car by 813 percent. With equivalent Escorts optimistically advertised for £30,000 ($35,000) this latest sale represents an astonishing 2,433 percent rise. —NB

Porsche’s IPO plans are coming along nicely despite market headwinds



Intake: Sources inside Porsche tell Automotive News and other publications that the company expects a valuation as high as $85 billion when it proceeds down the long road to an IPO, perhaps as early as September, based on perceived buyer demand. The names of potential buyers being floated include Red Bull’s Dietrich Mateschitz, T. Rowe Price Group, Qatar Investment Authority and LMVH Chairman Bernard Arnault. Some analysts are surprised that Porsche is going ahead with the IPO in this current market climate affected by inflation, high fuel prices, and the war in Ukraine, but Porsche seems to have confidence that it’s the right time. Parent group Volkswagen and Porsche SE, the company’s biggest shareholder, would have to make a recommendation on the flotation first.

Exhaust: The IPO is not expected to change the way Porsche does business, except maybe to put some money in Porsche’s pockets to help fund further electrification. Only a small percentage of Porsche will be up for grabs, and the shares have no voting rights. VW, and new VW and Porsche head Oliver Blume, will continue on the path already laid out. — Steven Cole Smith

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]]> https://www.hagerty.com/media/news/the-manifold/2022-08-29/feed/ 0 https://www.hagerty.com/media/driving/1986-honda-civic-si-teen-drivers-dont-know-what-theyre-missing/ https://www.hagerty.com/media/driving/1986-honda-civic-si-teen-drivers-dont-know-what-theyre-missing/#respond Thu, 25 Aug 2022 17:00:39 GMT https://www.hagerty.com/media/?p=247551

My friend Derek was the first of us in high school to get his driver’s license. Like many teens, he learned to drive on a hand-me-down. In this case, from his grandmother. However, most unlike the rest of the student fleet—a gently tattered quilt of used Hondas, Toyotas, and the occasional near-dead BMW—Derek’s car had swagger. Gleaming white on the outside and oozing navy blue from within, his 1989 Cadillac Brougham d’Elegance was our button-tufted ticket to freedom.

It was also a terrible car for a high-school sophomore to learn on. For starters, there was the Caddy’s orca-like curb weight and suitably blubbering chassis. Viewed from outside the car, sudden movements seemed to generate a low-frequency wave that visibly traveled from nose to tail. The Brougham’s interior was peerless, its distractions endless: a pouch with gold keys, an illuminated this, a chrome-plated that, wood-veneer and leather everything else. Knobs, switches, buttons—all fun to tinker with. It was a lot to mind for a pimple-faced teenager, let alone a luxury sedan full of them. Hell, we could sit four band-geeks-abreast in the front row.

I don’t know what my future kids will drive first. Probably not a land-yacht Caddy, but I can’t say that an anodyne commuter car with a distracting touchscreen sounds much better. Wouldn’t it be great if they could learn on something dead-nuts simple? Basic transportation with nary a bell or whistle, ideal for experiencing and fine-tuning the fundamentals of the man-machine interface? Something like a 1986 Honda Civic Si?



As part of its year-long celebration honoring a half-century of the Civic, Honda let us spend an evening behind the wheel of a museum-quality ‘86 Si. You may recall that this two-door hatchback was the first Civic Si in the United States, debuting a year after the stubbier, sportier 1985 CRX Si two-seater and sharing its 1.5-liter four-cylinder. “Si” stands for “sport injected,” and fuel injection took the 12-valve mill from 76 to 91 hp. If the super-lively, high-revving, sweet-shifting 1999 Civic Si is the pink cherry blossom of attainable, joyful Honda performance, these two Si models are the pit.

It bears mentioning here that a mid-’80s Civic possesses the crashworthiness of layered cellophane. Yet I can’t shake the notion that it would be a wonderful car for teaching a young person to drive. Unlike Derek’s d’Elegance, the interior is sparse and suitable for four people, at most. We’re talking roll-up windows here. A pop-out sunroof, map pockets on the doors, and a rudimentary radio are outright luxuries in this context. The fabric on the doors is short-pile and vaguely industrial, like the waiting room carpet at the orthodontist.





More than that, driving a mid-’80s Civic means awareness that you are in a little metal box traveling at a fairly high rate of speed. The ground feels perilously near your butt. Any sound deadening? Sorry, that’s for the Acura Legend, also new for 1986. The extensive glass and low beltline help dissolve the illusion that you are in an interior space. You are Out in the World, where there is Danger, and you have to be Careful. That’s especially true today, when a head-on collision with a CR-V would streamroll our little breadvan like Bigfoot.

Defensive driving is paramount. The brakes—vented discs up front and drums in the rear—don’t inspire deep confidence, so a generous following distance is critical. (Back there, so Joe F-150 can see you.) Making a left turn that merges into traffic? Give yourself plenty of room. Don’t rush, because even when you floor it the 91-hp Civic Si is slow by modern standards, and traffic behind you will quickly attack your bumper. First gear is fairly short, which means you’ll need to practice your 1-2 shift to keep the SOHC four-cylinder on the boil. Keep both hands on the wheel, by the way; the steering is unassisted, which means it really is you steering the the thing. At highway speed, it remains remarkably composed.



Paying attention, working with the car to squeeze the most out of just enough: It’s where Hondas of this vintage shine. Even when pushed to what feels like the Civic Si’s limit, the car is eager. Willing, even. It reacts with perceptible feedback to each little input—a vibration in the steering wheel over cracked pavement, a high-frequency hum felt through the right foot as the revs approach their 6500-rpm redline. It takes finesse to work the throttle gently and not jerk the car in low gears. The clutch has some actual weight to it and requires effort. Honda hadn’t quite yet perfected the manual transmission at this time, as it did in the next decade. Shifts are precise but not especially fluid; nail it and savor the mechanical loveliness of a gear lever finding its gate.

An old Honda tells you things. A Ford EcoSport tells you there is more to life than the Ford EcoSport.

The Si’s suspension is hardly sophisticated—torsion bar up front and beam axle in the rear—but the 2033-pound curb weight helps make the car feel nimble and responsive. The ride is soft but not busy, with good body control. Thirteen-inch tires with generous sidewall soak up big bumps, but not so much that you forget to avoid them. Again, attention pays dividends here.





The controls are simple and intuitive. A pleasant click greets you with each twist of the headlight stalk. The doors, gas cap, and hatch lock individually and require a key to open. Lifting the practically-all-glass hatch reminds you how heavy and huge this part has become on modern crossovers. The back window on most new cars is like a mail slot, but here it is so large that it fills up the entire rear-view mirror.

Putting a new driver behind the wheel of a sports car is rarely a good call, but the Civic Si is more of a sporty car. It’s zippy and playful, yes, but it’s still essentially a Civic. Five minutes behind the wheel and you totally understand how this would be the ideal car for delivering pizzas in a busy downtown. Agile, easy to park, practical; it’s even great on gas, with 30 mpg city and 33 highway. (Everything Derek’s dear old Caddy isn’t.) The Si can be abused, babied, or driven absent-mindedly; it takes things at your speed.

This is all wishful thinking, of course. Surviving ’86 Civic Si hatches virtually don’t exist in this condition outside of private collections like Honda’s. If I’m being honest, what I really want to pass down to my future progeny is the joy that driving even a simple car can provide. Everything else, even if it’s big as a Brougham, eventually rusts away.



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]]> https://www.hagerty.com/media/driving/1986-honda-civic-si-teen-drivers-dont-know-what-theyre-missing/feed/ 0 https://www.hagerty.com/media/motorcycles/the-first-honda-gold-wing-was-flawed-but-distinctly-special/ https://www.hagerty.com/media/motorcycles/the-first-honda-gold-wing-was-flawed-but-distinctly-special/#comments Fri, 19 Aug 2022 17:00:44 GMT https://www.hagerty.com/media/?p=245760



There was sad news recently for many admirers of the original two-wheeled tourer: the Gold Wing Road Riders’ Association is closing after 45 years of service to Honda’s mighty mile-muncher.

The last ever Wing Ding rally took place in June in Shreveport, Louisiana, attended by far fewer riders than in the GWRRA’s heyday, when the organization had more than 80,000 members in over 50 countries.

It seems most touring riders prefer adventure bikes these days. Or maybe it’s just that many “Wing Nuts,” as members call themselves, are getting too old to ride.

Either way, there’s no disputing the impact that Honda made in 1975 with the launch of the GL1000 Gold Wing, which revolutionized long-distance motorcycling and arguably generated more controversy than any bike before or since.



“Two Wheeled Motor Car?” sneered Bike, Britain’s best-selling monthly, before describing the Wing as ugly, overweight, too complicated and boring. That was enough to lose the magazine Honda’s advertising for a year.

Not all reviewers were so negative, and Cycle, the best-selling U.S. title, began a rave review with: “If Honda is going to sell a motorcycle for $3000, then by all that’s holy it’s going to be worth it.” Soon the Wing was on its way to becoming not just a Stateside sales success but a two-wheeled phenomenon.

Riding a well-maintained GL1000 years later, the slightly weird thing is how ordinary it seems. Despite its high bars, bulbous styling and big flat-four engine, this 1976-model GL is more noticeable for its vivid yellow paint than its size. Cruising along at a lazy 60 mph, it feels far too inoffensive to have been remotely controversial.

By modern touring standards the GL1000 is not so much complex and overweight as basic and under-equipped. It has no fairing or luggage; no radio, cruise control or reverse gear—let alone the fancy sound system, navigation, heated seats, or countless other features that so many bikes now have as standard.





Motorcycles were very different in the early Seventies, when a group of Honda engineers led by Shoichiro Irimajiri—legendary designer of the firm’s multi-cylinder race bikes of the previous decade—sat down to plan the “King of Motorcycles.” The new model was to be the world’s fastest and best—a grand tourer that would bring back to Honda the glory that the CB750 four was set to lose to Kawasaki’s recently launched 900cc Z1.

After rejecting a flat-six engined prototype, Irimajiri and his team opted for a 999cc flat-four unit that produced 80 hp. It was the first liquid-cooled four-stoke from a Japanese manufacturer, and the first shaft-drive unit for export markets. Its single overhead camshafts were driven by toothed rubber belts, a first for a bike motor.

The tubular steel-framed chassis was relatively conventional, notable mainly for the dummy fuel tank that contained some electrical components, a kickstart lever and a modicum of storage space. Fuel lived under the seat, which helped lower the center of gravity of a bike which, at 639 pounds with fuel, was far heavier than most contemporaries.

Plenty of bikes are far heavier these days (the current top-spec Wing weighs 809 pounds), and my impression on stepping aboard was very different to that of testers in ’75. The motor started easily, breathing out quietly through its twin exhausts and emitting very little noise from the water-jacketed cylinders in front of my shins.



In other ways, though, the GL felt just as it must have done back then when, with the exception of the Z1, it was the world’s hardest accelerating production bike. It still surged forward with a fair bit of enthusiasm as it headed towards a top speed of about 120 mph.

But its greatest attribute was long-legged cruising ability. The GL purred along smoothly and effortlessly at 80 mph, and had sufficient midrange torque that it rarely required revving close to the 8500-rpm redline. Combined with its light five-speed gearbox (this bike’s liking for false neutrals was typical) and a competent shaft drive system, this gave the impression that the Wing would cruise to the ends of the earth in relaxed comfort.

Unfortunately, that wasn’t the case. The exposed, high-barred riding position was ill-suited to long distances, and the seat soon became a pain. That was less of a drawback that it should have been, because the fuel tank held just 19 liters (5 gallons)—good for barely more than 100 miles of fairly hard riding.

Handling was not the Wing’s forte, although its low center of gravity aided low-speed maneuvering, and it was less of a handful than I’d expected. Its narrow front forks were fairly firm but the soft shocks began to feel vague and underdamped under moderately hard cornering.



The main problem came when all that weight had to be slowed down in a hurry. The twin front and single disc rear brakes worked fairly well provided the handlebar lever was given a firm squeeze. But using the front brake with the bike banked over even slightly put too much force through the spindly chassis, resulting in a disapproving shake of the head.

The Wing was enjoyable provided I stuck to a fairly gentle pace, though, and its flat-four engine gave it an appealing character. It felt nothing like a tourer; more like the predecessor of the modern breed of giant cruisers like Triumph’s Rocket 3.

The GL1000’s unsuitability for spirited riding was a big factor behind its mixed reception and slow initial sales in Europe. But that was no drawback for many older, more affluent, touring-oriented American riders, who adopted the Wing with enthusiasm and founded rider groups including the GWRRA.

They also soon started modifying and decorating their GLs with accessories, production of which soon grew to become a major industry. First came touring items including fairing, top-box and panniers, followed by custom seats and upgraded suspension units. Before long, you could upgrade your Wing with everything from footboards to a supercharger, plus a vast array of lights and chrome parts.



Honda was slow to produce accessories itself, but in 1980 it finally released an updated GL1100 plus De Luxe and Interstate models with fairings and luggage. By then, more than 200,000 Gold Wings had been sold worldwide, and the name had become synonymous with long-distance comfort and refinement.

In many ways the testers on both sides of the Atlantic had been right back in 1975. The original, naked GL1000 had many flaws, not least for long-distance travel, but it also had unprecedented potential.

All these years later the original touring legend seems remarkably basic and down-to-earth. Yet there’s still something distinctly special about the Gold Wing.

 

***

 

1975 Honda GL1000 Gold Wing

Average Price: $2400 (#4, Fair condition); $4000 (#3, Good); $7300 (#2, Excellent); $12,200 (#1, Concours)

Highs: Long-legged flat-four feel.

Lows: Braking into a bend.

Takeaway: Old tourer is now a classic cruiser.

—

Engine: Liquid-cooled SOHC flat-four

Capacity: 999cc

Power: 80 hp @ 7500 rpm

Weight: 639 with fluids

Top speed: 120 mph

Via Hagerty UK

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]]> https://www.hagerty.com/media/motorcycles/the-first-honda-gold-wing-was-flawed-but-distinctly-special/feed/ 3 https://www.hagerty.com/media/music/go-little-honda-but-dont-come-back-from-dead-mans-curve/ https://www.hagerty.com/media/music/go-little-honda-but-dont-come-back-from-dead-mans-curve/#respond Fri, 12 Aug 2022 18:00:58 GMT https://www.hagerty.com/media/?p=232597



As cool as boomers think music was in the 1960s, a lot of it was formulaic. You had teen tragedies like Bob Seger’s “East Side Story” and Wayne Cochran’s “Last Kiss,” a hit by J. Frank Wilson. Beach party and surfing songs were big for a while. Then there were songs about going fast in cars, from “Hot Rod Lincoln” to any number of Chuck Berry tunes. Sometimes the streams would cross, and you’d end up with something like the Shangri Las’ “Leader of the Pack,” a combination of teen tragedy with fast bikes.

That brings us to Jan & Dean’s big hit, “Dead Man’s Curve,” written by The Beach Boys’ Brian Wilson, plus Artie Kornfeld (who helped organize Woodstock) and Jan Berry, with additional credit to Los Angeles radio DJ Roger Christian. It’s a song about street-racing Corvettes (“Sting Ray”) and Jaguars (“XKE”) that ends in a wreck on an infamous Los Angeles highway.

There really was a particularly dangerous curve in L.A. back in the ’60s, a 90-degree turn on Sunset Boulevard near North Whittier Drive, and the song was based on an actual wreck—though that accident took place miles from the City of Angels and involved a 50cc motorbike.

The story goes back even further to a teenager named Mike Curb. You may recognize the name: In addition to a successful career as a songwriter, producer, record company executive, and politician, Curb, a racing enthusiast and team owner, has racked up over 100 wins in over 50 different racing series, including Indy Car, NASCAR, and IMSA.

Back in the early 1960s, though, he was studying music. It’s not entirely clear where he was studying, though. One source says he was enrolled at UCLA, another that he was a freshman at San Fernando Valley State College. A third asserts that he was still in high school when he wrote an advertising jingle for a class assignment about a new Japanese motorcycle brand that was changing the image of American bikers.

Until then, motorcyclists had an image of, well, bikers, perpetuated by sensationalist journalism about a ruckus in Hollister, California, and subsequent release of 1953 crime flick The Wild Ones with Marlon Brando. Whereas Brando’s Johnny rode a 650cc Triumph Thunderbird (not a Harley or Indian), Honda was selling the cute little 50cc Super Cub, known as the Honda 50 here in the states.

Curb’s song “You Meet the Nicest People on a Honda” somehow caught the attention of Robert Emmennegger, creative director at Grey Advertising, American Honda’s agency. Grey purchased the rights to the slogan and song, and became the basis of one of the most successful and longest running advertising campaigns in U.S. history, used in one form or another from 1963 to 1975. By then Honda had supplemented the Super Cub with big, four-cylinder bikes and four-wheeled vehicles.



In 1962, though, American Honda exclusively sold relatively small-displacement motorcycles. It had been successful establishing the brand in the United States, with 40,000 annual sales at over 700 U.S. dealers, more than any other motorcycle brand; but for 1963, Kihachiro Kawashima, the head of Honda’s American subsidiary, had set an ambitious goal for 1963 of 200,000 units. He budgeted the largest amount yet to market the bikes.

A key part of the marketing strategy was appealing to people who’d never before considered a motorcycle, in part due to bikers’ unsavory image. Emmennegger took the upbeat jingle and ran with it, using the slogan in print, radio, and television ads. The print ads were colorful and upbeat, focused on regular folks enjoying their Hondas. Mothers and fathers with their kids, surfers with their boards, young couples, and even some gray-haired grandmas. Everyone was respectable and nice.

Thanks in large part to the campaign, the Honda 50 resonated (and bigger displacement models like the 305 “Dream” as well) with the American public. Honda didn’t sell 200,000 bikes right away, but sales nearly doubled in 1963. By 1964 the ads and the bikes were so popular that The Beach Boys, whose own popularity rivaled that of the Beatles, departed from their surf-and-hot-rod formula to record Brian Wilson and Mike Love’s tribute to the Honda 50, “Little Honda” for the band’s All Summer Long LP.

On an album with hits like “All Summer Long” and “I Get Around,” Little Honda was essentially filler. Producer Gary Usher, though, heard the song, thought it had promise, gave vocalist Chuck Girad a copy of the album, and told him to learn “Little Honda.” Usher then put together a group of studio musicians from Los Angeles’ famed “Wrecking Crew” of first-call session players and commissioned DJ Roger Christian to write (mostly fictional) liner notes for an album with even cheesier songs about motorcycles and hot rods. He then released “Little Honda” as a single by the “Hondells,” with “Hot Rod High” as the B side. Though the production on the album is credited to Nick Venet, the vice president of Mercury Records, long-time Venet associate named Mike Curb was probably involved, since he is credited with producing the Hondells’ 1965 release of “You Meet The Nicest People on a Honda.”

The Hondells’ version of “Little Honda” began to climb the pop charts, causing Usher to assemble a touring version of the Hondells, fronted by “Richie Burns”—perhaps a fictional character, perhaps not. (I suppose promoting an essentially made-up band that actually sang was better than Milli Vanilli.) “Little Honda” was a bone fide hit for Usher and the Hondells. It went “faster, faster,” making the Top Ten and peaking at #9.

Capitalizing on the Hondells’ popularity, Mike Curb also produced their cover of Frankie Ford’s “Sea Cruise,” with the B side their version of “You Meet The Nicest People On A Honda,” thus triple-dipping on writing, arranging, and producing credits. That single, however, doesn’t appear to have charted–though you can still find copies if you’re into kitchy ’60s advertising.

Yes, I have a copy.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S1Cuekbklkg

Regardless of the jingle’s success as a single, Honda was so happy with “Little Honda” that it gave Brian Wilson his own Honda 50 as a token of its appreciation.

Enter dead man’s curve.

The way Artie Kornfeld tells the story, he was hanging out with Brian Wilson in Santa Monica, not far from the beach. He and Wilson were riding on the Honda 50, which, with Wilson close to 200 pounds, was rather overloaded even for clean pavement. The sand-strewn roads near the beach were hardly that, and they wiped out on a curve. According to Kornfeld, they carried the Super Cub, now broken in half, about three miles to the home of Wilson’s ex-wife’s mother. The door was open but nobody was home. Bleeding profusely, the pair went in to recuperate.

In the house was a piano, a blank piece of paper on its music stand. Wilson sat at the keys. Kornfeld grabbed the paper and wrote the words dead man’s curve. Wilson began to pick out chords in a two-four rhythm on the piano. Kornfeld, who said he was jealous of Berry’s Corvette, began to sing: “I was cruisin’ in my Sting Ray late one night and an XKE pulled up on the right.” (It’s possible that lyric is the reason why American’s don’t refer to the Jaguar by its proper name of E-Type.) Wilson added some melody and, a half-hour later, the song was mostly finished.

Because Kornfeld was a native New Yorker, not an Angeleno, Wilson filled in the local street names and landmarks. Playing back what they had written, Kornfeld started musing on their bike wreck, concluding that “we need an accident here [in the song].” Wilson said Kornfeld was nuts, but played a chord and Kornfeld, thinking of a Robert Frost poem about a single decision changing one’s life, spun out some lyrics. Wilson worked out the compelling “Won’t come back from dead man’s curve” chorus. Jan Berry then appeared, adding a few touches of his own and working out an arrangement appropriate for Dean Torrence and himself.

A few days later, they went into the studio and cut the song, using Wrecking Crew members Glen Campbell on guitar, Leon Russell on keyboards, and drummers Hal Blaine and Earl Palmer as backing musicians. “Dead Man’s Curve” was released as the B side to a forgettable song titled “New Girl in School.” The A side stalled in the charts, but “Dead Man’s Curve” hit the top ten, making it all the way to #8.

That is how a crash on a little 50cc motorbike led to a great song about Corvettes and Jaguars street racing in L.A.

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]]> https://www.hagerty.com/media/music/go-little-honda-but-dont-come-back-from-dead-mans-curve/feed/ 0 https://www.hagerty.com/media/news/the-manifold/2022-08-09/ https://www.hagerty.com/media/news/the-manifold/2022-08-09/#respond Tue, 09 Aug 2022 15:00:09 GMT https://www.hagerty.com/media/?p=241931



Ferrari recalls nearly every U.S. model since 2005 for potential brake failure

Intake: Almost every Ferrari sold in the U.S.A. since 2005 is being recalled over a brake-fluid reservoir cap that may not vent correctly. A faulty cap can lead to a vacuum forming in the reservoir, which could cause fluid to leak. In the worst-case scenario, that leak could result in brake failure. The good news: Ferrari believes only one percent of the cars are affected. The fix is very straightforward, to: A new reservoir cap will be installed and a software update will deliver a stern warning in the instrument cluster should fluids get low. In the meantime, Ferrari says that any driver seeing a low brake-fluid warning should stop driving immediately and have their car towed to a dealer.

Exhaust: The recall impacts modern-classic models such as the 612 Scaglietti and F430 right up to 2022 cars which may not even have been delivered yet. Some of Ferrari’s limited-edition specials such as the F12tdf, LaFerrari, and F60 America are also affected by the potential failure of this simple component. The recall was submitted to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration on July 26 and all dealers and customers will be notified on September 24. You can read the full list of implicated vehicles here.—Nik Berg



Honda’s tweaked CRF lineup continues to serve trail riders on a budget



Intake: Not everyone is looking to go racing in the off-road motorcycle market. Honda knows this, and so it has renewed its CRF trail family of bikes for continued production. A nice blend of old-school simplicity and modern features make the CRF50F, CRF110F, CRF125F, and CRF250F each a trusty go-to choice for many riders. All but the minute 50F feature electronic fuel-injection and electric start for ease of use and dependable running. Maintenance is also kept low thanks to the simplicity of air-cooled engines: Routine services center on changing air filter and oil, allowing a single owner to maintain a family’s worth of bikes.

Exhaust: It only takes a minute of looking into purchasing an off road vehicle to see how advanced and expensive off-road motorcycles have become. The CRF trail bikes are perfect for those who want to escape to the trails and enjoy the outdoors without worrying about a high-strung race bike. These Hondas are also affordable and welcoming to newer riders, making the lineup a go-to choice for newer riders or those seeking fun with the whole family. We would love to see a 400cc model fill the gap between the 250F and XR650L, but that might just be us being greedy. —Kyle Smith


Grease star Olivia Newton-John succumbs to cancer



Intake: She was a four-time Grammy Award winner whose music had such wide-ranging appeal that she landed songs on the
pop, country, adult contemporary, and dance charts. But to those of us who love cool cars, she’ll always be Sandy. Olivia Newton-John, the multi-talented Australian singer who starred alongside John Travolta in Grease, died on August 8 at age 73 after years of treatment for cancer. In the 1978 film that vaulted her to superstardom, our favorite Sandy went to a drive-in movie in Danny’s 1949 Dodge Wayfarer, rode in the Pink Ladies’ 1948 Studebaker Commander Regal, and flew away in the fantasy version of Kenickie’s 1948 Ford De Luxe convertible. And in real life, Newton-John’s first car after moving to America was a 1975 VW Super Beetle convertible that sold for $68,750 at Julien’s Auctions three years ago. News of her death spread quickly, as mourning fans flooded social media with messages of admiration. Travolta was one of them. “My dearest Olivia, you made all of our lives so much better,” he wrote. “Your impact was incredible. I love you so much.”

Exhaust: Travolta might as well have been speaking for everyone who adored Newton-John’s music and her breakthrough performance in Grease. She had a magnetic personality, the voice of an angel, and at age 29 had us all believing she was a high school senior. “Grease changed my life in the most amazing way, and I’ve had such an amazing life,” she said in 2015. “When things go wrong, you’ve got to believe you will get through them and focus on the positive things in your life.” She was one of those positive things for the rest of us. Enjoy your ride in the clouds, Sandy. —Jeff Peek


High off Urus sales, Lamborghini courts Pikes Peak

 

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Intake: “Performance reaches a new dimension,” promises Lamborghini in a short video that previews an updated Urus SUV charging up Pikes Peak in Colorado. There’s only a fleeting glimpse of the camouflaged car in the clip, and no indication of exactly how this “new dimension” will be reached by the Italian company’s best-selling model. Auto spies have previously spotted both a bewinged Urus Evo and a plug-in hybrid undergoing testing, but which one hurtled up the fourteener hasn’t been revealed just yet.

Exhaust: The updated Urus will be the first of three models launched before the end of 2022, a trio that will include the rally-inspired Huracán Sterrato. The subtext of this Instagram post, however, is the success of the Urus SUV (it accounted for 61 percent of brand sales in the first half of 2021) and the importance of the American market to Sant’Agata (it sells more cars in the U.S. than anywhere else). —NB

Bentley Mulliner Batur teased ahead of Monterey Car Week



Intake: Coachbuilder extraordinaire Bentley Mulliner is set to reinvent Bentley vehicles as we know them. The vehicle is question is the Batur, and it possesses a new design direction for the brand as it pursues an all-electric future. All we have right now is a singular teaser picture of its grille, sporting Bentley’s signature texture with a black foreground and a red background. Bentley will stop all the teasing on Sunday, August 21, upon the model’s formal introduction at Monterey Car Week.

Exhaust: Consider us more than a little excited to see the Batur in the flesh, as previous Mulliner exercises in recent memory (namely the radically gorgeous and speedy Bacalar) have done an impressive job elevating the brand. Considering the earth moving torque and silent operation of modern EV powertrains are perfectly paired with a top-tier luxury car, Bentley’s future seems more than just secure. The move away from internal combustion feels like a natural move, one that need a design language to go with it. With that in mind, bring on the Batur. —Sajeev Mehta

Dodge’s electric muscle car will likely debut next week



Intake: Dodge shared plans to unveil three future vehicles later this month, with a “Current Muscle” vehicle coming on August 15, a “Gateway Muscle” vehicle the following day, and a “Future Muscle” vehicle bowing on the 17th. The debuts will be hosted at the M1 Concourse in Pontiac, Michigan, for select members of the media.

Exhaust: The “Current Muscle” car may very well be the next-gen Challenger, and the “Future Muscle” might be the electric muscle sedan that’s been teased above. As for the “Gateway Muscle” offering, speculation from Mopar Insiders suggests that it is the Alfa Romeo Tonale–based Dodge Hornet. The compact crossover has already been spotted testing in the United States and will pack a plug-in-hybrid powertrain like the Tonale’s, which has a total of 275 hp. We’re not sure that’s exactly a “gateway” to muscle cars, but we’re excited to see what Dodge has planned to replace its popular Hellcat-powered offerings. —Brandan Gillogly

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]]> https://www.hagerty.com/media/news/the-manifold/2022-08-09/feed/ 0 https://www.hagerty.com/media/opinion/vision-thing/vision-thing-the-world-car-fallacy/ https://www.hagerty.com/media/opinion/vision-thing/vision-thing-the-world-car-fallacy/#respond Mon, 08 Aug 2022 22:00:56 GMT https://www.hagerty.com/media/?p=241535

Since getting into this writing thing, one of the big joys of the gig (apart from conversing with commenters and seeing my untethered ramblings in digital ink) is digging deep into research. Rather, I get to read a lot.

As you probably gathered, I love reading. Being extremely on the spectrum (I have what used to be called Asperger’s), my preference is not for fiction. Anything remotely auto industry-adjacent, or automotive-related, however, is very much my thing. I’m physically incapable of walking past a thrift store or secondhand bookshop without investigating the treasures that lie within. There’s lots to criticize Amazon for (I try to use Abebooks these days) but the tech giant has finding obscure auto-related stuff much easier. When I meet my end it’ll probably be in a dusty house, stacked floor to ceiling with old car books and magazines. Something weighty, like Cars, toppling from a high shelf will connect with my head and deliver the final blow. I’ve made my peace with this.

I recently bought a copy of Brock Yates’ The Decline and Fall of the American Automobile Industry, and I’m about a third of the way through (time as ever being the enemy). The opening chapters describe in clear-eyed detail the complete failure to launch of the GM J-Car, and how those on the GM building’s 14th floor were as oblivious to the car’s shortcomings as they were obvious to those outside it. Which got me thinking about the concept of the so called “world car,” and why—on some level—it most often fails.



So, what is a World Car? In the past, when global markets were a bit more isolated from one another, it was long the dream of the major domestic OEMs to produce a mass-market car that could be sold on both sides of the Atlantic, and in Australia, with minimal differentiation. (It would sell in other developed markets too, but for brevity’s sake we’ll concentrate on the U.S. and Europe.) We’re not talking simply about a shared platform, but a rather complete car with negligible differences from Detroit to Dagenham, to Down Under. It could cost as much to develop car in Europe or Australia as it did in Detroit, so if these costs could be combined it would be an automotive buy one get two free. The savings would be astronomical!



Even though I’m in the U.K., you or I can equally walk into our respective local Honda dealerships this afternoon and (minor trim and equipment differences aside) buy examples of the same Civic. Rewind forty years and let’s say we’d tried the same experiment with the Ford Escort; one of us would have ended up with a reasonably competent mass-market hatch, while the other got an ersatz sort of copy that looked like it came from Wish.com. Remember both these (all three?) of these cars, because we’ll be coming back to them.

Ford inadvertently created a world car when it made the Model T, which sold all over the globe and whose manufacturing expanded to overseas with kits. Edsel Ford then took Henry’s River Rouge idea (raw materials in one end and cars out of the other) and transposed it to Dagenham just east of London in 1929. Dagenham is near where I grew up, and as a child I would always ask if we were going to go past the Ford factory, so I could see the huge Ford sign piercing the sky and the lines and lines of new cars parked up outside. (Car manufacturing has long since been offshored, but Dagenham remains as a major engine plant.)



Simultaneously, across the channel in Germany in 1929, Henry Ford started construction of another European plant in Cologne. It was a direct response to GM taking a majority shareholding in Opel, after GM had already purchased Vauxhall in the U.K. in 1925. Chrysler didn’t get into the Euro game until it bought the Rootes Group (mainly Hillman, Humber Singer, Sunbeam, and Talbot) in 1964. Chrysler’s Euro adventures were as messy as that lot sounds.

After the war, as ravaged Europe built its way out of devastation with help from the United States, car design and production began in earnest. Both Ford and GM now had separate design studios and engineering centers in both the U.K. and Germany, each developing their own models for their respective home markets—an incredible duplication of time and effort.

The U.K. has always had a slightly uncomfortable relationship with Europe, something post-colonial attitudes and two world wars helped amplify. In my humble experience, I’ve always thought the U.K. felt much closer to the U.S. socially, politically, and culturally than it does to its neighbors less than thirty miles away. Two countries separated by a common language, goes the joke. When Detroit decided it was going to start forcing closer cooperation between its Euro satellites in the early Sixties, there was a lot of resistance from the U.K. side.

What relevance does this fascinating history have to car design?



The first Ford of Europe (as it would come to be known) car was the 1968 Capri. Famously marketed as “the car you always promised yourself,” Europe’s “Mustang” was designed by the man who penned the original car, Philip T. Clark. Until exchange rates rendered it too expensive, the U.S. became the Capri’s biggest market, an indication that domestic customers were slowly beginning to turn towards smaller, nimble-driving cars with a hint of Euro sophistication and better economy.

This Americanization of European designs was no accident; designers and executives crossed the Atlantic regularly, an overseas posting on your resume was critical to ascending the ladder in Detroit. Look at the 1972 Vauxhall Ventora, or the 1970 Ford Cortina Mk3, and the influences are clear in the classic Coke-bottle hips and liberal use of chrome and vinyl. All of this brought a dash of Stateside glitz to the U.K., which was, even at that time, still a smoldering bomb crater.



The board was all set. By the early Seventies there was Ford of Europe, as well as GM’s Opel in Germany. Vauxhall had withered without investment from GM, and its offerings had become U.K.-built Opels affixed with a Griffin badge on the nose.

And then came 1972. That’s when the Honda Civic happened.



Although not conceived as a true world car, it was very much designed with export in mind, primarily to Europe. As the U.S. economy crashed and gas prices soared, the little Honda was suddenly the most fuel-efficient car you could buy. In the U.K., buyers were stunned by a well-engineered car that actually started on damp gray mornings and didn’t require a sleeves-up session every Sunday afternoon just to keep it running.

In a display of its burgeoning talent for advancements in the wrong direction, General Motors bolted first. In 1972 they came up with the T-car, a compact RWD platform that ended up underneath nearly all the GM brands worldwide. And because it was developed in both Detroit and Russelheim, the Vauxhall Chevette and Opel Kadett consequently sported completely different body panels to their American cousins, the Chevy Chevette and Pontiac T1000. Moderately successful despite their awful build quality and antiquated layout, the T-body cars were an expensive lesson in how not to design a car. GM refused to learn it.



Honda followed up the Civic’s success with the Accord in 1976. You don’t need me to re-litigate the impact of both these cars on the U.S. domestic market, as Detroit was shaken to its core. But we shall see that the real failure of GM’s subsequent compact, FWD J-car wasn’t totally due to the product. Blindness was the proverbial dagger—an arrogance as to how and why the market was changing.

One of the things that gets taught at design schools at the undergrad level is the creation of personas, a composite version of your target buyer. This considers age, income, education level and other socio-economic factors. You come up with a list of things these intended customers want in a car, and then use it to guide your design. Unimaginative students invariably come up with some idealized version of themselves, obscenely wealthy and successful at a young age, and then use that as an excuse to design supercars. It’s the sort of thing you do in university and then never do again, because once you get into an OEM there’s a whole marketing department with real customer feedback doing it for you.

Here we come to a fundamental design tenet. What exactly is your product going to be, and who is it designed for?

The Stateside success of the Volkswagen Beetle, another accidental world car, had convinced the GM brass that economical compacts were the purview of hippies, radicals, and other such anti-establishment types. This Bloomfield Hills and Grosse Pointe country club thinking blinded executives to one salient fact: Middle America was purchasing imports, as well.

Here is what happened with the J-car. Tied to notions that served them well in the past, GM made the J-car a FWD parody of what had come before. Upon release in 1982, the J-cars were underpowered, overweight, and overpriced. Given the General’s numerous brands, it was also a badge-engineering job, which was something that did not fool American customers. The J’s only saving grace was that the European version had better engines and interiors. As a result, the Vauxhall Cavalier and Opel Ascona were well-developed and sold in good numbers.



Out of some sort of misplaced solidarity (or perhaps wanting a world car debacle of its own), Ford originally planned the 1981 Escort as direct replacement of the Euro Mk2 RWD Escort and the North American Pinto. Ford of Europe (FoE) was headed by Bob Lutz and he foresaw the new car must possess a FWD layout. Once the VW Golf and Civic appeared, Lee Iacocca (still a Ford VP at the time) had the sudden realization Ford U.S. had nothing to compete with, and demanded it become a global program. Hal Sperlich was the man in charge of the program in Detroit, but he was fired by Henry Ford II because of his closeness to Iacocca.

And then, seemingly overnight, one Escort design became two. Superficially similar on the outside, the two cars ended up sharing essentially nothing. They had the same wheelbase, but the U.S. model was longer and laden with additional trim: A stark contrast to the Euro model’s clean aero look.



Ford tried again in the 1990s when it came time to replace the Sierra, a once-revolutionary looking car hobbled by decidedly less than state of the art RWD running gear. Allocating a staggering $6 billion for the development of the CDW27 platform, the idea was for FoE to lead the design, and utilizing Ford of America’s expertise in V-6 engines and auto transmissions. Because the U.S. versions (Contour/Mystique) were coming to market a year later than the Euro Mondeo (a made up name to signify “world”), Ford of America had time to improve the final design for domestic tastes. And they did, again ending up with two cars that were somewhat similar but had expensively different sheet metal. Fate always having the last laugh, the final 2014 Euro Mondeo was a rebadged Fusion, designed entirely in North America. Landing in Europe two years after appearing stateside, it was criticized for being too big.

Let’s not forget our friends at Chrysler. The Chrysler Horizon/Dodge Omni had a messy and half-baked development hampered by the fact Chrysler U.K. was in dire financial straits. But when Mopar was on its mid-Nineties design roll it came up with the Neon, Bob Lutz’s declared import fighter. It was good enough (alongside Jeep with the TJ Wrangler and XJ Cherokee) to spearhead another European invasion. Thanks to favorable exchange rates in Europe, the Neon was a cheeky-looking and conspicuous bargain that did reasonably well this side of the pond.



OEMs put a lot of effort into identifying markets and customers, then using clinics and surveys to preview designs. Thing is, you can manipulate these tools to get the results you want (which GM did with the J-car to tell itself what it wanted to hear). It takes a lot of money to do them properly by offering ride and drives of prototypes, which GM perhaps didn’t want to spend. Forget a persona, GM management hubris based on past success pointed to a type of customer who didn’t actually exist.

When Toyota wanted to get into the full-size truck market with the Tundra, its designers and project managers actually went out to parking lots across the America, on the weekends, to witness first hand how people used their trucks. This is the sort of knowledge you can’t get from check box forms. It’s enshrined in the Toyota Production System as genchi genbutsu—literally translated as “get your boots on.”

Remember what I said previously about how experiences are important for a designer? My first trip to the U.S. came about in 1999. I was chasing a woman (as always, doing things the hard way) and we met up in Atlanta. As we toured the American South on our way back to her home in North Carolina, I was amazed by the number of Japanese cars I saw in these American heartlands. Like the U.K.’s fractious friendship with the Euro mainland, I assumed there would be cultural resistance to vehicles from Asia.

You must challenge your perceptions if you want your designs to be a success. The Civic and Accord succeeded in spite of the fact that they were not American. They hit the mark because they were good cars that didn’t insult their intended market’s intelligence.

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]]> https://www.hagerty.com/media/opinion/vision-thing/vision-thing-the-world-car-fallacy/feed/ 0 https://www.hagerty.com/media/motorsports/2006-hungarian-grand-prix-hondas-surprise-victor/ https://www.hagerty.com/media/motorsports/2006-hungarian-grand-prix-hondas-surprise-victor/#respond Wed, 27 Jul 2022 16:00:05 GMT https://www.hagerty.com/media/?p=238562

As Jenson Button sat on the starting grid in Hungary, he might have reflected on another opportunity to win his first grand prix slipping away.

A triumph from 14th on the grid comes with incredibly long odds, particularly around the tight twists and turns at the Hungaroring—a notoriously tricky circuit with minimal passing zones, on the outskirts of Budapest. Additionally, there was stout competition in front of his white and black Honda, that afternoon.

Among the 13 competitors in front of the Briton, there was the identical team car of nine-time grand prix winner Rubens Barrichello, seven-time world champion Michael Schumacher, and Renault’s three-time race winner Giancarlo Fisichella. Right behind Button, the current world champion Fernando Alonso sat poised in another Renault.

On top of that, no other manufacturer than Renault or Ferrari had yet to win a grand prix that year. And Button’s Honda was hardly a contender. Sure, he finished third in Malaysia. He even started from pole position at the season-opening Australian Grand Prix, leading three laps before his engine detonated. The highlights, though, were sporadic. After six-and-a-half seasons and 112 grands prix, many felt Button deserved a victory for his efforts and those of his Honda team.

To add insult to injury, a ten-place grid penalty for an engine failure before the race had dropped him from fourth to 14th in the Hungary GP starting order.

The weather was the only thing on Button’s side that day. Hungary in August is usually sunny and oppressively hot. In 2006, it was dull and overcast. Then, just before the grand prix, it rained for the first time in the race’s 20-year history. A wet race meant possible chaos. On the starting grid, Button’s Honda teammate chose wet tires. The winless driver felt that was too cautious. He believed the Michelin intermediate was the right rubber for the conditions.



Despite the wall of spray that engulfed the field once the starting lights went out, all but one made it through the opening lap. Jenson made up three places, passing some slow starters. Still, 11th wasn’t much to get excited about, especially when Michael Schumacher had already vaulted from 11th on the grid to fourth on that first lap. And perhaps even more impressive, Alonso rocketed from 15th to sixth, overtaking Button in the process.

“I was a bit more cautious just because this is such a long race and in those conditions … We knew we had a quick car and we didn’t want to throw it away on lap one,” Button recalled.

As he navigated the rain, Button wasn’t losing ground on the leader. He started to realize that he had the right equipment to do the job. His silky driving style was well-suited to the damp conditions, the V-8 in the back of the Honda delivered its power smoothly, and the Michelin intermediate tires were definitely the right choice.



This was confirmed by Button on lap five, when he sliced past Fisichella’s Renault. A lap later he pulled a similar maneuver on Michael Schumacher into turn one. The German struggled heroically with a Bridgestone intermediate tire that wasn’t quite up to the job. Button made it briefly into third place behind Kimi Räikkönen and Alonso on lap 17, dropping back to fourth when he stopped for tires.

It was on lap 26 that things started to turn in his favor.

Räikkönen, momentarily distracted by his team’s chatter over the radio, crashed into a back marker. In the moment of confusion, Button jumped ahead of Pedro de la Rosa. Then, the safety car came out, enabling the debris covering the track to be cleared.

Alonso’s 40-second lead was wiped out in one go. By lap 45, Button—now charging and believing that victory was at least a possibility—had Alonso’s lead down to half a second. As he bore down on the blue and yellow Renault, the pair began trading fastest laps.



A lap later, the cynics thought they had the answer to Button’s speed: He was running light, having to stop to refuel as Alonso ploughed on. In fact, it was Alonso who pit for fuel some five laps later.

Even so, Honda knew the win was far from guaranteed. While Button would have to stop again for fuel and new tires, his Renault rival had a clear run to the finish.

Except he didn’t. Leaving the pits on lap 51, Fernando nearly went off at the first turn, in an uncharacteristic move. TV cameras told the truth. The Renault’s right-rear wheel nut flew off. As the wheel left the car, the Alonso was pitched into a spin and out of the race in the second turn.

Button’s final pit stop went like clockwork. He simply had to reel off the laps. “In a way, it gifted us the victory but looking at it now, it’s actually a shame,” Alonso said. “I think we would have had a great race.”



It was Honda’s first Formula 1 win as a chassis and engine manufacturer since 1967. For Button, it had taken 113 attempts, but he’d finally won a grand prix.

“The checkered flag came around too quickly,” Button later recalled. “I had so much going through my mind the last couple of laps, it just went in the blink of an eye, and I really wish that the race was longer than it actually was.”

Apart from Jenson and Honda’s landmark day in Hungary, no manufacturer other than Renault or Ferrari would win a grand prix in 2006. Let’s hope the 2022 grand prix throws up a similarly unexpected victor.



The post 2006 Hungarian Grand Prix: Honda’s surprise victor appeared first on Hagerty Media.

]]> https://www.hagerty.com/media/motorsports/2006-hungarian-grand-prix-hondas-surprise-victor/feed/ 0 https://www.hagerty.com/media/news/the-manifold/2022-07-22/ https://www.hagerty.com/media/news/the-manifold/2022-07-22/#respond Fri, 22 Jul 2022 15:00:02 GMT https://www.hagerty.com/media/?p=237256

Two pickups top the list of 10 most stolen vehicles in the U.S.

Intake: The National Insurance Crime Bureau (NICB) has released its annual list of the top 10 most stolen vehicles in the United States, and by the looks of things, thieves need hauling and towing capability. For the second year in a row, the top two spots belong to full-size pickups, with Chevrolet just edging Ford (48,206 to 47,999) for total thefts in 2021. The final podium spot belongs to the Honda Civic, which was stolen 31,672 times last year. Though many of the models on this list are quite old when they’re stolen (according to the second column, which lists out the model year most frequently boosted), we were a bit surprised to see three newer cars on here—the Nissan Altima, Jeep’s Cherokee and Grand Cherokee, and the Toyota Corolla—with model years listed (2020, 2018, and 2020, respectively). With supply chain constraints causing used car values to jump, vehicle theft has become more popular—up eight percent in 2021 over 2020. “We have seen a nearly 35 percent increase in used car values over the last two years due to supply chain issues and inflation,” said David Glawe, president and CEO of the NICB. “Stolen cars can be shipped overseas and resold or broken down for valuable used parts here in the U.S.”

Exhaust: To be fair, it’s a bit of a popularity contest. Both Chevy and Ford make light- and heavy-duty full-size pickups, and there are simply more trucks on America’s roads to steal. We understand why a 1997 Accord would be popular to steal—turn-of-the-century Hondas were alarmingly easy to snatch, so much so that the Acura Integra was one of the most expensive cars in the country to insure. Still, you’d think that with all of the high-tech security equipment that comes standard on new cars these days (even the Altima, which has a reputation as a low-dollar lease special, comes with systems like a vehicle immobilizer as standard), no car built within the past few years would crack a top 10 list like this. Best keep your head on a swivel and be extra sure to lock those doors. — Nathan Petroelje

Maserati’s 740-hp, limited-run track weapon looks wicked



Intake: We know what we want for Christmas now: Maserati’s Project 24, a two-seat, track-only sports car with a limed production of 62 units. Says Maserati: “The truly extreme track-only car inherits the specifications of the Maserati MC20, enhancing it with technical specifications that have advanced even further: the state-of-the-art V-6 Nettuno engine adds new turbochargers to raise its power to 740 horsepower, innovative suspension, carbon-ceramic braking system and tires tuned up for racing, as well as FIA-approved safety features.” That includes a roll cage and a fire suppression system. There’s adjustable front and rear wings, a six-speed sequential racing transmission with paddle shifters, Lexan windows, air jacks, racing slicks and, interestingly, air conditioning.

Exhaust: How much? Maserati isn’t saying yet. But we’d wild-guess about $275,000, maybe $15,000 more than the cost of a top-of-the-line MC20. —Steven Cole Smith

Everrati offers its electric expertise to all



Intake: British electro-resto-mod specialist Everrati has set up a new Advanced Technologies division to provide EV tech to other firms. The company will offer a range of services including design, development, and engineering to allow low-volume and luxury car makers an easy way to electrify. A complete turnkey solution based on Everrati’s EV propulsion system will also be available. Founder Justin Lunny says, “Everrati’s reputation is built on our own OEM-grade proprietary EV platform technology combined with the skills of our team—many of whom have held senior engineering positions at leading automotive brands. This unique combination has quickly driven global demand for our products, which set new standards in the sector. We are now delighted to offer the same levels of expertise to specialist and luxury vehicle brands to support our commercial clients’ electric ambitions.”

Exhaust: Having driven Everrati’s controversial Porsche 911 and its Series II Land Rover we’ve certainly been impressed with the quality of execution and the depth of engineering that has gone into them. The firm’s upcoming collaboration with Superperformance on an electric GT40 is a good indicator of what to expect from this new division. — Nik Berg

Testing once more, Vanwall eyes 2023 LMH entry against Ferrari, Peugot



Intake: Add one more LMH car to the World Endurance Championship’s field next year: SportsCar 365 reports that the ByKolles Vanwall LMH car completed a two-day test at the Lausitzring that was described as “very positive” by the team’s head of operations. According to Boris Bermes, the Gibson V-8-powered car driven by Tom Dillmann completed “more than 270 laps”, equating to 583 miles. “We collected many data on the aero and reliability, which was the main goal of this test. It was very, very positive again,” Bermes said. The car had not run since a test three months ago, leading some to believe the program had shut down. But Bermes said those three months were spent getting the car through FIA homologation.

Exhaust: With more testing planned, it looks like the Vanwall is the real deal. But it may face a name change: Vanwall was the name of a Formula 1 team that beat Ferrari for the 1958 championship, and ByKolles is facing some opposition to using that name. Whether or not that squabble could negatively impact this new team’s efforts next year remains to be seen. — SCS

Aston Martin celebrates a century of Grand Prix racing



Intake: Aston Martin has marked 100 years since its racing debut by setting Sebastian Vettel loose in its first Grand Prix car. TT1, known affectionately as “Green Pea”, was built for Count Louis Zborowski who campaigned it at the 1922 French Grand Prix in Strasbourg. Aston Martin founder Lionel Martin was paid £10,000 by Zborowski to build the car which featured an all-new 1486-cc, 16-valve twin overhead cam engine, producing just 56 hp. The Green Pea only weighed 1650 lbs, however, so it was pretty sprightly. Exactly 100 years later at Le Castellet, current Aston Martin F1 driver Vettel got behind the wheel in tribute. “Green Pea holds a very special place in Aston Martin’s heritage, and you can almost feel that century of history beneath your fingertips when at the wheel,” he said.

Exhaust: Aston Martin’s celebrations omit the fact that Zborowski retired on lap 15 of the 60 lap, 500-mile Strasbourg street race due to engine failure. The team persevered, however, and was rewarded with second place at the Grand Prix de Penya Rhin, and third place at Grand Prix de Boulogne a year later. In the Formula 1 era, the British brand competed rather unsuccessfully in 1959 and 1960 with the DBR4 and DBR5, before rejoining the grid, first as a sponsor of Red Bull, and then as full-works team in 2021. The team’s best result so far in 2022 is sixth place; hopefully Vettel’s extra lap of practice will give him a boost this weekend. — NB

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]]> https://www.hagerty.com/media/news/the-manifold/2022-07-22/feed/ 0 https://www.hagerty.com/media/news/revealed-2023-civic-type-r-will-be-most-powerful-honda-ever-sold-in-america/ https://www.hagerty.com/media/news/revealed-2023-civic-type-r-will-be-most-powerful-honda-ever-sold-in-america/#respond Thu, 21 Jul 2022 12:42:31 GMT https://www.hagerty.com/media/?p=236932

It’s been a lengthy tease, with camouflaged cars setting lap records, and sultry silhouetted images flooding the internet, but now the foreplay is (mostly) over and Honda is getting down to business by revealing the 2023 Civic Type R.

Mostly, we said. Honda is remaining annoyingly mum on the final power figure for the new-generation CTR, but it is set to be the most powerful Type R model ever. That means at the very least more than the 306 hp of the outgoing Type R. And, since the NSX wears an Acura badge in America, the most powerful Honda ever to be sold Stateside. We do know that the engine is an “evolved” version of the 2.0-liter turbocharged 17YM engine from the last model, with a revised turbo and new housing. Shifting comes via an uprated six-speed manual transmission to “deliver the fastest, most addictive yet secure and rewarding drive” of any Civic in the model’s 30-year history. Upgraded brakes feature “enhanced temperature control and air cooling.”



Cooling, you may recall, was a bit of an issue for the original iteration of the last Civic Type R, until Honda’s mid-cycle refresh with an updated grille addressed the heat soaking that track rats experienced.

This time around, lightweight 19-inch alloy wheels wear Michelin Pilot Sport 4S tires for enhanced grip, and downforce comes from an aggressive front bumper and splitter, plus a high rear wing, and unique diffuser with triple tailpipes. Despite all this, the new Civic Type R is nowhere near as shouty-looking as the previous incarnation. Instead, it will make itself known purely by its performance on road and track. The 2023 Civic Type R is already the fastest front-drive car to lap Suzuka in Japan and is “ready for Nürburgring testing,” so expect more records to fall by the wayside.

The cabin is more flamboyant, however, with suede-style seats trimmed in trademark Type R red, a stubby matte aluminum shifter, and a sporty, yet fully circular steering wheel. There’s a 10.2-inch center touchscreen and the digital instruments have a special +R mode that displays a graphic engine rpm count, shift lights and gear position. An onboard datalogger, lap timer, and video camera will allow drivers to watch and share their best circuit drives.

“Even in this “year of the Honda SUV,” it’s great to be part of a brand that remains focused on the thrilling performance and joy of driving delivered by the all-new Civic Type R,” says Mike Kistemaker, assistant, vice president of sales at American Honda. “Type R is about more than speed, power and handling. It’s how a great car makes you feel that really matters and that’s what the all-new Civic Type R is all about.”



 

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]]> https://www.hagerty.com/media/news/revealed-2023-civic-type-r-will-be-most-powerful-honda-ever-sold-in-america/feed/ 0 https://www.hagerty.com/media/car-profiles/how-the-civic-was-born-despite-old-man-hondas-misgivings/ https://www.hagerty.com/media/car-profiles/how-the-civic-was-born-despite-old-man-hondas-misgivings/#comments Wed, 13 Jul 2022 18:00:02 GMT https://www.hagerty.com/media/?p=234576



The Honda Civic celebrated its 50th birthday this week. The Civic was introduced—in the U.S. market first, by the way—on July 11, 1972. It was Honda’s first global car, and, according to some, Honda’s first “real” car. For many Americans, the Civic was the first Honda car that they saw, rode in, or drove, period.

That’s because Honda’s previous effort to sell four-wheeled vehicles on this side of the Pacific, the tiny, air-cooled, two-cylinder 600cc-powered N600 sedan and Z600 coupe, only sold between 40,000 and 50,500 units total in three years of sales. By comparison, Honda sold about 80,000 Civics worldwide in 1973, its first full year on the market.

Today, the Civic is the best-selling retail passenger car in America, typically moving between a quarter of a million to 300,000 units a year since 2005 (with the exception of 2011, in which sales slumped to 221K.)

To celebrate the model’s 50th anniversary, we take a look back at the story of its development, which is neither neat nor what you’d expect. Brought to market in an astoundingly short time of two years, the original Civic is a testament to people who were willing to fight for what they believed was the best solution.

* * *



When it introduced the Civic, Honda wasn’t new to four-wheel vehicles; it had been making them since 1963 with the kei-class T360 pickup. In Japan, the N360 passenger car has proven one of the country’s best-selling vehicles. Even so, the transition to the bigger cars that Honda would need to compete in North America and Europe was not without a pitfall or two.

The H1300, Honda’s first attempt to build a larger car, H1300, was a flop, in part because company founder Soichiro Honda was a die-hard proponent of air-cooled engines. He thought water cooling was redundant. “Since water-cooled engines eventually use air to cool the water, we can implement air cooling from the very beginning,” declared Mr. Honda. “That will eliminate the problem of water leaks, and it will facilitate maintenance.”



In the opinion of Masami Suzuki, Honda’s manager in charge of research and development, poor sales of the H1300 threatened the firm’s financial viability. Suzuki suggested to key members of the team developing the H1300’s replacement to visit the Suzuka factory, where they were shocked to find how few H1300s were being assembled.

“Give me a report,” Suzuki told them after the factory visits, “detailing the kind of car we should develop for the Japanese market and other markets around the world.”



Hiroshi Kizawa, who was in charge of developing what would become the Civic, understood the gravity of the situation. “We all believed that if the project failed, Honda would have to give up its plan of becoming a full-fledged carmaker.”

Part of the problem was “the Old Man,” Soichiro Honda himself. Then in his 60s, boastinng a string of technical and business successes, Mr. Honda was accustomed to things going well—and going his way. In two decades, the company bearing his name had transitioned from selling motorized bicycles to designing and building a Formula 1 Grand Prix–winning car.

“Prior to that [Civic] project,” Kizawa said, “we’d been making a car that the Old Man wanted to build.”

Honda’s managers sidestepped Soichiro’s expected interference by separating R&D, making research a skunkworks” affair. The arrangement allowed research to proceed quickly, which is how Honda developed the emissions-friendly CVCC engine in such rapid fashion.

In addition to separating research from development, Honda managers took a competitive approach to developing the new car by assigning two separate teams of engineers and designers to create it. One team was led by R&D chief Kizawa and included experienced engineering staff in their late 30s. The other was comprised of younger engineers in their late 20s and early 30s.

Internal competition was a key factor to Honda’s continued growth. The idea was promoted by Kiyoshi Kawashima, at the time senior managing director of the company. (Previously, he was head of American Honda. After his tenure as senior managing director, he ascended to the head of Honda R&D.) Kawashima advocated a “free-competition approach through the concurrent implementations of heterogeneous projects.”



In the Civic’s case, competition led to agreement… to a point. When the two teams gathered to present their approaches, both teams gave almost identical answers, with only minor divergences. Each teams said that Honda needed to build “a world-class car that [was] light, quick and compact,” specifying similar benchmarks for performance and practicality. The only problem? Each team outlined a vehicle that was the opposite of the H1300, a bit of a problem when the model’s biggest fan ran the company.

Tadashi Kume first integrated two teams’ approaches. As the project moved to the design phase, Kizawa was put in charge. Next came production, which would challenge the company yet again. While it had leveraged internal competition to good effect during research, Honda’s managers quickly realized that a comparative approach to competing cars was not sufficient.

“We needed to define the ‘absolute value’ of our new car,” Kizawa later explained. The car had to be “utilitarian and mimimalistic, providing an optimal blend of size, performance and economy,” designed with ample interior space and balancing features, creature comfort, and efficiency.

The result was a “two-box” design with cargo space incorporated into the passenger compartment. No doubt influenced by the Austin Mini, the Fiat 128, and the front-wheel-drive N series cars Honda had already been making, managers chose a front-engine/front wheel drive (FF) drivetrain layout with a transversely mounted engine.



With a proposed engine displacement of just 1200 cc, weight was critical. The target was ambitious, too: 600 kg, or just 1322 pounds. Cost, not just performance, weighed heavily: Honda figured that the heavier the car was, the more expensive it would be to build, own and operate. Using Mitsubishi’s approach when developing the WWII “Zero” fighter plane, Honda’s development team reduced sheet metal thickness by 0.1 mm increments until it found an acceptable balance of weight and strength.

The story goes that while Kume was still LPL (large project leader), he would sit on the warehouse floor with parts, drawings, and a weighing scale scattered around him. He would weigh each part, approving some and ordering others to be lightened by so many grams. While the team couldn’t meet its initial 1322-pound goal, the finished Civic tipped the scales at 1499 pounds—just 88 pounds heavier than a contemporary Mini Cooper.

Meeting their own ambitious goals was hardly the staff’s only challenge. In addition to being an air-cooled fanatic, Soichiro Honda preferred front-wheel-drive cars to have simple, beam-axle rear suspensions, which are cheap and easy to produce. The design team, however, wanted to use a more sophisticated, “Chapman strut” design, essentially a Macpherson strut moved to the rear of the car, as in Colin Chapman–era Lotus cars. Mamoru Sakata headed the suspension team and argued for struts despite their higher expense, confident they would increase interior space. “This method was also advantageous in terms of maneuverability, stability, front/rear balance and weight reduction,” said Sakata. “We knew it was the best choice for the Civic.”



While it may have been the best choice, it wasn’t Mr. Honda’s, so the engineers deliberately did not consult him. However, Mr. Honda found out. Fortunately for the as-yet unrealized Civic, Soichiro exercised far more restraint than Henry Ford did when he discovered Edsel’s T. (Remember, this is Japan, where saving face, even in a corporate environment, is paramount.) “You must be prepared to shave your head if we can‘t keep the strut design,” Kume told Sakata.

Sakata didn’t mind the stakes, so convinced was he of the right decision. He defended suspension to Kawashima and a very skeptical Soichiro, adamant that a more sophisticated and expensive rear suspension was necessary to make the Civic a world-class car that could compete globally.

The Old Man was unmoved. “I don’t see any merit in the independent suspension,” Honda said flatly. Kawashima, the managing director of Honda, was open to the idea, and encouraged Soichiro to let Sakata pursue it. Though possessed of a strong personality, Soichiro Honda well understood the value of his associates’ opinions. (After all, it was Honda’s business partner, Takeo Fujisawa, who convinced him to make the Super Cub 50cc motorbike, the most successful motor vehicle in history.) Based on Kawashima’s support, Mr. Honda relented.

(By 1972, Soichiro Honda was 66. A year later, he retired to the position of senior advisor.)

As if internal battles weren’t enough, the Japanese government threw another challenge to the Civic’s development via the People’s Car Program. This called for passenger space to be limited to 5 square meters (~54 sq ft). In addition, most Honda dealers were motorcycle shops with limited showroom space. As a result, the new car kept getting shorter and stubbier, eventually resulting in a chubby car with no defined trunk. (Consumers grew to love it, of course, and the hatchback only looked awkward on American streets next to pickup trucks and full size Impalas and LTDs).



Designer Shinya Iwakura felt that the Civic’s then-unique styling was essential to the car’s character, enhancing pride of ownership. He later used Honda’s Monkey minibike as an example: “A rider on a Monkey can be proud of his bike even when he’s running next to a big 750cc machine, because the Monkey has a unique character. So, we spent many hours thinking about how we could give our car that kind of character. For example, we could imagine promotional phrases like ‘simple yet charming.’ But I was looking for adjectives other than ‘charming’ that could fit perfectly after the word ‘yet’ in the slogan for our car.”



(I haven’t yet been able to track down the original author of the slogan Honda did end up using: “What the world is coming to.” Ending a clause or sentence a preposition “with” annoys the grammarian in me, but that slogan did fit the product perfectly, and not only because it appealed to consumers’ “fear of missing out.”)

At this stage of the project, Honda typically hosted a joint evaluation meeting with representatives from sales, engineering, and development, and discussion often resulting in changes to the design or specs. Instead, the Civic team was given quite a bit of autonomy. Suzuki told his team: “Let’s move in the direction you believe is right … We’ll ignore the voices in the background until we have an actual car.” The development team did not turn over the project until a prototype was completed. The timeline that ensured that the final design hewed closely to the designers’ intent.

Naturally, some at Honda disagreed. Hatchbacks were then rare in Japan, so when the car was introduced to Honda’s sales staff as a “three door,” one of the regional managers asked, in all seriousness: “So, on which side is the third door located?”



The development teams’ shock and insecurity was soon replaced by confidence once the Civic went to market. Before long, the engineers walked in every morning saying how many Civics they had seen on the streets. The Civic wasn’t perfect, of course, but it was one of the better automobiles available in the early ’70s, regardless of size or class. When set alongside the Ford Pinto, Chevy Vega, or AMC Gremlin, the Civic makes the domestic offerings look primitive.



Fortuitously for the Civic, fuel economy fixed itself as one of consumers’ primary concerns not full year after its debut, following the 1973 embargo placed on petroleum by Middle East oil producers in the wake of U.S. support of Israel during the Yom Kippur War. The car’s early success was buttressed by the introduction of the CVCC engine late in 1972. While its rat-nest of vacuum hoses is difficult for DIY mechanics to troubleshoot, in the early emissions-control era, Civics often ran more reliably than their U.S. competitors, many of which were prone to stalling when driven and dieseling when shut off.

According to Honda’s official account of the Civic’s development, Kizawa and Iwakura gave identical answers when asked to describe the Civic’s identity. “We must always imagine the satisfied faces of our customers, and be confident in the kind of car we want to create for them. Unless we work to convey our ‘ideal,’ we won’t make a car that’s good enough to satisfy them. But with the Civic, we could carry out our ideal completely.”

Since its launch in 1972, Honda has sold over 27.5 million Civics in 170 countries, confirming the wisdom of Masami Suzuki’s directive to the first Civic’s development team: “[to create] the kind of car we should develop for the Japanese market and other markets around the world.” Faced with success at that scale, surely even Mr. Honda would smile.



The post How the Civic was born despite “Old Man” Honda’s misgivings appeared first on Hagerty Media.

]]> https://www.hagerty.com/media/car-profiles/how-the-civic-was-born-despite-old-man-hondas-misgivings/feed/ 1 https://www.hagerty.com/media/news/hondas-sixth-gen-cr-v-gains-more-hybrid-power-classier-style-for-2023/ https://www.hagerty.com/media/news/hondas-sixth-gen-cr-v-gains-more-hybrid-power-classier-style-for-2023/#respond Tue, 12 Jul 2022 13:01:02 GMT https://www.hagerty.com/media/?p=231872

Enthusiasts may linger over sporty coupes and luxurious sedans, but the volume-sellers are the models most important to a company’s bottom line. Honda makes its cash on the CR-V, which in 2013 unseated the Civic as the company’s best-selling vehicle in the U.S. market. Thanks to a crossover-obsessed population, the CR-V hasn’t looked back since.

2023’s a big year for this SUV. The model year ushers in a new, sixth generation that ditches much of the current model’s frumpy style. It grows larger in the process and brings a significant power bump to the hybrid drivetrain.



No one buys a CR-V to stand out, but now that this crossover looks more like a Mazda than ever, it might do just that. Though the 2023 CR-V has none of the CX-5’s wonderfully subtle side contours, its squinty headlights are also framed by chrome blades and connected to the upper corners of a generously sized grille. The proportions have also evolved: The 2023 CR-V is longer than the vehicle it replaces by 2.7 inches, and roughly half of that stretch (1.6 inches) is between the axles. It’s a more top-heavy design thanks to A-pillars moved back, out, and down. Standard LED taillights edge a simple rear that ditches all the chrome of the fifth-gen CR-V for a more modern look. The new CR-V might actually be classy—until half the strip mall parking lot is full of them.



If you like clean lines and prominent digital displays in a vehicle’s interior, it’s hard to ignore that Honda’s on a roll. The 11th-gen Civic ushered in a dash topped with a tablet-style touchscreen and dominated by a single horizontal line accented with a metallic-look mesh that cleverly integrated the climate control vents. The Civic’s SUV sibling, the HR-V, picked up the same theme, and the CR-V riffs on it. Behind the steering wheel sits an instrument panel with an analog speedometer on the right and a 7-inch display on the left. Below the main infotainment screen (a 7-incher comes standard; the upper two trims boast a 9-inch unit) are three neat climate control dials. The center console integrates a generously sized pad for wireless charging—a CR-V first, along with wireless CarPlay/Android Auto on the upper two trims. (You’ll need to bring your own cable for the EX and EX-L.) There’s a traditional automatic shift knob on the center console, which showcases some more new-to-the-CR-V features, including hill descent control and low-traction mode for snow.



As you might guess from those last two features, Honda’s set on adding a dash of adventuresome flavor to the CR-V. The company also wants you to pay for this ever-so-slightly rugged personality, of course, so the top two trims are flashier than the bottom two. The Sport and the Sport Touring each wear a more aggressively contoured chin than either the EX or the EX-L, and the grille texture is more angular.



There are four trims rather than seven for the sixth-gen CR-V, but the hybrid models boast power gains. The gas-only EX and EX-L stick with the same 1.5-liter turbo four, though that 190-hp engine makes its 179 lb-ft of torque a touch lower down: From 1700–5000 rpm rather than 2000–5000. It’s the Sport and Sport Touring models that lay claim to the title of “most powerful CR-V ever.” As long as you measure power in lb-ft, that is: 247 vs. 232. Credit a second electric motor in the hybrid powertrain, whose combustion center is the same 2.0-liter inline four. (Honda will release EPA numbers and pricing at a later date, but expect the electrically assisted models to improve at least incrementally on the 2022 hybrids’ 40 city/35 highway mpg rating.) AWD is available on all models and standard on the hybrid ones.



One party trick the non-hybrid models boast: The panel covering the full-size spare in the trunk can be adjusted to sit an inch or so below the floor. Honda claims this yields 3 addition cubic feet of space, but it will likely prove most helpful in accommodating strangely shaped cargo, like a lawnmower or a chair, than in increasing overall capacity.



Honda is preparing a batch of “affordable” EVs based on GM’s Ultium platform for 2027, but the CR-V will keep the cash rolling in long past that date. From our first impressions, the 2023 CR-V brings the right mix of fresh, mature styling and interior tech to comfortably maintain its place atop Honda’s sales leaderboard. When we get behind the wheel, you’ll be the first to know how it drives.



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]]> https://www.hagerty.com/media/news/hondas-sixth-gen-cr-v-gains-more-hybrid-power-classier-style-for-2023/feed/ 0 https://www.hagerty.com/media/news/the-manifold/2022-07-08/ https://www.hagerty.com/media/news/the-manifold/2022-07-08/#respond Fri, 08 Jul 2022 15:00:27 GMT https://www.hagerty.com/media/?p=233300

Thanks to AEV, GMC’s off-road-tuned Sierra 1500 gets even gnarlier

Intake: GMC’s been getting into the off-road game with its trucks. First there was the Sierra AT4X, an upgraded version of the regular Sierra 1500 AT4 that featured the near-magical DSSV spool-valve dampers that GM sources from Canada’s Multimatic. Then news of a Canyon AT4X arrived as The General armed its midsizer for battle against Ford’s forthcoming Ranger Raptor. Now, GMC has taken the Sierra AT4X a step further with the 2023 Sierra AT4X AEV Edition. With the help of American Expedition Vehicles (AEV), the new Sierra scores similar equipment to past GM/AEV collaborations such as the Colorado ZR2 Bison—that means skid plates, new bumpers front and rear, some new wheels, and more. The new bumpers and chunky 33-inch Goodyear rubber help bolster off-road stats like approach, departure, and breakover angles (32.5, 23.4, and 23.0 degrees, respectively), as well as ground clearance (11.2 inches vs. 10.8 on standard AT4X. GMC says the new AEV Edition will become available later in the 2023 model year, which loosely translates to the end of 2022—maybe Q4.

Exhaust: No pricing information has been announced, but we can do a little napkin math: The AEV Bison package costs an additional $5750 to tack on to the Colorado ZR2. We’d expect this package to cost a bit more on the Sierra—maybe somewhere around$6500–$6800 all told. Bigger trucks mean more material costs, but the Sierra AT4X is not cheap (it starts just shy of $80,000), and its buyers aren’t short on cash. A few thousand more for a package that makes their already badass truck even gnarlier? Probably an easy sell. —Nathan Petroelje



Al Capone’s bulletproof 1928 Cadillac for sale again for $1M



Intake: Legendary Chicago mobster and bootlegger Al Capone’s bulletproof 1928 Cadillac Town Sedan is up for sale again. After Capone was convicted of tax evasion in 1931, the FBI confiscated his cars, but the Caddy slipped away. The car later became a sideshow attraction. It sold for $347,000 at RM Sotheby’s St. John’s auction in 2012 and was offered for $1 million by Celebrity Cars Las Vegas in 2020. Two years later, it’s still available for the same price. According to RM’s 2012 description, as a young boy Richard “Cappy” Capstran helped his father “install some of the armor plating on Al Capone’s Cadillac,” and he recalled the details In a recorded interview years later. It seems Ernest Capstran’s auto body shop had already performed a high-quality repair on another vehicle owned by the Capone syndicate, which prompted delivery of a brand new 1928 Cadillac to the shop. The Cadillac, among the earliest surviving bulletproof vehicles, is lined with nearly 3000 pounds of armor plating, and the rear window was rigged to drop quickly, allowing occupants to fire upon would-be pursuers.

Exhaust: Is the Capone Caddy worth $1 million? We asked that question two years ago, and so far the answer appears to be no. As Hagerty valuation editor Andrew Newton suggested in 2020, “The history is certainly fascinating, but Al Capone is a controversial figure, and the market spoke in 2012 with its last auction appearance.” If at first you don’t succeed … — Jeff Peek

Chicago wants to host NASCAR’s return to public streets



Intake: It appears NASCAR’s plan to hold a street race in downtown Chicago is growing closer to a thing, and soon: The Athletic obtained, through a public records request, a copy of a letter from the city of Chicago that makes it sound like the event is a done deal. Says the letter: “Chicago is incredibly enthusiastic about the opportunity to serve as host of the 2023, 2024 and 2025 NASCAR Chicago Street Course events, and we stand ready to welcome NASCAR fans to our world class city.” The letter is to Ben Kennedy, NASCAR’s senior vice president of racing development and strategy, and signed by Erin Harkey, commissioner, Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events, City of Chicago.

Exhaust: Ben Kennedy, the 30-year-old son of NASCAR executive vice-chairman Lesa France Kennedy and great-grandson of NASCAR founder Bill France, has been aggressive in bringing the NASCAR Cup series into the 20th century with moves that include the Bristol dirt race, plus races at Circuit of the Americas, Nashville, St. Louis, and the exhibition season opener at the Los Angeles Coliseum. What’s remarkable about this is that the Chicago area would have two races within a 150-mile radius, with the just-run race at Road America in Wisconsin, 147 miles north of Chicago, when NASCAR couldn’t find enough fans to keep a race at the $130 million Chicagoland Speedway oval after 2019. The best line from the letter: That NASCAR would apparently enrich Chicago’s “artistic vitality and cultural vibrancy.” — Steven Cole Smith

Mandatory speed limiters now slow Europe’s new cars



Intake: All new vehicles sold in mainland Europe now have to be fitted with electronic speed limiters after an EU rule change came into force. So-called Intelligent Speed Assistance technology warns drivers to slow down if they exceed posted speed limits, through audible and visual alerts, and haptic feedback via the accelerator. It is possible to over-ride the warnings, either by pushing harder on the go pedal or by manually switching the system off through the car’s settings, however, every time a car is switched off the system defaults to the on position. The ruling only applies to cars launched into the market after July 6 with current models having until July 2024 to have ISA fitted. The EU claims the technology will result in 30 percent fewer road deaths in Europe. Brexit Britain hasn’t adopted the rule, but is inevitably expected to follow.

Exhaust: Policing Europe’s road appears to be no longer the job of the police. Ever since the introduction of speed cameras, the automation and fund-raising potential of electronic enforcement has been progressively taking over until it has reached the point where now your own car is judge and executioner of your driving behavior. Improving safety isn’t to be argued with, but taking responsibility away from the driver isn’t the answer. As drivers rely more and more on their vehicles they become less and less engaged in the act of driving and more easily distracted. These systems are not faultless either. The speed limit warning system on my own Kia EV6, for example, often misses temporary speed limit zones and has even advised me that I could drive at 80 mph on one occasion, when the limit was, in fact, 30 mph. If my car was set to follow its own interpretation of the road rules rather than mine this could have been a disaster. —Nik Berg

Gold Wing Road Rider Association motors into the sunset this fall



Intake: Formed in 1977, the Gold Wing Road Riders Association spanned 53 countries with nearly 80,000 members at its peak, but sadly the group will dissolve this fall. Operating under the motto “Friends for Fun, Safety and Knowledge,” it was a huge group of riders dedicated to the famous (infamous?) Honda touring bike. The official last day for the club will be July 31 and current members are able to get a prorated refund for any prepaid memberships.

Exhaust: Groups like GWRRA are an amazing resource for new and seasoned riders alike. Running a large club like this takes a big effort from those who take on the mantle, though, and that means the closing of the group may come as no surprise to some. With any luck a similar group will form, or many small clubs will spin off. Even if that doesn’t happen, those who connected and rode together as part of GWRRA will always have the miles spent on the road to remember. — Kyle Smith

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]]> https://www.hagerty.com/media/news/the-manifold/2022-07-08/feed/ 0 https://www.hagerty.com/media/new-car-reviews/first-look-review-2023-honda-hr-v-ex-l/ https://www.hagerty.com/media/new-car-reviews/first-look-review-2023-honda-hr-v-ex-l/#respond Thu, 07 Jul 2022 16:33:07 GMT https://www.hagerty.com/media/?p=233000

In a market filled with small SUVs, it takes an edge to stand above the rest. The new 2023 Honda HR-V has that edge, and then some. This most recent version of the HR-V checks a lot of boxes in a consumer’s must-have list, with a few surprises thrown in as well.

Past HR-V’s were based on the modest Honda Fit platform. This time, Honda set its sights on impressing the maturing customer in what is often referred to as an aspirational segment of the market, for the millennial or young Gen-X customer who is ready to upgrade from a hatchback or small sedan to a more robust vehicle.



Outside, the 2023 HR-V’s design works well. The body lines have been smoothed out for a more neutral and streamlined character. Beyond the paint color provided, Nordic Forest Pearl (imagine a gray business suit with a hint of blue), several trim pieces—the grille, rocker panels, splitter, fog light surround, and wheel well arches—are finished in polished black as if to say: Check out the matching belt with leather shoes!

The 2023 model is significantly longer by 9.4 inches and wider by 2.5 inches than its predecessor. Inside, there is a minimalist design both visually and functionally that matches what we’ve grown to like in the latest Honda Civic.. In a hint of mid-century modern look, the pencil-thin accents with a honeycomb grate blend well with the vent bezels. A Jetson spaceship-like dash combined with the airy cabin provides an open view from all five seating locations. This expansive view was achieved through thin A-pillars and door-mounted mirrors.



The smooth dashboard lines are broken by the nine-inch infotainment screen in the upscale EX models, a seven-inch screen in the other models. Alongside there’s an exceptionally convenient feature: The addition of analog control dials and buttons. For those who don’t like to digitally scroll through a series of touch screen menus, you can access the basics: Radio, phone and the temperature and fan control settings. Their location is artistically and ergonomically placed to be easily found without taking your eyes off the road. The passenger has been attended to as well, with his or her own USB charger port and a fair amount of storage space.



An additional styling point worth mentioning is the high-gloss black highlights found next to the shifter console and steering wheel. It matches the outside gloss, but on the inside, being next to high-touch areas, it’s an OCD nightmare. You’d best keep a microfiber cloth in the door pockets as the gloss very easily registers the slightest smear from fingerprints.



Our test vehicle was an EX-L, which had all-wheel drive (a $1500 feature) and was priced at $30,195, including a hefty $1245 for shipping. It’s the best bang for the buck with the most tech features and an upgraded interior finish. Also available are the Sport at $26,895, and the LX at $24,895. At first, I thought I’d fall for the Sport package, with its single-tip chrome exhaust and black accent lettering, but for the extra money, I’ll take the multi-way adjustable seats, AWD and upgraded interior of the EX-L. The best option for the price-conscious customer may be the LX, as the powertrain is the same on all three of these models.

The backdrop for this test was the Pacific Northwest, specifically a town in Washington called Stevenson: Easy on the eyes, but an arduous terrain to put the powertrain and new chassis to the test. The elevation changes are aggressive, and so are the curves.



Honda borrows the engine from the Civic, a 2.0-liter four-cylinder that makes 158 hp and 138 lb-ft of torque. Even though it’s mated to the unloved CVT transmission, the engine choice is enough to classify the acceleration as better than adequate. Keep in mind that this test was on steep roads with tight switchbacks, so the power outlay will be more significant for the flatlander.

We are talking about the HR-V’s performance as if it should be on par with a hot-hatchback, and surprisingly, it’s not far from it. Honda accomplished this using a global variable platform which shares sections of its structure with the Civic and CR-V. Speaking with the lead engineer, he told me that the chassis was tuned to inspire confidence in even the novice driver. A key factor of this improvement in handling is the upgrade from a torsion beam to an independent rear suspension.

One big difference from the previous model is the absence of paddle shifters, which customers in this segment don’t much want or need. The 2.0-liter engine’s smoothness through the powerband almost lets you forget that it’s attached to a CVT. By the way, my mileage was just short of the claimed EPA’s 25 mpg city, 30 highway for the AWD model. Impressive given the bouts of heavy acceleration.



A few tidbits of technology included with most models:

• The lane departure warning with lane-keep assistance was useful on the mountain roads. There was just enough corrective steering input to help keep you aware and on the road through the mountain switchbacks.
• The infotainment system comes with Apple CarPlay and Android Auto. The former worked best for me when connected to the USB port.
• The wireless smartphone charging pad is a great add-on feature.
• Hill descent control was a pleasant yet rarely used surprise. It’s a console-mounted button that, when pressed, can help maintain a speed of up to 12 mph through a descent.
• There are three driving modes available on the fly: Normal, Eco and Snow



Bottom line, the 2023 Honda HR-V offers a lot for younger buyers who want to experience the great outdoors but not stray too far from civilization. It’s a good formula in the right size, with plenty of safety and technology features. The new HR-V looks great, is fun to drive and raises the bar with sophistication, design, and improved driving dynamics.

 

***

 

2023 Honda HR-V EX-L AWD

Price: $28,695/$30,195 (base/as-tested)

Highs: Crisp steering with a comfortable ride and capable powertrain. Creature comforts for today’s consumers and their passengers at an entry-level price.

Lows: Power still managed by a slow-witted CVT.

Summary: With sedan-like handling, a compelling price, and room for young adults the revised HR-V punches above its weight.



The post First Look Review: 2023 Honda HR-V EX-L appeared first on Hagerty Media.

]]> https://www.hagerty.com/media/new-car-reviews/first-look-review-2023-honda-hr-v-ex-l/feed/ 0 https://www.hagerty.com/media/maintenance-and-tech/can-you-improve-a-factory-cylinder-head-with-20-minutes-of-work/ https://www.hagerty.com/media/maintenance-and-tech/can-you-improve-a-factory-cylinder-head-with-20-minutes-of-work/#respond Mon, 20 Jun 2022 14:00:25 GMT https://www.hagerty.com/media/?p=228819

An engine is an air pump. Make that pump more efficient, and you will make more power. More power equals more fun. I like fun, and that’s why I took a carbide burr to one of the hardest-to-find (let alone repair) parts of my Honda XR250R.

A lot of folks blather on and on about the indestructibility of Honda’s XR-series motorcycles. Based on my experience, most of those people are operating on the assumption that ignorance is bliss. While this platform is very durable, it has flaws. The steel frame and simple suspension may be nearly bulletproof, but the engine still needs the care and attention that all engines need. Fresh oil, valve adjustments, basic mechanical sympathy.

I know that many owners don’t maintain these bikes as they should. I’ve seen the evidence, if only because I have a knack for purchasing the neglected examples—the ones that were allowed to run low on oil, which destroys the cam center journal, or whose valves got so far out of adjustment that one broke, and I’m left playing the motorcycle version of CLUE. Valve stabbed head in the combustion chamber.

It’s a game with no winners.



If it sounds like I’m ranting, I am. Due to a widespread tolerance for deferred maintenance, I must hoard good cylinder heads to make sure my bikes can stay running. For a few months last year, I bought every parts bike within a two-hour drive that possessed a good cylinder head—along with any comparable examples that appeared on eBay. That totaled four.

Now, I have my pick of the lot for the latest engine I’m assembling. The one I chose? The one with the most damage. Let me explain.



This engine is going into a motard race bike, which has been a back-burner project ever since I did some road racing during the Six Ways to Sunday project last year and had a blast. Even at a short track like Blackhawk Farms, the XR250R left me wanting for power, so this time around I’m dialing the engine build up a notch. This air pump needs to get more efficient. A 2mm larger carb and big, stainless-steel header were no-brainers, but each required little more than swipe of a credit card. To get real performance, I had to break out the tools.



With most automotive applications, you can buy an aftermarket cylinder head and, by simply bolting it on, gain more airflow in and out of the combustion chamber. Heck, for some applications, buying an aftermarket head is almost cheaper than rebuilding the factory unit. No such support exists for the Honda XR series, though. If I wanted to make the intake or exhaust runners in the head flow better, it was up to me.

First, I had to admit I had no idea what I was doing.



After acknowledging my lack of experience, I took advantage of my resources and made a field trip over to the Redline Rebuild garage. You might not have access to Hagerty’s engine master Davin Rekow, but I do and will leverage that any time I can. Cylinder head in hand, I described my goal. We both examined the casting, Davin using his callused hands to evaluate how much material there was to spare.

“There really isn’t much here. I would just clean up this little peak to more of a knife edge and call it good. I mean, that certainly can’t hurt.”

I grabbed the die grinder, chucked in the wide-fluted bit for aluminum and connected the air line. Then I took a deep breath and started making chips. The burr easily scooped away tiny slivers of metal. It was honestly a little addicting to watch fresh silver emerge from beneath the stained aluminum. It took all of my self control to not keep whittling away until I was left with a pile of shaving and no more cylinder head.



Davin warned me that the burr would remove material quickly, and that I really didn’t need to take out much. I shouldn’t take out much, he said, because the little divider that I was trimming and sharpening hid a passage for the cylinder head bolt. If I removed too much material, I’d have to grab the TIG welder or scrap the part all together. Less than ideal. A regulator in the air line, which helped control the speed of the die grinder, did much to prevent me from getting too aggressive.



Small cuts, then—a touch here and a scuff there. Blend my work smoothly back into the factory casting further into the intake runner. Once I was happy with the “big” cuts, and got Davin’s nod of approval, I swapped a sandpaper roll into the die grinder and smoothed things out even more.

There has been much debate over the proper texture of an intake runner. With the advent of flowbenches, the score could be settled: A semi-rough surface is best because it helps the air to tumble and mix before it hits the combustion chamber. The 80-grit sanding roll would leave the perfect finish.



In all, this project required 15 to 20 minutes of careful work. Will the changes turn my next race engine into some fire-breathing beast? Absolutely not. Davin and I agreed that they certainly couldn’t hurt, though.

Now, the head gets packed in a box and shipped to Millennium Technologies in Wisconsin to get the combustion chamber repaired and the valves serviced. It’ll come back ready to be bolted atop the fresh bottom end I’ve got on the workbench, and I’ll be in the homestretch of getting the engine race-ready in time for this fall.



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]]> https://www.hagerty.com/media/maintenance-and-tech/can-you-improve-a-factory-cylinder-head-with-20-minutes-of-work/feed/ 0 https://www.hagerty.com/media/news/the-manifold/2022-06-16/ https://www.hagerty.com/media/news/the-manifold/2022-06-16/#respond Thu, 16 Jun 2022 15:00:30 GMT https://www.hagerty.com/media/?p=229083



Ford Heritage Vault goes online, breaks the internet

Intake: The gifted archivists at Ford’s Heritage Vault, the same folks who gave us access to their Bronco and Lincoln historical treasures, officially launched a website to share their internal database with everyone. Their work is so admirable that, at the time of writing, Ford fans overwhelmed it and made it crash! When the site has recovered its breath, fordheritagevault.com will offer a blizzard of official photos and roughly 3500 brochures ranging from the Model T to Ford’s modern-day product portfolio. Much more content is planned from every corner of the Blue Oval universe, and all brochures are scanned as high-resolution PDFs that are downloadable (be patient, they are big!) and searchable. Speaking of, the search feature lets you find content by year, make, model, and color. All this goodness is free for non-commercial use, so go ahead and dress up your personal Facebook page with your favorite Ford.

Exhaust: Breaking the Internet is a great honor in this case, proving that fordheritagevault.com gives the people precisely what they want. Ford Heritage even worked with Ford’s Accessibility/User Interface team to ensure its content accommodates the needs of the visually impaired. While big holes still need to be filled (i.e. it uploaded Edsel but not Mercury), it plan on digitizing everything they reasonably can, including copies of Ford Times magazine. Don’t hold your breath on seeing your favorite TV spot or magazine advertisement, however, as those contain actors and/or music that need royalty payments for the privilege. Which is fine, as we are thrilled to see Ford’s vault open up for more people to enjoy. (Side note: Did you know Bette Midler sued Ford for a Mercury Sable TV spot? Now you do!)



Got $55K and want to race touring cars? Scoop Honda’s Civic Si FE1



Intake: Honda Performance Development (HPD), the Big H’s skunkworks team, has announced more details on its new Civic Si FE1 race car. The new racer, which is eligible for SRO Motorsport’s TC America (TCA) touring car class, will be available this November to interested customer teams. For an all-in price of $55,000 plus tax, you’ll get a Civic Si chassis that comes with an installed roll cage and a swathe of HPD developed and homologated parts including the suspension setup, fuel cell, Motec electronics packages, and Honda’s L15CA 1.5-liter turbocharged four-cylinder engine. HPD also breathed on the car’s six-speed manual transmission to make it stronger for the rigors of race duty. The car does away with some of the road-going versions accoutrements, including the sunroof, sound proofing, underbody coating, and seam sealer—all in the name of weigh savings and performance. Interested in getting your hands on one? Pre-orders are open now—just have a $25,000 deposit ready, with the remainder due upon completion of the car.

Exhaust: TC America features cars from marques like Toyota (GR86), Nissan (370Z), Mini (JCW Cooper), and BMW (M2), all structured around keeping costs relatively low. This is the second time Honda’s done a factory-built Civic racer for the TCA class. The first one had some significant success against the Mazda Global MX-5 Cup—but it was dogged with allegations of cheating on the part of the fastest teams, allegations that were confirmed by technical inspections in 2018. So this new effort will be under the microscope. Why buy this instead of a Mazda Global MX-5 Cup car? It’s twenty-five grand cheaper.

Gran Turismo: The Movie to hit theaters in 2023



Intake: A live-action film based on the Playstation hit racing game Gran Turismo is due to be released in August 2023, reports Deadline. The motor movie is to be helmed by Neill Blomkamp, who directed science-fiction capers District 9, Elysium, and Chappie, and is to be based on the true story of a teen gamer who competed in the sim’s GT Academy to win a seat in a real race car. GT Academy was sponsored by Nissan, and after passing through qualifying events driving Nismo cars online, competitors then battled in real life for a place at an intensive driver development program, ultimately winning a drive in a Nismo race car for the 24 Hours of Dubai. The competition ran annually from 2008 to 2016, and produced a number of professional drivers still racing today.

Exhaust: Next year will be a hot one for race fans at the movies with Brad Pitt’s Formula 1 movie also headed to production, directed by Top Gun: Maverick‘s Joseph Kosinski. Who will win the race for ticket sales?

Developer of AMC Headquarters site seeks $32.6M in brownfield tax credits



Intake: NorthPoint Development is seeking $32.6 million in brownfield tax increment financing for its costs to redevelop the former AMC Headquarters site on Detroit’s west side. According to the Detroit News, the Missouri-based company will invest $71 million to redevelop the 50-acre site at 14250 Plymouth Road. The Detroit City Council will discuss the issue on Thursday, June 16, and the matter could be referred to the full council for a vote as early as Tuesday. Site work would include demolition of the AMC complex, abatement, and preparation of the property for construction. The former AMC Headquarters was abandoned in 2010. Redevelopment options include buildings for warehouse or light assembly industrial tenants.

Exhaust: Another historic automotive building is about to meet its doom, and while we make no apologies for our love of beautiful architecture—like the AMC Headquarters’ brick administration building—the project is expected to create 350 permanent jobs and 100 temporary construction jobs. That’s a win for Detroit.



This feisty fan car is gunning for a Goodwood record



Intake: McMurty Automotive has its sights on smashing the outright record at the Goodwood Festival of Speed. Its Spéirling electric track car uses a fan to generate over 4000 pounds of downforce even at a standstill and will literally be sucked onto the asphalt of the British stately home’s driveway. The rear-driven racer has twin electric motors, a power-to-weight ratio of 1000 bhp/tonne (922 hp/ton) and is said to be able to accelerate from 0 to 60 mph in less than 1.5 seconds. Top speed for the record run will be limited by gearing to 150 mph, but the production version will be faster. Built around a carbon-fiber monocoque, the single-seat closed cockpit car also features active ride height suspension and carbon ceramic brakes. Former F1 and IndyCar racer Max Chilton has been the development driver and will share driving duties with British hillclimb expert Alex Summers on the Goodwood hill between June 23 and 26.

Exhaust: The McMurty team will have to better 39.9 seconds up the 1.16-mile course to take the record away from the VW ID.R driven by Romain Dumas in 2019. With Ken Block also aiming to take the title at Pike’s Peak, VW and Dumas could lose out twice in just a matter of days.

Ferrari will still be making gas-only cars by 2030



Intake: Despite its Purosangue SUV, which is now due in September, a slew of hybrids, and its first electric models, Ferrari isn’t abandoning gas-only powertrains. The company just hosted its Capital Markets Day, in which it sketched out its product plans from 2022 through 2026, with a few gestures to 2030. As previously announced, the first all-electric Ferrari will debut in 2025. By 2023, Ferrari’s hoping that 40 percent of its sales will be EV; in the short term, through 2026, hybrid will carry the volume. The gas-only, V-12 Purosangue SUV is not supposed to dominate sales: Ferrari promises it will account for no more than 20 percent. As it continues to develop internal-combustion powertrains, the marque will also explore alternative fuels.

Exhaust: Investors—the target audience at a Capital Markets Day—have cast a skeptical eye on Ferrari’s slow embrace of electric-only powertrains, but from where we sit, the marque knows exactly which side its ciabatta is buttered. It’s not about to burn high-redline bridges for the sake of a greener brand image. While its “SUV” title is alarming, the Purosangue sounds like more of an FF or GTC4Lusso follow-up than an Italian Cayenne, in on-road orientation, silhouette, and target volume. Can Ferrari succeed in being all things to all customers, balancing the books while placating investors and keeping purists in the fold? We’re feeling bullish.



The post Ford digitizes archives, Honda’s newest Civic Si race car stays cheap, ICE survives at Ferrari through 2030 appeared first on Hagerty Media.

]]> https://www.hagerty.com/media/news/the-manifold/2022-06-16/feed/ 0 https://www.hagerty.com/media/news/the-manifold/2022-06-07/ https://www.hagerty.com/media/news/the-manifold/2022-06-07/#respond Tue, 07 Jun 2022 15:15:46 GMT https://www.hagerty.com/media/?p=227079

427 SOHC Cobra Daytona Coupe: Carroll’s dream is real

Intake: The “427 Cammer” is the stuff of dreams for Ford aficionados—and Carroll Shelby, too. The legendary Ford racer and designer envisioned a world in which the Cobra Daytona Coupe ditched its small-block V-8 for the hyper exclusive, single overhead cam, 427-cubic-inch Ford FE engine. While Shelby had a Cobra Coupe lengthened to fit the big-block Ford motor, securing the elusive 427 SOHC mill before the 1964 Le Mans race was impossible. Enter Shelby American’s “continuation” big block Shelby Daytona Coupe, built to the same specs as the ’60s race car, complete with “an aluminum body over a 3-inch lengthened chassis” with hood modifications to clear the 427 SOHC. The car was officially unveiled at the Carlisle Ford Nationals, received the serial number CSX2623, and “will be shown throughout the year in celebration of Shelby American’s 60th anniversary.”

Exhaust: Dreams don’t become reality very often, but anything is possible when the stars align in the automotive aftermarket. While availability and pricing wasn’t given for those interested in taking home a 427 SOHC Cobra Coupe, a “regular” coupe retails for $324,995 (aluminum body) or $124,995 (fiberglass) without a powertrain. A quick peek at Jon Kasse’s website (a likely vendor for this project) suggests a 427 SOHC motor retails for $55,000. (That’s for a recreation of the original design using modern parts, not a period mill.) Certainly not chump change, but it’s hard to put a price on a vehicle that was impossible to make just a few years ago. 



BMW’s first-ever M3 wagon will debut … in England?



Intake: BMW is taking center stage at the Goodwood Festival of Speed. Celebrating 50 years of its M division, the German brand will exhibit a specially commissioned tribute sculpture on the Goodwood lawn and premiere its first-ever M3 Touring. (3 Series wagons we’ve had aplenty, but never a long-roof version of the M version.) The performance wagon will appear in public on Thursday, June 23, and make daily demonstration runs up the famous hillclimb throughout the event. The M4 CSL will also be on show, and among the many M cars hairing up the hill will be the Le Mans-winning V12 LMR and Nelson Piquet’s 1983 F1 World Championship car, the Brabham BMW BT52. Tune in to Goodwood’s YouTube channel to watch all the action.

Exhaust: You won’t be seeing the M3 Touring in the U.S.A., as BMW isn’t importing it, so catching it at Goodwood will be your best chance to watch it perform.

2023 HR-V wins on power, price; slips on efficiency and trunk room



Intake: Honda’s tiniest SUV is growing up. After adopting the 11th-gen Civic’s architecture, the HR-V is 2.6 inches wider and 9.4 inches longer tip to tail, with a 1.7-inch increase in wheel base yielding more leg room for rear seat occupants. Thanks to a different rear suspension design (fully independent versus the Honda Fit–derived torsion-beam setup), ride refinement will likely improve, though cargo area with the seats up is nearly identical (24.4 vs 24.3 cubic feet) and, with the rear row folded, actually worse than in previous model (55.1 vs. 58.8). The driver and front passenger will be happier, however, facing a neatly organized, handsome dash essentially lifted from the 2022 Civic. A 7-inch touchscreen comes standard on the LX and Sport models, and the EX-L (gone is the EX trim) boasts a 9-incher. Even though the HR-V makes do with the mildest Civic powerplant, the 2.0-liter four-banger generates 17 more hp and 11 more lb-ft of torque than the previous four-pot. Each of the three trims is available in front- or all-wheel-drive. Fuel efficiency, surprisingly, worsens slightly: the outgoing car posted 28 mpg city and 34 highway; the 2023 model, 26/32 if you pick the front-drive model. (25/30 for the AWD trims.)

Exhaust: The drop in fuel efficiency isn’t a great look for the new HR-V. That said, the decrease is minor, and we expect the 2023 car to be vastly more refined inside and out when it comes to ride, aesthetics, and tech. We’re most impressed by Honda’s control of the base price: The 2023 model’s MSRP only increases by $535 … though keep in mind that destination is still an eye-watering $1200+.

Soon, Apply CarPlay will populate every screen in your car



Intake: Apple unveiled its newest operating system, iOS 16, yesterday. Among the updates included, there’s a large emphasis on CarPlay, the tech company’s integrated user experience that will substitute your car’s existing infotainment screen for an interface that mirrors that of your iPhone. The newest updates will see CarPlay take over more screens in your car, such as the digital instrument cluster just ahead of the steering wheel. Apple says that the next generation of CarPlay will provide content for multiple screens to create a unified and consistent experience. You’ll be able to control other functions of the car besides just your podcasts and navigation, including climate control, speedometer, fuel level, and more. The tech will feature configurable widgets and gauge cluster designs, at-a-glance info for weather and music, and more.

Exhaust: CarPlay integration is a major driving force behind the modern consumer’s car purchasing decisions, so this increased level of integration is hardly surprising. Car companies aren’t all that great at tech-based user experience—just look at some of the woeful interfaces on things like the outgoing Lexus models that utilized twitchy trackpads. It makes sense that they’re willing to hand over the UI work to companies like Apple, who already have such a strong presence in many individuals’ everyday lives through their phones, iPads, and computers. As cars become increasingly screen-based, automakers are clearly embracing the added benefits of mirroring tech like CarPlay. The move also helps Apple collect mountains of additional data to improve Apple Maps, one of the few known weak points in the iOS ecosystem. More concerning than the quirks of Apple Maps is how much privacy customers will sacrifice for this undeniably slick, familiar interface—not simply what and where they shop and drive, information to which Apple is already privy, but the nuances of their driving behavior. This trove of customer data is the true honeypot for Apple.

Gordon Murray to follow analog hypercars with electric SUVs



Intake: Gordon Murray’s automotive ambitions are turning to the mainstream. After the multi-million-dollar analog V-12 T.50 and T.33 hypercars Murray’s next vehicles will be a pair of affordable electric SUVs, reports Autocar. One car will be sold under the Gordon Murray Automotive brand, while the other is under development for another carmaker. Murray says that his approach to this booming market will “change the way we think about range anxiety and vehicle dynamics.” Assuming that these E-SUVs follow Murray’s methods, they’ll be lightweight, compact, aerodynamic and hyper-efficient. “It can’t be correct to have family cars routinely weighing 2.5 tonnes, yet everyone’s piling into the thing the way OEMs do. We think there’s a better way,” Murray tells Autocar.

Exhaust: Ever since Murray unveiled his iStream production method way back in 1998, we’ve been waiting to see it applied to volume production. Using Formula 1-derived materials and methods, Murray says multiple vehicles can be built on the same line, requiring much less investment than a traditional car plant. The vehicles produced are also considerably lighter and have much smaller carbon footprint than conventionally built cars. More to the point, Murray’s boutique shop could afford to experiment with more exotic solutions to the problem of battery weight and energy density than a larger firm, which would be operating with thinner profit margins and at higher volume, could justify.

Unrestored Austin Healey will make you smile like Jay Leno

Intake: In the realm of little British cars, one stands alone for the smile-on-the-face factor: The Austin Healey Sprite. Early version have the nickname of “bugeyes,” and for good reason. Just one look at the froggy front end design will put you in a good mood. The driving experience is no let-down, either, as Jay Leno shows with his well-preserved example this week on Jay Leno’s Garage. The tiny sports car might not pack power, but it comes in heavy with fun factor.

Exhaust: The four-cylinder engine under that big clamshell hood displaces only 948 cc, but that is really all that is needed to have a good day of driving on the California canyon roads that surround Jay’s shop. Millions of bugeye Sprites are out there, bringing affordable, open-air fun to the street or track. Probs to Jay for celebrating the little guys. 

First look at Polestar 3 SUV, which will be made in America



Intake: Here for the first time undisguised is Polestar’s first all-electric SUV. Following the low-production, hybrid 1 coupe and the all-electric Polestar 2 liftback, the 3 will officially debut in October of 2022. Unlike the China-built 2, the 3 will be built at Volvo’s plant in Charleston, South Carolina, which currently builds the S60 and is scheduled to convert to EV-only production. (Both Volvo and Polestar are owned by Geely, and the former holds a majority stake in Polestar, whose name used to grace its factory-backed racing team.) The North American production site will be in addition to a Chinese one, indicating that Polestar is expecting the SUV to be a big hit stateside. The 3 will rival Tesla’s Model Y, VW’s ID.4, and Ford’s Mustang Mach-E. Polestar’s first SUV will debut in dual-motor spec, but, judging from the 2 rollout, it’s logical that a single-motor variant will follow with a shorter range and a lower cost.

Exhaust: From our experience with both variants of the 2, Polestar has the resources, the savvy, and the styling to offer a compelling alternative to the fan-favorite Tesla. This SUV will test the brand’s ability to woo a particularly discerning clientele: couples and small families who typically have higher expectations of everyday usability and lower tolerance for inconveniences, however stylishly packaged. We have high hopes.

The post 427 SOHC Cobra Daytona Coupe finally lives, CarPlay takeover, Polestar’s first SUV camo-free appeared first on Hagerty Media.

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