The Super Aguri Formula One team announced yesterday that it would be ending its two year stint in racing’s premiere series, saying that failing sponsorships but the team in a financially impossible position.The news was strongly foreshadowed last week when Super Aguri team members were denied access to the paddock area of the Turkish Grand Prix because of financial issues.
While reporting the news of the outfit’s withdrawal, team principal Aguri Suzuki pointed out with pride that Super Aguri had competed with, and scored championship points against car manufacturer-backed teams, finishing in ninth place overall in 2007.
Suzuki also took pains to thank sponsors Honda and Bridgestone, as well as his super-scrappy pair of drivers, Super Friends Anthony Davidson and Takuma Sato.
(Say ‘goodbye’ in your own way with our Super Aguri gallery below.)
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IndyCar newsmaker Danica Patrick, who recently won her first IRL race, is apparently in consideration for a test drive with Honda Racing’s Formula One team.
Patrick’s victory at the Motegi circuit has enlivened talk that the IRL star may be looking towards a bigger and brighter racing career, including running in motorsport’s premiere series. The driver recently made mention that she would love to try her hand at F1, but only if a serious test was on offer.
If you get your car serviced, do you generally have a good time or bad? As it turns out, most people tend to consider the time and money they spend (and the quality of the work) at automotive service locations to be pretty consistent. That is to say: fixed and mostly forgettable. Sometimes this is more time/money/anguish than average, sometimes less, but overall somewhere in the fat part of the curve which averages out to be quite forgettable.
It is therefore interesting, as a result, to find service locations which have acknowledged this fixed badness and decide to do something else. Today we received an email from an old friend in Los Angeles wherein the subject line was titled, “Objectively excellent customer service.” The email said:
“Miller Honda in culver city, ca: all employees really nice and polite, free 5-mile-radius shuttle, free wi-fi, free Starbucks, lounge area with premium cable, wide selection of magazines, walkable to vibrant downtown area.”
Honda’ s entry into the contest, the striking race car seen above, was created as a throwback to the Formula One racing Honda’s of the past, and especially the 1967 RA 273. The toy car’s basic layout is designed around the Honda H logo, which provides nicely for a stripped down two-pod concept. Between the driver and navigator cockpits lies a massive V-10 VTEC engine that would displace a massive 2.0-liters per cylinder. Don’t get any ideas though; Honda takes special pains to point out that the 20.0-liter racing engine is “theoretical, too bad.
In reality, the super sweet Honda Racer Hot Wheels car will be able to be found on toy store shelves sometime in May and this writer’s desk shortly thereafter. Check out the design in our gallery below or click through the jump to read the press release.
While we’re fans of the sporting practicality that Honda’s five-passenger Fit has been offering to Americans for the last few years, we’re not sure that we’d be quite so happy with the package if we had to share it with three additional friends.
That’s what Honda seems to be proposing, if French web site Le Blog Auto can be believed, with these scans of a new Fit variant called the Freed, stretched to accommodate as many as eight passengers. The Freed will apparently be powered by a 1.5-liter four making 118 horsepower and hooked up to a CVT transmission.
Have a look at the potential Freed in our gallery below.
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Honda has been toying with us for a while now about the release date for the next version of the NSX. Originally the car was slated to be revealed at last year’s Tokyo Motor Show, but the bad rap on the Acura Advanced Sports Car concept put the kibosh on that thinking.
New reports are pinning the launch of the new car to the next Tokyo show in 2009, and claiming that the styling of the car has been revised. The new car allegedly sports a new front section with “Chevrolet Corvette undertones,” could go into production by 2010.
Honda’s plans for rear-wheel-drive vehicles don’t end with the new NSX however, the car is said to be the first in a line of new RWD rides that will be pitted against the Lexus, Mercedes, and BMW’s of the world. There are said to be plans for an S2000 type Acura sports car, a RWD sedan, and eventually a luxury offering that will be roughly 7-series size.
(Care to remember the originator of the species? Check out the 1994 Acura NSX below.)
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Vinnie Barbarino delivering mail on the back of a motorcycle as a way of shilling for Honda…I’m so confused? “Good things” may indeed happen on a Honda, but we’re not so sure we by Travolta in this role as a very unofficial mailman. Nice bike though.
Check out a slightly newer Honda model, the rip-snorting CBR1000RR, in our gallery below.
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After the unique qualifying process dubbed the “Firestone Fast Six”, Tony Kanaan took the pole ahead of Will Power’s No. 8 Aussie Vineyards-Team Australia car, even though Power turned the fast lap of all the qualifying sessions. In addition to getting the check for fast time Kanaan had to be pleased with his run after being penalized 30 minutes of practice time for staying out with his mangled right front suspension in last week’s race at Homestead-Miami Speedway.
The 180 mile Saint Petersburg race started under yellow because they didn’t want to keep the fans waiting and rain water was everywhere. The first green session began at lap 10 and lasted only ‘til lap 14. When Kanaan and the leaders stopped for fuel Wilson inherited the lead on the 1.8-mile, 14-turn street circuit. The track was slowly drying so at lap 41 #26 Andretti, #9 Dixon, #17 Hunter-Reay and #7 Patrick all jumped into the pits to change to slicks. A few laps later #11 Kanaan, #20 Carpenter, #2 Foyt IV and #02 Wilson also switched to the stickier tires. #33 Viso assumed the lead and pulled out 4.5218 seconds on #36 Bernoldi until #6 Briscoe lost it into the outside wall, destroying his car.
Hunter-Reay, #06 Rahal, #33 Viso, #3 Castroneves and #10 Wheldon stayed out when the leaders took pit lane under yellow. When racing resumed, Graham Rahal passed Hunter-Reay and stayed in the lead through the next yellow. Castroneves got around Hunter-Reay to take over second. At 75 laps the officials announced the race would be ended in ten minutes. Kanaan made the most of those few minutes, passing both Viso and Hunter-Reay in the next four laps to take third. At the checkered flag on lap 83 young mister Rahal held a 3.5192 second advantage over Helio Castroneves, Tony Kanaan took the last podium position at St Pete’s.
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We’ve been asleep at our Honda wheel when it comes to the incredible website the company built for their F1 team. One of the recent features the site published is a lap in a Civic Type R with F1 pilot Jenson Button. It’s cut into two parts, with the first (above) more of a preview and the second (after the jump) containing the lap.
One thing you’ll notice is how incredibly quiet it is inside the Type R. Are they actually moving?
Honda has revealed the updated version of its popular small car, the 2009 Fit, here at the New York Auto Show.
New for the 2009 model year in Honda’s tiniest U.S. entry is a satellite navigation system with voice-recognition software, an MP3-friendly USB port, and revised multi-positional rear chairs that the company calls “Magic Seats.” For the driver, Honda has fitted its Fit with a slightly revised suspension, as well as a new version of its only engine choice, the 1.5-liter i-VTEC four. Buyers will be able to specify a traditional 5-speed manual transmission for the car, or a 5-speed autobox with available steering-wheel mounted paddle shifters.
In our galleries below you’ll find stock and live images of the 2009 Honda Fit, or click through the jump to read the straight dope from Honda.
All of us agree that the Accord EX is very nicely equipped even though it lacks many high-end comforts such as leather upholstery, satellite navigation, and V-6 power. We drove the Accord through sun, rain, sleet, and snow, and find it to be a very reliable mid-size sedan.
Click through the jump to read our full impressions and click the images below to open a gallery.
The automaker has released a new Japanese driving guide specifically for women drivers, which purports to erase “all your fears about driving.” The pamphlet-sized guide contains instructions on how to do such everyday chores as pumping gas, transporting children and pets, and how to park. The guide also advises aging female drivers about fuel saving, environmental awareness, and safety.
While most women we know would find such a pamphlet remarkably insulting, Honda claims that it just has the best interest of women at heart, saying in a statement, “We would like to let all women know how to drive safely. We would like to minimize accidents of women drivers.” When asked if its guide implied that women were inferior drivers, a spokesperson replied, “We don’t think so. There are some specific cases of women drivers, and we focus on those cases.”
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