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Formula 1 Honda

Very cool 1968 Honda RA302 illustration

1968 Honda RA302 illustration by Road & Track

British company Stuart Taylor Motorsport has recreated a replica of the 1968 Honda RA302 Formula 1 car. If you know about the car’s history this may seem an unusual choice, as the Stuart Taylor website explains:

The RA302 of 1968 is something of an oddity, introduced with a magnesium skinned monocoque and an air cooled v8 engine it was certainly innovative and there had been plenty of outside the box thinking going on—the driving position was very far forward and left the drivers legs very exposed to serious damage though with hindsight that would have been a relatively minor bruise compared to the very public death of Jo Schlesser in a RA302 fireball at Rouen —after testing the car John Surtees wisely chose not to run the new 302 however Honda France chose to run the car with Schlesser and after 2 laps the car speared off the track and rolled, swiftly igniting the full tanks of fuel and trapping the driver in an appaling public cremation.

The car was never properly developed and Honda left the world of F1 racing soon after—one car can be seen in the Honda museum.

We came across the story via Road & Track and that’s where we found this impressive illustration from the magazine’s own archives. You can see a couple of grabs of the double-page spread here, but make sure you follow the link below for the full picture. It is seriously cool!

[Source: Road & Track]

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Just how good is the Civic Type R?

Honda Civic Type R

The all-new Honda Civic Type R had an extremely long development cycle. It’s now been launched and has to go about living up to the hype Honda has generated.

Here Steve Sutcliffe from Auto Express takes the Type R to the tight Llandow Circuit in Wales to see how it compared with the Seat Leon Cupra 280 and the Renault Megane RS275 Trophy.

That’s all well and good, nobody would be surprised if the Type R was the quickest of that trio. But what if the Audi RS3 and BMW M3 are added to the list?

[Thanks to John for the tip]

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Honda Motor Shows

Geneva 2015: Honda Civic Type R

Honda Civic Type R

This is it! You’re looking at the production-ready Civic Type R. At last!

Its numbers, then, what are its key stats? Power from the 2.0 litre VTEC mofo engine is rated at 310PS (228kW) at 6500rpm, while peak torque is 400Nm at 2500rpm. A lot for a front-wheel drive hot hatch, yes, but it’s what we’ve come to expect these days.

The 0–100km/h sprint is all over in 5.7 seconds and the new Type R has a v-max of 270km/h. Thankfully that’s all done via a proper 6-speed manual transmission as well.

The marketers have triumphed with the naming of the magic +R button. When that button is pressed the lab coats have ensured the car becomes more responsive with a more more aggressive torque-map, reduced power assistance for the steering and stiffening up the Adaptive Damper System by 30 per cent.

Marketing very much triumphs over engineering with the GT pack, which is nothing more than a collection of frilly options. There’s no extra power or suspension beefiness to be found here.

And speaking once again about marketing, Honda has published a video of the Civic Type R lapping the Nürburgring in 7 minutes 50.63 seconds. Take that Renault!

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Formula 1 Honda McLaren

2015 McLaren MP4-30 revealed

2015 McLaren-Honda MP4-30

McLaren luanched its 2015 Formula 1 car overnight, the MP4-30. The biggest development, of course, is the use of the Honda RA615H Hybrid power unit.

McLaren-Honda, there’s a lot of great memories in those two names. Cigarette sponsorship gave those cars from the late 1980s and early 1990s an evocative red and white livery. The marketing spin says the 2015 livery is an “evolved colour scheme that firmly contextualises McLaren’s brand in the 21st century.”

We don’t like it at all.

McLaren had a great opportunity to really leverage of the enormous goodwill from its first partnership with Honda by creating a new and unique livery that not only looked great but also stood out on the grid.

Instead we get this bland half-arsed attempt to blend two looks that was never going to work.

Thankfully, the car itself looks okay, and that horrible nose from the MP4-29 has been removed. Fingers crossed for McLaren, for Honda and for everyone in Formula 1 that the MP4-30 has a great year ahead.

It’s great to have Honda back!

The other big move for McLaren is the return of Fernando Alonso. His first stint with the team was a bit of a disaster in terms of fitting in with the team’s strong personalities. Alonso is a damn good driver, let’s see if he’s a truly great driver.

Waiting for you after the break is a number of videos, more photos of the new car and a couple of press releases for you to download.

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Formula 1 Honda McLaren Video

It’s time to make history

We’re about to see a whole bunch of reveals from F1 teams as they get ready for the opening pre-season test at Jerez on 1 February. McLaren-Honda will reveal their new car on 29 January and have started to pull at the heart strings with this promo.

And, yes, a retro-imspired red and white delivery would be the duck’s guts!

[Thanks to Wes for the tip]

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Formula 1 Honda

Honda NSX Concept coming to Australia

Acura NSC Concept

One of the first tangible signs for car buyers of Honda’s return to Formula 1 will take place at the Australian Grand Prix (15–18 March) when you will be able to get up close to the NSX Concept.

The NSX Concept will be on display at Albert Park and will also help mark the comeback of the McLaren-Honda partnership.

“This is a new era for Honda in more ways than one,” said Honda Australia Director, Stephen Collins. “The NSX is the rebirth of an icon and represents power, sportiness and efficiency. The NSX Concept will be the star attraction of Honda’s on-circuit display at Albert Park. There will be many fans of the original supercar who we know will enjoy this exclusive preview.”

Australian buyers interested in the NSX should be able to place orders mid-year for delivery in 2016.

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Honda Motor Shows Video

Detroit 2015: Honda NSX

Honda NSX

Honda, or more accurately Acura, has taken the covers off the production-ready NSX. It’s sharp, refined and looks pretty good, we think.

While we have new pictures giving us a good look at the latest “new sports experience” from the boffins at Honda we can’t bring you a lot of technical detail.

Power from the twin-turbo 75° mid-mounted V6 engine? No.*

Power from the independent electric motors driving the front wheels? No.

We can tell you the NSX has a 9-speed dual clutch transmission. 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9 gears. Overkill perhaps?

The Sport Hybrid system—which has three electric motors in all, two at the front, one mounted between the engine and transmission—uses its electric power to provide “zero delay” launch performance. We don’t know how fast yet, but this is going to be a fast car. It will handle well and it will reset benchmarks from what you can expect from the iconic NSX nameplate.

The new NSX will be assembled at a dedicated plant in Marysville, Ohio by 100 specially trained workers. Production commences in the third quarter of 2015 with initial deliveries before the year is out.

We’d like to know more about this car and we’re guessing you would too. For now, you’ve got everything we can get our hands on waiting for you after the break.

*We’ve been told total power is beyond 550hp/410kW during the car’s presentation at Detroit, which you can see in the videos below.

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Honda

The all-new 2015 NSX is coming soon

2015 Honda NSX

Has it been three years already! We first saw the Acura/Honda NSX concept back in 2012 (and a revised version in 2013). With great fanfare we were promised the production model would arrive in 2015. Well, guess what, it’s almost 2015 and that means the production-ready NSX is almost here.

With the four new teaser images Acura has supplied (which we have digitally altered to provide even more of a tease) we can get a glimpse at some of the final bodywork, which has changed during its three year gestation. There’s flutes in the bonnet which will do what exactly?

Presumably those front flutes will provide relief to the electric gubbins at each front wheel. Remember, the NSX will boast a fancy Sport Hybrid SH-AWD system, able to generate positive or negative torque at the front wheels.

The 3.5 litre V6 engine is mid-mounted and there now appears to be quite pronounced Audi R8-like side air intakes to capture and feed air into the induction system.

All will be revealed when the new NSX is launched at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit on 12 January (13 January Australian time). You can watch the press conference live at youtube.com/Acura.

More after the break, including a short teaser video.

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Formula 1 Honda McLaren

McLaren-Honda – A shaky new era

McLaren-Honda MP4-29H/X1

Between 1988 and 1992, McLaren-Honda dominated Formula 1, winning 44 grands prix and eight world championships. In 2015, that partnership will be reforged. As we get ready for our new era in F1, we invite you inside the garage to witness first-hand the reunion of McLaren and Honda, and watch the MP4-29H/1X1 take to the track for its first ever run.

That bold and forward-looking statement accompanies McLaren’s first on-track video from its reunification with Honda (clip can be seen below). It was released just before the two day post-season test session held in Abu Dhabi. Since then a lot of that optimism will have been lost.

The McLaren-Honda partnership is used to topping the timesheets. Yet, in two days of testing, not one official lap time was registered.

On Day 1 of testing: An electronics issue meant the car spent the morning in the garage, but it broke cover soon after lunch, with test and development driver Stoffel Vandoorne conducting a number of exploratory installation runs throughout the afternoon.

He was halted on a couple of occasions by a fuel/data exchange issue – the second of which left him stranded on the circuit, causing a red flag.

On Day 2 of testing: Despite successfully firing up before the track opened at 9am, our morning programme was scuppered by a hard-to-find electrical issue, which stopped our progress while we traced the cause.

In the afternoon, the team got the car on the track – Stoffel successfully completed an installation lap, and had begun a four-lap run when the car shut down.

Not the best start, yet despite these setbacks, Yasuhisa Arai, Honda’s chief officer of motorsport remained positive.

“This week’s test is really all about performing some fundamental systems checks on the engine before we begin testing in earnest next February,” explained Arai. “When I was at Jerez earlier this year, I noticed just how many issues the teams faced in readying these turbo engines, so we really wanted to get those initial checks under our belts before winter testing starts in 2015.

“The engine we used today is still under development—it’s not for the actual race—and we’re on schedule to develop it further ahead of the forthcoming season. There are a few more steps coming before Australia.

“We’re making good progress for the new season as one team.”

A competitive McLaren-Honda outfit will be great for F1, so let’s hope they’re able to have more success in pre-season testing next year.

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Formula 1 Honda McLaren

McLaren-Honda era restarts today

2015 Honda F1 engine

The first tangible steps in the new McLaren-Honda era will take place later today when the team completes a filming day at Silverstone. Confirmed via twitter McLaren will run an MP4-29H1x1 alongside two classic McLaren-Honda F1 cars.

Under Formula 1 regulations the team can run up to 100km as part of its filming days. McLaren is yet to announce its driver pairing for next year and neither Jenson Button nor Kevin Magnussen will be at the wheel. Today’s driving duties will be carried out by Oliver Turvey and Stoffel Vandoorn.

Silverstone’s grand prix circuit is 5.9klm long so McLaren will only get around 16 laps to play with. No doubt there’ll be plenty of pretty pictures and glowing words to follow, which we will share with if we can.

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Formula 1 Honda McLaren

Listen to the 2015 Honda V6 power unit

2015 Honda F1 engine

Here’s your first chance to hear the 2015 Honda V6 power unit that will power McLaren F1 cars next year.

It’s a sign of the times that the best audio is heard during the opening sequence of this video covering Honda’s proud history in F1, while the actual sound of the new 1.6 litre turbo hybrid is almost drowned out by the background music.

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Honda Peugeot Renault Video Volkswagen

Hot hatch heaven

Mk1 Volkswagen Golf GTI

This video showcasing eight seven of the best hot hatches money can buy is not perfect, but it is pretty cool. The clip was published by the Goodwood Road & Racing YouTube channel and features French racer Nic Minassian behind the wheel of four old and four new hot hatches, listed below:

  • Honda: EP3 Civic Type R v FN2 Civic Type R
  • Peugeot: 205 GTi v 208 GTi
  • Renault: Clio Williams v Megane RS 265
  • Volkswagen: Mk1 Golf GTI v Mk7 Golf GTD

Save for the GTD that makes for a very impressive line up of cars, all of which we would love to drive. And driving them all on the same day, on the same road, well, that would be a great day out.

Just don’t expect this clip to wow you with performance stats or hard data.