Tag Archives: Honda

2022 Honda Civic Type R Takes To The Nurburgring In Anger

The forthcoming 2022 Honda Civic Type R has been filmed being pushed to its limits at the Nurburgring and looks very, very quick.

The new Civic Type R promises to be a significant improvement over the outgoing model, a car that has already established itself as the king of front-wheel-drive hot hatches. Honda’s eleventh-generation Civic is based on a new platform that’s stiffer than its predecessor while also having a slightly longer wheelbase and wider rear track. These upgrades alone should have a particularly profound effect on how the new Civic Type R drives.

Read More: 2022 Honda Civic Type R Hits The Nurburgring, Probably Has A Lap Record In Mind

All signs point towards the new car retaining the 2.0-liter turbocharged four-cylinder as the FK8 Civic Type R, albeit slightly modified to deliver a bit more than the curent 306 hp and 295 lb-ft (400 Nm). Adding even more horsepower and torque than this is never easy with a front-wheel-drive platform but given how well Honda’s engineers did in eliminating torque steer from the outgoing model, we suspect it can work out ways to add some extra grunt without any downsides.

Throughout this clip, a pair of camouflaged prototypes are shown lapping some of the most difficult sections of the circuit, including the famed ‘mini-Carousel’ where the car briefly jumps into the air, lifting one of its wheels off the pavement.

Honda will no doubt look to set a new production car lap record for a front-wheel-drive performance vehicle around the ‘Ring. The current record was set in April 2019 by the Renault Megane R.S. Trophy-R at 7:40.1. If the new Civic Type R can dip below the 7:40 mark, that would be a huge achievement, especially when you consider that the Megane R.S. Trophy-R is a stripped-down variant with front racing seats, no rear seats, and a roll bar.

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Bentley’s 850 HP Pikes Peak Continental GT3 Vs. A 600 HP Honda Civic Type R Seems Like An Unfair Fight

The challenges unique to the Pikes Peak International Hillclimb are many and this results in a lot of unique race cars. Take, for example, Bentley’s Continental GT3 Pikes Peak racer.

Although it’s based on a GT3 car that competes in sports car racing around the world, the one seen in this episode of Hoonigan’s “This vs That” drag racing series has completely bespoke aero, optimized cooling, and the 4.0-liter twin-turbo V8 is running 850 hp (862 PS/633 kW).

Weighing in at 3,020 lbs (1,370 kg), it’s also a featherweight when everything is considered. In fact, it weighs about 280 lbs (127 kg) less than a 2019 Honda Civic Type R modified to be the ultimate sleeper.

Read Also: This Is Bentley’s Continental GT3 For The Pikes Peak – And It Looks Really Wild

Unfortunately, the unique demands of Pikes Peak mean that, although the Continental GT is extremely fast, it is by no means optimized for drag racing. Thus the 600 hp (600 PS/447 kW) Civic fares better than you’d expect against the 850 hp (862 PS/633 kW) Bentley that has tons of aero designed for high altitudes, a surprising inability to launch quickly, and the temperament of a true thoroughbred race car.

In the first race, a 1,500-foot (457-meter) drag from a standstill, the Civic Type R looks like it might be able to keep up for the first few feet. Once the Bentley takes off, though, it runs away from the Honda like a rocket.

Although there should be no controversy about the Bentley being the faster of the two cars, when the Civic Type R is given a headstart and the race is shrunk to 1,000 feet (305 meters), it manages to hang on for the win. That might also have to do with the fact that the Bentley‘s battery system was failing, something that prevents it from even putting up a fight in the final roll race.

All of which is an interesting lesson in how specialized race cars are these days and also how temperamental they remain.

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Honda’s New Charging Solution Will Allow UK Users To Recharge With Green Energy And Save Money

Honda’s new energy solutions division recently announced the imminent debut of their first project titled e:PROGRESS that’s being touted as the most advanced home charging solution from an automobile manufacturer in Europe.

The new technology consists of a connected charger that is paired with intelligent software developed by Moixa, a charging specialist company. This software organizes a charging schedule based on drivers’ requirements to make sure that their cars are sufficiently charged at all times while honing in on low-priced clean energy.

Also Watch: Can The Cute Honda e Electric Mini Win Over Chris Harris?

Power is produced by Octopus Energy, a UK-based electricity supplier with the UK’s first dynamic tariff. The flexible tariff can be applied to the residence as well as the car, and allows users to access lower-priced electricity during renewable-heavy, off-peak hours. This is where Moixa’s software plays a significant role as it chooses the most cost-effective time to charge the Honda e, monitoring price changes that can occur every 30 minutes.

The result is an estimated £475 saved annually compared to the standard tariff. The recommended charger to be used for the service is the Honda Power Charger S+ (4G), which will be integrated with e:PROGRESS to allow timely access to low-cost electricity.

Setting up e:PROGRESS is guaranteed to be a swift and easy process, with clients being able to check their eligibility online and British Gas carrying out the installation process to ensure customers receive a quality nation-wide service and responsive after-sales support. What’s more, e:PROGRESS is said to support active grid management, helping to stabilize demand and optimize the use of renewable energy. This project by the energy divisions solutions unit is the first of many to come, including Honda Power Manager, and is a step closer to achieving Honda’s 2030 vision of being a company that offers ‘new value’ by branching out into areas such as energy services.

This 1996 Honda Integra Type R Is Pretty Sweet If You Can Live With The RHD Side

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Prices of DC2-generation Honda Integra Type Rs have been on the rise in recent years and in Montreal, Canada, there is one particularly attractive example that needs a new home.

This Integra Type R is a 1996 model from Japan that was only imported into Canada in June 2020. It has 172,000 km (~107,000 miles) on the clock and is being offered with a Japanese export certificate and Canadian import documents.

Read Also: In An Ideal World, Honda Would Build A New 2022 Integra Type R Like This

Adorning the exterior of the car is Championship White paint and as this is a JDM model, it includes different headlights to variants sold in overseas markets. The car originally left the factory with four-lug wheels but has since been fitted with five-spoke 16-inch white wheels from a later Type R model. These wheels are wrapped in 205/45 Kumho Ecsta tires.

Found in the cabin of the car are Recaro seats clad in red synthetic suede and cloth alongside a black dashboard, door panels, and carpets. Key features include air conditioning and power windows although the car lacks airbags and a stereo. It also features a titanium shift knob and a three-spoke Momo steering wheel.

Driving the popular Japanese sports car is a 1.8-liter B18C inline-four engine that produced 197 hp at 8,000 rpm and 131 lb-ft of torque at 7,200 rpm in its heyday. This engine is coupled to a five-speed manual transmission driving the front wheels through a limited-slip differential.

At the time of writing, bidding on the car had just surpassed $12,000 but we expect that figure to climb towards, or perhaps beyond, the $20,000 mark.

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Mugen Gives Tiny Honda S660 Roadster A Big Dose Of Attitude

We’ve been drooling over the Honda S660 ever since the mid-engined kei car launched in Japan in 2015.

Unfortunately, rumors of Honda taking the diminutive sports car global have been greatly exaggerated, leaving us no option but to merely report on the various variants, special editions and custom body kits the automaker has launched over the past five years.

Mind you, the latest S660 project is not an official Honda effort, but that doesn’t make it less interesting. On the other hand, you could say it’s semi-official, given the very close ties between Honda and Mugen Power.

See Also: Honda Access Gives S660 An Active Rear Spoiler, Other Cool Accessories

On August 28, the tuner will be releasing styling and suspension upgrades for the facelifted 2020 S660. On sale at Honda Cars and Mugen Parts dealers across Japan, the parts are inspired by the Mugen S660 Concept unveiled at the 2020 Tokyo Auto Salon.

For the exterior, the custom parts include a front aero bumper, side skirts, and rear aero bumper, all made of vacuum-formed PPE. Replacing the standard item, the front bumper features a two-tone finish combining the vehicle’s body color with a Dark Gun metallic paint, while it can be had with optional LED fog lights and aero illumination.

At the back, the aero bumper is compatible with both the Mugen sports silencer and the standard muffler. It comes exclusively in the vehicle body color and replaces the standard one. Tying the two custom bumpers together are the large side skirts Mugen Power spoilers. The skirts are attached to the bottom of the body sides and come in a two-tone finish combining the body color with Dark Gun metallic paint.

Rounding out the exterior upgrades are the newly designed ‘FR8’ forged aluminum wheels in a Graphite Gun metallic finish. Interestingly, they come in a staggered setup with 15×5-inch rims on the front axle and 16×6-inch ones at the back, with 165/55 R15 and 195/45 R16 tires respectively.

When it comes to improving the S660’s driving characteristics, Mugen offers a set of Yamaha Performance Dampers, which vibrations and noises over rough surfaces and improve steering stability, maneuverability, and handling.

Bundled up, all these custom parts will set customers back 583,000 yen, or about $5,000. By the end of this year, Mugen Power says it will launch more custom parts for the Honda S660, including carbon front grilles, rear wings, engine hoods, sports silencers, and bucket seats.

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Dealership Employee Filmed Swearing About Customer, Making Him Wait An Hour To Get Car Back

Getting your oil changed is usually pretty simple, but it turned into a nightmare for one customer who took their car to Northside Honda in San Antonio.

In a Facebook post noticed by The Drive, Gabriel Rendon said he took his car in for an oil change and dealership employees also recommend he change is brake and transmission fluid as well as get a new battery.

Rendon allegedly told them he just wanted the oil change and would bring the car back in a couple of weeks to have the rest of the work done. However, the dealership reportedly ignored this and did everything. As a result, they allegedly  asked for $480 instead of the typical $30 or $40 for an oil change.

Also Watch: Dashcam Shows Dealership Employee Learning To Drive Stick On Customer’s Focus RS

Try our entirely online car buying experience! The Northside Express program brings car buying to you!https://www.mynshonda.com/northside-express/

Posted by Northside Honda on Wednesday, April 1, 2020

This, unsurprisingly, led to an argument which was settled when everyone agreed to reinstall the old battery and call it a day. While that’s a reasonable compromise for a bad situation, it appears at least one dealership employee held a grudge.

As you can see in the dashcam video, they drove Rendon’s car back to the service department where the driver had a quick discussion with another employee. During this, one of them says “We gotta let this mother*cker sit an hour, because the guy’s a f*cking a**hole.”

Rendon says that’s exactly what happened as they waited for nearly an hour to get his car back. That’s far longer than it should take to swap out a battery and the lengthy delay prompted Rendon to check the dashcam and discover the dealership purposely punished him for their mistake.

Needless to say, customers should never be treated like that and it’s disappointing that at least two people knew what was happening and neither did anything about it. Now, the dealership is paying the price as the story is getting plenty of attention.

Note: Video contains NSFW language

So went to Honda today to get my oil change and while I was there, they let me know that they recommend I change my transmission and brake fluid and that I needed a new battery.  I told them I had just come in for a oil change and said I would come back in a couple weeks to get the rest done. Well turns out they ended up doing everything and wanted me to pay $480. I told them that I specifically said to only do the oil and after arguing for a while they ended up deciding to take the new battery back and put my old one back in. So they took my car to the back and I ended up waiting for almost an hour for them to put my old battery back and wondered why it took an hour to put my battery back. Well, this is why. I decided to review my dash cam footage and this is what I captured. By the way this was at Northside Honda on San Pedro and 410

Posted by Gabriel Rendon on Saturday, August 22, 2020

Two Canadian Drivers Crash After Close Encounter With Truck; Were They Racing Each Other?

Two drivers have been filmed crashing on a street in Montreal, Canada while appearing to break the speed limit and potentially racing each other.

Local news outlet Journal Demontreal reports the incident happened last week when the driver of a large truck was attempting to make a right-hand turn into a parking lot.

Speaking with the publication, the driver of the truck, Éric Thibault, said he was driving at dawn when he wanted to turn into a parking lot. To make the turn, he drove the truck into the left-most lane before turning across all three lanes of traffic. He claims to have been roughly 250 yards from the nearest intersection at the time and says that red lights should have prevented any motorist from getting anywhere near him.

Read Also: Ford Mustang With “Street Racing Is Not A Crime” Sticker Predictably Crashes

However, just as the trucker begins to turn to the right, a black hatchback (which appears to be a VW Golf), clips the front of the truck and is sent sliding down the sidewalk, taking with it a small tree. A second vehicle, namely a white Honda Civic sedan, then comes at high speed and slams head-on into another, much larger tree.

The speed limit on the road was 60 km/h (37 mph), but the trucker believes the two cars were probably going at least 100 km/h (62 mph).

The City of Montreal Police Service is investigating the crash and has confirmed that none of the motorists suffered any serious injuries.

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2021 Kia K5 Vs Segment Best-Sellers: Would You Get The K5 Over The Camry, Accord Or Altima?

Last year, Toyota sold more than three times as many Camry sedans as Kia did the Optima in the US. In fact, the latter has consistently failed to keep up with the segment’s top three models in terms of sales for the past several years.

The Optima has now been put to rest, with the 2021 K5 taking over as the Korean carmaker’s weapon of choice in the non-premium midsize segment.

In reality, it’s highly unlikely that the top three is going to get reshuffled in any way when it comes to sales. Especially since they’re so far ahead of everybody else, with the Toyota Camry selling 336,978 units in 2019, the Honda Accord selling 267,567 units and Nissan shifting 209,183 Altimas.

However, that doesn’t mean that there aren’t customers out there who would put the fresh new Kia K5 in their shopping list along with its direct rivals, so let’s see how they stack up.

Kia K5 ($24,000 est)

The K5 should pick up where the Optima left off when it comes to pricing. The latter costs upwards of $23,390, and since the Camry, Altima and Accord all start from about $24k too, it’s a safe bet that’s what Kia’s aiming for with the K5. Official pricing however has yet to be released.

Buyers can choose between four trim levels (LX, LXS, GT-Line and EX), while a range-topping GT trim will be available later on.

Read Also: Super Sedan Poll – 2021 Mercedes-AMG E63 Vs. 2021 BMW M5

Powering the base spec 2021 Kia K5 is a turbocharged 1.6-liter four-cylinder with 180 HP and 195 lb-ft (264 Nm) of torque mated to a new 8-speed automatic. An all-wheel drive system will also be available as an option. As for something a bit more dynamic, there’s the turbocharged 2.5-liter four-pot model, with 290 HP and 311 lb-ft (421 Nm) of torque that’s coupled to an 8-speed DSG and will get you to 60 mph in just 5.8 seconds.

Length: 193.1 in (4,905 mm)
Width: 73 in (1,860 mm)
Height: 56.9 in (1,445 mm)
Wheelbase: 112.2 in (2,850 mm)

Toyota Camry ($24,425)

What’s there to say about the Camry? Its popularity is undisputed and this latest-generation model has been turning many heads, even on a global level.

U.S. buyers can get theirs with either a 203 HP 2.5-liter four-pot, a 301 HP 3.5-liter V6 or a 208 HP hybrid. The V6 is your best bet against the Kia’s turbo 2.5-liter unit, as it can take the Camry to 60 mph in under 6 seconds.

As for styling, we could argue that the K5 definitely gives off some sports sedan vibes, whereas the Camry features a more elegant design. To be fair, the Toyota still looks a great deal more dynamic than its predecessor.

Length: 192.1 in (4,880 mm)
Width: 72.4 in (1,840 mm)
Height: 56.9 in (1,450 mm)
Wheelbase: 111.2 in (2,820 mm)

Honda Accord ($24,020)

Here, you can choose between a 1.5 turbo, a 2.0 turbo and a hybrid. The 1.5-liter four cylinder is good for 192 HP, the 2.0-liter produces 252 HP, while the hybrid model has a total output of 212 HP.

Along with the Camry, the Accord is pretty much the “poster boy” for practical and safe mid-size saloons, and thankfully this latest 10th-generation one even manages to look modern by 2020 standards – which it should, since it only came out in late 2017.

In terms of dimensions, the Accord is actually the widest car here, at 73.3 inches (1,862 mm) in width. Otherwise, it’s similar in size to its rivals from Toyota and Nissan, although the Kia is the longest of the group.

Length: 192.2 in (4,882 mm)
Width: 73.3 in (1,862 mm)
Height: 57.1 in (1,451 mm)
Wheelbase: 111.4 in (2,830 mm)

Nissan Altima ($24,100)

Nissan unveiled the sixth-generation Altima in 2018, and it’s powered by either a 188 HP 2.5-liter naturally aspirated engine or a 248 HP 2.0-liter turbocharged four-pot. While you can have the Altima with all-wheel drive, you don’t have any transmission options other than the Xtronic CVT.

The Accord for example also comes with a 6-speed manual, but to be fair that’s not necessarily something mid-size sedan buyers wish for.

However, if you had to opt between the Altima’s CVT and the K5’s available 8-speed dual clutch gearbox (on the GT model), you’d probably be better off with the latter.

Length: 193.0 in (4,901 mm)
Width: 72.8 in (1,850 mm)
Height: 57.0 in (1,447 mm)
Wheelbase: 111.2 in (2,825 mm)

So, if you’re in the market for a midsize family car, which of these four would you rather park in your driveway?

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