2009 Acura Mdx~sh Awd~hid~roof~htd Lea~3rd Seat~all Options on 2040-cars

Auto blog

Honda to lead Rose Parade with hybrid tech

What are you doing New Year's Day? We're probably going to watch Urban Meyer's retirement bash the Rose Bowl, but we love a nice parade, too. To kick the day off, Honda will be leading the 130th Rose Parade with its own float, an Insight hybrid and an Acura RDX crossover. Not only will Honda be celebrating the new year, it'll also celebrate its 60th anniversary in the U.S. As such, the main float will be shaped like a 25-foot-tall birthday cake. And 60 band members from the historically black colleges and universities' marching bands — which recently took part in a battle of the bands sponsored by Honda — will represent the candles on the cake. It'll also be decorated to re-create the look of the automaker's first storefront in Los Angeles. The float will be called "Celebration of Dreams," a fitting title for a company whose founder Soichiro Honda famously said, "The day I stop dreaming is the day I die." (The first thing you see when entering the amazing Honda Collection Hall at Twin Ring Motegi is a large, circular glass sculpture with the word "Dream" and Soichiro Honda's signature). For the parade, the Honda Insight will serve as the official pace car, while the Acura RDX will play the role of sound car. The float itself will be propelled by a modified Honda hybrid powertrain. The main float will be flanked by five "satellite" floats, each representing facets of the company. These will include a Honda Super Cub motorbike; a floral representation of a 1975 Civic CVCC; a float with crash test dummies and an arch with five stars to represent safety; a Honda Accord, which is built in the U.S.; and a float incorporating elements from the HondaJet to represent the future. The Rose Parade broadcast begins bright and early at 8 a.m. Pacific on Jan. 1. Check out the rendering at the top of the page to get a sense of what to expect. Related Video:

Acura Precision EV Concept teased ahead of Monterey reveal

Acura is getting ready to to unveil a new all-electric concept to showcase the brand's design language as it enters the age of electrification. A brief teaser video providing a glimpse of the car was released today accompanied by precious little information, but we can still glean a few tidbits. The name, Acura Precision EV Concept, offers the first clue. Acura has applied the name "Precision" to flagship concepts in the past. The stunning 2016 Precision Concept was also said to define a new design language for the brand. It became a template for cars like the RDX and MDX, but it most resembled the sharp-looking TLX sedan that debuted in 2020 for the 2021 model year. In the intervening years, luxury marques have become far more likely to introduce an electrified crossover as a flagship than an internal combustion sedan. The Precision EV concept seems to fit that mold. From the video, we can see that the vehicle will have a rather tall section of black cladding below the "grille" area, as well as some contouring above the wheel wells. This suggests it's quite likely an SUV rather than a low-slung sedan.  The would-be grille area now projects an illuminated Acura logo. The formerly high relief diamond shapes converging on the central emblem are now distinct lighting elements, with the same pattern repeated in a lower fog lamp areas on either side of the nose. Acura's signature jewel-eye headlights with chicane DRLs are now slimmer and wider, meeting the grille area at the inner points. So, what is it? Quite likely, we'll soon see a preview of Acura's upscale version of the Honda Prologue, an EV collab with General Motors. Riding on GM's Ultium battery platform that will underpin Cadillac Lyriq, Honda has announced that the Prologue will spawn an Acura as well. Finally, thanks to unearthed trademark filings, we are led to believe that it will be named the Acura ADX. Whatever it's called, it's not expected to hit the roads until the 2024 model year. That fits with the Precision EV Concept's August 18 unveiling at this month's Monterey Car Week festivities. Related video:

Acura NSX GT3 data 'will inform future iterations' of the street car

Motorsports programs exist to drive innovation in road vehicles, and that's precisely what's happening at Honda. Acura NSX development boss Nick Robinson told Autocar that the company's work on the GT3 racing variant is directly informing future development on the road car. "In North America, we've just unveiled the GT3 version of the car, and the development team of the street car has had some involvement in its development," Robinson said. "What works well on the track will inform future iterations and updates of the street car and vice versa." But Honda is a big company that does more than build cars. Robinson paid tribute to the impact his employer's well-known motorcycle program had on the NSX. Apparently, building stuff like the CBR helped Honda with the NSX's complicated packaging. "For many years our motorcycle development teams have strived to ensure the optimum centralization of mass, ensuring the lowest possible center of gravity," Robinson told Autocar. "This leads to the best possible yaw response." Is this all a sign that a long-rumored lighter, faster NSX, potentially wearing the vaunted Type R badge, will be especially track-focused? Maybe. Robinson's comments indicate that the company is doing something with the mountains of data it collects running a GT3 program. While a pure road-focused NSX-R successor seems like it'd be a waste of that data, an NSX-based rival to the Porsche 911 GT3 RS might make a lot more sense. Related Video: News Source: AutocarImage Credit: Brendan McDermid / Reuters Motorsports Rumormill Acura Honda Coupe Racing Vehicles Performance gt3