Acura Tsx A Spec on 2040-cars

Auto blog

Honda reports $1.9 billion profit in first quarter despite sales lag at home

Ford, General Motors and Chrysler have been living in a world of sunshine and buttercups after their April-through-June financials hit the newswire, and Toyota is doing pretty good as well. Honda? Not so much.
While Japan's third-largest manufacturer saw $1.9 billion in profits, the 5.1-percent jump was lower than expected thanks to a drop in its home-market sales. US sales also took a sting, as Honda hasn't been able to match the SUV and truck demand that are currently permeating the American market, despite an uptick in Accord sales.
Honda's initial forecasts targeted a take of 209.3 billion yen ($2.1 billion at today's rates), and while a $200 million shortfall is nothing to sniff at, we'd hardly take this as Honda being in trouble. And even with the dip, Honda hasn't adjusted its forecast for the fiscal year, which remains at 780 billion yen ($7.9 billion).

Acura teases new performance EV for Monterey

Acura is headed to Monterey Car Week with what it's calling a "next generation" performance concept. While Honda's premium subsidiary offered up no details about the car itself, we were offered the above teaser photo. Acura says it will be a "segment defying" sport utility vehicle, but what we're seeing here looks awfully trunk-like. From this perspective, it's really anybody's guess, but one thing is obvious: Whatever this thing is, it's no mere ZDX offshoot. Here's Acura's announcement in its entirety, should you be interested in parsing it yourself: "Acura will once again take center stage during Monterey Car Week for the world debut of an exciting new concept vehicle. A segment defying sport utility vehicle, the dynamically styled concept previews the performance brand's next generation all-electric model – the first to be built in Ohio on the company's new dedicated EV platform." The most significant takeaway here is that last bit. Being on a new dedicated platform means that this car has nothing to do with the current Honda-Acura EV offerings, both of which are based on architecture shared with General Motors. Honda has already announced that it will migrate its mainstream EVs to a new, in-house "0 Series" platform in the coming years, with an initial focus on passenger vehicles followed by expansion into people-mover territory. We've yet to hear anything concrete about a parallel program at Acura, so this could very well be the first breadcrumbs to that effect.  For now, that's all Acura has to offer. Keep your ears to the ground during Car Week for more. 

The all-women Acura NSX team previews a way forward for racing

DAYTONA, Fla. — There is a team at the 24 Hours of Daytona that's just like any other team, with experienced drivers who rightly earned their spot in the top endurance racing series in America. They are prepared to run a full season in a competitive car, and they even set the fastest time in their class at the pre-season Roar Before the 24 test. The only difference between this team and any other is that its drivers happen to be women. We went to Daytona to talk to them about their journey to the race. The No. 57 Heinricher Racing with Meyer Shank Racing Acura NSX GT3 Evo team features a roster of talented, experienced drivers: Katherine Legge, Simona de Silvestro, Bia Figueiredo and Christina Nielsen. While there have been four other all-women lineups at Daytona before, the No. 57 team is the first to be considered truly competitive. Team founder Jackie Heinricher, a biotech CEO who has raced in Ferrari Challenge, Global Rallycross Lites and Lamborghini Super Trofeo, was coached by Legge. Two years ago, she had the idea to run a car full of women – and not just a token effort, but rather a car full of drivers who could win. "The car does not know your gender, and I feel as if this sort of professional effort legitimizes that in a way that's particularly important and inspirational outside of racing," Heinricher told Autoblog. Heinricher had seen Legge struggle to get the right funding for rides before, so she didn't want to limit this team to whoever could pay. So, she first lined up the funding, thanks largely to support from primary sponsor Caterpillar. It took awhile, though, as many companies simply told her that they were out of racing sponsorships entirely. "I think perseverance might be the most underrated human quality," Heinricher said. "I just didn't give up." After funding was in place, she found a competitive partner in the Meyer Shank Racing crew, whose owner Michael Shank has run a pair of factory-backed Acura NSX GT3s in IMSA's GTD class since 2017. The GT3 shares an engine and turbo with the road-going NSX but ditches the hybrid system, making it about 670 pounds lighter. The No. 57 car is an EVO variant, which Legge helped develop, and it features improved aerodynamics to better suit it to the mix of pro and amateur drivers who take shifts racing in the GTD class. Legge had been on Shank's NSX team for the past two years as well, so Heinricher reached out to her for help assembling women who truly had the ability to win.