2023 Honda Accord Hybrid Sport on 2040-cars

Auto blog

Honda giving away free Civics in Forza Horizon to celebrate launch

Just a friendly reminder from Honda: The Honda Challenge Pack DLC is now available for Forza Horizon. To reward you for the trouble of pressing a few buttons on your Xbox controller, you'll get the 2013 Honda Civic Coupe, an HPD Rally Fit and a 1986 Honda Civic Si Coupe in your garage, and you'll get them free. The event of the new DLC has also kicked off a photo contest that will reward someone with an Xbox 360 console wrapped in a Honda Civic Si theme.
Otherwise, the word "Challenge" keeps coming up because of the chance to run an online race against IndyCar driver Scott Dixon. The track for that digital throwdown has already been decided by Xbox players who voted before January 8. Yet it's not too late to hop into the Honda section in Xbox Live and lay down a time fast enough for a shot at the title "The Driver That Shellacked Scott Dixon," and meeting the man in person.
Check out the press release from Honda below, and the sweetness that is the 1986 Civic Si in the gallery above.

Alonso wants an NSX, but did Honda block him from Le Mans?

One of the biggest changes in store for the 2015 Formula One World Championship will see Fernando Alonso moving back to McLaren. That means he'll be driving under Honda power for the first time, after spending the bulk of his career driving for Renault and Ferrari. And being Honda's new poster child, as the two-time World Champion is fast discovering, has its advantages and its drawbacks. According to the latest reports, Alonso had been negotiating a clause in his contract with McLaren that could have seen him driving a Porsche 919 Hybrid at Le Mans this year, but Honda reportedly stepped in at the last minute and scuttled the plan. The drive would have been Alonso's first in the famous 24-hour race, after having had the honor of waving the flag at La Sarthe last summer. In one of the wilder rumors that emerged during the prolonged silence over his move for this season, the Spaniard was also linked to a potential return for Ferrari to Le Mans. That prospect came to naught, and now the Porsche deal has been wheeled into the garage, as well. The upcoming F1 season is expected to be one of transition, adjustment and development for McLaren and Honda, but the Japanese automaker's involvement in his hiring may not be all bad news for Alonso. Following the reveal of the new Acura NSX, Alonso tweeted "You still don't know, but one day we will be together..." followed by a series of heart-eyed smiley-face emoticons and accompanies by images of Honda's new supercar. The implication is that the two-time World Champion is expecting to get his talented hands on an NSX of his own, and we can certainly see how Honda would appreciate the imagery of Fernando driving around in its flagship. Even if it doesn't, though, we're sure McLaren would be glad to hook him up with a company car of its own – though Lewis Hamilton encountered some trouble securing (a very specific) one for himself. Even discounting the front-running F1 machinery he's been tasked with piloting on track to an impressive 32 career wins, Alonso has had some lustworthy company cars at his disposal over the years. At Renault, he had a Megane RS to drive, and during his last stint at McLaren, he had an SLR 722. But since signing with Ferrari, he's been given the keys to FCA models as varied as a Ferrari FF, a special 599 GTO, a Maserati GranCabrio, a Jeep Grand Cherokee SRT and an Abarth 695... and those are just the ones we know about.

Honda sets record for lowest fuel consumption in Europe

If fuel economy over a long distance is of paramount importance, diesel continues to be a fantastic choice of fuel. Honda is the latest company to show that by earning a Guinness World Record for the lowest consumption in a car across the 24 contiguous countries of the European Union. The company's Civic Tourer wagon with a 1.6-liter i-DTEC diesel managed the equivalent of 83.5 miles per gallon over 8,387 miles. The 25-day journey was undertaken by Fergal McGrath and Julian Warren – members of Honda's European research and development team. They started from Belgium on June 1 and returned there on June 25 having driven around 7.5 hours each day. Over nearly a month of driving, their wagon only needed its tank filled nine times, and it averaged 932 miles between visits to the diesel pump. The Civic's results are impressive no matter how you look at it. The wagon handily beat the model's stated fuel economy of 61.9 mpg. The crew also beat the recent US record of 81.17 mpg over 8,233.5 miles in a Golf TDI for the best non-hybrid mileage across the 48 contiguous states. Guinness required that the Civic be unmodified from the standard car, and the same two drivers had to pilot it the whole way. The economy was certified via several redundant pieces of evidence, including a logbook, GPS, video, and photographs. McGrath and Warren credited their success to good route planning and smooth driving. Honda sets new GUINNESS WORLD RECORDS™ title for fuel efficiency, averaging 2.82 liters per 100km (100.31mpg) in 13,498km (8,387 mile) drive across 24 EU countries July 7, 2015 - Honda has set a new GUINNESS WORLD RECORDS title for 'Lowest fuel consumption – all 24 contiguous EU countries (all cars),' recording an average 2.82 liters per 100km (100.31mpg) over 13,498km (8,387 miles), in a 25 day drive across all 24 EU contiguous countries. Behind the wheel of a Honda Civic Tourer 1.6 i-DTEC for the entire journey were two members of Honda's European Research & Development (R&D) team, Fergal McGrath and Julian Warren, who took on the challenge to further demonstrate the impressive real-world fuel economy of the Tourer. The remarkable distance travelled is similar to the team driving to Australia from their home in the UK, stopping just nine times to refuel. The car achieved an incredible average 1500km (932 miles) on each tank of fuel, at a total fuel cost for the whole journey of just 645 Euros* (GBP459).