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Sonic-themed Honda Civic spin-dashes into Comic-Con

Prepare to feel old video gamers – Sonic the Hedgehog, the speedy, spiky avatar of early 1990s Sega enthusiasts turns 25 this year. And in celebration of Sonic being old enough to rent a car, Honda put together a celebratory Civic in time for the awesome nerd fest that is San Diego Comic-Con. The Sonic Civic, as Honda's taken to calling it, features a vinyl wrap over parts of the Sonic Blue body, while the Sonic Yellow accents add some pleasant contrast. Honda went with two different wheel colors for the Civic – the rears honor Sonic's iconic red-and-white sneakers and the fronts are reminiscent of the long-running series' gold rings. It's pretty obvious Honda aggressively lowered the Sonic Civic's ride height, too. We don't have interior images, but Honda claims the blue theme carried over to the Katzkin leather seats. In the trunk is a pair of ten-inch, 500-watt Rockford Fosgate subwoofers, a pair of 400-watt amps, and a flip-up, 32-inch TV for play throughs of Sonic's classic adventures. Cool upgrades, but where's the performance stuff? Speed is Sonic's defining characteristic, so it seems a little strange that a car built in his honor is rocking a base 1.5-liter, turbocharged four-cylinder. Related Video: Featured Gallery Honda Sonic Civic for Comic-Con 2016 News Source: HondaImage Credit: Honda Auto News Toys/Games Honda Economy Cars Sedan sega

Red Bull may seek engines from Ferrari after Mercedes snub

Red Bull and Renault's fractured relationship is pushing the Austrian F1 team to find a new engine provider. But after a trip across the German border to chat with Mercedes-Benz proved fruitless, the team is apparently set to head across its home country's southern border, and into Italy. Yep, Red Bull Ferrari could be a thing next season. According to RBR boss Christian Horner, the company is just doing "necessary due diligence" in contacting other engine suppliers, although he's willfully admitted to Germany's Bild newspaper that the "idea of Mercedes is finished," BBC Sport reports. It wasn't so much that Mercedes and Red Bull couldn't come to financial agreement – Red Bull owner Dietrich Mateschitz views throwing money into F1 in much the same way you or I toss pennies into the mall fountain – but rather that the Germans had no interest in supplying the best engines on the grid to the factory team's perennial rival. BBC Sport seems to think that fact, along with what the outlet calls Red Bull's "antagonistic" relationship with engine suppliers, killed the Mercedes deal. Honda and RBR aren't likely to happen either, thanks to McLaren (not that we think Red Bull would approach the Japanese, which have struggled mightily all season long). By process of elimination, that just leaves Ferrari. Scuderia Ferrari Team Principal Maurizio Arrivabene confirmed that his team can accommodate Red Bull's engine needs, and that he wasn't concerned with the idea of a Ferrari engine in an Adrian Newey-designed body. "In theory they have big names, with Newey as chief designer and it is easy to think that if you give them the engine they will build a scary chassis, which means they will be really competitive," Arrivabene told BBC Sport. "Concerning my team, my engineers and aerodynamicists know their own jobs. For that reason I don't have a problem, and competition is nice when you have a stronger competitor." "This doesn't mean tomorrow morning we will give our engines to Red Bull or Toro Rosso," Arrivabene added. And it's that statement we'd suggest remembering. There are, after all, still seven races left in the 2015 season, which is quite a lot of time for new and different developments within the sport's notoriously gruesome political process. In other words, don't count on an announcement from any team or manufacturer for at least a few more races. Related Video:

2016 Acura NSX aimed at Ferrari 458 for the price of Audi R8

Acura has done a good job of keeping the next-generation NSX under the wraps for the past few months, especially after a fiery little incident during testing at the Nürburgring earlier this year. But UK's What Car? recently got a chance to speak with development boss Ted Klaus, and he unleashed a few new details about the much-anticipated supercar to make it even harder for us to wait.
Among the info was a strong estimate of the NSX's performance potential. "We have to achieve the type of acceleration that the customer is achieving with the Ferrari," said Klaus to What Car?. "More importantly we have to achieve this every day and also at the Nürburgring." Assuming Acura's supercar is as actually quick as a 458 Italia, then it could hit 60 miles per hour in around 3.5 seconds.
Klaus also claims that the wickedly fast performance could come at a relative bargain for the class. The price is reportedly being benchmarked against the Audi R8, which would put the NSX around $130,000 in the US. While hardly cheap, it would still be a healthy discount off a 458.