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Honda signs on as Pikes Peak sponsor, race participant

Honda plans to storm the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb on June 30, entering ten cars in nine classes at the race to the sky, and signing on as a corporate sponsor. Part of the company's return to grassroots racing - if that's what you can call factory-backed efforts - the banners of Honda R&D and Honda North America will fly on these entries: a first-gen Acura NSX, an Acura TL SH-AWD, Honda CR-Z, Honda Fit EV, one CRF450R and two CRF250R motorcycles, a CBR1000RR motorcycle and a TRX450 ATV.
One more entry, details of which are to be announced later, will be driven by IndyCar pilot Simon Pagenaud of Schmidt Hamilton HP Motorsports. LoveFab (pictured above during practice last year) will be there with its new, NSX-based Enviate, but as a privateer entry.
Honda's been to the mountain before, with high-powered gear in 2012 and record-setting EVs in 1994 and 1999, but it's never made noise like this. Have a read of the press release below for more info.

Acura Precision Cockpit Concept is much more than a digital gauge cluster

Audi Virtual Cockpit is one of the single best pieces of technology on the market, bar none. It blends beautiful graphics, easy interaction, and loads of information in a way that similar all-digital gauge clusters from brands like Jaguar, Land Rover, and Cadillac can't match. Other brands might not stand even with Audi, but Acura is certainly going to try. The company is demonstrating its efforts at the 2016 Los Angeles Auto Show with the new Precision Cockpit. Like Audi, JLR, and Cadillac, Acura is using a 12.3-inch display in place of a traditional set of gauges that changes color schemes and animations based on the driving mode. A prominent central display joins the digital IP and features what looks like an evolution of the company's current infotainment software. But rather than a knob and dial or physical buttons, Acura is taking a page out of Lexus' book, using a touchpad to control the center display. View 7 Photos But before we lament the touchpad too much, it's worth pointing out how Acura says its arrangement is different. Using something called "absolute positioning," the touchpad behaves more like an actual touchscreen – tap a corner on the pad and whatever's in the same corner of the display responds. In that way, it sounds like Acura is trying to marry a touchscreen with a more ergonomically comfortable interface. Color us curious. Precision Cockpit also stands apart in how Acura optimized it, designing the system with semi-autonomous driving in mind. The company went as far as to use a real-time 3D graphics engine to display what the vehicle's sensors "see" inside the instrument cluster. There's even an advanced vision mode that allegedly shows "cars, pedestrians, cyclists, and other objects – even those obscured from vision – using artificial intelligence to predict future pathways." While Acura is calling Precision Cockpit a concept, the company confirmed in its official release that the Android-based system "will power future production cars." If it comes with all the tech Acura's promoting here, Precision Cockpit stands to be a significant step forward in the digitization of car interiors. Related Video: News Source: AcuraImage Credit: Acura LA Auto Show Acura Technology Emerging Technologies Infotainment Concept Cars Videos Original Video

Honda, Acura lay out future plans: HR-V and more coming in 2022

Automakers and PR representatives are notoriously tight-lipped about upcoming vehicles. The infamous line that all of us in the car news business are familiar with is, "We cannot comment on future product." But this week, Honda opened up a little bit and laid out its big reveals for the coming year, and it's going to be a busy one. It all starts with the 2023 Honda HR-V, shown in the renderings above. The company didn't share a whole lot of details since it was focusing on the broad product plans, but it did note that it will be "unique to North America." It's not clear if it's just styling, which is abundantly obvious compared to the European HR-V and Japanese Vezel shown below, or if it will have a different platform and powertrains. We suspect the latter, since looking at the renderings, not only does it have a meaner, more aggressive look, but the glass in the greenhouse is different, as are the door handles. The HR-V is only the start of the big product rollout. More SUVs follow starting with the new CR-V, and then the new Pilot. A new Accord is coming, and of course there's the imminent Civic Type R. Acura's rollout is a bit more modest, with the big launches being the new Integra and the Type-S version of the MDX. Honda HR-V / Vezel View 11 Photos Plug-in hybrids aren't part of the plan There's one thing that Honda isn't including in its plans, and that's plug-in hybrids. When asked why, American Honda's executive Vice President of National Operations Dave Gardner noted that public and governmental feelings have moved from just reducing emissions to eliminating them entirely. As such, the time and effort to develop plug-in hybrids doesn't make sense when that could be applied to fully electric cars. Conventional, non-plug-in hybrids are still planned, and Honda is expecting ever increasing hybrid sales in the next few years. The company is expecting half of Accord sales will eventually be hybrid. As for Acura, hybrids aren't planned to be a big part of sales, with the brand jumping straight to EVs. Speaking of EVs, Honda's first North American electric car is still planned to be the Prologue. It's the electric model that's going to be based on a General Motors product. It's slated for the 2024 model year, and Honda is anticipating around 70,000 annual sales for it to start. Acura will get a counterpart to the Prologue, which may be named ADX. Related video: