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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.

19% of Acura Integras have been sold with a manual transmission

While you'll need to wait another week to read our review of the upcoming 2024 Acura Integra Type S, there is a nice little nugget of information we can share in the meantime. Between May 2022 and April 2023, Acura reports that it sold 19,643 Integras. According to the figures Acura shared, so grain of salt, that is grossly more than other entry-level luxury sedans: the Audi A3 (8,866), Mercedes-Benz CLA (6,656) and BMW 2 Series Gran Coupe (3,913). Update: Acura confirmed to us since this was originally posted that the A3 numbers also includes S3 and RS 3. The thing that most piqued our interest, however, was Acura saying that 19% of those 19,643 Integras came with the six-speed manual transmission. Now, that's a colossal change from the earliest days of Integra orders when the manual take-rate was hovering around 70%. Clearly, late adopters weren't as eager to row their own. It's also important to note that the manual is exclusively tied to the loaded A-Spec with Technology package, so it's effectively a pricey option.  While 19% — roughly 3,732 units — may not seem like a lot, it's actually not bad these days, and not that far off the entire 2 Series Gran Coupe lineup. That number is also about to go up since the Type S is exclusively available with a six-speed manual.  A few other sales-related Integra tidbits: It has the youngest buyers in the segment, as defined by those cars listed above, with 36% being younger than 35. Also, about 70% of buyers were of the "conquest" variety, meaning they were former Spanish Conquistadors. Wait, what's that? Oh, that makes more sense: So 70% of Integra buyers previously owned a car that wasn't an Acura, although when asked, Acura mentioned that it was possible that the buyers in question owned an Acura at some point in the distant past (you know, like an Integra) and were making a return to the brand.

Acura NSX GT3 Makes Public Track Test Debut | Autoblog Minute

Acura sets to public debut the NSX GT3 on the track. This latest video from Acura offers us some sights and sounds of the NSX GT3. Acura Autoblog Minute Videos Original Video autos gt3 acura nsx gt3