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The 2016 Honda Civic desperately needs the cool kids

"... I am contagious, I am breaking down ..." Oh, that's the song. The 2016 Honda Civic's launch party was just so achingly cool. Honda showed off its 10th-generation Civic Sedan Wednesday at YouTube Space LA, and livestreamed it for the world to see. I was standing across from a band whose song I knew but name I didn't (turns out it was Night Riots), and near people in knit caps and tattoos cheering them on. Honda is stoked on this epic new Civic, guys. This all sounds like another cynical marketing attempt to capture the attention of people my age. The ones studies suggest hate driving and have no interest in cars, according to old people and their old muscle cars. Last year, Audi released a whole guide on how to sell the A3 to Millennials. We do love our aggressively targeted campaigns. It's like the Civic became what your Aunt Hattie replaced her '93 Achieva with. In fairness, the 2016 Civic has a hell of a lot riding on its more chiseled shoulders. The Civic long had a following among new, young buyers looking for their first new car, who then just kept buying them because they loved them so much. That sort of fell apart with the ninth-generation Civic, a car so removed from its ancestry in terms of feel, looks, and overall spirit. It's like the Honda Civic became what your Aunt Hattie replaced her '93 Achieva with. It's shown in the sales figures. In 2014, the Accord became Honda's car with the most buyers under the age of 35. The HR-V and CR-V SUVs also represent more of what buyers want these days, with rugged looks and available all-wheel drive. It's no cakewalk for the Civic anymore. Clear past the clutter of the band and the fog of the reveal, and the 2016 Civic already looks like it has the things young new-car buyers look for when they go shopping. Show-car styling, the promise of good fuel economy, Android Auto and Apple CarPlay, and lots and lots of features. The first of the new Civics Honda showed touts technology, refinement, and content more than the fun-to-drive characteristics. Enthusiasts may not find much comfort in the fact you can only get Honda's new 1.5-liter turbo on models equipped with a CVT, now that the six-speed manual has really been relegated to the base LX. But then you were probably waiting for the forthcoming Si, or next year's hatchback model, or probably the new Type-R. The Civic sedan targets the mainstream, and this time, the mainstream is the under-35 crowd.

280-bhp Elemental RP1 revealed, now with bike-engine option

The Elemental RP1 might be Britain's next big boutique roadster success story. Designed by a team with Formula One experience, it aims to mix road car drivability with racecar performance in a single, adaptable package weighing less than 1,000 pounds. It was first previewed a few weeks ago, but the secrecy has finally disappeared due to its upcoming debut at the Goodwood Festival of Speed. The backbone of the RP1 is a carbon fiber and aluminum tub onto which the front and rear subframes bolt on. Inside, it has an F1-like, feet-up driving position that allows for additional underfloor aerodynamic aids to improve downforce. Despite its hardcore nature, Elemental says that it wants the car to be very user friendly. Buyers should be able to drive the RP1 to the track, adjust it with some wrenches, go racing and drive it home. The company even claims the storage areas to either side of the engine offer enough room for a helmet and other racing gear. Hopefully, buyers don't crash, though, otherwise they might be stuck. Elemental is adding two more engine options for the RP1, as well. In addition to the previously announced tuned Ford 2.0-liter EcoBoost with 280 horsepower, buyers can also choose a upgraded version of Ford's three-cylinder 1.0-liter EcoBoost or a model aimed at pure track use with a 999cc Honda Fireblade motorcycle engine. The 2.0-liter uses a six-speed sequential manual gearbox, and a limited-slip differential and alternate gear sets are available as additional options. The first RP1s built will be pure racers for the 2015 season, and the first road cars will follow in the early summer of next year. Pricing isn't set yet, but scroll down for more details and full specs of Britain's latest feather light car for road and track. Introducing the Elemental Rp1 Press Release: 23/6/2014 British sports car manufacturer, Elemental Motor Company Limited, today released further details of their new and innovative, road legal track car, the Rp1. The Rp1 is an open top, road legal, mid engined sports car that incorporates state of the art road and race car technologies. Designed, Engineered and Built by a team with decades of experience in the Formula One and Supercar industries, it brings the concept of a road legal track car firmly into the 21st Century. The Rp1 will be revealed to the public for the first time, this weekend, at the 2014 Goodwood Festival of Speed, where it will located in the Moving Motor Show tent "First Glance" display.

Acura NSX GT3 data 'will inform future iterations' of the street car

Motorsports programs exist to drive innovation in road vehicles, and that's precisely what's happening at Honda. Acura NSX development boss Nick Robinson told Autocar that the company's work on the GT3 racing variant is directly informing future development on the road car. "In North America, we've just unveiled the GT3 version of the car, and the development team of the street car has had some involvement in its development," Robinson said. "What works well on the track will inform future iterations and updates of the street car and vice versa." But Honda is a big company that does more than build cars. Robinson paid tribute to the impact his employer's well-known motorcycle program had on the NSX. Apparently, building stuff like the CBR helped Honda with the NSX's complicated packaging. "For many years our motorcycle development teams have strived to ensure the optimum centralization of mass, ensuring the lowest possible center of gravity," Robinson told Autocar. "This leads to the best possible yaw response." Is this all a sign that a long-rumored lighter, faster NSX, potentially wearing the vaunted Type R badge, will be especially track-focused? Maybe. Robinson's comments indicate that the company is doing something with the mountains of data it collects running a GT3 program. While a pure road-focused NSX-R successor seems like it'd be a waste of that data, an NSX-based rival to the Porsche 911 GT3 RS might make a lot more sense. Related Video: News Source: AutocarImage Credit: Brendan McDermid / Reuters Motorsports Rumormill Acura Honda Coupe Racing Vehicles Performance gt3