Honda Civic Lx on 2040-cars

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Can Fernando Alonso win Indy? Here's why and why maybe not

SPEEDWAY, IN – The month of May has been a joy ride for Fernando Alonso at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. The two-time Formula 1 champion came to Indy having never turned left in a race car without also turning right. But he acquired such a feel for Indy's 2 1/2 -mile rectangle during a month of practice and qualifying that he's considered a strong contender to win the 101st Indianapolis 500 on Sunday, rookie or not. "You're not trying to bring somebody on who has very little experience driving very high-performance cars," said 2003 Indy 500 winner Gil deFerran, who this month has helped Alonso learn the nuances that make the speedway such a tough place to conquer. "I suppose it would be a little bit different if you were dealing with a younger, much less experienced person." Driving a McLaren Honda from the potent Andretti Autosport team, Alonso was consistently near the top of the speed charts in practice, he qualified fifth fastest at 231.300 mph, and he handled runs in heavy traffic like a driver who'd done it many times before. But those were the prelims. The race is another creature. "The car felt the best (it has) in the last two weeks. I was making some moves, taking some different lines. I am extremely happy." Other drivers say the speedway looks different on race day when the crowd, expected to top 300,000, fills the grandstands and makes an already narrow track seem even tighter. The three-wide rolling start is something Alonso has never experienced, and he will see the green flag from the middle of the second row between Takuma Sato and J.R. Hildebrand. And the space he'll be given by his competitors in the first 180 laps may disappear In the last 20 when it's every driver for themselves. Can a rookie like Alonso win this race? Absolutely, as Andretti driver Alexander Rossi showed last year when his team used a fuel-mileage strategy to win in his first taste of Indy. We're talking about Fernando Alonso here, who easily could show his rookie stripes to the rest of the field most of the day. His best lap in Friday's final practice, 226.608, was fifth fastest in the field and, more important, he said the car felt comfortable in heavy traffic. "The car felt the best (it has) in the last two weeks," Alonso said. "I was making some moves, taking some different lines.

Honda sketches boxy crossover concept for Shanghai

In America we may be gearing up for the New York Auto Show, but elsewhere in the world there are other shows on the horizon. Like the Shanghai Motor Show, which will kick off later in April. That's where Honda plans to unveil a new crossover concept. The Japanese automaker isn't saying much about what's new with this concept, except to say that it's been designed specifically for the Chinese market. From this teaser image we can already see that the concept looks decidedly more straight-edged and boxy than the Pilot and CR-V we get over here, striking a form that almost begins to resemble a Kia Soul, but not so much that we'd characterize it at this early stage as a potential successor to the Element. We'll just have to sit tight to find out more, but with the doors in Shanghai set to open to the press on April 20, it won't be too long now. Honda to Exhibit World Premiere of All-new Concept Model at the Auto Shanghai 2015 - Overview of Honda Exhibit - BEIJING, China, March 31, 2015 – Honda Motor (China) Investment Co., Ltd., a wholly-owned Honda subsidiary in China, today announced plans to exhibit the world premiere of an all-new concept model as well as other all-new Honda models at Auto Shanghai 2015 (The 16th International Automobile & Manufacturing Technology Exhibition, press days: April 20-21, 2015, public days: April 22-29, 2015). ?Overview of Honda exhibit Jointly with Guangqi Honda Automobile Co., Ltd. and Dongfeng Honda Automobile Co., Ltd., Honda will exhibit the world premiere of a concept model for a new SUV exclusively developed for the Chinese market. Other models on display will include the all-new City, which underwent a full model change, and the new CR-V equipped with a completely new powertrain. ?A new SUV concept model (world premiere) Design sketch Design sketch ?City (China premiere) ?CR-V (China premiere) ?F1 machine - McLaren-Honda MP4-30 ?GL1800C, NC750S ?Accord Hybrid (the U.S. model) ?Odyssey special-needs vehicle (equipped with side lift-up sheet)

2015 Civic Type R will make 'at least' 276 hp from 2.0L turbo [w/video]

Honda may not actually be showing off the production form of its upcoming Euro-only 2015 Civic Type R at the Frankfurt Motor Show this year, but it did take advantage of the focused media attention to make a pretty cool announcement. In addition to dropping a really hot video of the new Type R testing at the Nürburgring Nordschleife, Honda Europe president, Manabu Nishimae, gifted us with some juicy details about the coming hot hatch.
Nishimae confirmed rumors that this Type R would make use of a turbocharged 2.0-liter engine, while telling us that the mill would be good for an output of "at least 280 PS." A raw conversion from PS (metric horsepower) to standard horsepower gives us a figure of about 276 hp, or very near the rumored figure of 300 galloping, front-wheeled ponies.
The company will need each ounce of output from its new 2.0-liter engine if it is to meet its stated performance target: making the Civic Type R the fastest front-wheel-drive production car around the 'Ring. Apparently this last session of testing, with World Touring Car Championship driver Gabriele Tarquini at the wheel, has already gotten Honda close to the lap record. Scroll down to read Honda's brief press release about the upcoming Type R, and, more importantly, to listen to the car as it's throttled around the track.