2007 Honda Civic Lx Sedan 4-door 1.8l on 2040-cars

Auto blog

One man's love of vintage Honda motorcycles spawns new museum

In 1977, David Silver got a Honda SS50 moped - it was the last year of unrestricted mopeds for riders just 16 years of age in the UK. That two-wheeler made him a fan, and starting his Honda parts business in 1986 made him a part of the Honda family. He started collecting, with the idea that he'd eventually open a museum. During a visit to another amateur collector's trove in Pennsylvania, the Brit got the chance to purchase the 125 bikes the American had gathered, and his museum aspirations hit the fast-forward button. He's in the process of building a proper home for the bikes in Suffolk, it should open later this year. There will be everything from the first Cub F engine that people could attach to bicycles in 1952, to two examples of the CB92 Benly Super Sport that showed how fast and how good a 125cc bike could be, to the first Fireblade that dropped in 1992 - our CBR 900RR, to the original Honda Dream. Honda says it could be one of the finest collections outside the company's museum in Japan. You can watch Silver tell his story in the video above, and there's more on what's he'll have in an article in Honda's Dream magazine. News Source: Honda Video, Dream magazine via YouTube Honda Motorcycle Classics Videos honda cub

McLaren working on P15 supercar to slot between 650S and P1

McLaren has been busy these past few years. It launched the MP4-12C in 2011, the 12C Spider in 2012, the P1 in 2013 and (most recently) the 650S in 2014. But it's not about to stop there. It's got an "entry-level" model in the works, set to take on the Porsche 911, and - according to information reported by Car and Driver and confirmed by McLaren in correspondence with Autoblog - a new flagship model, too.
The project is internally codenamed P15, and it calls for a new flagship that will cap the company's lineup once the P1 finishes its limited production run, but carry a price tag in the neighborhood of $500k to slot in between the P1 and the new 650S.
Just how, you wonder, can McLaren possibly develop another supercar each year? Simple: underneath, they're all essentially the same. (Only we're sure it's anything but simple.) That is to say they're all based on the same carbon monocoque structure and powered by the same 3.8-liter twin-turbo V8 mated to a seven-speed dual-clutch transmission driving the rear wheels. What differentiates them is what the engineers in Woking build around that monocoque and how they tune the engine: +/- 600 horsepower in the 12C (depending on the year it was built), 640 hp in the 650S, or 727 hp in the P1 (with another 177 from the electric assist). The 911 fighter would likely develop in the 500hp range, and the P15 will probably land in the upper 600 (or lower 700) range.

F1's Fernando Alonso gets 35-place penalty for latest Honda engine change

MONZA, Italy — McLaren's Fernando Alonso will collect a 35-place grid penalty for Sunday's Italian Grand Prix after Honda announced changes to his car's power unit. The penalty means the double world champion, whose future at McLaren remains uncertain due to the team's continuing engine woes, will start at the back of the 20-car grid for the last European race of the season. His chances were limited anyway at Monza's 'Temple of Speed,' the fastest circuit on the calendar where engine performance is crucial. His Belgian teammate Stoffel Vandoorne suffered a similar fate when he was handed a 65-place penalty for his home race at Spa-Francorchamps last weekend. Such meaningless penalties incurred through no fault of the driver have come increasingly under scrutiny in Formula One with some saying the system has got out of control and must change. "I hate the fact that we're having to affect the racing because of the technical issues," Formula One managing director Ross Brawn, a title-winning former team principal and ex-Ferrari technical director, told motorsport.com. "I know you can say if a car breaks down in a race that's a technical issue and you've affected the race, but I think the fans understand that. "For a fan to stomach that his hero is on the back of the grid because he had to change the engine, that's not great sport," added the Briton. Brawn suggested a different form of penalty, or removing it altogether, but acknowledged that the sport might have to wait until 2021 when new engine regulations will come into force. The current Formula One regulations stipulate that each driver may use no more than four power units during a championship season, with that number due to be reduced to three next year. Each power unit is made up of six separate elements; the engine, the motor generator unit-kinetic (MGU-K), the motor generator unit-heat (MGU-H), the energy store, turbocharger and control electronics. Grid penalties are imposed if a driver uses more than four of any one of the elements during the course of a season, and for successive breaches. Honda said Alonso was now on his seventh engine and MGU-K, his ninth turbocharger and MGU-H, his sixth energy store and fifth control electronics. Alonso retired from the Belgian Grand Prix but some components of the power unit used there will be run again in Friday's second practice after Honda said they could find no obvious problem.