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Fire up your 3D printer! Honda releases data for several of its past concepts [w/video]

Futurists have been treating 3D printing like it is the second coming of the Industrial Revolution for years. Everyone will have a 3D printer in their garage and be able make practically anything at home before you know it, right? Well... not quite.
While we can imagine a piece of trim breaking on our car and being able to download the file to print a new one at home, the reality is that 3D printing is still in its earliest stages as a consumer device. Still, Honda is capitalizing on the technology by allowing people to make models of its concept cars at home.
The Honda 3D Design Archive currently consists of five models based on the Fuya-Jo, FSR, Kiwami, Puyo, and NSX concepts. The printer files can be downloaded from the web and carry Creative Commons 4.0 licenses, which allow them to be freely shared. Honda promises that more files will be added to the archive soon.

Honda Accord Hybrid sales capacity constrained

Honda might be selling more hybrids if it could just get them to dealers. While the second-generation Insight never lived up to sales expectations and production is ending, the Japanese automaker is seeing strong demand for the Accord Hybrid here and abroad. However, there is so much global consumer desire that it can't keep them in US showrooms.
The problem limiting the sales of the Accord Hybrid is its battery pack and its popularity in Japan. "There's a waiting list for the product," said Jeff Conrad, Honda general manager, to Ward's Auto about the sedan's US popularity. While the American Accord is built in Marysville, OH, the batteries are imported from Japan, where the model is quite popular. According to Ward's data, the automaker sold 2,414 examples of the hybrid version from October 2013 to February 2014 in the US, but it shifted 6,000 units in Japan in its first three months on sale. Conrad also admitted that the constrained supply is limiting the amount of marketing the automaker can do for the hybrid.
Honda spokesperson Chris Martin told Autoblog the company is working on a solution to increase production for the near future. "We are going to resolve the battery issue," he said.

Meet the Kanjozoku, Osaka's infamous street racers

Street racing is obviously illegal and incredibly dangerous, but that has never stopped people from doing it. While we don't hear nearly as much about the scourge of Japanese tuner cars as when The Fast and the Furious first hit theaters over a decade ago, illegal street racing is still bubbling under the surface all over the island nation. An excellent new documentary short from Bowls Films takes a look at the Kanjozoku from Osaka, Japan; a group that claims to be partially responsible for the tuning style known as JDM.
The group gets their name from their preferred route known as the Kanjo. It's a 4.77-mile long loop of connected highways running right through the city of Osaka. You might expect a hardcore group of illegal Japanese racers to show up with highly tuned Nissan GT-R and Toyota Supra coupes, but the Kanjozoku evidently eschew all of the others in favor of one particular car that they love: the Honda Civic.
According to the video, that vehicle of choice came in part from the city's location. Osaka was relatively near the one-make Civic races held at Japan's legendary Suzuka racetrack. The hatchbacks thus became the default weapons for the Kanjozoku's street battles.