2009 Honda Civic Lx, Taffeta White, 19,500 Mi on 2040-cars

Auto blog

2016 Acura NSX aimed at Ferrari 458 for the price of Audi R8

Acura has done a good job of keeping the next-generation NSX under the wraps for the past few months, especially after a fiery little incident during testing at the Nürburgring earlier this year. But UK's What Car? recently got a chance to speak with development boss Ted Klaus, and he unleashed a few new details about the much-anticipated supercar to make it even harder for us to wait.
Among the info was a strong estimate of the NSX's performance potential. "We have to achieve the type of acceleration that the customer is achieving with the Ferrari," said Klaus to What Car?. "More importantly we have to achieve this every day and also at the Nürburgring." Assuming Acura's supercar is as actually quick as a 458 Italia, then it could hit 60 miles per hour in around 3.5 seconds.
Klaus also claims that the wickedly fast performance could come at a relative bargain for the class. The price is reportedly being benchmarked against the Audi R8, which would put the NSX around $130,000 in the US. While hardly cheap, it would still be a healthy discount off a 458.

Petrolicious profiles an 'original fanboy' and his 1987 Honda CRX Si

Christopher Hoffman is a guy I'd like to meet. He's profiled in the latest installment of Petrolicious, titled Original Fanboy, because of his love and dedication to his 1987 Honda CRX Si. And that's something I can relate to.
My personal car is a black 1988 Honda CRX Si. Road & Track executive editor Sam Smith sold it to me in December 2010 with some 93,000 miles on the odometer (and one bum tire!), and though I don't drive it nearly as much as I should, I'm madly in love with my little Honda. I take immense pride in owning this car, despite my recent neglect. As soon as we're done with this Polar Vortex crap here in the midwestern United States, I'm going to pull the CRX out of its wintertime storage and show it the love it deserves.
Like me, Hoffman fully understands the beauty of the CRX. It's not super powerful, or even quick (when it was new, its 0-60 time was just over 9 seconds), but it's extremely light, and comes from an era when Honda was churning out brilliantly simple cars. The steering is incredibly precise, the transmission perfect, and the chassis superb. Nearly 26 years after its birth, I adore every moment behind the wheel of my CRX. And thanks to this Petrolicious special, I know I'm not alone. Scroll down to watch the full episode.

Acura built just 91 examples of the ILX last month, here's why

The short life of the Acura ILX has been vexed by one glaringly odd standard equipment choice, mediocre reviews, getting outsold by its competition as it posted slower-than-projected sales and a pledge by Honda to upgrade its supposedly upgraded offering. Therefore, when Automotive News reports that just 91 of the Civic-based Acura sedans were manufactured last month - after a string of production months in double-digits - it would be easy to press the button for the alarm bells.
But that would be hasty, because it is actually the 2013 Honda Civic that is crimping the production pipeline of the ILX. The vastly higher sales numbers of the Honda meant that all three North American plants that produce it needed to crank up output to satisfy dealer inventory needs, including the Greenburg, Indiana plant that makes both the Civic and the ILX. As the classic guns-vs-butter Economy 101 lesson taught us - in which making more of one necessarily means making less of the other - well, the Civic is the gun.
Honda prepared for this eventuality by cranking out the Acuras while it got ready for Civic production. The ILX has held steady at about 500 units shy of company projections every month, and the current inventory represents about 90 days worth of sales. That makes Greenburg's ostensibly low numbers in line with the realities of the ILX, and the situation probably won't change much as Acura gets ready for the improved 2014 ILX.