2005 Honda Element Ex Sport Utility 4-door 2.4l on 2040-cars

Auto blog

Honda Tourer BTCC car lavished with photographic love

Back in December, Honda Yuasa Racing gave us one image of the Civic Tourer entrant it's fielding in the 2014 British Touring Car Championship. Thanks to media days at Brands Hatch and a few photos from Oulton Park, we've got a whole photo album of the elongated Civic that will attempt to continue Honda's BTCC winning ways and shots of drivers Gordon Shedden and Matt Neal.
This is the first wagon to race in the BTCC since 1994, when Jan Lammers and Rickard Rydel had just one year to throw the Volvo 850 Estate BTCC between the kerbing. The following year, the rules were changed so that rear wings couldn't extend above the roofline or beyond the rear bumper, which meant the end of Volvo's blue and white "pizza delivery wagon."
The season begins on March 30 at Brands Hatch, when Shedden and Neal will begin trying to wrest the driver's championship crown from Pirtek Racing. We don't know anything more about the manufacturer entry go-fast Civic Tourer, however, which means this is just an easy feast for the eyes. Because racing wagon.

Five automakers now being investigated by NHTSA for airbag woes

It appears that Toyota's renotification to owners of recalled vehicles from last year is just the tip of the iceberg for what could potentially be a much larger industry-wide recall. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is opening a preliminary evaluation investigation into roughly 1.1 million vehicles from Chrysler, Honda, Mazda, Nissan, Toyota and parts supplier Takata regarding faulty airbag inflators in several models.
NHTSA has received six reports - three directly, two from Takata and one from Toyota - of vehicles with ruptured airbag inflators from 2002-2006, which resulted in three injuries. So far, all six incidents have occurred in high humidity areas like Florida and Puerto Rico. According to Toyota's latest recall announcement, the inflators may have an improper propellant that could cause it to rupture in a crash and the bag to deploy abnormally.
This new investigation follows a previous recall from April 2013 of about 3.4 million vehicles worldwide for the airbag inflators from Takata. As Autoblog reported, Toyota jumpstarted the new situation when it found that the original list of serial numbers for the faulty part was incomplete and discovered more cars in need of replacement. Honda and Nissan told us that they were investigating whether further models would need called in again as well. Mazda told Autoblog: "Regarding the current Takata situation, we're working closely with NHTSA and investigating the situation, but nothing else to report at this time." Chrysler Group responded to us with the statement: "Chrysler Group engineers are conducting the appropriate analysis. The Company will cooperate fully with the National Highway Traffic Administration."

Honda signs on as Pikes Peak sponsor, race participant

Honda plans to storm the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb on June 30, entering ten cars in nine classes at the race to the sky, and signing on as a corporate sponsor. Part of the company's return to grassroots racing - if that's what you can call factory-backed efforts - the banners of Honda R&D and Honda North America will fly on these entries: a first-gen Acura NSX, an Acura TL SH-AWD, Honda CR-Z, Honda Fit EV, one CRF450R and two CRF250R motorcycles, a CBR1000RR motorcycle and a TRX450 ATV.
One more entry, details of which are to be announced later, will be driven by IndyCar pilot Simon Pagenaud of Schmidt Hamilton HP Motorsports. LoveFab (pictured above during practice last year) will be there with its new, NSX-based Enviate, but as a privateer entry.
Honda's been to the mountain before, with high-powered gear in 2012 and record-setting EVs in 1994 and 1999, but it's never made noise like this. Have a read of the press release below for more info.