Honda says V-10 Powered NSX will Outperform Nissan GT-R

"This sort of discussion was made between the American Honda people and R&D people, and some people were questioning whether it's really necessary to have a V-10," said Koichi Kondo, executive vice president of Honda in an interview that appeared in Automotive News. "But sports is a special category. We said if we're going to do it, we're going to go to the extreme."


Never mind that Honda's V-8 dreams seem to be dead, the company wants to go big with its supercar. While displacement is going up, volume won't be. Honda expects to sell only 1000 NSXs per year in the U.S. when it goes on sale, which is expected to be the 2011 model year. It will likely also be priced higher than the GT-R, which starts around $77,000.

2009 Hyundai Canadian Car

It said that the Genesis scored 803 points in a review by the Automobile Journalists Association of Canada, which selected the Genesis as the best luxury car under $50,000 in October, and was announced as the car of the year during the media preview of the Canadian International AutoShow on Wednesday.

This is the second car of the year award the Genesis has won in North America this year. Last month the car received the car of the year award at the opening of the North American International Auto Show in Detroit.

Mazda Goes Diesel

The company that keeps you grinning with MX-5 Miatas and MazdaSpeed 3--and is bringing the Kiyora concept pictured here to the Paris Motor Show next month--will match the new Mercedes-Benz unit in both cylinder count and displacement. The Mazda MZR-CD 2.2-liter turbocharged clean diesel four doesn't make as much power as the new knockout from Benz, but 182 horsepower and 295 lb-ft are both more horsepower, and way more torque, than the frisky 2.0-liter unit in the Miata. And 42 U.S. mpg is positively Prius-like.

Chery hybrid for Beijing Olympics

Two different hybrid models will be used at the Olympics. One is a stop-start hybrid that uses a 12V ‘belt starter-generator’ linked to the A5’s 107bhp 1.6-litre petrol engine to run the ancillaries when the car halts and the engine stops. Chery claims that the car offers fuel savings of around seven per cent in the urban cycle, but the firm has not published an official mpg figure.

The second model features a mild hybrid system that mates a 1.3-litre unit to a 151V electric motor. The result is a power output comparable with a standard 1.6-litre engine, with fuel consumption roughly 15 per cent improved over that same unit.

Fifty examples of the new Chery hybrids will be used as transport at this year’s Beijing Olympics. The models will become some of the first mass-produced hybrid cars to hit the Chinese market when they go on sale there later in the year.

2009 Hyundai Genesis Coupe

The Genesis Coupe will get touched in the engine department and will get the RS Lamba V6 engine. This engine will only add 4 more horsepower to the vehicle but it will give it a total of 310hp with 266 lb-ft or torque. Pretty cool right? Also improvements in performance were made.

To improve the engine's fit under the Genesis Coupe's lower hood, a redesign of the intake and exhaust systems resulted in an engine height lower by 5cm. At the same time, airflow into and out of the engine was improved, yielding better high rpm performance and a more aggressive exhaust note.

Hybrid Car Battery, Bose Radio

Earlier today, GM held a Web conference to discuss progress in its program to integrate the upcoming extended-range hybrid-electric Volt into the nation's electrical grid.

Among the presenters were GM's Tony Posawatz, Mark Duval of EPRI (the Electric Power Research Institute) and San Francisco's Clean Transportation Advisor, Bob Hayden.

Although the discussion was mostly aimed at infrastructure planners, a few worthwhile automotive details emerged anyway. Such as:

2010 Nissan 370Z Roadster

Recently some spyshots of the 2010 Nissan 370Z were taken while test driving the car down the street. Today we bring you the 2010 Nissan 370Z Roadster.

Now before you get all excited, it was discovered that these are not actual spyshots but illustrations of what the 2010 370Z Roadster might look like, had me fooled for a second though. The probable engine for this car is the 3.7L engine from the G37 coupe. It will make 330-hp with a maximum torque of 270 lb-ft of torque. Power will be transferred to the wheels from a 7-speed automatic transmission with an available 6-speed manual. It is also rumored that the 370Z Roadster will debut in the 2009 New York Auto Show.