All Entries Tagged With: "TMR"
NSX Is Cancelled. Mixed Emotions On The Subject.
NSX is cancelled.
By Gunnar Heinrich
READING The Motor Report today Dan Fewster had me laughing out loud.
“I knew something was amiss this morning, I’d felt a great disturbance in the Force, as if millions of voices suddenly cried out and were suddenly silenced, and now it all makes sense,” TMR’s scribe typed.
Strong with Mr. Fewster, the Force for using Star Wars metaphors is.
The pain that he and the crying “millions” feel is in reaction to the Honda Motor Company’s decision to cancel the 2010 NSX – heir apparent to the mid-engined Ferrari F355 fighting legacy Honda manufactured more than a decade ago.
But that agony isn’t shared by everyone.
“Well, I say good riddance to a stupid idea. I’m in that camp of people that thinks the original NSX is the very rare car that came out perfectly,” TTAC’s Justin Berkowitz offered. Adding his own fiscal cents to the discussion, Mr. Berkowitz wrote that he couldn’t “understand the business case for a front-engined V10 Acura NSX. Trickle down tech?”
Hmm…
As much as I’m loathe to agree with so morbid a point of view, I’m inclined to agree with so morbid a point of view. This once.
The new NSX had too little to do with its well liked predecessor. The only genetic carry over from the original’s 1990s flat-ironed Nipponese take on Ferrari was the subtle homage to the first car’s unified taillight cluster. Hardly daring, mind you, the designers had the same idea for Dodge’s retro themed Challenger.
It goes to show that everything that once was old could be made new again, so long as it ties in with the original somehow.
So for the cancelled NSX, another time, perhaps. To the pained millions, take heart. We still have Nissan’s fly GT-R. And let’s take this moment to hope that if there is to be another NSX, the Force will be strong enough to cast the successor truer to form.
Hybrid Is The New Turbo: Mercedes-Benz S400 BlueHYBRID
By Gunnar Heinrich
HYBRIDS are to ’00s what Turbos were to the 80s.
In the 80s, cars had a decisive lack of power due to a need for fuel efficiency. Turbo chargers provided the boost while maintaining that lean power-petrol consumption balance. So, putting the “Turbo” badge on anything meant that it was going to go fast (even if it didn’t).
Take for example, the late 80s 300SDL “Turbo”.
Mercedes’ turbodiesel W126 S-Class was great on mileage (600+mile range on a tank of 23.8 gallons) but not so hot on performance (0-60 = 10+ seconds; 130 mph = never). Still, the turbo undoubtedly made progress a little quicker than if Benz’s boffins had made the big sedan go without.
But that really didn’t matter. “Turbo” was the buzz word for performance. And the badge was on the boot for that very reason. It suggested Porsche performance even if it delivered Peugeot.
Reading today’s news at The Motor Report, Tony O’Kane reported that Stuttgart has introduced the S400 BlueHYBRID (there’s aquamarine marketing: blue = water; hybrid = green). Here again, it’s the marketing that has more kick than the reality.
Mr. O’Kane writes:
“The S400 BlueHYBRID takes the 3.5-litre V6 from the S350, gives it a mild bump in power to 205kW and mates it to a compact 15kW electric motor. Further down the driveline is a modified version of M-B’s familiar 7G-Tronic seven-speed automatic, whose ratios are matched to the hybrid powertrain’s power delivery.”
So, does this little motor provide the heavy S-Class with the gas saving performance of a Prius?
No. Of course not. But it does allow for stop-starts in traffic, assistance with acceleration, and regenerates everytime you use the brake pedal.
In other words, it’s helpful. Which means that like the fabled turbo charger, lots of cars are going to have hybrid lithium ion batteries complimenting gas motors in the not-too-distant future. We’ll just loose the marketing appeal of “Hybrid” in the process – and the need for the badge.
[Linked: TMR]
The Approval Matrix
By Gunnar Heinrich
ADL contributor Steane Klose and I have an arrangement where once a week we write posts for each other’s websites.
Steane’s site, The Motor Report, is an excellent auto news source and I’ve assured Steane that TMR is on the road to being Australia’s own Edmunds.
In one year’s time, TMR has sky rocketed from naught to ranking in the top 100,000 most trafficked sites.
My weekly post – The Noon-Day Gun – appears each Friday at noon (Melbourne time / 10PM EST).
Some previous columns:
> NYC is to BMW as Boston is to Saab
This week’s column is a tip-of-the-hat to New York Magazine‘s approval matrix. I figured something similar needed to be drawn up for car news, so why not try my (amateurish) hand at a little graphical design?
See the full post with larger matrix by tapping the link.
[Linked: TMR]
