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Honda profit targets tumble in wake of Takata scandal

Takata's massive airbag inflator recall will likely do some damage to Honda's bottom line this year, according to the Japanese automaker's latest forecasts. The company will allocate 50 billion yen ($425 million) to fulfill costs related to the safety campaigns, Reuters indicates. The decision will reduce estimated operating profit by about 6.5 percent to 720 billion yen ($6.1 billion US) for the fiscal year ending March 31. In addition to lower profits, Honda also cut back its sales estimate for the year to 4.45 million vehicles from the previous 4.62 million, according to Reuters. This was largely due to lower-than-expected demand in Japan. "We are not seeing a big impact on sales in North America from the airbag issue," company vice president Tetsuo Iwamura (pictured above) told Reuters. The decreased forecasts come at the same time as the possibility of another death in a Honda vehicle from the Takata parts. According to Automotive News, a man in Florida died in a crash in his 2002 Accord, but investigators have not yet determined whether the inflator was the cause. However, the vehicle was included in a 2011 recall for the part and was not repaired. The family intends to file a lawsuit alleging the inflator ruptured, spraying metal shrapnel into the driver's neck. Reportedly, the owner was never notified of the recall. While the Takata inflator recall is affecting many companies with alleged links to at least five deaths and 139 injuries worldwide, Honda has it among the worst. Including vehicles covered under the previous regional repair campaign for the issue, the automaker needs to repair roughly 5.4 million vehicles just in the US. Honda has taken action by employing suppliers other than Takata to supply some of its replacement parts for the recall. The business is also reportedly switching airbag suppliers for the next-gen Accord and possibly the 2016 CR-V and Odyssey.

Honda getting in on the Daytona Prototype racing action

Racing fans at Sebring are plenty used to seeing Honda powering into the winner's circle, the Japanese motor company having claimed class victories at the endurance race in Florida in 2007, 2009, 2011, 2012 and 2013. Those were all in the LMP2 category, but with the Twelve Hours of Sebring now part of the combined United SportsCar Championship, Honda is branching out into another class: Daytona Prototypes.
The purpose-built racing machinery that were once part of the Grand-Am series are now racing alongside the LMP2 prototypes from the American Le Mans Series under the united championship. So far Ford and Chevy have signed on to power the Daytona Prototypes, and now Honda's joining their ranks as the only manufacturer to field entries in both categories of the championship's Prototype class.
The competition-spec 3.5-liter twin-turbo V6 revealed last month is based on the same J35 engine that powers everything from the Honda Accord to the Acura RLX and MDX. Now it will power the Riley chassis fielded by Starworks Motorsports, competing alongside the pair of Honda Performance Development (HPD) ARX-03b chassis which Extreme Speed Motorsports will campaign under LMP2 regulations, giving Honda a two-pronged, three-car assault on the top class of the new American sports car racing series.

Honda celebrates the life of Ayrton Senna the best way it knows how

Honda is returning to Formula One in 2015 with McLaren, and when that engine maker and that F1 constructor are mentioned together, two other words are never far behind: Ayrton Senna. There are engine suppliers, constructors and drivers that have bigger numbers, but those three form a triumvirate that came close to defining F1 in the eighties.
Honda Japan has produced a commercial called Sound of Honda that celebrates Senna at a race that turned out to be one of the most momentous of his career for good and bad reasons: the 1989 grand prix at Suzuka where he won, then was stripped of, the driver's championship.
The commercial has a terrifically simple premise - there's no CG, no old footage of Senna, no one says a word, it's just sound. And it's pretty damn good. Check it out below.