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Snapshots from Acura NSX prototype run at Mid-Ohio

Acura's achingly slow showing of the new, hybrid NSX saw yet another step yesterday, as we reported late last week. A powder-blue prototype ran ahead of the open-wheelers at the Honda Indy 200 at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course. Why show the NSX Prototype at Mid-Ohio? Honda's Ohio research and development center, which has taken the lead on NSX development, is just 60 miles from the track. And as race sponsor, Honda must have figured it would give the spectators a glimpse of the new supercar it's been teasing for the better part of a decade.
With a planned launch in 2015 (special emphasis on the "planned" part, considering the NSX's history), the NSX Prototype shown here sports graphics that "speak to Acura's intention to go racing with the new NSX." That's great news for fans of endurance racing, although it remains to be seen when a motorsports program for the new NSX will get off the ground.
Take a look at the fresh gallery of images, and be sure to head over to our original Mid-Ohio post for the video footage of the NSX Prototype on track.

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.

Honda surprises with Gear concept in Montreal

It's not often that a major automobile manufacturer debuts a brand-new concept at the Montreal International Auto Show - mostly because it takes place concurrently with the massive show in Detroit - but here we are with the so-called Honda Gear Concept Study Model, which was just uncovered by our friendly neighbors to the north.
According to the automaker, the Gear "demonstrates Honda's innovative approach to providing the automotive answer for young, urban, Gen-Y lifestyles. Inspired by fixed-gear bicycles... Gear is simple and utilitarian, but also customizable, connected and full of personality." It is apparently "practical but fun, customizable, connected and affordable. Everything that young, discerning urban buyers would want in a car," according to Dave Marek, Design Director at Honda R&D Americas.
We don't know anything else - what might lie underhood, how it is "connected" or at what price point it might potentially be sold at. Check out our high-res image gallery above and the press release below and you'll know just about as much as we do.