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Red Bull F1 denied access to Honda engines

There are four engine manufacturers in Formula 1: Ferrari, Honda, Mercedes-Benz, and Renault. Infiniti Red Bull Racing ended its marriage to Renault, got to the altar with Mercedes and then Mercedes backed out, couldn't even agree on a pre-nup with Ferrari, and Honda flat-out said, "No." At the moment that has left the four-time World Champions without an engine for next year, owner Dieter Mateschitz threatening to take his two teams and four cars out of the sport, and F1 honcho Bernie Ecclestone threatening to sue Mateschitz if he does. The Japanese company had turned down the idea because after a first year with some poor performances and a few public sour notes, it wants to get McLaren's cars running properly before it expands its operation. Now it seems some behind-the-scenes action of late has opened up channels between Red Bull and Honda, and the two are at least talking. Honda, though, still says such a deal is highly unlikely at best, and Red Bull says it will have something to say when something is done. It appears that McLaren chief Ron Dennis, however, has vetoed the idea. Ecclestone says Honda made a deal with the FIA that would allow Honda to supply two teams in its second year, but Honda gave Dennis veto rights over who the second team would be. For the same reason that Mercedes backed out and Ferrari only wanted to sell Red Bull year-old engines, Ecclestone says Dennis might view Red Bull as a competitor and doesn't want to risk two more cars getting in front of his own. If that's the case and Red Bull is going to remain in the sport, it might need to hit the flower shop and book a trip to Renault headquarters. Soon. Related Video:

Honda launches Project Drive-In to save these American icons

Honda wasn't really a major player in the automotive industry when drive-in movie theaters were popular in the US, but the automaker is doing its best to preserve the place where automotive and cinema histories collide. Using Project Drive-In, Honda is helping bring awareness to a story we brought up last month, where we saw how a move away from 35-millimeter film could put some of the few drive-in theaters remaining in the US out of business.
As production studios switch to digital film, theaters are required to upgrade to digital projectors, which Honda says will cost about $80,000 for drive-ins. While Project Drive-In asks people to donate money to the cause or pledge to go to a drive-in theater, Honda will also be donating projectors to five of the remaining drive-ins based on votes received on its website. Scroll down to watch a short video describing Project Drive-In, and be sure to vote, pledge and even contribute to save the drive-ins.

Honda Accord, Civic are America's most stolen cars

The National Insurance Crime Bureau has released its latest Hot Wheels study on the most popular stolen cars and trucks for 2012. The study has changed a bit from past years, with the new findings listing only the make and model of each vehicle, while taking into account all model years in its totals. Previous iterations only focused on the most stolen vehicles of a particular model year, with that make and model not appearing anywhere else on the list so as not to appear to call out a particular car. Confusing, eh? Said another way, in previous studies, if the three most stolen vehicles were the 2006, 2007 and 2008 Belchfire Turbo from Fictitious Motors, only the model year with the highest number of thefts would make the list.
The new study takes all model years into consideration while breaking down the number of vehicles stolen per model year in a full, in-depth report. Separately, the NICB is also listing the top 25 new vehicles stolen in 2012. That list is limited exclusively to model year 2012 entries.
Honda took the top two spots in the most stolen vehicles list, with 58,596 Accord models stolen and 47,037 Civic models stolen. The study is interesting, though, in that the most recent model year for the Accord is 1997, while the most recent the Civic is 2000. In fact, Hondas from 1990 to 2000 make up 16 of the top 20 cars stolen in 2012, according to the NICB. Compare that with the MY2012 list, where Honda's vehicles are eleventh and fifteenth, and it looks like the Japanese brand has been beefing up its theft control.