2004 Honda S2000 on 2040-cars

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Watch this LSR Honda Insight crash at 190 mph in the desert

Like any form of motorsports, attempts at breaking land speed records are inherently dangerous. To wit: During a recent speed competition at El Mirage dry lake beds in southern California, racer Brian Gillespie and his first-gen Honda Insight crashed at nearly 190 miles per hour, and it was all caught on video.
According to the Southern California Timing Association website, which hosts the event, the weather was good and there was no wind on November 10, so it isn't clear what may have caused the crash. Despite the car being destroyed (including the entire front end being sheared off), Gillespie suffered only "minor injuries" and is recovering. The SCTA site does state that Gillespie managed to crack the 200-mile-per-hour mark in a previous run with a top speed of 200.9 mph, so congratulations to him on that! Scroll down to watch the horrifying crash.

Acura NSX and David Lee Roth wail together in Super Bowl spot

Super Bowl 50 is just over a week away, but carmakers are already rolling out their big ads. Acura's newly released commercial uses the screams and moans from Van Halen's David Lee Roth and the song Runnin' with the Devil to build excitement about the upcoming supercar. As Van Halen plays, the NSX evolves from a slab of metal into the turbocharged, hybrid coupe. In a patriotic touch, the commercial uses red, white, and blue to subtly communicate the supercar's US development and production. It's a clever ad, sure, but we wish it showed more of the new NSX's high-performance capability. There's never a bad time to listen to some Van Halen, though. The video above is the 30-second Super Bowl commercial, which airs during the first quarter. However, the clip below is a one-minute version that lets the visuals breathe more. The longer cut is the better one, but Acura's choice is understandable given the expense of Super Bowl ad time. Acura Rolls Out American-made NSX Supercar with Super Bowl Commercial Set to Van Halen Classic, Runnin' with the Devil Jan 29, 2016 - TORRANCE, Calif. Iconic Van Halen song infuses high-voltage energy into NSX rollout Comprehensive activation includes social media sweepstakes, enabling consumers to experience the NSX Acura is one of the first brands to use Twitter Conversational Video to launch Super Bowl spot Acura is showcasing the next generation NSX, the only supercar made in America1, to the soundtrack of an iconic American rock song in a new commercial that will debut during Super Bowl 50. The high-energy vocal effects of the Van Halen classic Runnin' with the Devil provide the powerful beat for the Acura commercial that will appear during the first quarter of the big game. The spot is a showcase of the Precision Crafted Performance brand direction that is core to the Acura brand and vividly represented in the NSX supercar. The new Acura Super Bowl commercial is posted to Acura.com and Acura social media channels for previewing before the big game and is augmented with a series of unique social media activations and live experiences, including one of the first applications of Twitter Conversational Video to launch a Super Bowl spot. "In our Acura commercial, we wanted to convey the excitement of the NSX to a big Super Bowl audience," said Jon Ikeda, vice president and general manager of Acura.

Honda, SolarCity expand sun-powered partnership with new $50 million fund

It must be solar-power announcement time. The DOE is ready to throw $25 million at concentrating solar power and New York State just announced $94 million for solar projects. At the broadly green-minded South By Southwest Eco festival in Austin, TX this week, Honda announced an expansion of its work with SolarCity to include a new fund that could finance up to $50 million in solar projects for dealerships and homes. Well, the homes of people who have purchased a Honda or Acura vehicle, at least. Stop us if this all sounds familiar. Honda and SolarCity announced back in early 2013 that they would work together on a $65-million fund to partially subsidize the installation of solar-panels at Honda dealers and on homes of Honda and Acura drivers. The new $50 million will be used to pay for not only the equipment but also the installation, which means that if you can get access to the money, you're looking at a pretty sweet 20-year lease deal to get solar energy for your home and could make it a bit more like the Honda Smart Home in Davis, CA (pictured). How sweet a deal? Well, there's zero down payment required and a 3-kW system starts could cost you just $25 a month, according to the fine print. Rates will vary, for sure, but if that sounds like something you're interested in, check out the Honda SolarCity site. The new fund builds on the previous work that, the two companies say, created enough solar capacity to offset "more than 400 million pounds of CO2 over a 30-year lifecycle." There's more in the press release below. SolarCity and Honda Announce $50 Million Commitment to Provide Solar Power to Honda and Acura Customers and Dealerships SAN MATEO and TORRANCE, Calif., Oct. 8, 2014 – Today, at the SXSW Eco conference in Austin, TX, SolarCity® (Nasdaq: SCTY) and Honda have renewed their partnership with a new fund expected to finance $50 million in solar projects. The new commitment will make solar power more affordable and available to Honda and Acura customers and dealerships in the U.S. The companies have completed or initiated a range of solar projects for homeowners, dealerships and corporate facilities that total more than 12.5 MW of solar generation capacity. The two companies have already brought enough solar capacity online to offset more than 400 million pounds of CO2 over a 30-year lifecycle . The $50 million fund is a follow-up to a $65 million fund the companies created in 2013.