2002 Honda Accord Ex V6 on 2040-cars

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Honda shows us 'The Challenging Spirit of Honda'... in Japanese

Just as Porsche has done with its lengthy Le Mans gear-up, Honda is is laying the table for its Formula One return more than a year before we'll actually see it on track. We've heard what it's 2015 engine will sound like, reminisced with the 1988 McLaren Honda MP4/4 and the 1964 Honda RA271 and spoken to the company's CEO about what F1 involvement could do for its production car engines.
The automaker has now released a video called The Challenging Spirit of Honda that traces the development of its in-house F1 program and the jump from motorcycles to the first RA270 F1 chassis in 1962, to the RA272 chassis that won the 1965 Grand Prix. The only catch: the video is in Japanese. However, you can read about the winning car in English, and the video ends with another sound check of the 2015 power unit. That is a universal language, and you'll find it being spoken below.

Acura NSX production delayed

Listeners of the Autoblog Podcast will be familiar with my opinions on the Acura NSX. While I love the idea of Acura building a halo car again, I've routinely joked on-air that the car will never, ever reach production and will continue being teased and previewed ad nauseam. So I'm chuckling at this news: the NSX is being delayed again. To be fair, while it sounds like a big deal – pushing the NSX back from model year 2016 to 2017 – this is a fairly minor delay in the grand scheme. Instead of starting production this fall, as previously announced, the new supercar will start rolling down the line at Honda's Marysville, OH factory in the spring. "Trial production" has already started, Honda says, while briefly acknowledging the delay in the attached press release. While Honda offered no reason for the delay in volume production, Automobile claims it's the fault of the move to fit two turbochargers to the V6, which was made midway through development. Fitting the two iron lungs meant rearranging the six-pot into a longitudinal layout. Here's hoping there are no further delays. Scroll on for a look at Honda's press release, which does its best to gloss over the NSX delay while talking about the company's new Performance Manufacturing Center in Marysville. Related Video: Performance Manufacturing Center: Precision Craftsmanship Aug 14, 2015 - CARMEL-BY-THE-SEA, Calif. The next-generation Acura NSX is produced at the new, dedicated Performance Manufacturing Center (PMC) in Marysville, Ohio, using domestic and globally sourced parts. With trial production already underway and production start-up scheduled for spring 2016, this world-class manufacturing facility employs groundbreaking techniques in weld, body construction, body painting, final assembly and quality confirmation to ensure the highest levels of precision and craftsmanship. More details on the unique and innovative manufacturing processes at the PMC will be rolled out over the months leading up to the start of production, but the following highlights of the new facility were shared during the 2015 Monterey Automotive Week: Innovative blend of people and technology: throughout the PMC, NSX production is centered around the skills of approximately 100 experienced engineers and technicians building the NSX to precise levels of quality and craftsmanship.

Design Handbook explains the difference between design and styling

It's easy to confuse the terms 'design' and 'style,' but Jim Hall attempts to explain the difference between the two in his latest Design Handbook video column for Autoline. Before relating the terms to cars, Hall first uses other, non-automotive-related examples to prove his point, such as a well-designed glass versus a well-styled glass. Both do their job well as a result of good designs, he claims, but one stands out more because it also was styled.
When he relates his lesson to cars, he uses the 2013 Honda Accord and the new Chevrolet Impala as examples, but you'll have to watch the video below to find out which car he thinks is merely designed and which one has been styled.
We've also included a gallery of the Honda and a gallery of the Chevrolet so you can decide for yourself which one of these vehicles has been designed, and which one has been styled.