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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 flaunts freshened 2014 Civic Coupe at SEMA

Honda took the wraps off its 2014 Civic Coupe (red car pictured above) and 2014 Civic Si (gray car in the gallery below) at SEMA today, revealing a mid-cycle refresh for each model. The standard Civic coupe benefits from several cosmetic enhancements, while the Civic Si gets the bulk of its improvements under the hood - precisely where the enthusiasts want them.
The best-selling Civic Coupe sports a new front fascia that is "fun and sporty," says the automaker. The more aggressive snout is a step in the proper direction, as its new shape and exclusive grille design gives the two-door a distinctive appearance that sets it apart from its sedan sibling. The rear end follows the same design language, as the lower portion of the urethane bumper gains some character - its smooth surface has been resculpted and recontoured. Newly available 18-inch wheels complete the exterior transformation.
The 2014 Civic Si benefits from a larger spoiler and new wheels, but the big news is in the powertrain. Honda has massaged the 2.4-liter i-VTEC engine and opened up the exhaust system. As a result, output climbs to 205 horsepower (up from 201) and torque increases to 174 pound-feet (up from 170). The power gains aren't extraordinary, but they should allow the coupe to hit 60 miles per hour from a standstill in about six seconds flat and still return over 30 mpg on the open road. Scroll down for the official release.

Finalists for 2014 Green Car of the Year announced

The list of finalists for the 2014 Green Car of the Year has been announced, and in a genuinely bizarre twist, there's only one hybrid and no electric vehicles among the five contestants, despite the arrival of cars like the BMW i3 and Tesla Model S. Taking the place of the EVs are a pair of diesels, repping a technology that last won a Green Car of the Year award in 2009, when the Audi A3 TDI took the title. No diesel was in the running for last year's award.
Naturally, both of the diesel finalists are fielded by the Germans - with BMW's 328d and Audi's A6 TDI getting the nod. In the case of the 3 Series, BMW installed a 2.0-liter, turbodiesel, capable of delivering 180 horsepower and 280 pound-feet of torque, while returning 45 miles per gallon on the highway. Audi and its larger, 3.0-liter, V6 turbodiesel produce quite a bit more grunt, with 240 hp and 428 lb-ft of grunt, but net a very impressive 38 mpg on the highway in the A6.
Finalists for this year's awards include two diesels, three gas-powered cars and a plug-in hybrid.