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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.

Hurricane Sandy cost automakers 15,000 vehicles, may have ruined up to 200k

Hurricane Sandy was the largest Atlantic storm in US history, and its total economic impact is just now coming into view. According to Automotive News, Toyota, Chrysler, Nissan and Honda are set to scrap around 15,000 new vehicles ruined by the storm. Nissan alone accounts for about 40 percent of those, with 6,000 Nissan and Infiniti models deeded "un-saleable" due to damage. The company saw 56 dealerships shuttered due to the storm, but 51 of those have since reopened.
Toyota, meanwhile, had some 4,000 vehicles at its Newark port facility, and of those, 3,000 may be scrapped. An additional 825 were dealer inventory when they were ruined. Honda and Acura dealers are reportedly sending 3,440 vehicles to the salvage yard. By comparison, Chrysler weathered the storm fairly well with 825 units destroyed, while Hyundai suffered only 400 lost units and Kia scrapped around 200.
As you may recall, Fisker also suffered some losses, and Automotive News reports the manufacturer saw 320 Karma models damaged beyond repair. Ford and General Motors have yet to come up with estimates, and no automaker has commented on the full cost of replacing the vehicles.

Acura NSX GT3 data 'will inform future iterations' of the street car

Motorsports programs exist to drive innovation in road vehicles, and that's precisely what's happening at Honda. Acura NSX development boss Nick Robinson told Autocar that the company's work on the GT3 racing variant is directly informing future development on the road car. "In North America, we've just unveiled the GT3 version of the car, and the development team of the street car has had some involvement in its development," Robinson said. "What works well on the track will inform future iterations and updates of the street car and vice versa." But Honda is a big company that does more than build cars. Robinson paid tribute to the impact his employer's well-known motorcycle program had on the NSX. Apparently, building stuff like the CBR helped Honda with the NSX's complicated packaging. "For many years our motorcycle development teams have strived to ensure the optimum centralization of mass, ensuring the lowest possible center of gravity," Robinson told Autocar. "This leads to the best possible yaw response." Is this all a sign that a long-rumored lighter, faster NSX, potentially wearing the vaunted Type R badge, will be especially track-focused? Maybe. Robinson's comments indicate that the company is doing something with the mountains of data it collects running a GT3 program. While a pure road-focused NSX-R successor seems like it'd be a waste of that data, an NSX-based rival to the Porsche 911 GT3 RS might make a lot more sense. Related Video: News Source: AutocarImage Credit: Brendan McDermid / Reuters Motorsports Rumormill Acura Honda Coupe Racing Vehicles Performance gt3