Honda Prelude Turbo on 2040-cars

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Honda squeezes in 9 Fit customs at SEMA

Honda is displaying a heap of customized Fit hatchbacks at this week's SEMA in Las Vegas. Nine of the modded little econoboxes are on the floor showing off wildly divergent takes on the Japanese automaker's most affordable offering. The company has reason to celebrate the new vehicle, too, because it's been dubbed this year's "Hottest Sport Compact" award at the event.
Six of the custom Fits come from a contest that Honda ran online challenging various tuners to come up with their own take on the new model. People could then follow along online as Tjin Edition, Bisimoto Engineering, Kontrabrands, MAD Industries, Spoon Sports USA and Kenny Vinces worked on the cars. In the end, the version from Tjin (pictured above) with its subdued green paint, huge fender flares and ground-hugging stance was named the fan favorite.
In addition to those cars, Honda also has three other modded Fits on display. Honda Performance Development is showing off one in full B-spec racer trim, Honda Genuine Accessories has an example displaying all of its dealer-installed parts, and there's another model tuned by Bisimoto, as well.

Honda Civic poised to get new Earth Dreams engines

When Honda executed its emergency refresh of the Civic for 2013, it didn't do any massive powertrain reworking. But that doesn't mean new things aren't already in the works for Honda's compact. According to Automotive News, Honda has confirmed that it will offer the Civic with a new Earth Dreams powerplant sometime in the future, though details on timing and exactly what sort of engine are unclear as of this writing.
The confirmation comes from Honda's executive vice president and regional director for North America, Tetsuo Iwamura, who says that the Earth Dreams engine will come when the Civic is re-engineered or redesigned, not during a refresh. There is also no mention of whether these changes will apply to just the standard Civic, or if the Si and Hybrid models will receive some Dreamy new tech, as well.
The entire Earth Dreams group of technologies encompasses more than just naturally aspirated engines with direct injection. A turbo-diesel engine is also part of this suite, as are new continuously variable transmissions and new gasoline-electric hybrid powerplants. Honda launched its 2.4-liter and 3.5-liter Earth Dreams engines in the redesigned 2013 Accord.

Honda working on 'power exporter' to go with fuel-cell vehicle

The bad news, as we've previously reported, is that Honda's first production hydrogen fuel-cell vehicle won't debut until 2016, a bit later than expected. The good news is that the automaker may produce a device that will let that FCV's motor power up other devices as well. So it's a tradeoff of sorts. The company is producing what it calls the Power Exporter Concept. Put simply, it's a device that can connects to the fuel-cell vehicle and produce AC power (the picture makes it look fairly small, but dimensions weren't disclosed). The device has a maximum output of 9 kilowatts. Honda isn't saying much else about the device, which was announced along with further details of the company's upcoming fuel-cell concept vehicle. Still, it's heady yet not terribly surprising stuff from a company that's long been a big player on the portable power generator industry. Honda recently said its first production fuel-cell vehicle would see the light of day in early 2016 instead of 2015. The futuristic-looking vehicle will have a power output of about 130 horsepower and will be able to have its hydrogen tank filled up in less than five minutes. Take a look at Honda's press release below. Honda Unveils All-New FCV CONCEPT Fuel-Cell Vehicle - Striving to Realize a CO2-free Society by Combining FCV with an external power feeding device and Smart Hydrogen Station - TOKYO, Japan, November 17, 2014 - Honda Motor Co., Ltd. today unveiled, for the first time in the world, the Honda FCV CONCEPT, a concept car for an all-new fuel-cell vehicle (FCV), and the Honda Power Exporter CONCEPT, a concept model for an external power feeding device that enables AC power output from the FCV with maximum output of 9 kW*1. The all-new FCV that will be based on this concept model is scheduled to go on sale in Japan by the end of March, 2016 and subsequently in the U.S. and Europe. In addition to the FCV and external power feeding device, Honda will further promote the application of the Smart Hydrogen Station (SHS), a packaged hydrogen station unit that adopts Honda's original high-differential-pressure electrolyzer. In this way, Honda will work toward the forthcoming hydrogen society under three key concepts – "generate," "use" and "get connected" – and strive for the early realization of a CO2-free society.