2000 Honda S2000 on 2040-cars

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Honda's Euro Civic hatch getting facelift, too

Honda's freshening of the Civic line isn't just limited to the North American market, as proven by these images of the Euro-spec model testing on Her Majesty's motorways.
According to our spies, this new Civic boasts a heavily restyled front fascia, with headlights and taillights that draw a quite a bit of inspiration from the Civic Type R Concept from the 2014 Geneva Motor Show.
The restyled front fascia has a sportier lean, with more significant lateral intakes and what looks like a slightly larger lower intake. It's more difficult to make out details on the rear of the car, although we can spot a modest little diffuser and a larger integrated spoiler.

Honda Accord sets the pace as Indy safety car with HPD upgrades

Honda has rolled out a new pace car to lead the pack in the IndyCar Series. But it didn't just slap some graphics and auxiliary lighting on a production model and call it a day. Honda Performance Development (HPD) was tasked with giving the Accord coupe a thorough overhaul to prepare it for the task at hand. To the 3.5-liter V6, HPD bolted a Borg-Warner turbocharger and fitted high-flow fuel injectors and custom intake, exhaust, pistons, connecting rods and intercooler as well as the crankshaft from the Acura RLX to drive output up to 400 horsepower. The transmission was beefed up as well, with a limited slip differential to help get the power down to the track surface. To keep it all in check, HPD fitted new brakes, a stiffened suspension and rolling stock. It's all been topped off with a factory aero kit, special graphics and lighting, with Sparco seats and four-point racing harnesses fitted inside. The latest in a series supplied by Honda since 2006, the Accord safety car made its debut this weekend at the Honda Indy Grand Prix of Alabama at Barber Motorsports Park. Honda Unveils 2015 Accord Safety Car Apr 24, 2015 - TORRANCE, Calif. - Will pace IndyCar Series races starting Sunday at Barber Motorsports Park - Latest in series of Honda safety cars for Indy car competition - Production 2015 Honda Accord modified by Honda R&D Americas Honda today unveiled the 2015 Honda Accord Safety Car, which will lead the Verizon IndyCar Series field to the green flag for Sunday's Honda Indy Grand Prix of Alabama at Barber Motorsports Park. The latest in a series of Honda Safety Cars utilized since 2006 for Indy car competition, the 2015 Honda Accord Safety Car is a production model featuring performance enhancements created by Honda R&D Americas, Inc., for its new role. "The 2015 Honda Accord Coupe is an ideal match for IndyCar Safety Car duties," said Jim Lee, manager of Experiential Marketing for American Honda. "Taking its already large and powerful 3.5-liter V6 engine, we asked the team at Honda R&D Americas to enhance and develop a car that is perfectly suited to lead the Verizon IndyCar Series field. I think they accomplished all that we asked, and more." The Honda R&D team started with a production Honda Accord Coupe, then added a mix of engine and chassis modifications to create a fun, fast vehicle fully capable of pacing Indy cars at both road courses and oval tracks across North America.

Google poised to release Apple CarPlay rival this month

Apple and Google. They're the Michigan and Ohio State of the tech world. They're New York Yankees and the Boston Red Sox, Real Madrid and Barcelona, or whatever sports-based rivalry you want to cook up. Bottom line, if one company expands into a segment, it's only a matter of time before the other follows suit. And now, that rivalry is about to carry over to your car's dashboard.
Unnamed sources are reporting to Automotive News that Google will unveil its very own challenger to Apple's new CarPlay in-car operating system later this month at the Mountain View, CA company's annual developer conference. The system, allegedly called Google Auto Link, will be the first product to come from the Open Automotive Alliance, a partnership between Google, General Motors, Hyundai, Audi, Honda and hardware manufacturer NVIDIA.
The official announcement is expected to be made on either June 25 or 26, at the Google I/O conference in San Francisco. Expect to hear a lot more about Google Auto Link then.