Tag Archives: Civic Si

Today’s Trans-Am: Continental Tires Series Starts 2012 Road-Racing Season with a Mustang Win

January 25, 2013 Bartle Doo Leave a comment

Make no mistake, the original Trans-Am series deserves the heady reputation it earned in the early 1970s for fender-to-fender action, but you should know we now have the Continental Tire Series and it’s just as exciting. Okay, this Trans-Am remix might not have the big-name drivers, like Mark Donohue, Parnelli Jones or Sam Posey, but the field makes up for it with tough racing. Better yet, the field is filled with some of our favorite cars: Mustangs, Camaros, BMW M3s, and Aston Martins in the GS field. Move to the ST machines and its Honda Civics, Mazda MX-5s and MazdaSpeed3s, Porsche Boxsters, Nissan Altimas, and BMW 328s.

This weekend is the first race of the season and from the green flag it looked as though the Aston Martins—one starting from the pole—had the measure of the GS class, but the Stevenson-entered Camaro GS.R hounded it, as did the Rum Bum Porsche 997. In fact, the trio of Astons stayed in the top six right to the end, but it was the Mustang Boss 302 R of Jack Roush’s team, his son, Jack Jr., teaming with Billy Johnson that finally had the lead when the checkered flag came out, the Rum Bum Porsche 997 in second, and an Aston finishing out the GS podium.

In the ST class, the Hondas beat on the Mazdas, the Porsche Boxsters, the BMWs and the Volkswagen Jettas. And what won? A Nissan Altima Coupe, followed by a BMW 128i and a Civic Si.

Here’s the rest of the series’ schedule for 2013:

March 2: Circuit of the Americas
April 6: Barber Motorsports Park
April 20: Road Atlanta
June 15: Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course
June 29: Watkins Glen International
July 26: Indianapolis Motor Speedway
Aug. 10: Road America
Aug. 17: Kansas Speedway
Sept. 8: Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca
Sept. 27-28: Lime Rock Park

Source: FULL ARTICLE at Car & Driver

Automobiles

Review: 2013 Acura ILX 2.4

January 17, 2013 Bartle Doo Leave a comment

By Jeffrey N. Ross

Filed under: Sedan, Acura, New Car Reviews, Luxury

Going Mainstream Has Its Privileges

Acura’s experiment with niche models has failed. Competing in the luxury car business by filling white space with product just didn’t work for the Japanese automaker. In place of slow-selling models like its ZDX and quirky first-gen RDX, the mindset at Acura has recently switched to more conventional products with vastly improved volume potential. The redesigned 2013 RDX, for example, sold almost as many units in 2012 as it did in 2010 and 2011 combined, and the all-new 2013 ILX has sold more units each month – since going on sale in May – than Acura sold in ZDXs and RLs in all of last year.

While the redesigned RDX is a crucial product to compete with luxury compact crossovers, the ILX might be the most important new product for Acura, as a growing number of premium makes are starting to realize the importance of upscale entry-level compact cars. Ironically, this segment was a pivotal part of the brand’s success in the 1980s and ’90s thanks to the Integra, but Acura completely abandoned the genre when it killed off the RSX coupe in 2006. The addition of the ILX not only gives Acura a competitive small car again, it also drops the brand’s entry price by almost $5,000.

Like the Honda Civic to which it’s closely related, the 2013 Acura ILX is offered with three powertrain flavors (base 2.0, ILX 2.4 and Hybrid), and while our First Drive gave us some seat time in the base ILX 2.0, this time we got to spend a full week with the sportier ILX 2.4 – Acura’s version of the Civic Si. The ILX is positioned in a weird in-between market that includes premium small cars like the Buick Verano, Audi A3 and Lexus CT, but it also sits at the upper end of some well-equipped non-luxury models like the Ford Focus Titanium. With this in mind, and with keys in hand, we aimed to see how the ILX stacks up against other premium compacts – as well as its predecessors.

Continue reading 2013 Acura ILX 2.4

2013 Acura ILX 2.4 originally appeared on Autoblog on Thu, 17 Jan 2013 11:57:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: FULL ARTICLE at Autoblog

Automobiles

Honda giving away free Civics in <em>Forza Horizon</em> to celebrate launch

January 16, 2013 Bartle Doo Leave a comment

By Jonathon Ramsey

Filed under: Coupe, Hatchback, Honda, Toys/Games

Just a friendly reminder from Honda: The Honda Challenge Pack DLC is now available for Forza Horizon. To reward you for the trouble of pressing a few buttons on your Xbox controller, you’ll get the 2013 Honda Civic Coupe, an HPD Rally Fit and a 1986 Honda Civic Si Coupe in your garage, and you’ll get them free. The event of the new DLC has also kicked off a photo contest that will reward someone with an Xbox 360 console wrapped in a Honda Civic Si theme.

Otherwise, the word “Challenge” keeps coming up because of the chance to run an online race against IndyCar driver Scott Dixon. The track for that digital throwdown has already been decided by Xbox players who voted before January 8. Yet it’s not too late to hop into the Honda section in Xbox Live and lay down a time fast enough for a shot at the title “The Driver That Shellacked Scott Dixon,” and meeting the man in person.

Check out the press release from Honda below, and the sweetness that is the 1986 Civic Si in the gallery above.

Continue reading Honda giving away free Civics in Forza Horizon to celebrate launch

Honda giving away free Civics in Forza Horizon to celebrate launch originally appeared on Autoblog on Wed, 16 Jan 2013 13:29:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.