It shouldn't be a surprise to anyone that we here at Roadshow are fans of Honda. The company makes well-engineered and affordable cars that are fun to drive and cheap to run. It would seem, however, that Russia's car-buying public doesn't share our enthusiasm for the Big H.
According to a report published Wednesday by Reuters, Honda is pulling out of the Russian automotive market in 2022. We suspect that the fact that the company only managed to sell 79 cars in November in the entire country likely has something to do with that. That number is down 50% from November of 2019, so this is not a new problem.
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Why has Honda been struggling to sell cars in Russia? It's hard to say conclusively, but the fact that it lacks any production facility in the country, unlike its competitors Toyota and Nissan, probably has something to do with it. Shipping cars into a country typically incurs all kinds of taxes and fees, and makes it harder to stay competitive.
While Honda's cars will be making their exit from the Russian market, Honda motorcycles and power equipment (think generators and lawnmowers) will keep on keeping on. The same is true for after-sales of the existing Honda vehicles in-country.
Honda didn't immediately respond to Roadshow's request for comment.
The Honda Accord and I have a bit of a history. At the tender age of 15, the very first car I ever drove was my father's washing machine-white 1992 DX. I remember that day vividly. It was only a handful of cautiously slow laps around an underground parking garage—but over the following several months it became the vehicle that confirmed for me yes, I did love driving more than I could've possibly imagined.
Looking back, it was mainly the tool that taught me the art of three-point turns, knowing who goes first when someone else arrives at an all-way stop the same time as you, and parallel parking. But if you asked my aspirational teenage self, in the moment, it might as well have my personal Championship White NSX with its flattened-box proportions, old Honda switchgear, and old Honda driving manners.
Chris Tsui
Fast forward more than a decade and there's an Obsidian Blue Pearl 2020 Honda Accord Touring 2.0T in my proverbial driveway. I've always had a fairly good time behind the wheel of the Civic's big brother but does this modern, slopier-roofed version provide the same responsible, reasonably-priced thrills it has throughout the years? More or less, yeah.
At $37,355, the 2.0-liter Touring is the most expensive 2020 Accord you can buy and, transitively, the Honda brand's flagship sedan, competing against the Toyota Camry, Hyundai Sonata, Volkswagen Passat, and Nissan's Altima. It's also priced around the same as the top-trim CR-V Touring or a mid-level Pilot. Of course, if you're part of the growing cohort of buyers that refuses to be seen in anything without raised suspension and black plastic body cladding, the Accord is a non-starter but for the big brains in the crowd who still appreciate the virtues of the good ol' sedan, Honda's mid-sizer is as good as it ever was.
The 2020 Honda Accord Touring 2.0T, By the Numbers
Quick Take: A comfortable, well-appointed cruiser with a decent driver's car underneath.
Chris Tsui
Chris Tsui
Chris Tsui
On the outside, the 2020 Honda Accord's aesthetics seem to vary wildly depending on where you're looking at it from. The fastback proportions can look quite sleek from some angles but awkward and hunched-over from others. The front end, in my eyes, looks a bit weird but the strong shoulder line that runs the length of the car is quite attractive. Touring-specific touches include the tasteful chrome trim that underlines the doors and kicks up towards the rear and some 19-inch wheels that fill the wells out nicely without looking like they're trying too hard. All in all, it's a dignified design that blends into the crowd nicely without being completely beige.
Stepping inside and shutting the front doors shut with a heavy, secure-sounding thwump, the Accord's interior is pleasant and well thought-out. One of the first things you notice is the wood-pattern trim that's very convincing at mimicking open-pore lumber. Reach out and touch it, though, and you'll realize it's ultimately a ruse. The second thing you notice is the three HVAC knobs. They look expensive, operate with a satisfying clickiness, and—as a luxury car-aping party trick—feature backlighting that turns red or blue when you change the temperature. The volume and tuning knobs, meanwhile, may look similar posh at first glance but aren't nearly as nice upon further inspection. Although, given their absence in the previous-gen Accord, perhaps we should just be grateful that this car has them at all.
Chris Tsui
Speaking of infotainment, the Accord uses an eight-inch, 720p touchscreen sitting high up in the dashboard, putting it well inside the driver's line of sight. The system itself is a vast improvement over the company's last-gen software still found in the current Civic and CR-V. It's fast and reasonably easy to use but compared to systems from, say, Toyota or Mazda, Honda's UI looks the most like...business software. It isn't very pretty but it gets the job done. (The IT middle managers who buy this car will feel right at home.) Thankfully, the Accord comes standard with Apple CarPlay and Android Auto (wired in this 2020 model, wireless in upper trims of the new 2021) for the rest of us who'd much rather have our in-car infotainment be designed by the horn-rimmed glasses of Cupertino or Mountain View.
Controlling this mid-size sedan's 10-speed automatic transmission is Honda's now-customary button shifter with enough variance in the angle and action of the buttons to make it easy to use without looking after a few tries. We're long past requiring the traditional automatic PRNDL shifter for any real reason other than people are used to it, and while that's completely valid, buttons at least don't have the same learning curve as some of the new and confusing tiny-stick setups out there. And it makes for a slightly airier-feeling cabin to boot.
Sitting directly in front of the driver is a half-digital instrument cluster meaning the speedo on the right is analog but pretty much everything to the left of it is a screen. That screen can be configured to display everything from navigation or audio info to fuel consumption stats to Driver Attention Level and, for the traditionalists, a good ol' tachometer. It all looks pretty seamless, changing the left-hand display is intuitive and snappy, and is a smart workaround that makes the Accord seem like it pushes more pixels than it actually does. (Small quirk on the gauge display: the car that shows up when you choose to show Driving Support info appears to be a last-gen Accord and not the one its driver would be sitting in.)
Chris Tsui
The heads-up display and wireless phone charger both standard on this Touring trim (and available only on the Touring trim) are forward-thinking, appreciated touches.
Tech aside, the basics of the Accord's cockpit are solid. In typical Honda fashion, visibility is top-notch thanks to some mightily thin A-pillars and split C-pillars, the seats are quite comfy, the back row is spacious, storage space is generous, and there's even a little shelf in the center cubby perfectly-sized for mask storage. Really, there isn't much glaringly negative about this cabin. It's practical, useable, well-equipped, and handsomely designed.
Chris Tsui
The Drive: 2020 Honda Accord Touring 2.0T
Among the mainstream mid-size family sedan segment, Honda's entry has always been a bit of a leader when it comes to the actual driving experience and that remains true for this 10th generation model. Behind the wheel, the 2020 Accord Touring has clearly been tuned, first and foremost, for comfort, exhibiting a pleasing smoothness that's consistent across its steering, braking, ride, and power delivery. It's a car that makes light work of both long-haul highway cruising and low-speed urban travel on both the driver and itself.
That's not to say it's lazy, though. Hustle it a bit and you'll discover a sophistication to the Accord's chassis and suspension that isn't present in the competing Toyota—even in TRD guise—nor the previous-gen Accord. Even when saddled with winter tires, its frame feels light on its feet and destined for greater things. Tighten those inputs up a couple notches, "un-detune" the engine and I reckon an Accord Type R would be quite a good time.
Chris Tsui
While we're on the subject of Type R, the Accord Touring's 2.0-liter turbocharged four-cylinder is essentially the Civic Type R's motor with a smaller-diameter turbo. Here, it's putting out 252 hp and 273 lb-ft. with all of that torque available at just 1,500 rpm. The result? A quicker car than most owners will ever reasonably need and front tires that will screech a good amount when flooring it from a stop.
When my fellow Canadians over at the Throttle House YouTube channel drag raced this exact Accord against the aforementioned CTR, the hot hatch eventually won butonly just. Car and Driver, meanwhile, recently put the mildly refreshed 2021 model on its 10Best list for the 35th time. It's only natural that we don't always see eye-to-eye with C/D but in the case of crowning the Honda Accord as one of the best cars to buy for those who care about driving, I get it.
The Accord can be switched into its Eco and Sport driving modes via buttons beneath the gear select module and, somewhat surprisingly, they do change this car's character quite a bit. Eco dulls the throttle significantly for the Accord owners out there who, deep down, would really rather have bought an Insight. Sport, of course, goes the other way, making the throttle more sensitive as well as stiffening up the steering and adaptive dampers. Yes, exclusive to the Touring trim, the Honda Accord can be had with adaptive friggin' dampers.
Switching to this more athletic driving mode resizes the tach so that 6,000 rpm is at 12 o'clock and even throws up a little boost gauge. Go ahead and put it in Sport on the one day a year you take your Accord Touring out to the good roads and drive it for the sake of driving it but if it was me, I'd just leave it in the regular default mode 99 percent of the time and let the car do its thing.
Chris Tsui
Honda Sensing is standard and includes the following:
Adaptive cruise control with low-speed follow
Traffic sign recognition
Forward collision warning and emergency braking
Lane-keep assist
Lane departure warning
"Road Departure Mitigation"
ACC does a decent job of keeping up with the varying velocities of traffic sans driver input while Lane Keep is able to autonomously negotiate gentle curves in the highway but requires the driver to steer it around sharper bends and provide input every several seconds or so as a rule. Traffic Sign Recognition continuously reads the view out for speed limit signs and displays the last one it picked up next to the speedo in a thoughtful effort to keep "I didn't know I couldn't do that"-type situations with law enforcement to a minimum.
Chris Tsui
Verdict: A Super Solid Sedan
I've got one more confession to make. You're reading this right now thanks to another Honda Accord—specifically, my parents' 2016 Sport that I reviewed for one of my writing samples when I applied to write for this site a few years ago. My editors never published that one thankfully, but somehow it's now become my job to tell a bunch of people what it's like to live with that car's successor at a time when a lot of buyers are wondering what sedans still have to offer.
Thankfully, just like the Accord that came before it (and the Accord that came before that), the 2020 Honda Accord Touring 2.0T is a super solid mid-size family sedan. It looks alright, is extremely well-made, comfortable to drive and ride in and quite well-appointed in this top Touring trim. It's also a decently enjoyable tool as a driving machine as well.
What's really heartening to see is that there's still this accessible ease to its spirit. Rarer every day, it's the kind of family car where a bit of playfulness is baked into the DNA rather than tacked on with re-engineered performance editions, the kind that gives you a glimpse of how engaging driving can be. I mean, who knows? If there are any licensed teenagers in the family, it might just be good enough to put them on the path to becoming a bonafide auto journalist. Because writing about cars on the internet is precisely the upstanding, well-paying, respectable career every parent wishes for their kids... right?
A new outbreak of COVID-19 at San Francisco's Laguna Honda Hospital — the first since a small outbreak was quickly contained in the spring and became a model for other long-term care facilities dealing with the pandemic — has infected more than 50 staff members and residents, and continues to grow.
The outbreak began earlier this month and it comes just as the city-owned facility was preparing to begin vaccinating residents and staff next week. As the Chronicle reports, 10 new cases have been reported at Laguna Honda in the last two days, and the outbreak appears significant. Three elderly residents of the facility, all men over the age of 75 who resided in a memory-care unit, have died in the outbreak. One died on December 11, another on December 22, and the third on Tuesday, December 29.
To date, Laguna Honda Hospital — a large long-term care facility for the elderly and infirm with over 700 beds — has had 163 cases of COVID-19. 122 of those have been among staff members, and 41 among residents.
The hospital, which had already closed to visitors in early March, had to lock down further a few weeks later when five staff members turned up COVID-positive. That outbreak was quickly contained, but it led to a citywide policy instituted in May in which all residents and staff at nursing homes were being tested every two weeks.
Per the Chronicle, that testing has not always been consistent as cases surged, staff members likely brought the virus back into the facility in November. Now, residents and staff are being tested twice a week at Laguna Honda, in an effort to contain the current outbreak.
There was another outbreak at the facility in July in which 25 people were infected, but until this month there had been no COVID-related deaths.
Early on, Laguna Honda staff had identified the memory-care unit, housed on what's called the North Mezzanine, as a potential site for an outbreak. Several factors contributed to this, including the fact that residents — who often are not lucid — have trouble keeping masks on or keeping distant from one another.
"The first resident death was very emotional," said Nawzaneen Talai, chief quality officer for the hospital, speaking to the Chronicle. "There was this moment of defeat, when really it’s not. The staff has done an incredible job. There’s a reason we were so vigilant about this particular unit — this outcome was always highly plausible."
Talai says that what's happening at Laguna Honda is a reflection of the larger surge in cases in the city. "Just as this surge has been tremendous in the community, it’s hit us hard too," she tells the Chronicle.
In partnership with Walgreens, the hospital will begin vaccinating residents and staff on Monday, and expects to have 80% of residents inoculated with the first shot within two days.
MOSCOW – Honda’s Russian subsidiary said it would stop supplying new cars to official dealers in Russia in 2022 as part of the company's efforts to restructure its operations.
The company said Wednesday that it would keep its presence on the Russian market with motorcycle and power equipment sales, and retain its activities related to the after-sales service of its vehicles.
Honda, which has no plants in Russia, unlike other Japanese automakers such as Toyota and Nissan, sold 79 vehicles in Russia last month, a 50 percent drop from a year earlier, according to the Association of European Businesses.
Its sales from January to November were down 15 percent to 1,383 vehicles.
THE 1980s were, by any measure, an eclectic musical decade. It was a time for kohl-eyed kids to strike poses to electro-pop and for the mullet-haired to raise a clenched fist while listening to glam metal. It was a fine time, too, for flat-topped soul boys and for New Romantic preeners. For the rest, there was a clan of pop royalty to align with, whether George Michael, Michael Jackson or Madonna. Yet, as different as those styles were, they somehow all shared an unmistakable 80s sound. That is down to the influence of a single instrument: the Yamaha DX7 synthesiser.
The DX7 can lay claim to being one of the most important advances in the history of modern popular music. Perhaps not since Leo Fender attached a pick-up to a six-string in 1949, thus introducing the first mass-market electric guitar, can an instrument claim to have so profoundly altered the soundscape of its time. To get a sense of its impact, consider research from Megan Lavengood, a professor of music theory at George Mason University in Virginia. The DX7 came loaded with dozens of sounds, from strings to brass to woodwind. Yet according to Ms Lavengood, in 1986 just one of those presets—“E PIANO 1”—can be heard on around 40% of the singles that made it to number one on America’s Billboard charts. (It is the bell-like piano heard on, for example, George Michael’s “Careless Whisper” and Whitney Houston’s “Greatest Love of All”.) During the same year, calculates Ms Lavengood, 40% of country-music number ones also featured E PIANO 1. So did 61% of R’n’B hits.
Grasping why the DX7 became so dominant means understanding what went before it. The analogue synths from the 1970s—like the Moogs beloved by prog-rock bands such as Yes or Emerson, Lake and Palmer—were fantastically expensive and came with a circuit board the size of a kitchen dresser. That made them accessible only to wealthy rock stars with a retinue of roadies. Using them required deep technical know-how. Their timbres were created “subtractively”—by filtering out frequencies from a base sound, like a sculptor chiselling a block of marble. Keyboardists needed to understand how to adjust oscillators, amplifiers and modulators by twisting knobs, sliding faders and connecting cables. Even then, they were often monophonic, capable of producing only one note at a time.
By the late 1970s, the first digital keyboards started to come onto the market. These were less clunky and could play sampled sounds yet they lacked the processing power to make them particularly useful. They also cost a packet. The Fairlight CMI, released in 1979, was priced at $25,000—or, adjusted for inflation, roughly $88,000 today.
The DX7 changed the proposition. Its story can be dated to 1967 and a professor at Stanford called John Chowning. That year Mr Chowning discovered how to synthesise sounds using frequency modulation, or FM. (In essence using one signal to modulate the pitch of another, thus producing a new sound frequency.) He hawked his new algorithm around some of the most famous makers of electronic musical instruments of the time, including Hammond and Wurltitzer. All turned him down. Then in 1973 he showed it to Yamaha. The Japanese conglomerate was already one of the world’s leading musical-instrument makers but, crucially, it was also stuffed full of engineers and had an appetite for disruption. It licensed the technology and set about turning the lofty synthesiser into a humble consumer product.
In 1983 it released the DX7. With it, Yamaha had discovered a “magic potion”, says Mark Vail, a synthesiser historian. The combination of digital FM technology and Yamaha’s expertise resulted in an instrument that was small and easy to use, and came jam full of exciting sounds. Perhaps most important, it was also cheap. At $1,995 it held its own against keyboards six times the price. During the four years it was manufactured it sold around 150,000 units—easily outstripping its competitors. No one, not even Yamaha itself, had any idea the synthesiser market was that big, one of the firm’s sound technicians later recalled.
By the mid-1980s it had become all but ubiquitous. It was the sound of stadium rockers and of small bands playing in the backroom of their local pub. It gave feeling to film scores and TV themes, among them “Top Gun” and “Miami Vice”. Earnest music-tech geeks, such as Brian Eno, became obsessed with its possibilities. A cottage industry sprung up of programmers producing patches—brand new sounds that could be added to the keyboard’s repertoire.
Its success was helped by serendipitous timing. The year the DX7 hit the market, a musical technology called MIDI was also released. Musical Instrument Digital Interface, to give the software its full name, remains to this day an essential piece of kit in any studio. It allows synthesisers to talk to computers and other bits of hardware. For example, parts played on keyboards that run the technology can be edited on a computer screen. Notes can be moved around and their timbre changed. Sequences also can be synced with a drum machine or with other electronic instruments. Being one of the cheapest MIDI-compatible keyboards available, the DX7 became indispensable. The most lavish recording suites were naked without it. Aspiring musicians would build studios in their bedroom, using cheap, basic kit, with the DX7 their cornerstone.
For all that, the DX7 had its limitations. Its strings sound held little warmth, its bass sounds lacked a certain fatness (listen, for example, to Rick Astley’s “Never Gonna Give You Up”). And by the end of the decade, its distinct tone had become its undoing; it was considered just too 1980s. “Synths tend to have a decade-long cycle,” explains Nate Mars, a music producer and technologist. “After ten years everyone just wanted a fresh sound.”
Yet, to many people’s surprise, its fall from fashion proved short-lived. Even as the 1990s brought their own style, the DX7’s influence could still be heard in the house-music tracks that were filling urban dancefloors. U2 and Coldplay used it from time to time (perhaps at the behest of Mr Eno, who produced some of their songs). Today the sound of the 80s has become chic again and there have been attempts to recreate the keyboard virtually. Arturia, a music-technology firm, recently released a computer programme called DX7 V (the “V” is for virtual). Bands such as Morcheeba and trendy producers including Metrik are fans.
And therein lies the DX7’s enduring success. It is a keyboard that sounded like the future even as it was approximating the instruments of the past. In doing so, it defined a decade. As Mr Mars says: “Its sound has always been now-future-retro, all at the same time.”
In the first year of the team’s tie-up with Red Bull, Mugen pair Sasahara and Hideki Mutoh ended up 12th out of 15 GT500 crews in the standings, six points shy of the next-worst Honda NSX-GT pairing, Nakajima Racing’s Takuya Izawa and Hiroki Otsu.
However, a third place in the first Motegi race in September and two other top-six finishes left Sasahara and Mutoh well ahead of the other two Yokohama-shod cars in the top class, the Bandoh Toyota GR Supra and the Kondo Racing Nissan GT-R.
GT500 rookie Sasahara said Mugen ending up as the best Yokohama runner was a strong achievement for a team that had finished bottom of the rankings in two of the previous three seasons, but said the tyre’s limitations placed a ceiling on what it could achieve.
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“I knew that Mugen was often last in the championship since they came back to SUPER GT [in 2017], so we should be proud to be the best Yokohama car, and because we got a podium,” Sasahara told Motorsport.com. “But it’s disappointing we couldn’t show more.
“The tyre is a difficult factor. Even now Dunlop is mega on a single lap, which is impressive because they were slower [than Yokohama] at the beginning of the year and now they are sometimes stronger than Bridgestone. We need to work on one-lap pace.
“I know the cold track is a weakness for Yokohama so we need to work on that, also the peak performance. Then we can see what we can do for the long distance.”
Sasahara said a second podium finish would have been possible in the second Motegi race had he and Mutoh not just been caught out by the timing of the safety car, which gave fellow Honda teams ARTA and Nakajima Racing a major advantage over the field.
“We went from P11 to P4 with the strategy, but we were also unlucky because we were supposed to stop before the safety car like cars #8 and #64,” he said. “If we had stopped at that point, we could have finished P2, because the Dunlop car was really slow. But we couldn’t because the pitlane closed, so that was unfortunate.”
Single-seater specialist Sasahara, who also represented Mugen in Super Formula this year, added he was satisfied with his first year in SUPER GT.
“It’s my rookie season, so I should be proud of myself to get a podium, and also all year I was doing Q1,” he said. ”I made it to Q2 five times [out of eight], which is good for our package.
“That showed the team’s performance and I think I [personally] showed something.”
#16 Team Mugen Honda NSX-GT: Hideki Mutoh, Ukyo Sasahara
Three Laguna Honda residents have died of COVID-19 this month as the San Francisco skilled nursing facility, the largest in the state, faces its first deadly outbreak of the pandemic.
The city has been praised for months for keeping the virus largely at bay at Laguna Honda and preventing deaths among its 715 vulnerable residents. The new outbreak, which has led to more than 50 cases among staff and residents this month, unfolded with heartbreaking timing: Laguna Honda starts vaccinating residents next week.
“It would have been ideal if we’d been able to vaccinate a month ago, but the vaccines weren’t approved then,” said Michelle Fouts, director of pharmacy at Laguna Honda. “We can’t get it done soon enough at this point.”
Since the start of the pandemic, Laguna Honda has had 163 coronavirus cases: 122 staff and 41 residents. But nearly a third of all cases have been in December. And the current outbreak is still growing, with 10 new cases reported in the past 48 hours.
The three deaths were among residents in a memory care unit. They were all men age 75 and older.
Laguna Honda, which is run by the San Francisco Department of Public Health, was recognized early in the pandemic as particularly at risk of life-threatening outbreaks if the virus got a foothold in the facility. It’s home to hundreds of frail and elderly San Franciscans, some of whom have lived there for years.
A concerted effort by local public health authorities, along with on-site guidance from experts with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, largely held off the virus. There were some outbreaks, the worst in July when 25 staff and residents were infected, but they were quickly corralled and no one died. Policies put in place at Laguna Honda helped guide preventive efforts at nursing homes across the state, San Francisco officials said.
In fact, that the facility had never experienced a large outbreak or resident deaths often was cited as one explanation for San Francisco’s remarkably low fatality rates overall. Nursing home residents have made up distressingly high proportions of COVID-19 deaths in the United States, by some counts as many as 40% nationwide. Until this month, no one had died at Laguna Honda.
But the fall and winter surge that swept across the state led to increased coronavirus cases among Laguna Honda workers, followed by associated clusters among other staff and residents.
“The month of December has been one of the most challenging months throughout this pandemic response,” said Nawzaneen Talai, chief quality officer for Laguna Honda. “We mirror what happens in the community. Just as this surge has been tremendous in the community, it’s hit us hard too.”
Outbreaks at nursing homes almost always start when an infected staff member, who usually does not have symptoms, unknowingly carries the virus into the facility and passes it to co-workers and residents. Early in the pandemic, nursing homes were instructed to conduct frequent testing of staff members to prevent those outbreaks, but with the virus so widespread it’s been a challenge for many places to keep up.
At Laguna Honda, in response to the current spike in cases, officials have increased testing — from once a week for all staff who interact with residents to twice a week. Also, all staff are required to wear N95 masks and face shields instead of simple surgical masks. Visitations from friends and family of the residents were stopped about a month ago to further prevent new cases.
The memory care unit that housed the three residents who died was identified early on as especially vulnerable to outbreaks, Talai said. The North Mezzanine, as it’s known, is a secure unit because residents suffer severe cognitive issues and are prone to wandering off. They also have trouble wearing face coverings and avoiding contact with others.
The first resident died Dec. 11, the second Dec. 22, and the third on Tuesday. The hospital sent letters to staff and residents and their families informing them of each death.
“The first resident death was very emotional,” Talai said. “There was this moment of defeat, when really it’s not. The staff has done an incredible job. There’s a reason we were so vigilant about this particular unit — this outcome was always highly plausible.”
That these deaths occurred just as Laguna Honda starts vaccinating staff and residents is tragic, hospital officials said. More than 900 staff members have been vaccinated over the past two weeks. Residents will begin getting vaccinated on Monday; hospital officials expect to give a first dose to about 80% of them over two days.
But the unfortunate timing is a sober reminder that the pandemic will rage on even as more people are immunized, and that containment policies are as important now as ever, hospital officials said.
“It’s not ideal to be vaccinating in the midst of such a big surge,” Fouts said. “But it also re-emphasizes just how important this vaccination campaign is.”
Honda has developed a new “mask” for air filters that it’s likening to a facemask for your car. The Kurumask, or car mask, will apparently filter out 99.8% of airborne viruses in 15 minutes.
Unfortunately, there is no real established method for determining how effective the mask is against COVID-19, but, like washing your hands, it likely isn’t a bad idea anyway.
In testing paid for by Honda, which measured the presence of E.coli phage molecules, the Kurumask-fitted air filter removed 99.8% of virus droplets circulating in the air in 15 minutes, and 99.9% of them in 24 hours. For the test, the filter holder of an N-Box microcar, operated on air-circulation mode as less air is brought in from outside.
“We want to make drivers feel safe and comfortable even when they keep their car windows closed in cold weather,” said Takaharu Echigo, who was in charge of the filter’s development.
The Kurumask really does act as a mask in that it can simply be fitted onto the cabin filter and, according to Honda, it’s effective for about a year. It works by using microscopic spikes on its surface to catch and damage viruses passing through it. The team behind it were inspired by academic research that found that dragonflies use similar spikes to keep their wings clean.
Honda says it’s partnering with a team of engineers who are developing a car to transport COVID-19 patients. The idea behind the partnership is to provide a safer environment for the drivers.
The Kurumask debuted on the N-Box, the latest version of which went on sale on December 25, and Honda plans to make it available on other models as well.
Former Japan midfielder Keisuke Honda apologised for a disappointing spell at Brazil's Botafogo as he bowed out ahead of a reported move to Europe.
Honda, 34, said he accepted fans' criticism after scoring only three goals in 27 matches during a coronavirus-disrupted year.
"Criticism is natural and I am not making excuses, I am disappointed as well, I am so sorry," he tweeted in Portuguese.
Reports in Portugal have said that Honda, a former AC Milan and CSKA Moscow player and a one-time mainstay of Japan's national team, will join Portuguese outfit Portimonense in January.
Honda was welcomed by thousands of fans when he arrived in Brazil on February 7. But Botafogo have struggled this season and they are currently second from bottom in the Serie A table.
Honda is among the most successful Japanese footballers. He scored 37 goals, including four at World Cups, in 98 appearances for the national team.
They're two of the best-known Japanese manufacturers around, but who makes the better sports cars? Honda can claim to have made cars that were decades ahead of their time, always focusing on the highest level of build quality and precision. And thanks to technologies such as VTEC engines, Honda's high-revving sports cars are built to provide drivers with maximum fun and still be relied upon year after year.
But Honda is not the only Japanese brand famous for its cool engines, and Mazda's rotary engines have been favorites among classic JDM enthusiasts for decades, providing a unique sound and experience unmatched by other powertrains. They don't stop there though, claiming several best-selling mass-market sports cars too. So who comes out on top? To decide, let's take a look at 5 of Honda's and 5 of Mazda's greatest sports cars.
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10 Honda Integra Type R
Via Evo
It's a nineties classic, sporting a 189hp VTEC engine that red-lined at an almighty 8,700rpm. The Honda Integra Type R saw the brand in top form, taking the standard Integra and meticulously improving almost every aspect of the car.
Via Garage Dreams
The Type R's aero kit was fully functional, unlike many modern hot hatches. The rear spoiler increased downforce by nearly a third, and extra bracing kept the car feeling sharp through corners. It's a true enthusiast's car, and low-mileage examples can go for well over their MSRP at auction today.
9 Mazda RX-8
Via Top Speed
It didn't quite have the legendary status of its predecessor, the RX-7, but the RX-8 still amassed plenty of fans during its nine-year production run. It was the last car to be sold with a rotary engine before emissions regulations caused its demise.
Via Motor Authority
The car has several strange quirks, including asymmetric suicide rear doors and plastic bumpers to save weight. It also has a reputation as being a bit of a nightmare to maintain, but it's more than worth it for rotary fanatics to say they own the last of Mazda's famous engines.
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8 Honda S2000
Via CAR Magazine
The S2000 has all the right ingredients for a classic sports car recipe: 2.0L engine with 237hp, a six-speed manual transmission, and only 2,800-lb curb weight. It's no surprise, then, that it's a very desirable car among Honda fans today.
It wasn't the fastest car off the line, with an official 0-60 time of 6.2 seconds. Most owners say the real joy of the S2000 isn't pure speed though, and instead, it's its high-revving engine and connected driving experience that really make this car stand out.
7 Mazda 787B
Via Autoevolution
Mazda's 787B was a Group C race car built for use in the World Sports Car Championship and the 24 Hours of Le Mans. The car enjoyed considerable success at those events, winning Le Mans in 1991. This was thanks to its insane rotary engine, the R26B.
Via Autoforum CZ
It's one of the most powerful rotaries ever built, with a claimed maximum output of 930hp, although it was tuned to 700hp for races. It's also arguably one of the best sounding race cars ever, with an unmistakable yowl that anyone who's ever seen this car race live will attest to.
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6 Honda S600
Via BH Auction
Honda's first mass-market sports car, the S600 was only manufactured for three short years from 1964 to 1966. It only had a tiny Kei-sized 0.6L engine, capable of churning out 57hp and giving this little coupe a top speed of 90mph.
Via BH Auction
Nevertheless the S600 was fairly popular, selling 13,000 units during its production run. It's a revered classic today thanks to its status as such a critical model in Honda's history, but examples are still fairly cheap to buy. Recent low-mileage examples have been sold for around $34,000.
5 Mazda MX-5 Miata
Via Motor1
The Miata, or MX-5 as it's called in non-American markets, is one of the most popular affordable sports cars ever released. It's a winning combination of fun handling, a low price tag and a whole host of aftermarket parts so owners can build their Miata to their individual tastes.
Via Drive Break Fix Repeat
Sure, they're not the most powerful cars straight from the factory, but that's not the point. Mazda designed this car for fun at road-legal speeds, and they absolutely hit the nail on the head. It's one of the all-round greatest sports cars around right now.
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4 Honda Civic Type R
Via Auto Express
Every generation of Honda's Civic Type R has been more impressive than the last, and the latest iteration offers both an impressive spec sheet and a thoroughly enjoyable drive. It takes the brand's best-selling hatchback and cranks it up to 11, delivering 315hp and a top speed of 169mph.
As well as its beefy engine, there's a whole host of other great features that come with the car, including Honda's data-tracking app called LogR™ and figure-hugging embossed race seats. Not to mention three exhausts, which is strange but cool.
3 Mazda Cosmo
Via Classic Motorsports Magazine
Mazda's first commercial rotary engine was launched in the Cosmo sports car, one of the factors that led to its sales success and revered legacy. The name was chosen to reflect Mazda's assertion of the rotary as futuristic, as the most futuristic thing on everyone's minds at the time was the Space Race.
Via Pistonheads
Built at the brand's Hiroshima plant, the Cosmo boasted 110-130hp and either a four- or five-speed manual. That was enough to make it genuinely quick for its day, and it was an affordable option compared to rivals like the Toyota 200GT.
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2 Honda NSX
Via CAR Magazine
It's a car that's only just beginning to receive the attention it deserves, and that means prices for NSXs are steadily increasing. The car was a showcase for Honda to display their engineering prowess to the world, and as such it featured a host of features that were ahead of its time.
Via CAR Magazine
The NSX was the first production car to sport an aluminium semi-monocoque chassis, which saved around 440lb over using the industry standard steel. A full electric power system and an early VTEC system also helped make the car into a true futuristic machine.
1 Mazda RX-7
Via Carscoops
It's probably the best known Mazda out there, featuring in everything from blockbuster movies to drift championships. The reason the RX-7 is so versatile is its well-balanced setup, with enough room for tuners to really crank up those horsepower numbers.
Via Carscoops
The RX-7 also featured some unusual design choices, including sequential turbos that were designed to give the car a more consistent level of power across RPM. It's certainly a car no-one will forget in a hurry, and with prices for stock RX-7s shooting through the roof, it's unlikely most car fans will get to own one in a hurry either.
Mark Cowley covers a variety of topics for HotCars, from the latest pickup trucks to obscure Japanese sedans. A regular fixture at car shows around the UK and Europe, if there's a weird model or obscure manufacturer, Mark probably knows about it. Having previously worked as a radio presenter, he knows a thing or two about Top 10 lists, and enjoys writing them as much as presenting them. He is a graduate of the University of Sheffield's English department and is currently based out of Birmingham, UK.
