Selected Honda PR photos for the 2013 Tokyo Auto Salon

Overview of Honda Exhibit at TOKYO AUTO SALON 2013 with NAPAC

 

TOKYO, Japan, December 26, 2012 - Honda Motor Co., Ltd. today announced it
will participate in TOKYO AUTO SALON 2013 with NAPAC*1, which will be
held from Friday, January 11 to Sunday, January 13, 2013, at Makuhari Messe in
Chiba Prefecture, Japan. Featuring production and exhibition models of
automobiles, motorcycles presenting a variety of exciting approaches to
customization, power

A few photos from the Sepang 1000km endurance race

INTERVIEW WITH DRIVERS AND TEAM DIRECTOR AFTER THE RACE

Tengku Ezan Ley, driver of Car 26

It
was a challenging race as it was really hot during the day and we had
some issues with the brakes that slowed us down a bit. All in all, we
did make a slight mistake towards the end which costed us a bit of time,
had some body damage (to the rear end of the car) and we dropped from
fourth (place) to finish at fifth place. However, we managed to maintain

HONDA MALAYSIA RACING TEAM (HMRT) LIVES THE CHALLENGING SPIRIT IN THE 2012 SEPANG 1000KM

After a brief period of inactivity due to some unforeseen circumstances, we are please to resume our regular updates. Following is the official press release from Honda Malaysia on their recently successful debut of the Honda Jazz in the local 1000km endurance race at the Sepang circuit earlier this month.






Petaling Jaya, 10 December 2012 – The Honda Malaysia Racing Team (HMRT) once again

HMRT Jazz for the Sepang 1000km endurance

Honda Malaysia Racing Team, lead by Honda Malaysia's CEO Ueno-san and team director Akkbar will be racing their newly prepared Honda Jazz in the annual Sepang 1000km endurance race at the Sepang circuit tomorrow. The team has prepared a video and uploaded it into youtube which is embedded above. This is the car that I featured some 'scoop' info on in my TOVA facebook (www.facebook.com/TOVAsia

Photos of US early-MMC Civic INTERIOR

In the U.S., the 9Gen Civic had a stormy introduction. While it managed to achieve best seller in its class, its interior, especially in the base models, had been criticized by many quarters, with the enthusiasts and Honda fans/owners being some of the loudest. While some have tried to defend the Civic, often by using the fact that it is a best-seller, the fact that AHM will launch an MMC for

Honda Malaysia to establish R&Development center

Honda Malaysia will set up an R&D center in Malaysia to do development for new models for the local market. This center will be the fourth in the Asia region after HRT in Thailand. The center will be located in Pegoh industrial area of Melaka together with the assembly plant there. 




All these while, Honda Malaysia had to depend on HRT for any special requirements for models. In numerous

'Why Proton ?'

This was the question I had for Honda Malaysia in an informal chit chat recently. The announcement of the Honda-Proton 'collaboration' recently had caused a lot of talk and debate in the Honda enthusiast circle. The main question was why of all partners, Honda chose Proton.



In the first place, I was told that what was announced, as far as Honda's side is concerned, is an agreement to do a

Automotive Industry Timeline for Malaysia

Malaysian automotive stalwart Nick Gomez has published a "Malaysian Automotive Industry Timeline" on his facebook. This article looks at the evolution of the automobile industry in Malaysia, starting from 1926 when the Ford Motor company first set up office in Singapore to supply Malaysia as well. This quickly evolved into the vibrant automotive industry of both countries today. Nick's work can

9Gen Civic MMC now available in US dealer's websites

The early MMC for the 9Gen Civic, known in the U.S. as the '2013 Civic' is almost on us. On some dealer's websites in the U.S., one can already 'build' (i.e. select options) the car one is interested in buying. And the '2013 Civic' is now already available for building. This also gives us an early 'sneak peek' at the new 2013 Civic, eventhough in CG form only. The photos below are captured by

TOV is back online

Just in case any readers are not aware, Temple of VTEC is now back up online. All our resources including the forum is now available. The cause of the outage was due to a hard-disk problem and which has now been replaced. We thank you for your kind patience and support.

Temporary outage of TOV

Regular readers will know by now that our main Temple of VTEC site has been down for the better part of the day. This is due to a hard-disk problem. The problem has been resolved and we are now going to restore the server. TOV will be back up again very soon. This outage did not affect Temple of VTEC Asia or TOVA. We thank our readers for your patience and support.

Civic finished WTCC debut season with a podium !

Today saw the final rounds of the 2012 World
Touring Car Championship (WTCC), taking place on the Guia Circuit in downtown
Macau. The mission for Honda Racing Team JAS was to bring the Civic WTCC's great
performance from qualifying into race day. And despite the cloudy sky, the omens
looked good from the early morning warm up session, with the Civic WTCC setting
the second fastest

Happy Birthday Honda-san

 



Today (November 17th) is the birthdate of Soichiro Honda, the grand 'Old Man' of Honda. Honda fans around the world, join us in acknowledging the great man whose dreams were directly responsible for all the great Hondas in the past, and hopefully all the great Hondas to come in the future.

Apologies for the inactivity

I apologize for the lack of updates over the past week and a half due to some internal issues. I am happy to report that I am now back in action and will resume posting regular Honda news of special interest to Honda fans.

Spy Photos of the USDM MMC 9Gen Civic

Spy photos of the MMC 9Gen Civic, for the USDM, is already surfacing around the internet. At the moment, Motor Trend is carrying photos of the MMC Civic, to be launched at the end of this month. The links to the Motor Trend website is below.



http://wot.motortrend.com/spied-2013-honda-civic-revealed-with-accord-like-front-styling-285789.html



One TOV forumer took two Motor Trend photos and

Launch date of CR-Z MMC for ASEAN

With the recent launch of the MMC for the CR-Z, especially a more powerful 135-136ps engine, the most asked question now will have to be when it will make its debut here in Asia. My current understanding is that this MMC CR-Z will start showing up early next year, i.e. around the 1st quarter of 2013. Honda has already announced an 'around February' date for Indonesia and the rest of ASEAN date

Honda to collaborate with Proton in Malaysia

In a news that quite shocked long time Honda fans, Proton announced today that they have signed a partnership with Honda to jointly develop cars for the Malaysian market. Leaving aside the general sentiments, what I believe is happening is that both parties saw in each other the means to achieve their own objectives. 



Firstly, in his mid-year speech last month, Honda CEO Ito-san has announced

New Honda Brio sedan

Honda has put up a teaser page for a 'new sedan' in their HAT, Honda Automobile Thailand, website. This new sedan is recognizable as being based on the new mini-car 'Brio'. 

The only info so far for this new sedan is that it will be using a 1.2l engine, probably based on the LSeries. To watch the teaser video click the following link http://www.honda.co.th/new-sedan/. 

This follows the

New Gen2 NSX to debut at the 2014 NAIAS ?

The U.K. publication has published yet another 'scoop', this time about the new Gen2 NSX that is scheduled to be launched in 3 years time. 

According to Auto-Express, during their attendance and coverage of the recent  Sao Paulo (Brazil) Motor Show, they were told that the new NSX will debut in a few months time in January 2013 at the Detroit Motor Show (also called the North American

USDM 'revised' 9Gen Civic out on Nov 29th !!!

TOV has learned that the 'revised' or shall we say 'early MMC' for the 9Gen Civic for the U.S. market is scheduled to be released on the 29th of  next month (November). Word is there will be no mechanical or specification changes to the car but there will be significant changes or what is described/hoped to be improvements to the exterior and interior. There is even speculation that some of the

High-Res Photos of WTCC Civic

We offer you two high resolution photos of the new WTCC 1.6l Turbocharged Honda Civic. They are provided by Honda of Europe's media service. These photos are in their original sizes and only differs in the small TOVA watermark added.

Civic WTCC finishes its first race

Also on display at the Paris Motor Show is the EV-STER EV convertible that Honda showed at the last Tokyo Motor Show. This time Honda provided a little bit of specification; battery max power 58kW or 79ps, top speed (160kph or 100mph), charging time,

Official launch : Euro Civic 1.6l turbo diesel