[Juntech]

"Ford is the new Honda."

Inspired from another post...

IMHO, Honda seemed like the cutting edge automaker in the 80's-90's giving the common enthusiast a lot of options for entry priced sporty cars. It seems Ford, as a company, decided to do the same, whether purposely or not. The ST bro's, Mustang, Raptor, SHO(maybe not as much) etc.

Jamal Hameedi may have had a huge hand in this:

The video is really refreshing because the guy talks about making cars that evoke an emotion rather than following what everyone else is doing in the industry. "We want to be leaders, not followers" he says in respect to making cars that aren't appliances like the Toyota Camry. Which has a huge impact on the performance enthusiast community...because most of us can't afford higher end cars like Lambos and Ferraris.

Thoughts? Sorry if the video has been posted before, but the gist of this is that Ford is innovative and ahead of the curve (for performance enthusiasts anyway).

 

[94Gt5.0]

Ford's doing big things as of late, and the only thing I think they could improve is bringing back a flagship car like the GT, although all I'd be able to do is drool and gawk lol. They have a performance vehicle in almost every segment right now, not many can say that..

FiST
FoST
Mustang (2.3T, V6, 5.0, BOSS, GT500 etc)
SHO
Raptor & Tremor (single cab TT ecoboost)

 

[SpaceFish]

Nice post, but why include the Raptor then say maybe not so much for the SHO? The SHO costs less and performs better plus it's, you know, a car.

 

[94Gt5.0]

Nice post, but why include the Raptor then say maybe not so much for the SHO? The SHO costs less and performs better plus it's, you know, a car.

SHO is stout for sure, if I needed a car that big I'd be all over it. 12 second bolt on 4,000+lb luxury car for relatively cheap...yup!

 

[DjDevilCloud]

Can I point out that they just built a Civic Type-R. I think Honda is coming back to the roots as well. Especially with the FiST and FoST getting so much notoriety right now. I see another Prelude/Integra ( RSX-R ) in the future as well. Maybe I am wrong, but from everything I have been seeing, Honda seems to have been doing a lot of R&D the last few years.

 

[Juntech]

Nice post, but why include the Raptor then say maybe not so much for the SHO? The SHO costs less and performs better plus it's, you know, a car.

The SHO doesn't seem much like a driver's car, nor something that's specialized like the Raptor/ Tremor. But i can definitely be wrong. It's still cool though...despite being so darn fatty.

 

[LowFlyin']

Can I point out that they just built a Civic Type-R. I think Honda is coming back to the roots as well. Especially with the FiST and FoST getting so much notoriety right now. I see another Prelude/Integra ( RSX-R ) in the future as well. Maybe I am wrong, but from everything I have been seeing, Honda seems to have been doing a lot of R&D the last few years.

...and the CTR will do absolutely nothing for the North American market. I've played that game with Honda before... The CTR will be a Euro only, Japan only, or Euro/Japan only car.

 

[rodmoe]

...and the CTR will do absolutely nothing for the North American market. I've played that game with Honda before... The CTR will be a Euro only, Japan only, or Euro/Japan only car.

Perhaps in the case of the Civic Type R but it may open the door for Honda to bring a few turbo Cars to the NA market like a Turbo Fit or CRZ though I agree I grew tired of waiting for the Next Integra and moved on..

 

[94Gt5.0]

I really don't foresee Honda pumping out any FI cars, although we all know they respond very well to boost.

 

[DjDevilCloud]

I really don't foresee Honda pumping out any FI cars, although we all know they respond very well to boost.

Well Moe the RSX IS the Integra, it is called the Integra in Japan. (Honda Integra DC5 - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)

As for the CTR not coming to the US, yes so far that is true but Honda has responded very well to the petition.

I believe they will promo it in Euro/Japan then bring a variant here. The new Civic Type R is a turbo VTEC motor and makes 276 (280) hp. So far Honda has promised it will be a game changer.

Honda has been on the lazy couch for the last few years, but I think they are working on it. No, we may still not see these cars for a few years, but hope is on the horizon.

 

[LowFlyin']

I gave up hope and bought a Ferd.

 

[DjDevilCloud]

I hear you, that's why my roommate has the FiST and not a CSi

 

[rodmoe]

Yup I had a stockish RSX and it was a sad day when they quit making that. But that's still 8 yrs since they made a car like that..

 

[adrianST]

Honda Civic Type R faces challenge to beat Seat?s new Nurburgring record, admits exec | CarAdvice

 

[LowFlyin']

20" wheels? On a hot hatch? Pass...

 

[Juntech]

Well Moe the RSX IS the Integra, it is called the Integra in Japan. (Honda Integra DC5 - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)

As for the CTR not coming to the US, yes so far that is true but Honda has responded very well to the petition.

I believe they will promo it in Euro/Japan then bring a variant here. The new Civic Type R is a turbo VTEC motor and makes 276 (280) hp. So far Honda has promised it will be a game changer.

Honda has been on the lazy couch for the last few years, but I think they are working on it. No, we may still not see these cars for a few years, but hope is on the horizon.

I doubt a 280 hp Honda will stay competitive in terms of price here in the states. I'm guesstimating 32K...Sti range

 

[betterthansx]

I really don't foresee Honda pumping out any FI cars, although we all know they respond very well to boost.

Depends really. IF they get off their asses, they have a few cars that are Turbo now. Some of the Acura SUV's are turbo 4's.

I think that Honda is more likely to do that then to develop a whole new engine platform.

 

[MacDubois]

Bah, Honda has been confused and forgotten to make competitive cars for the enthusiasts. The new CTR won't come to the US, we may get some of the engine bits if some engineer can make a case for it. But we'll never see the real thing. And they don't make anything terribly interesting for their home market any more to send here. They went and got boring.

As far as Ford is concerned, they've been building enthusiast cars for years. Although they rarely have the combination of weak market and full lineup that they have now, it's not the first time that they have had such a broad selection of performance vehicles. In 1993 you could've walked into a Ford dealer and purchased a 165hp Probe GT that did 0-60 in 7secs OR a 6.5sec 0-60, 220hp Taurus SHO OR an SVT Lightning OR a Mustang Cobra R OR a Thunderbird SuperCoupe. I'm happy to see people catching on now, but who knows, in 15 years we could be as forgotten as SVT Contours and V8 Taurus SHOs...

 

[betterthansx]

Bah, Honda has been confused and forgotten to make competitive cars for the enthusiasts. The new CTR won't come to the US, we may get some of the engine bits if some engineer can make a case for it. But we'll never see the real thing. And they don't make anything terribly interesting for their home market any more to send here.

It is not the engineers. If you see concept cars that are batshit, that is engineers. The "dumbing down" effect is the bean counters in accounting that ruin it for everyone.

 

[DjDevilCloud]

I'm just going to point out that you went all the way back to 93. The prime year when the Prelude/Integra/Civics started getting very interesting. Shall we forget the NSX, the Legend, the Integra Type-R, the S2000, and the Del Sol? Both companies have had a lack of vehicles for the last 10 years. The fact that they brought a Civic R Turbo out at all means something. Why do you have to bash that we aren't getting it? The thread says Ford is the new Honda and we do have international people here. I would say it seems like Ford was the first to get their ass in line. The fact the vehicle exists is pretty amazing. Even if you don't like the motor/company/whatever. The fact that Honda finally decided to make a real turbo VTEC with nice output is exciting for all people that have enjoyed previous Honda cars, even if the car never comes to the US. I doubt Honda will forget the American market. I do believe we will get a tweaked version.