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I caught a segment on the Nissan GTR the other night. Very cool car. I couldn't help to think about whether the engineers at Honda will attempt to respond to Nissan with a new car or not.  I don't claim to be an expert, but my feeling is Honda will not....as a company I think they are really moving into Eco-friendly direction.

Folks have talked about why Honda did not put the K24 block/K20 head into production.  They could have made a car with over 300hp from the factory but did not.

What do you think? Will Honda produce a GTR killer in the next 5 years?

(http://www.carzi.com/wp-content/uploads/nissan-gtr-garage-defend.jpg)

I say no. Even the NSX was never really meant to fly with the supercars, but it did. Honda won't make anything to compete in the power/ torque/ or sheer speed the GTR puts out. Its not really their game.

No, the GTR has had majorly disappointing sales, it is only selling about 1/2 the units that Nissan expected, with the economy still down I would not expect to see anything performance from Honda until things come back around.

Probably not.  The S2000 C/R is going to be Honda's flagship sports car from my perspective.

As of now the S2000 CR is the flagship until the end of this year. Then the S2000 will sease to exist. Honda has stopped production of the S2000, and Only Honda knows if they will make a next generation S2000 or come up with another car to take its place. No one is really making the effort to make a car that will compete with the R35 GT-R. Mazda has even put a halt on the next generation RX-7.

So what about the NSX replacement that Honda was working on? I know they were testing a protype at the nurburgring. Even though a prototype is just a prototype, but I hope it wasn't a bunch of protoHYPE.

That project got killed for now....

This was killed for now?
(http://autoworld.files.wordpress.com/2008/06/honda-nsx-prototype-spy-img_2.jpg)

That was the word from Honda, the $100K NSX replacement got shelved....

It makes sense. Like you had said earlier Paul, the worldwide economy is shit right now. Gas is expensive and its never going to drop again. Its just going to go up. The GTR is a sick car, but it was a bad move by Nissan to release it at this time as well as release it with an 80K price tag. All the people that would've bought it and know its heritage (ie. us and every other tuner out there), don't exactly have that kind of coin lying around.

I disagree Nissan had to release this car when they did. You have to think that a car like this takes alot of time and money in research and developement. All of that money was already spent before the economy took a shit. If the investment is already made I think it is nearly impossiable for a company to not try and move forward, and get some type of return on the money that they spent. If honda didn't bother to respond to the EVO, and STI why would they respond to the GTR.

YES! someone caught it. that is honda's new s2000. i think it will be coming out 2010 or 2011. but the nsx did get cancelled.

when i worked at the honda alliston manufacturing plant here in ontario. i did learn that in comparison to other manufactures Honda is a very small company. believe it or not. i mean look at Toyota, they got three brands (toyota, lexus, and scion) plus all of the commercial vehicles and forklifts. look at nissan they got a car to compare with anyone. toyota = avalon, nissan = maxima, honda = ?. even mitsubishi makes power equipment and commercial trucks. its a shame but thats why honda has to discontinue vehicles from time to time to give us something new. sometimes its a good thing tho. for example, the TSX was the replacement for the prelude. and the rdx was the replacement for the RSX.

EDIT: that is the new NSX!!! i just googled it and found this!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XpMAfsSk7jM&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uR2rbjo1raY&feature=related

Good point Mike. Unfortunately, Nissan is never going to recoup the initial investment with all the R&D they did for this monster of a car. That's business for you.


Perfect statement right there.

I don't know about not recoupeing the investment. This car isn't selling well in the US but, I don't know the sales numbers in the other parts of the world.

but i wish they would

You gotta think though. The rest of the world is almost in the same slump as we are. The world economy is down. And I'm with you as far as not knowing Nissan's sales worldwide, but one can venture to guess they're doing about the same as here.

true but i love hondas and wish there was something that could compete. i know i would do everything i could to afford one.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I must disagree. The TSX filled the void that the 4 door Integra left when it was discontinued. The RSX replaced the integra and nothing replaced the RSX cause Honda has the civic SI's which, I may be wrong, successfully took over the RSX sales.

Dude, whatever you're smoking, I want some of that shit!!  You've obviously been getting the good stuff.

Sure, Honda doesn't offer a "full size" sedan under the "Honda" brand, but the Accord is the closest to that.  There's also the RL, which I would put in the same class as the Avalon and Maxima.  I just don't understand how you could think that the TSX is a replacement for the Prelude and the RDX is a replacement for the RSX.  How can you compare a mid sized sedan with a 2 door coupe and then compare a small SUV to a coupe?  I just don't understand your thinking there.  A better comparrison would be how the RSX replaced the Integra.

I have drivien a maxima, and I would put it in the catagory with the accord. The G35 sedan is closer to the avalon. I look at the altima as a civic, and the maxima as the accord.

I don't think Honda is that small.  They sell engines, they make marine boat motors, power generators, jet engines, motorcycles, and the Acura brand.

Don't forget about the lawn mowers!!

^Yeah, LOL, I have a Honda lawnmower as well.......

This may sound crazy, but Hyundai may be the biggest company of them all when you consider their whole portfolio of business ventures.

Them and Mitsu are probably the biggest total entities.....

I know it can't be put in the same class but, is the Hyundai genesis sort of an answer to the GTR? RWD with decent power.

^Not even close mike.

I know its not even close lol! I was just wondeing if that is what they were after.

About the "large sedan", I believe the 8th gen sedan moved to a large car with the generation jump. I think they should move the S2000 under acura build a bad ass v6, similar to what Nissan built, and stick it in there. That would be amazing!

The 8th Gen Accord is kinda fat and chunky.  I'll give you that.

^Yeah, at close to 3800lbs, she ain't petite that's for damn sure......

3800lbs! holy cow...thats like 700lbs more than our 7th gens.

Yup.  Fat and ugly.  8th Gens were a huge mistake.  They took the Accord and fucked it up.

Wow, 800lbs? When I looked up the specs I thought it was closer to around 300lbs... but even still, that's a lot! It's a shame that they didn't even bump the HP up a little. Actually, I think they did with the EX/EXL version. It's probably still not enough, lol.

Yeah, they bumped the V6 to a under run 3.5L, but that car is way to heavy for a I4, I would not want to have to pull into fast traffic with one.....

In my opinion, Honda usually messes up every other generation. The 5th Gen's rocked, 6th Gen's sucked (except the coupe), 7th Gen's rule and the 8th gen's should be at the bottom of a pool.

Look mom, I rhymed  

Yeah, for the 8th gen I4 to have the same power to weight ratio as our 7th gens it would need to put out around 205hp. I think the EX/EXL makes around 190.