Colt: Two Ways to Skin a Horse
Mitsubishi may be bleeding from the neck in the States, but in Europe they're looking forward to a deeper, more meaningful relationship with Daimler Chrysler's Smart brand. The Colt pictured here is in fact a new vehicle from the Mitsu-engineered platform that's also going to be sold as the new Smart for four on the Continent. Space is everything here-the Colt's said to be the widest vehicle in its class, with the longest interior space as well. The interior gets split-fold rear seats that can slide, flip, fold or be completely removed; the front passenger seat also folds flat down for loading of long cargo like surfboards. Engines range from a 1.1-liter, 75-hp gas four-cylinder to a 95-hp, 1.5-liter diesel three; a five-speed manual gearbox and a six-speed automatic are available with either engine. Standard anti-lock control for the brakes and optional stability control and side airbags round out the safety features. Sized for European roads, the tall five-door hatchback is due to go on sale in Europe this May for a price of about $13,000.
Colt number two-you thought it couldn't get better-is a concept that Mitsu barely got out before bringing along the production version. The Colt CZ3 takes the Colt/Smart platform and slips on a wedgy three-door hatchback. The concept shares the same wheelbase as the production five-door, but is somewhat shorter overall. Blackout privacy glass and 17-in Okazaki alloy wheels lend the shape a certain pizzazz, n'est ce pas? (Pardon our French; they speak it here in this part of Switzerland.) Mitsu promises a production version of this concept for the 2004 Paris Motor Show in September.
Honda Takes Flight with Jet Engines
Honda's ambitions for world dominance and front-wheel-drive everything don't extend only to the terrasphere. Plans are up in the air to produce jet engines, too-literally. Honda and General Electric are getting together to explore a new business of building small business-jet engines that could put the Japanese car company into some rarified air along with Saab and Rolls-Royce among brands with aero heritage. Honda has been itching to get into jet engines for some time, and before last Christmas Honda showed off a new lightweight, turbofan aircraft engine developed by its engineers. Honda doesn't have any immediate plans to sell its jet engines but the announcement clearly presages a day when its logo will be flying higher than some of its nitrous-powered brethren on the ground.
Digging Deeper-Acura's TL
If the Acura TL is good (It is.) wouldn't a wider TL be even better? That's about as profound a question as Acura's TL A-Spec Concept is capable of mustering. Shown at the Los Angeles Auto Show and briefly introduced to you right here in our pages a few months ago, the A-Spec Concept is obviously based on the 2004 TL and features a 42mm wider track with fenders swollen to cover it, 21-inch prototype wheels, 15-inch diameter Brembo disc brakes clamped by eight-piston calipers, a panoramic glass roof that virtually replaces the metal between door tops, tweaked front and rear fascias, and a three-stage Mica Pearl paint so lustrous it could have been yanked out of an oyster.
Power for this concept comes from a modified version of the TL's 3.2-liter V6 that, Acura says, wallops out 300 hp and feeds it to a six-speed manual transmission and limited-slip differential. That's nothing much different than what's in today's TL.
The crowning glory of this car is the interior, which features seats done in matador red leather with built-in heating and cooling ventilation-critical for those of us cursed with a butt that turns to ice in the winter and boils in its own juices during the summer.