Rumors
Diddy Racing
If US Weekly could tackle the motorsports world, there's a good chance that Diddy would overtake Brad and Angelina for the most number of covers. The latest scandal, besides him splitting from his longtime girlfriend Kim Porter after she just had twins, was his announcement at a recent dinner party that he is in talks to buy his own Formula One team. According to very reliable sources in London, where the party was held, Diddy spent the majority of the evening chatting with F1 rookie phenom (and savior of the sport) Lewis Hamilton.
Pocket Rocket Returns
It seems like every time we're bored of waiting for a (real) cool new car to come our way from Honda, we decide to revive the rumor about a new CRX for the umpteenth time. This time, it appears the rumor might have some legs. Sources say that the company is developing a new vehicle based on the Fit platform, with a current wheelbase length of 96.5 inches. Even better, the car will most likely emulate the styling of the original CRX rather than its atrocious offspring, the del Sol. In the last couple of years, Honda has displayed a few offbeat small car concepts at various auto shows and coyly refuses to cough up any info about them other than calling them "design exercises." Oddly enough, none of the designs were well-received and the old Pocket Rocket exterior was chosen instead.
While we're fairly confident that the current Civic Si's K20 motor that cranks out 197 hp would go nicely with the new car, the standard powerplant is still being pored over and is rumored to be a hybrid. Sources say that Honda engineers are trying to merge the now-defunct Insight hybrid motor with a sporty vehicle to achieve outstanding gas mileage (hello, CRX HF?) and great performance. Alas, with stringent safety regulations in place, we are sorry to say that there is no chance in hell the new CRX would still weigh anywhere close to the old one, which weighed 2,200 pounds soaking wet.
Honda V6 Diesel
Engine Coming In 2010Earlier this year, Honda announced plans for a diesel engine now that the hybrid hype has died down a bit. Executives have shed a few details about the forthcoming engine, which should be arriving around 2010. It should achieve 30 percent better fuel economy (or more) than a comparably-sized gas engine, and will be seen in some of the lineup's larger vehicles like the Ridgeline pickup truck and Pilot SUV. But wait, there's more! No automaker develops an entirely new engine without planning for future applications, so look for a new diesel under the hood of a new racing prototype very soon.
Blamewhitey
Telling someone you drive a white car isn't nearly as exciting as telling someone you drive a car that is Le Mans Sunset, but a recent study conducted in Australia showed that light-colored cars were up to 12 percent less likely to get into a serious accident than darker colored vehicles. Statistics also showed that the types of accidents that the light colored cars did get into were also less severe. The study was taken with every car in Australia that was involved in an accident resulting in death or injury, and every car that was cited and towed between 1987 and 2004. While the lighter colored cars were deemed safer, they also had a lower resale value. Over the 18 years covered in the study, white cars were worth up to $700 less than darker colors. Our advice is to stick with silver, which was the most popular car color choice in America in 2006. White was second.