2004 Honda S2000 Base Convertible 2-door 2.2l Ap2 on 2040-cars

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Honda S660 set for Yokkaichi production next year

Roadsters, you might argue, are best when they're small and nimble. If you're thinking of the Mazda MX-5 Miata, you're on the right track, but there have been even smaller ones: pint-sized, three-cylinder roadsters like the Daihatsu Copen, Suzuki Cappuccino and Smart Roadster. But the most iconic and enduring of them was surely the Honda Beat.
Designed by Pininfarina, the Beat was - not unlike the F40 was for Enzo Ferrari - the last car approved for production by company founder Soichiro Honda. It complied with Japan's strict Kei car regulations and packed a tiny, naturally aspirated 656 cc that produced just 63 horsepower. The cult classic ended production in 1996, but six months ago Honda hinted at a revival with the presentation of the S660 concept at the 2013 Tokyo Motor Show. Now it seems Honda - or Yachiyo, we should say - is gearing up to put it into production at the same factory that produced the Beat two decades ago.
That plant is the Yokkaichi factory, a facility owned by Yachiyo Industry Co., Ltd. that builds small cars on contract for Honda. It was slated for a major expansion a few years ago until Honda shifted some of its small car production to its own plant in Suzuka, but continues to build the N series of boxy, upright hatchbacks, as well as small commercial vehicles like the Life and Vamos lines. The reintroduction of a small roadster line to the factory's output sometime in 2015 will undoubtedly be a cause for celebration in Yokkaichi. For our part we can only hope that American Honda CEO Tetsuo Iwamura gets his way and manages to bring the S660 to the US in the near future.

Acura NSX to be built in Ohio in 2015

Honda today confirmed that the forthcoming Acura NSX hybrid supercar will be built at a brand-new facility in Ohio. This will be the company's third plant in Ohio, and will come as the result of a $70 million investment. Honda first hinted that NSX production would be coming to Ohio when the original concept car was revealed at the 2012 Detroit Auto Show.
Honda's new facility, called the Performance Manufacturing Center, will encompass a 184,000-square foot space inside of the automaker's former North American Logistics building and will employ 100 associates. As you might expect, the Performance Manufacturing Center is located just a few miles from Honda's American-based R&D facility, as well as the Marysville auto plant, where production of the 2014 Accord Hybrid will kick off this fall.
"The location of this facility is in the midst of one of the greatest collections of engineering and production talent in the world. So it makes sense that we will renew the dream and build this high-tech, supercar in Marysville, Ohio," said Hidenobu Iwata, president and CEO of Honda of America, in a press release.

Honda Vezel leaked in Mugen trim

Just last month at the Tokyo Motor Show, Honda revealed its new Vezel crossover, a production version of the Urban SUV concept that debuted at the Detroit Auto Show. According to new reports, the model already has a three-month waiting list in Japan alone. But that doesn't mean Honda's tuning division, Mugen, is waiting around to spruce it up.
Pictured here is the Mugen-tuned version of the Vezel leaked from a sales brochure in Japan. While there's not much information to go on, Mugen's take on the Vezel appears to be wearing a custom aero kit, with more pronounced lower bumpers and side sills, a more Acura-like grille treatment and different wheels.
Whether we'll ever get a Mugen package like this when the Fit-based CUV arrives in North America remains to be seen, but we've historically gotten very few of these tuned-up Hondas. In fact, we're still not even sure what the tiny crossover will be called when it arrives here, but something tells us it won't arrive carrying the Vezel moniker.