Tag Archives: honda

Red Bull Bids Honda A Fond Farewell With Special White Livery

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Red Bull Bids Honda A Fond Farewell With Special White Livery

The tribute includes a one-off special livery in throwback Honda Championship White with red accent, paying tribute to the rising sun livery the company wore when it first joined F1 in the 1960s. The cars also carry the characters for the Japanese word ‘arigato’ with a hearty and heart-felt thank you to the powerplant manufacturer. The Alpha Tauri cars will also carry the thank you message.

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Image for article titled Red Bull Bids Honda A Fond Farewell With Special White Livery

Image: Red Bull

Rather than switching to a new powertrain supplier in 2022, Red Bull will take over the intellectual property and production of Honda’s V6 hybrid power units later this year ahead of the revised chassis requirements next season. It would likely be too much of a pain in the ass for Red Bull to have to build a brand new chassis to new regulations and build a relationship with a new powerplant manufacturer at the same time. As a result the fizzy energy drinks company will start its own engine division called Red Bull Powertrains.

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Image for article titled Red Bull Bids Honda A Fond Farewell With Special White Livery

Image: Red Bull

RBR’s Max Verstappen currently sits 2 points behind championship leader Lewis Hamilton with seven rounds remaining in the championship. Perhaps this special livery will be enough to push him to his eighth victory this season, or perhaps it will go about as well as the last time Mercedes decided to run a special one-off tribute livery. We’ll see when the Turkish Grand Prix goes off this Sunday. 

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The Next Generation Mazda Miata Will Get A Hybrid Or EV: Report

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Illustration for article titled The Next Generation Mazda Miata Will Be A Hybrid Or EV: Report
Photo: Mazda

The Mazda Miata generations average about eight to 10 years, which means the current fourth-generation ND Miata, in production since 2015, is starting to get a little long in the tooth. It’s hard to imagine the Miata being anything other than a rear-wheel-drive gas roadster, but Mazda is reportedly in the midst of trying to electrify it.

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That’s according to Motor1, which obtained the following statement from Mazda this week:

Mazda is seeking to electrify the MX-5 Miata in an effort to have all models feature a form of electrification by 2030. We will work hard to make it a lightweight, affordable, open two-seater sports car in order to meet the needs of customers.

Motor1 deduces from this (or perhaps confirmed on background with Mazda) that this means that the next-generation Miata, the NE, will be electrified, and perhaps that is right but it also seems possible that Mazda might wait for the NF, since 2030 is a good long time from now. It’s also possible that Mazda means all “models” of the Miata will have some sort of electric drive, but it’s more likely that some kind of hybrid or electric version of the Miata will be an option.

Certainly a car company can make a light hybrid (the original Honda Insight was lighter than the current Miata by a decent amount) but it’s not easy, and it always presents trade-offs.

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I also don’t know what the point of electrifying the Miata is, other than Mazda going along with the prevailing sentiment or complying with government regulation, as the manual Miata gets 29 mpg combined. Getting 29 mpg is not stellar, but it isn’t bad either and also it’s not like Mazda sells a ton of these things.

Mazda sold 8,807 Miatas in the U.S. last year, or about three percent of its total car sales in the U.S., a number I wouldn’t expect to be too different globally. Still, the MX-5 is Mazda’s defining product, a car that can’t go away and probably never will. If I were Mazda, then, I’d be trying to figure out what an all-electric version of the Miata looks like, make it, and then show it to the world and explain that the Miata has been with us for over 30 years and this is the version that will be with us for the next 30. Mazda would probably sell at least 8,807 of them.

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Rinus Veekay Becomes IndyCar’s Fifth Winner In Five Races This Year

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Illustration for article titled Rinus Veekay Becomes IndyCar's Fifth Winner In Five Races This Year

Photo: Joe Skibinski \ IndyCar Media

If you call yourself a race fan but haven’t been tuning into the IndyCar Series, it might be time to start asking yourself why. Especially after yesterday afternoon’s incredible race at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course, where No. 21 Ed Carpenter Racing driver Rinus Veekay became the fifth winner in five races this season.

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And no, that’s not even taking into account the fact that former F1 driver Romain Grosjean scored his first pole position in a decade at this race. Or the fact that this was the first all-European podium in ages.

Or the fact that only one of those winners is one you’d have expected. Scott Dixon took victory at the first race in a Texas Motor Speedway doubleheader earlier this month. Aside from that, we’ve had Alex Palou (Barber), Colton Herta (St. Pete), and Patricio O’Ward (Texas 2). Five different drivers. Four different teams. Three first-time winners in 2021. Three wins for Honda. Two wins for Chevrolet. The first win for Ed Carpenter Racing since 2016. And while Dixon currently leads the championship, but there are six drivers that could technically surpass him with a single race win. That is, honestly, awesome.

“We had an awesome start to the weekend,” Veekay said after the race. “I knew we had the car; we were so fast. I’m so happy for the team, so thankful. I couldn’t have done it without them.

“A perfect day. It’s amazing, and thank you to all the fans coming out. Getting my first podium here last year and now winning, it’s a dream.”

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Seriously. If you haven’t been sitting down to watch IndyCar this year, you’re missing out on one of its best seasons in ages—which is saying something, because the racing has consistently been good. And the next race we’re heading to is the iconic Indianapolis 500, where 33 drivers will duke it out for victory at one of the world’s best races. There’s always a shot we could see a first-time winner at this event, and it’s guaranteed to be a lot of fun to watch.

The Indy 500 will take place on May 30, 2021 at 11am ET on NBC. Qualifying starts next weekend at 12pm noon on May 22 and runs through to May 23.

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