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  • HONDA E REVIEW: RWD WITH CONCEPT CAR LOOKS

    It looks like a concept car, it’s rear-wheel-drive and has a turning circle like a taxi – plus you can play Mario Kart on the dash. But the new Honda e isn’t as weird as you might think…

    Review taken from Fast Car magazine. Words & Photos: Dan Bevis. 

    We’ve reached a point where we, as devoted petrolheads, can generally agree that electric cars are a good thing. The milk-float stigma is long gone, as is the concern that we’d all end up driving crap like the G-Wiz; indeed, thanks to the leaps and bounds made by Tesla, we can see that electric cars can be stylish and clever and astonishingly rapid. (Shame that Teslas are so badly made, but you can’t have everything…) The inherent hurdle, then, is how to convince people like us to make the changeover. See, an electric car needs to feel like a normal car, and be just as usable as one – but then you end up with things like the e-Golf, which is perfectly fine, but compromised by the fact that the volts and wires have been shoved into a body designed for an internal combustion engine. What you need is something that’s cool and interesting but not too weird, and has been designed from the ground up to be electric. Which is what the all-new Honda e is.

    Honda e

    What you’re looking at here, in essence, is a bloody good idea. A city-sized hatchback that’s been thoughtfully designed to be premium-feeling and forward-looking, while also driving like a normal runabout. The lounge-like interior is packed full of clever tricks and toys, and the cutesy exterior looks are backed up by some surprising muscle: being rear-wheel-drive and boasting 151bhp, the fact that all of the torque (232lb.ft of it) is available immediately means that it’s amusingly quick away from the lights. And best of all, the retro styling is absolutely spot-on: there’s elements of the first-gen Civic in there, and more than a little Mk1 Golf, and yet it looks like a prop from a movie set twenty years in the future. Just the kind of EV for people like us then? Let’s see…

    Honda e

    The drive

    Quite understandably, your first question might be ‘Will it drift?’ – and the answer is, er, no. But you’ll be pleased to note that the rear end is playful enough to allow you to have a bit of fun on country lanes (or roundabouts, if the inner hooligan grabs you); we couldn’t find a button or menu option to fully disable the traction control – there most likely isn’t one – but it’s surely only a matter of time before that’s hackable.

    Performance potential in spades then, for sure; this particular car is the e Advance, which is the upper level of the two available specs. The standard Honda e has 134bhp, while the e Advance gets 151bhp along with a few trim upgrades. It’s got all the quickness you need in a city car, plus much more besides – if your commute involves a dual carriageway or bypass, you’ll soon become addicted to blowing everyone away at the traffic lights – but this car’s real party piece is the interior. It’s beautifully designed; the ethos was to create a sort of premium lounge feel, and all of the materials reflect this. The comfy seats are trimmed in quality cloth (leather is an option, but this stylish cloth suits it better), and the dash panel is a matte-effect wood like you’d find in a top-of-the-range Volvo. Best of all, the lowline dash looks like one big full-width screen, which is super-futuristic. It’s actually five separate screens: at either end is a display to mimic a wing mirror view (as this car doesn’t actually have wing mirrors, but instead has little rear-facing cameras mounted on the doors), in front of you is a customisable screen for your dials and readouts, and the rest of the dash is made up of two large widescreens. These can show a DAB display, a sat-nav screen, or numerous other options, and they can be swapped from side-to-side. You can even turn the whole thing into a big virtual fish tank. And if that’s still not enough screens, there’s a switch to flick on the central rear-view mirror to turn that into a display for yet another rear-facing camera. Tech-heavy enough for you? There’s plentiful battery power for all this too; it’s got a 35.5kWh battery, which is more than beefy enough. It’s good for a range of 137 miles, which isn’t class-leading but certainly decent – and depending on what charging options you have available, you can whack in an 80% charge in a little over half-an-hour.

    Driving the thing is simplicity itself – you just stick it in ‘Drive’ and waft along on the torque, there’s not even any gears to trouble yourself with. Flicking into Sport mode is fun for fast launches and backroad mischief, and perhaps the best part is that it really handles. Because, objectively speaking, it doesn’t need to. There were probably all sorts of meetings and focus groups at Honda HQ, concluding that the vast majority of e sales will be to city-dwellers who’ll only ever trundle to the shops… but the Honda engineers just can’t be stopped. They knew it had to be engineered to be fun and agile on twisty lanes, and that’s exactly what’s happened, all-independent suspension and everything. And when you are in the city, you’ll find it a super-helpful companion – the steering angle is absurd, giving it a taxi-like 14-foot turning circle. The e may look cute – like a wide-eyed manga character – but it’s serious under the skin.

    Verdict

    Perhaps the largest stumbling block for a lot of buyers will be the price. Because, let’s be honest, the e ain’t cheap. The base model starts at £26,160, while a Honda e Advance like this begins at £28,660, and that’s a substantial wedge for a city car. It also has a pretty small boot, and the range is bested by most of its rivals. But dwelling on these points misses the bigger picture. Let’s address them one by one. Price? Yes, the various rivals are cheaper, but do they have all of the equipment of this car, not to mention the slick and stylish design? No, they do not. Boot space? Ah, we’re spoiled these days – we may be used to Golf-sized stowage, but we grew up with Peugeot 205s and Renault 5s being perfectly acceptable family cars, so the scale is akin to that retro utility. You’d make it work. Range? Well, for the majority of journeys you’re unlikely to be going more than 137 miles; when you are, just factor in a stop-off to add some juice while you go for a wee and a sandwich. No problem.

    OK, so with the negatives despatched, we’re absolutely overwhelmed by positives. This car is seriously well-equipped – look at the lower dash and you’ll find a ridiculous number of sockets: 12v, USB, HDMI, and there’s even a standard three-pin socket like you’ve got in your house. Thanks to the clever interfaces, this does mean that you can – for example – plug in a Super Nintendo and play Mario Kart on the car’s dash screen. Isn’t it awesome living in
    the future?

    The e Advance genuinely is hilarious fun to drive, and there’s plenty of potential to modify and tune once the aftermarket jailbreaks the software. (It’ll happen, just you wait.) The crisp exterior design looks fantastic, with those gas-burner wheels and front-and-rear light bar lozenges, and when you catch sight of your reflection in shop windows you feel as if you’re driving a concept car. But best of all, this fun and cute car feels… normal. Not too normal, obviously, because all of the interior tech and surprising power gives it a frisson of specialness. But it doesn’t feel weird to step out of a petrol-powered car and into this one. If this is what the electric future feels like, maybe we don’t need to be too worried.

    Honda e
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  • 450HP IMPREZA GC8 DRIFTS THROUGH “DANGERZONE”

    Inspired by Gymkhana, Tyler Witte puts his 450hp Impreza GC8 through its paces as he drifts and grinds it through an abandoned “Dangerzone”.

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    Many of us watch the Gymkhana videos from Ken Block, and more recently Travis Pastrana, and dream of having the space and funds to be able to do this but also to have that level of car control.

    Tyler Witte, however, is someone who realised his dream and achieved it. What started off with a “Dream it, build it, shred it” video three years ago has led the professional stuntman and driver to this, featuring all the Subaru goodness you could ever wish for. Anyway, sit back, hit play and enjoy.

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  • 11 women who changed automotive history and the way we drive

    Today marks the first day of National Women’s History Month.

    To celebrate, we’re celebrating women whose ideas, tenacity and inventions changed automotive history and the way we drive our cars:

    Bertha Benz | Brake pads and the first road trip

    Let’s start with the woman who put automobiles on the map.

    Bertha Benz | Photo from Onmanorama

    Bertha Benz | Photo from Onmanorama

    Bertha Benz was born in 1894 in Germany when women were denied access to higher education. She married young engineer, Carl Benz, and supported his numerous career paths, emotionally and financially, including the invention of the automobile.

    No one was very interested in his motorcar, until Bertha and their sons took a now-famous road trip. Without Carl’s knowledge, Bertha and the boys snuck the car out of Carl’s workshop and took it on the first-long-distance road trip, from Mannheim to Pforzheim.

    Ad for Carl and Bertha’s Motorwagen | Photo from Mercedes-Benz

    Ad for Carl and Bertha’s Motorwagen | Photo from Mercedes-Benz

    It was a rough ride on roads built for horses and carriages. She made several repairs during her journey and even invented the first brake pad, made of leather, when the car’s wooden brakes failed.

    Her tenacity and determination created the popularity the Motor Car needed to become the world’s most important modern advancements.

    Photo from Museum of American Speed

    Photo from Museum of American Speed

    Margaret Wilcox | Car heater

    Margaret Wilcox was a trailblazer. Born in 1839, she was one of the very few female engineers of the time. In 1893, she received the patent for the interior car heater when she engineered a system that pulled the heat from the engine into the cab.

    Wilcox’s work inspired the air heaters found in today’s cars making our cold winter drives more enjoyable.

    Mary Anderson and her patent | Photo from EngineerGirl

    Mary Anderson and her patent | Photo from EngineerGirl

    Mary Anderson & Charlotte Bridgwood |Windshield wiper

    We have both Mary Anderson and Charlotte Bridgwood to thank for our windshield wipers that help us to drive safely in rain and snow.

    Anderson’s idea for the windshield wiper came to her while riding on a trolley car to New York City in 1903. Due to the snowy weather, she couldn’t look out the window and enjoy the sights, and the driver had to stop constantly to wipe the snow off the windshield.

    Charlotte Bridgwood | Photo from USPTO

    Charlotte Bridgwood | Photo from USPTO

    Inspired by her less-than-ideal road trip, she designed a spring-loaded arm with a rubber blade that would wipe across the windshield and could be activated from inside the car. Building on Anderson’s idea just a few years later, in 1917, Bridgwood upgraded the wiper to be electrically operated, her design used rollers instead of blades to clean a windshield.

    Anderson and Bridgwood were too smart for their time because their patents expired after not getting enough attention from automakers. Little did they know windshield wipers would eventually become a standard feature in all cars.

    Florence Lawrence | Photo from Wisconsin Center for Film and Theater Research

    Florence Lawrence | Photo from Wisconsin Center for Film and Theater Research

    Florence Lawrence | Auto signaling arms

    At one point in automotive history, brake lights and turn signals didn’t exist – until silent-film actress Florence Lawrence saw the need.

    In 1913, Lawrence invented a device called the Auto Signaling Arm that, “when placed on the back of the fender, can be raised or lowered by electrical push buttons,” she described.

    When you pressed on the brake, the signaling arm would raise, indicating a stop.

    Lawrence never received any patents for her design, but her idea inspired the necessary turn signals and brake lights we have today.

    Photo from El Motor

    Photo from El Motor

    June McCarroll | Road markings

    In 1917, while driving her Ford Model T down a California roadway, June McCarroll was inspired to create a safety measure that saves lives to this day:

    “My Model T Ford and I found ourselves face to face with a truck on the paved highway,” she explained. “It did not take me long to choose between a sandy berth to the right and a ten-ton truck to the left! Then I had my idea of a white line painted down the center of the highways of the country as a safety measure.”

    McCarroll launched a letter-writing campaign that gained so much attention that painted lines became California law in 1924. The rest of the country quickly followed.

    Photo from Edison Tech Center Engineer and scientist Katharine Blodgett is who we have to thank for

    Photo from Edison Tech Center Engineer and scientist Katharine Blodgett is who we have to thank for

    Katharine Blodgett | Nonreflective glass

    Engineer and scientist Katharine Blodgett is who we have to thank for creating non-reflective and anti-glare windshields.

    Born in Schenectady, New York, in 1898, she obtained her bachelors degree at Bryn Mawr College and her masters at the University of Chicago. In 1926, at age 21, Blodgett was the first woman to receive a PhD in Physics at Cambridge University.

    In 1938, she developed a liquid soap that, when 44 layers were spread over glass, would allow 99 percent of light to pass through. Her development paved the way for future engineers to create a more durable coating that wouldn’t wipe off.

    Photo from Wednesday’s Women

    Photo from Wednesday’s Women

    Hedy Lamarr | Bluetooth

    You might recognize Hedy Lamarr from the World War II film The Conspirators, but Lamarr was more than an actress – she was the inventor who created the technology in car’s Bluetooth features.

    In the 1940s, Lamarr invented a device that blocked enemy ships from interrupting torpedo guidance signals. The device would take the torpedo signals and make them jump from frequency to frequency, making it near impossible for an enemy to locate the message.

    It’s this ‘frequency jumping’ technology we find in the Bluetooth features in our car letting us talk on the phone hands-free or stream our favorite music.

    Her technology can also be found in cell-phones, Wi-Fi and GPS.

    Photo from Smithsonian

    Photo from Smithsonian

    Stephanie Kwolek | Kevlar tires and reinforced brake pads

    In 1964 chemist Stephanie Kwolek discovered the synthetic fiber, Kevlar. This polymer fiber is five times stronger than steel but lighter than fiberglass. It’s even bulletproof.

    Her discovery has saved countless lives as Kevlar is now used to make bulletproof vests and armor.

    Today, we can find Kevlar in our tires and in reinforced brake pads.

    Photo from Ford Motor Company Archives

    Photo from Ford Motor Company Archives

    Mimi Vandermolen | Ergonomic controls

    In 1970, Ford’s Design Studio welcomed Mimi Vandermolen to the team as one of the first full-time female designers.

    After her first project working on the 1974 Mustang II, she led the design team for the 1986 Taurus interior.

    In the Taurus, Vandermolen created ergonomic controls, dials for climate function, buttons with raised bumps, and a curved dash to make it easier to reach controls. Her work made the car more accessible and accommodating to drivers.

    She went on to lead all of Ford’s North American small-car designs and the styling of the 1993 Probe, inside and out.

    Photo from U.S. Navy

    Photo from U.S. Navy

    Gladys Mae West | GPS

    As a mathematician who worked for the U.S. Naval Weapons Laboratory, Glady Mae West was the project manager for SEASAT, the first earth-orbiting satellite measuring ocean depths.

    The work on the 1978 SEASAT project helped West and her team build the GEOSAT satellite creating computer simulations of earth’s surfaces.

    Her calculations and work on the SEASAT and GEOSAT helped make the GPS systems in our cars – we’d be lost without her.

    This article, written by Racheal Colbert, was originally published on ClassicCars.com, an editorial partner of Motor Authority.

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