Honda’s sports car gets a name and a face

 

Since it was considered as a concept car at the 1995 Tokyo motor show, Honda has referred to its two-seat roadster as the SSM – «Sports Study Model». Finally, the study is complete, and the production version of the car will be called the S2000, a name rooted in rather obscure Honda history.

In 1962, Honda introduced its first mass-produced sports car and named the models after the engine size in cubic centimeters — the S500 had a half-liter-four-cylinder. Later, the range extended to the heavy-hitting S800, which had a whopping 70 horsepower. The engines were motorcycle-based and very sophisticated, with overhead twin camshafts, alloy construction, and four Keihin carburetors. The redline on the engines topped 9000rpm.

It’s surprising, then, how true to that original vision the front-engine, rear-drive S2000 is. The new VTEC two-liter four-cylinder has double overhead camshafts and will pump out more than 240 horsepower, with a motorcycle like redline of 93000 rpm. The engine will be mated to a six-speed manual transmission. Rumors place the 0 – to -60–mph time at six seconds flat.

Just as the suspension on the original Honda S-cars was exotic for its day — a life located by four trailing links and a Panhard rod-Honda promises the S2000 will have comparably sophisticated underpinnings. An ultra-stiff chassis will have 50/50 weight distribution, owing to an engine located behind the front axle.

The two-seater will have an electrically operated fabric softtop, suggesting it will be priced above the Mazda MX –5Miata, as if an engine that pumps out 100 more horsepower isn’t suggestion enough. The 162-inch-long S2000 is nine inches shorter than a Porte Boxter, but the Honda’s wheelbase, at 94,5 inches, is just 0,7 inch shorter than The Boxter’s. The Honda is marginally narrower (68.9 inches vs. 70-1 inches) and a tiny bit lower. We haven’t been told what the car’s weight is, but our guess is about 2500 pounds— the body is steel, the hood aluminum.

Honda also hasn’t announced a price, but we are willing to guess again: $29,000.

The S2000, to be manufactured at the plant in Tochigi, Japan, where the NSX is built, will be produced in relatively modest numbers.

 

1) Words to learn:

motor show carburetor

production version rear-drive

sports car to pump out

engine transmission

horsepower

camshafts

2) Answer the questions:

1. What does the SSD mean?

2. When introduced Honda its first mass-produced sports car?

3. Why was this model named S500?

4. Is the S2000 shorter than a Porsche Boxter?

5. What engines does the S800 have?

6. What engine does the S2000 have?

7. Where is The S2000 manufactured?

8. Has Honda announced a price of the S2000?

 

Hot-Rod Lincoln Navigator:

Valves and 300 Horses

 

Trucks are still a new concept for the folks at Lincoln, but their cure for excess automotive flab as Yankee traditional as the old Green Bay sweep: more power.

Galvanized by cross-town competition from Cadillac, another unlikely purveyor of trucks, Lincoln plans to keep the Navigator sport-utility out front with a substantial infusion of extra muscle. In fact, with 300 horsepower from a twin-cam, 32-valve version of Ford’s corporate 5.4-liter V-8 truck engine, the Navigator will be able to claim output edge over all of its brute-ute rivals from general Motors-the Suburban twins, the Chevy Tahoe, the GMC Yukon/Yukon Denali, and most important the Cadillac Escalade.

Ford’s powertrain engineers have already mined more thrust out of the SOHC 16-valve, 5.4-liter Triton edition of this powerplant for 1999, raising horsepower from 235 to 260 and torque from 330 pound-feet to 345. The Triton V-8 is the upgrade engine for the Ford Expedition and is standard in early-’99 Navigators.

However, from December 1998 on, all Navigators will be propelled by the Intech version of the 5.4 V-8, which is similar to the 4.6-liter variant employed in the Mustang Cobra: more valves, more cams, with more aggressive cam profiles, and-natch-more power. In fact, the Intech 5.4-liter V-8 packs a bigger horsepower punch than Ford’s 6.8-liter Triton Cadillac Escalade’s 5.7-liter overhead-valve V-8.

The Navigator made do with a more 230 hp during its first year or so on the market. Harnessed to curb weights of 5700 pounds, the first –generation Triton V-8 produced acceleration that could only be described, generously, as deliberate. It required 10.3 seconds for a 5736-pound Navigator to reach 60 mph in our July 1997 road test, and its top-gear passing times fell close to the realm of peril.

A brief stint behind the wheel of a pre-production ’99 Navigator was enough to convince us that the new engine, which will initially, at least, be exclusive to Lincoln, lends a tangible increase in giddyar to this pavement Percheron. We’ll have to wait for formal instrumented testing to specify the benefits of additional horsepower in real-time terms, but C/D intramural speculation forecasts a decrease of one second in the 0-to-60-mph dash with corresponding improvements in passing times.

Whereas horsepower in the big news for this biggest of Lincolns in1999, there’s also a small innovation — adjustable brake and accelerator pedals — that seems certain to appeal to shorter drivers. Adjustable pedals aren’t new (they are standard equipment in the current Dodge Viper, for example), but power adjustability gives the Navigator a unique touch. Controlled by a rocker switch mounted just to the left of the steering column, the system moves the pedals back and forth by as much as three inches, and adjustments can be made with the vehicle stationary or in motion.

Aside from the major power increase and power-adjustable pedals, The Navigator is otherwise unchanged for 1999. And overweight or not, no diet is contemplated in the foreseeable future.

 

1) Words to learn:

2) Answer the questions, please:

1. Is Triton-8 the upgrade engine for the Ford Expedition?

2. What is the weight of Navigator?

3. How many seconds did it required for Navigator to reach 60mph?

4. What does power adjustability give the Navigator?

5. What is a small innovation for Lincoln?