2009 Honda S2000 Ultimate Edition

Honda has announced that the Honda S2000 Ultimate Edition goes on sale in Europe in March 2009. This limited edition has been produced to mark the end of production for the award winning sports car.

The Honda S2000 Ultimate Edition retains its highly acclaimed 2.0 litre 9000 rpm VTEC engine and combines it with a Grand Prix White body and graphite coloured alloy wheels. The shade of the paint evokes the colour first used on Honda's 1964 F1 car and many sporting models since. The exterior colour combination with the dark metal alloy wheels and unique black S2000 badging gives a fresh look to the timeless shape of the roadster body.

The white exterior will be matched with a red leather interior and complimented by unique red colouring for stitching on the gear lever gaiter. Ultimate Editions will be marked out by their unique numbered plaques on the kickplates, denoting their position in the series.

The 2-seater sports car may now be almost 10-years old, but its 240PS 2-litre is still one of the highest output per litre and highest revving engines ever made. In recognition of its incredible power output, the Honda S2000's engine has won the International Engine of the Year category for 1.8 to 2.2 litre engines five times in its lifetime.

As the name suggests, the Honda S2000 Ultimate Edition will be the last version before global production of the model ceases altogether at the end of June 2009. Since the introduction of the Honda S2000 in 1999 until the end of 2008, Honda has sold 110,673 units worldwide - 19,987 of those in Europe.

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2009 Honda Insight Hybrid

Following an earlier leak of the Japanese-market model brochure, a new set of photos of the 2009 Honda Insight have been leaked into the net ahead of the hybrid car's premier at the Detroit auto show on January 11. Seen here in UK -and consequently, in European-specification, the new five passenger, five door Insight will go on sale on both sides of the Atlantic in the spring of 2009.

As is evident from the photos, compared to the Paris Show prototype, the production model's design has been toned down. Aside from the less sloppy roofline and smoothed out body creases, changes include the down-to-earth headlamps, mirrors and tail lamps, a less aggressively styled front bumper - grille assembly and an even less inspiring rear-end design.

2009 Honda Insight Hybrid Honda's Prius rival will be equipped with a revised version of the Civic IMA's mild hybrid powertrain that combines an electric motor with a small displacement petrol engine and a CVT gearbox. Unlike the Prius however, the Insight will not be able to run solely on electric power.

The Japanese automaker claims that the Insight will be the most affordable hybrid car in the market, making it accesible to a broader audience. Honda expects to sell around 200,000 units of the Insight per year, with half of those sales coming from North America.

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