Here's What We'd Build With The 306-HP Honda Civic Type R Crate Motor

Honda has the engine that will help it build interesting cars again.

The Civic Type R is the most aggressive car in the Honda lineup. Honda has moved away from its root of high revving, naturally aspirated engines in favor of turbocharged units with more torque. The Type R's 2.0-liter four cylinder engine develops 306 hp and 295 lb-ft of torque. At this year's SEMA show, Honda decided to sell the Type R engine as a crate motor for just $6,500, a relative bargain compared to the Hellcrate motor. This new crate engine offers many opportunities for engine swap builds. Here's five that we want to see.

The Acura ILX sedan is in desperate need of a refresh. Acura's entry-level sedan is no more than a slightly upscale Honda Civic, which is a bit disappointing in today's market. The ILX still uses the old 2.4-liter inline-four, not the new 1.5-liter turbocharged engine from the latest Civic. Acura should consider building an ILX Type R or Type S with the engine from the Civic Type R. This would compete perfectly with the Audi S3, which shares a platform with the Volkswagen Golf R. The Civic Type R is only available with a six-speed manual, but we think that Acura should keep the ILX's eight-speed dual-clutch. The S3 is only offered as a dual-clutch, which means that the ILX would be a perfect competitor.

We love the S2000, and we hope that Honda finally brings back this legendary sports car. There have been rumors that a new S2000 could pack a supercharger and a turbocharger, or even come with a hybrid drivetrain. We hope that Honda doesn't overcomplicate the S2000 like it did with the new NSX. The Type R engine would be perfect for a new S2000, and could even into the engine bay of the old car. The S2000 was known for its high revving VTEC, but it wasn't the fastest sports car around. If we had a crashed S2000 in need of a motor, we'd love to see how fast it could be with the engine from the Civic Type R. This crate engine would add 66 hp and almost double the torque of the S2000.

Like with the S2000, we'd love to see an original NSX with Civic Type R power. Even the 2005 NSX, which came with a 3.2-liter V6 is less powerful than the new Civic Type R engine. It may be a bit tricky to make an engine that was designed for a FWD car work in a mid-engined configuration. However, we think that someone could make it happen with great results. We'd even love to see Acura build a mid-engined sports car below the NSX ditching the hybrid system and AWD for the Type R's engine. This could compete with sports cars like the Porsche 718 and Alfa Romeo 4C.

The Honda HR-V is clearly not a car made with enthusiasts in mind. The HR-V is Honda's compact crossover that slots below the larger CR-V. Even though Honda sells the base HR-V with a six-speed manual transmission, the only engine choice is a 1.8-liter four-cylinder with 141 hp. The HR-V takes nearly 10 seconds to hit 60 mph, which is very uninspiring. We wish that Honda would build an HR-V Type R with 306 hp and a six-speed manual transmission. This car would only really compete with the Nissan Juke Nismo, but the Honda would have much more power. It may seem like an odd idea, but a 300-plus hp crossover with a manual does sound like a ton of fun.

Not all engine swap builds have to be done with engines from the same manufacturer. Plenty of Chevy LS engines are placed into cars from other manufacturers due to its wide availability for parts. We'd love for someone to take the Type R crate motor and use it to build a Toyota MR2. The MR2 was a very well balanced car, but it only even produced 200 hp in the second generation turbo version. The Type R's engine would bring this number up by over 100 hp, which would make a custom MR2 an extremely formidable sports car.

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Audi Wants To Build A BMW 8 Series Rival

One German brand copying another German brand? Never heard of such a thing.

The upcoming revival of BMW’s 8 Series coupe is, not surprisingly, spurring the competition to act. Speaking to Autocar, Audi design chief March Lichte is game for a direct 8 Series rival, but there’s a problem: a weak market for luxury coupes. “I love the shape of a two-door coupe, but it is also true that the (sales) volumes (for them) are much lower than four-doors. In the future, who knows? We have many ideas in this direction,” Lichte said when asked about the segment possibility.

Although Audi doesn’t seem to have anything in the pipeline at the moment, it will surely watch sales figures of the upcoming 8 Series closely as well as the new Polestar 1. Mercedes-Benz, of course, offers the S-Class coupe and AMG high-performance versions, all of which are selling well. Audi previewed its latest styling language in 2014 with the Prologue Concept, and both the new A8 sedan and A5 coupe designs were directly inspired by it. However, when the Prologue Concept was launched, Audi was thinking about offering a production version as sort of a sister coupe ship to the new A8, but ultimately passed on the idea. It was basically the A9 that never happened.

But that was a few years ago and the market is once again changing somewhat. A large coupe, especially if it’d be all-electric, would definitely be interesting. In the meantime, Audi is focused on upcoming launches of the next-generation A6, followed by the Q8 crossover and the new A1 and Q3. This will be completed by the end of 2019, but after that things remain up in the air. A heavily re-skinned Porsche Mission E, perhaps?

Aston Martin Can't Be Happy Someone Is Selling Their Valkyrie Build Slot

Welcome to the world of ultra-exclusive hypercar sales.

Selling build slots for ultra-rare hypercars is not uncommon these days, but what all automakers, from Porsche to Ferrari to Aston Martin, will agree on is that they hate it when it happens. You see, these exclusive brands offer only their very best customers build slots for cars like the LaFerrari, 911 R and the upcoming 1,000-hp Aston Martin Valkyrie. Build slots are a reward for loyalty, plain and simple. But loyalty sometimes only goes so far when there’s potential profit.

As such, an ad has now appeared on the German language website Mobile.de, via Knight International, for an Aston Martin Valkyrie build slot. The price: 3 million Euros, or $3,553,830. Clearly this sale has not been sanctioned by Aston Martin, so anyone who’s interested is advised to proceed carefully. They need to somehow confirm the build slot is for real. Interestingly, the ad mentions that Aston Martin originally required Valkyrie buyers to also purchase a Lagonda sedan. This is not an uncommon practice, being required to purchase one expensive car in order to buy an even pricier one. In this case, however, the ad claims whoever buys this particular build slot will not have to also buy the Lagonda.

As for the Valkyrie in question, its body color and specs have yet to be announced, meaning the slot buyer may or may not be able to make personal preferences. The seller of this build slot remains a mystery, no doubt in order to avoid Aston Martin’s ire. Then again, this anonymity makes us wonder whether the whole thing could be a scam. Welcome to the world of buying and selling ultra-exclusive hypercars.

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Audi Wants To Build A BMW 8 Series Rival

One German brand copying another German brand? Never heard of such a thing.

The upcoming revival of BMW’s 8 Series coupe is, not surprisingly, spurring the competition to act. Speaking to Autocar, Audi design chief March Lichte is game for a direct 8 Series rival, but there’s a problem: a weak market for luxury coupes. “I love the shape of a two-door coupe, but it is also true that the (sales) volumes (for them) are much lower than four-doors. In the future, who knows? We have many ideas in this direction,” Lichte said when asked about the segment possibility.

Although Audi doesn’t seem to have anything in the pipeline at the moment, it will surely watch sales figures of the upcoming 8 Series closely as well as the new Polestar 1. Mercedes-Benz, of course, offers the S-Class coupe and AMG high-performance versions, all of which are selling well. Audi previewed its latest styling language in 2014 with the Prologue Concept, and both the new A8 sedan and A5 coupe designs were directly inspired by it. However, when the Prologue Concept was launched, Audi was thinking about offering a production version as sort of a sister coupe ship to the new A8, but ultimately passed on the idea. It was basically the A9 that never happened.

But that was a few years ago and the market is once again changing somewhat. A large coupe, especially if it’d be all-electric, would definitely be interesting. In the meantime, Audi is focused on upcoming launches of the next-generation A6, followed by the Q8 crossover and the new A1 and Q3. This will be completed by the end of 2019, but after that things remain up in the air. A heavily re-skinned Porsche Mission E, perhaps?

Aston Martin's Former Chairman Wants To Build Amphibious Cars

If anyone can make it work, it's the racing engineers at Prodrive.

Amphibious vehicles can be rather finicky. But one man is gearing up to wade into the market. And he just might have the chops to make it work. That man is David Richards, the head of British racing consultancy Prodrive and former chairman of Aston Martin. (He also basically runs Aston's racing division and once ran Honda's F1 team.) Richards recently traveled to California and came back with a Watercar Panther, a sort of Jeep modified for use across the earth's surface... and not just the dry parts. Richards has been modifying his, in part to meet European regulations.

In the process, he became interested in developing his own. So he put some of Prodrive's young engineers on it. “I went to see one in Los Angeles and was pleasantly surprised with the quality, so I bought one with the intention of importing some into Europe. But there’s lots of legislation, and it’s tricky for the EU with emissions and crash testing. Even single type approval had some insurmountable problems,” Richards told Autocar. “Now I’m inclined to do our own. We know about them, and I have some young engineers working on it – we’re all excited by it. I have a boat engineer looking at the hull.”

The idea would be to bring an amphibious off-roader to market with a turbodiesel engine for around ￡150,000 – equivalent to roughly $200,000, or about the price of a new Aston DB11. But Richards has no illusions about the task. Amphibious vehicles are typically “neither a great car nor a great boat,” he said. “That’s inevitably the case, so you err towards making it a better boat, but you can still make it a better car.” Sounds good to us, and given the bang-up job it's done on so many race and rally cars, we're looking forward to seeing what Prodrive can cook up.

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Audi Won't Build The Future TT Nobody Wanted

The TT's body style will continue how it should be.

Earlier this month we learned that Audi was considering a four-door version of its TT coupe when the time comes for a redesign. Audi’s logic was that the coupe and roadster segment is quickly dying, and only a few brands are finding success. It may not be worth Audi’s development time and money any longer.

But the TT is still a recognizable name, so Audi toyed with the idea of turning it into a more practical four-door coupe. According to CarAdvice, that won’t be happening. The Australian publication recently spoke to Peter Oberndorfer, Audi’s head of communications, who confirmed the four-door coupe idea is no longer.

Now, some of you may recall back in 2014 when Audi seriously considered an entire “TT family”, so to speak, consisting of a coupe, sedan and even a crossover-ish type of vehicle. That idea originated from now former Audi technical chief Ulrich Hackenberg, who was ousted following the revelations of Dieselgate.

“Actually we had the idea of a TT ‘family’, so to speak,” Oberndorfer said. “Not so much anymore. I think the TT is an icon, and to do a family (car) out of that is quite difficult. And especially in these times where we have to concentrate more and more, because we have to do gasoline and diesels on the one side, and electrification on the other side.”

The guy brings up some good points here, the main one being the TT always has been and should always be two-doors. “So you have to concentrate more and more and think about what you can do and what you can afford. So we’re quite happy with one TT at the moment," he added. But what does Audi have to say regarding that four-door TT rumor? “Where the recent stories came from, I don’t know. I don’t know about a four-door TT,” Oberndorfer said.

Audi Won't Build The Future TT Nobody Wanted

The TT's body style will continue how it should be.

Earlier this month we learned that Audi was considering a four-door version of its TT coupe when the time comes for a redesign. Audi’s logic was that the coupe and roadster segment is quickly dying, and only a few brands are finding success. It may not be worth Audi’s development time and money any longer.

But the TT is still a recognizable name, so Audi toyed with the idea of turning it into a more practical four-door coupe. According to CarAdvice, that won’t be happening. The Australian publication recently spoke to Peter Oberndorfer, Audi’s head of communications, who confirmed the four-door coupe idea is no longer.

Now, some of you may recall back in 2014 when Audi seriously considered an entire “TT family”, so to speak, consisting of a coupe, sedan and even a crossover-ish type of vehicle. That idea originated from now former Audi technical chief Ulrich Hackenberg, who was ousted following the revelations of Dieselgate.

“Actually we had the idea of a TT ‘family’, so to speak,” Oberndorfer said. “Not so much anymore. I think the TT is an icon, and to do a family (car) out of that is quite difficult. And especially in these times where we have to concentrate more and more, because we have to do gasoline and diesels on the one side, and electrification on the other side.”

The guy brings up some good points here, the main one being the TT always has been and should always be two-doors. “So you have to concentrate more and more and think about what you can do and what you can afford. So we’re quite happy with one TT at the moment," he added. But what does Audi have to say regarding that four-door TT rumor? “Where the recent stories came from, I don’t know. I don’t know about a four-door TT,” Oberndorfer said.

Someone Paid $26 Million To Build The Old Aston Martin Vanquish

Could we be seeing a bespoke Vanquish from a boutique automaker?

Despite being big fans of the latest Aston Martin models like the DB11 and Vantage, we still have a soft spot for previous generation models such as the Vanquish. The second generation Vanquish was released in 2012 as a replacement for the DBS, acting as the sportier version of the DB9. Aston eventually killed off the Vanquish in 2018 after releasing the DB11 and gave the 6.0-liter V12 a final sendoff with a whopping 580 horsepower.

While the Vanquish was starting to feel old, it was still a beautiful car. Now, as Aston Martin plans for its initial public offering, it has reportedly found a buyer for the old Vanquish tooling and designs.

According to Automotive News, page 168 of Aston Martin's 321-page IPO filing on the London Stock Exchange mentions a ￡20 million (around $26 million) sale of the tooling and design drawings for the Vanquish. The deal took place in June and also includes 18 months of assistance to build it from Aston Martin Consulting (AMC).

The documents don't specify who has purchased the tooling for the Vanquish, though it seems pretty clear that someone is looking to build cars using the Aston Martin platform.

Lotus may be a potential candidate, though a front-engined V12 grand tourer doesn't really fit the company's brand portfolio. The most likely buyer is a European tuning company like Mansory or Ares, who could design a new body using carbon fiber. No matter who purchased the rights to the Vanquish, we have to be excited because it means someone out there is currently developing a new GT car with a naturally aspirated V12 and we can't wait to see it.

Audi Now Has All It Needs To Build Supercar-Killing RS8

We’ve seen the RS7 put the hurt on many supercars, so why can't an RS8 model take over the same duties?

Even though Mercedes builds a ridiculous AMG S63 sedan and coupe and even offers twin-turbo V12 AMG S65 versions of each, there’s a reason you never see those cars turn up to a track day. It’s because they're nothing but playthings for rich people, much like a pet leopard or Pablo Escobar’s Hacienda Nápoles. BMW and Audi refuse to compete in this arena because it’s a highly impractical one and the cost of entry is high. However, now that Porsche and Audi are tech partners, an RS8 is not as far-fetched.

If Audi is feeling confident, it might give the new A8 to the Audi Sport division for some fine tuning with the help of access to Porsche’s parts bin, but until that happens we have to rely on the imaginative eye of Piesert Design. News of the Audi S8 and its Porsche derived 4.0-liter twin-turbo V8 has landed on our desks, but Peisert went right ahead and spec’d out an RS8. To make that a more practical proposition, Peisert exchanged the metal roof for carbon fiber and then added the rest of the characteristic RS features like oval exhaust pipes, and aggressive front and rear end bumpers that Audi’s Sport Performance Parts wing would be happy with.

Larger wheels painted in a dark hue match the grille and trim while contrasting with a striking shade of Sonoma Green ripped from the debut version of the RS5. The S8 will be quick in its own right, pushing upwards of 530 horsepower out to all four wheels (or two if we’re lucky), but rumors state that the Four Rings is also working on an S8 Plus that will utilize a similar drivetrain setup to the Porsche Panamera Turbo S E-Hybrid. If Audi sticks with that naming convention and forgoes an actual RS8 model, we'd consider it the equivalent. Let’s hope Audi sees a reason to cut into the Panamera’s sales frenzy because a supercar killing RS8 would be an object of upmost desire.

To see how Piesert’s masterpiece came together, check out this step by step recreation here.

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Audi Won't Build The Future TT Nobody Wanted

The TT's body style will continue how it should be.

Earlier this month we learned that Audi was considering a four-door version of its TT coupe when the time comes for a redesign. Audi’s logic was that the coupe and roadster segment is quickly dying, and only a few brands are finding success. It may not be worth Audi’s development time and money any longer.

But the TT is still a recognizable name, so Audi toyed with the idea of turning it into a more practical four-door coupe. According to CarAdvice, that won’t be happening. The Australian publication recently spoke to Peter Oberndorfer, Audi’s head of communications, who confirmed the four-door coupe idea is no longer.

Now, some of you may recall back in 2014 when Audi seriously considered an entire “TT family”, so to speak, consisting of a coupe, sedan and even a crossover-ish type of vehicle. That idea originated from now former Audi technical chief Ulrich Hackenberg, who was ousted following the revelations of Dieselgate.

“Actually we had the idea of a TT ‘family’, so to speak,” Oberndorfer said. “Not so much anymore. I think the TT is an icon, and to do a family (car) out of that is quite difficult. And especially in these times where we have to concentrate more and more, because we have to do gasoline and diesels on the one side, and electrification on the other side.”

The guy brings up some good points here, the main one being the TT always has been and should always be two-doors. “So you have to concentrate more and more and think about what you can do and what you can afford. So we’re quite happy with one TT at the moment," he added. But what does Audi have to say regarding that four-door TT rumor? “Where the recent stories came from, I don’t know. I don’t know about a four-door TT,” Oberndorfer said.