The New Honda Beat

Another article and artist rending of the potential upcoming 2013 Honda Beat.

http://www.motortrend.com/future/future_vehicles/1106_the_honda_beat_is_back/

Just a Good Old Boys

Found this while digging around in a forum somewhere and thought it was nifty...

Brighter Than The Sun

Another S2000 in East Texas that I've never seen before. This brings the total number that I know about close to 10. The lower the prices in the used market get, the more of them I'm seeing around town. It's gotten to a point where it is a whole lot rarer to see a Boxster or SLK anymore. I'm not certain whether I prefer to be rare or to have company, but regardless, the yellow one I spotted this week at Jalapeno Tree was really, really pretty.

S2000: Pixar Style

I've been a bit disappointed for a couple years that there was no S2000 character in the Cars movie. So I decided to put my Photoshop skills to good use tonight and turn mine into one. This is Stewie.

Looks Like The Beat May Actually Happen in 2013

An article is reporting that Honda may actually put the proposed Beat into production for 2013. It is supposed to be based on the concept picture shown above. More at the following link here.

A New S2000 in Town

Met a guy named Jeremy today who parked next to me at Papacitas. He's had his 2004 Silverstone Metallic S2000 for about 3 months now. That brings the grand total to 5 silver S2000s in Longview. We are multiplying...

I am The Walrus

I've been wanting to do a video like this (ala Ferris Bueller) for as long as I've had the car. I finally got around to it and think it came out pretty nifty. It's a fairly goofy concept, but was one heck of a lot of fun to put together.

Fun with Long Exposures at Night

Power of the Dream

This is really cool...

The First Reasonable Replacement

Okay, I realize this isn't an S2000. But it IS the first new production car that I've actually considered trading my S2000 in for. If the production model is anywhere near as hot as the concept, it's going to be one good looking car.

Since production ceased on the S2000, there has yet to be a really viable alternative step into the market. I mean, you can keep your Miatas and RX8s. Well, that has all changed and it looks like the car is coming from a joint venture of Subaru and Toyota (Scion). I beg to say this may be the best looking car I have ever seen in a sub-$100K car. Here is the trailer from Scion:

Another S2000 Sighting in Longview

Parked next to another S2000 over the weekend when we ate at Papacitas. The chances are really, really low of seeing another one on any given day. So this was fun.

Fun with iMovie

Just wanted to check out the new Movie Trailer Maker in iMovie '11 so I went and stuck the GoPro cams on the car and took it for a spin and then used the footage in this fake trailer. It's corny, but pretty cool nonetheless.

Honda S2000 Movie Trailer from Tom Barnard on Vimeo.

Civic Type R Euro

Once again, those outside the U.S. get all the fun. This car isn't available in the U.S. (at least not at this point). A variant of it (the Type R) is on sale in several European countries and is the car that my shift knob came from. This "Euro" edition is new and not available anywhere yet. I believe it should be. I think this stubby hatchback variant is SO much cooler than the standard 2-door Civic hatch available here.

Cool Photography

Some really fantastic auto photography from a guy who shoots a ton for Honda Tuning magazine: http://orlandoech.com/blog/

Silver S2000 on Honda Tuning This Month

A silver AP1 S2000 graced the cover of Honda Tuning this month. Check it out at the following link: http://www.hondatuningmagazine.com/features/htup_1105_2000_honda_s2000/index.html

Wax Plus Elbow Grease

It is literally amazing how different a car looks after one simple coat of a good quality wax. Over the winter, my S2000 got little more than the spray on stuff from the do-it-yourself wash place. But today was so amazing outside that it was time to give my baby his first real polish of the season. It is almost like a completely new paint job. I literally forgot how pretty this car looks in silver. It now has a completely mirrored finish that is spotless. Onto the next project.

Finally Saw The CRZ

Our local Honda dealer finally got a couple CRZs in and the wife and I took a stroll around their parking lot today. I'm still intrigued by this car, but I think after the in-person, I'm less impressed than I thought I'd be. I mean, there was a Honda Fit sitting just a few cars down. It looked almost as sporty, and it gets 33 miles per gallon WITHOUT shutting off the air conditioning at stoplights. The CRZ gets 37 MPG in best case scenario. In Texas, shutting off the A/C at the stop lights? Yeah, that ain't happening.

Plus, the whole "sort of a back seat" thing is really, really weird to me. There is no back seat. This is a 2 seater. But there is this weird storage area that looks like two seats there, just without a place to put your feet. I don't get it.

All in all, this is NO replacement for the S2000. I think if I were looking for something practical, I'd just save myself 4 grand and but the Honda Fit. It's a great little car with lots of personality. It's still built in the factories in Japan, so the quality is excellent. It gets great gas mileage and it does it while being quite sporty.

Okay. So where's our REAL S2000 replacement? Huh? Huh?

GoPro Hero HD Stills

Strapped the GoPro cam to the car again today for some experimentation with its timed still mode. Thrilled with the results. The quality of stills from these cameras is fantastic.