Rumored and Rendered Speculation: Honda S3000

Filed under: Concept Cars, Convertibles, Sports/GTs, Honda, Rendered Speculation

Honda's S2000 may not be the newest thing on the market, but that doesn't mean it'll be easy to improve upon. The balance is sublime, the driving environment is nearly perfect, and it really comes alive after 6,000 rpm. Fashion probably drives the automotive landscape more than technical superiority, so Honda's been working on a replacement for its S2000. While the Open Study Model that broke cover in London is officially a design study, conjecture holds that it may portend the direction of Honda design language, even though Honda insists that the OSM is not the successor to the S2000.

Road and Track has whipped up a rendering that doesn't look any better than the current S2000's purity of line, but seems a credible stab at how an S3000 may appear. There's a bit too much Acura TL in the lines for our tastes, and the thought of a V6 from the same car thrumming under the coupe's hood doesn't set our enthusiast hearts a-beating. Much of the fun in an S2000 is keeping the high-output four cylinder on boil. A wealth of low-end torque would drastically change the car's character, likely not for the better. Since it's all conjecture anyway, we'll also throw out the chatter about possible hybrid powertrain for this model, too. While reality will answer all of this speculation eventually, we're just going to have to spend the ensuing days getting as much seat time as we can in the S2000.

[Source: Road and Track]

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Filed under: Spy Photos, Convertibles, BMW

We haven't shown you new spy shots of the upcoming redesigned BMW Z4 for, oh, at least a couple of weeks, but the latest pics reveal the hardtop convertible's final shape with only minimal covering. That psychedelic applique aside, we can easily see now that the new Z4 will be an evolutionary step for the design of this little roadster. What it will do is wipe clean the Bangle-inspired design elements that made the current car such a visual mess from every angle. It will get the clean, sculpted sides of current BMWs like the 3 Series, and an even larger twin-kidney grille. And unlike the current car, the proportions are now much more balanced with a reasonably sized front end flowing into a tidy cockpit and tapered rear. As mentioned, BMW will be ditching the soft top for a retractable hard top, which may take away some of the car's open air flavor but is largely a necessity in this class nowadays.

[Source: Next Autos]

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