Actually, it would be more accurate to call the fruits of this collaboration driving shoes, as these five new Honda Racing shoes aren't covered in flame-retardant Nomex. But no matter -- FILA is releasing five new shoes inspired by "Honda Racing's commitment to fulfill every car enthusiast's racing dreams."
When you cut past the marketing hoopla, what you have are a new set of footwear packed with driver friendly features such as floor mat-grabbing cupped polyurethane heels, "ballistic" mesh for breathability, low profile outsoles for better pedal feel and and light weight that helps reduce fatigue. The new shoes are available in either low or mid top and four different colors. Hey, why not? The Honda/FILAs are even kinda good looking. And come to think of it, our must-have-'cause-we're auto-journos Pilotis are getting a bit long-in-the-tooth.
Just about a week ago, Honda announced that it was dropping out of Formula 1, but in subsequent reports Honda confirmed that it was not planning to pull support from other motorsports endeavors. That doesn't quite seem to be the case. Yesterday, Honda announced that it will be removing factory support from AMA road racing. The only Honda factory rider already contracted for the '09 season is Neil Hodgson. Jake Zemke, winner of last year's AMA Formula Xtreme Championship, now seems likely to race for the Erion Honda team, which Honda will still be offering support to, along with the Corona Honda team. Motocross and Supercross will not be affected by Honda's decision.
Honda cites the "current global economic situation and its impact on Honda" for the change, but we wonder if the ongoing dominance of Mat Mladin and Ben Spies' Suzukis may have made AMA Superbike an easy series to drop -- a move last made by Ducati in 2006. We're also left wondering if the ongoing conflict with Daytona Motorsports Group, the new management for AMA Pro Racing, had anything to do with the withdrawl. In any case, we won't be seeing any Honda Factory teams in AMA road racing for 2009.
The current economic climate has only just started to wreak havoc in the motorsports world, with last week's announcements that Honda is pulling out of F1 and Audi is leaving the American LeMans Series. Things are likely to get worse before they get better as other automakers, including those based in Detroit, will almost certainly cut racing programs and budgets. What won't be affected – at least for now – are Honda's non-F1 endeavors, including its motorcycle programs, the Indy Racing League and the American Le Mans Series. The ALMS and IRL programs are both operated by Honda Performance Development out of Torrance, CA. Unlike the F1 program, the IRL engine program generates revenue from the teams that lease these engines. The Acura ALMS program will definitely continue in 2009 as the team moves up from the LMP2 to the LMP1 class. The big bummer is that Acura won't have any competition from the Audi R10, which is leaving the ALMS next year.
Despite some serious reservations regarding the safety and high cost of the Kinetic Energy Recovery System
(KERS), the hybrid system has received the green light for introduction into the 2009 Formula 1 season. After BMW and Renault had some, uh, issues with KERS, Renault called a meeting to discuss whether the new flywheel-based system should be postponed until 2010. BMW Sauber, Honda Racing and Williams are apparently feeling confident enough in their own systems to resist the delay. Because F1 rules dictate that a consensus must be reached to change the previous ruling, F1 cars in 2009 will run with the new drivetrain. The only thing which could still hold back the new technology would be if the teams were unable to guarantee the safety of their systems, and this seems unlikely given that Honda has already completed a successful track test last week.
Honda has a long history in grand prix racing. The sport's first Japanese team debuted with its own home-grown chassis and engine in 1964, taking its first victory in only its second year in Formula One at the 1965 Mexican Grand Prix. The original RA271 was replaced by the RA300 at the 1967 Italian Grand Prix at Monza, which John Surtees won on its maiden race. Honda withdrew from Formula One in 1969, supplied engines to various teams between 1983 and 1992 and again with British American Racing in 2000, which Honda had adopted as its own factory team by 2005 before winning the 2006 Hungarian Grand Prix.
Keen to highlight its rich heritage in Formula One, Honda came to the Geneva Motor Show with and old RA300 and its latest successor, the RA108. Compared to the 3-liter 420-hp V12 and 5-speed manual in the vintage RA300, the new RA108 is driven through a seven-speed sequential gearbox by a 2.4-liter V8 producing over 700 hp.
