by Leo Diaz

As most of you know, in February 23rd of 2009, Honda Motor Co., Ltd. announced Takanobu Ito, at the time the company’s Senior Managing Director, as the seventh President and CEO of Honda Motor. The previous CEO Takeo Fukui has assumed a Director position and will remain on the Board as an advisor.

Ito-san joined Honda back in 1978 in R&D Operations as an engineer in the area of chassis design and in the early 90’s was in charge of the development of the all aluminum uni-body for the NSX.

So it came as a large surprise to many when he followed in Fukui-san’s steps and decided to pull the plug on the S2000 and Honda Motor’s participation in Formula One. Keep in mind that Fukui-san is responsible for pulling the plug on the NSX project as well as the NSX successor. This all comes into play with the need to be sustainable over the need for Honda to sport Japanese muscle.

As a direct result in the declining global economy and the insane fluctuation in fuel prices, Honda has taken the direction that products in which larger audiences want and are capable of paying for, will protect the company from more exposure to the global economic crisis.

Where this will take products like the S2000 (Honda’s final flagship sports car) is very unclear. Many sources believe that several rear-wheel drive Acura cars meant to compete with BMW, a new V8 VTEC engine, and the convertible Honda CR-Z will also be shut down.

Honda CEO Takanobu Ito has made it very clear that the company’s objective is to build a solid future in Green cars. Honda has made plans to build 500,000 hybrids by 2012 including the Honda Insight and the Jazz which sports a brag-able 80mpg. It’s too bad they couldn’t figure a way to keep my beloved S2000 in the line up.

I do hope that as the economy recovers that some of these projects get a second chance.
Either way, keep looking forward to me bringing you the latest in Honda News!

Happy VTECing!
Leo Diaz