Renault's future performance models

By Richard Yarrow Motor Industry 24 April 2008 10:20 There has never been a hot version of the Laguna from Renaultsport – the performance arm of the French car maker – and our advice is don’t hold your breath for one any time soon. With the MkIII Laguna launched last year, the timing would be perfect for the debut of a flagship model on the home turf of the Paris motor show in October 2008. But Patrick Pelata, Renault’s director of product planning, told CAR Online the quality of other super-saloons coupled with environmental concerns meant it wasn’t likely.

Honda Small Sports EV Concept

Honda has released these renders of the Small Sports EV Concept it hopes will be the star of the upcoming Tokyo Motor Show. Very few details of the compact sports car have been revealed, but it looks to be similar in size to the Mazda MX-5, but with an almost monovolume silhouette, with virtually no transition from hood to windscreen at the front and a pair of buttresses that extend from the top of the seats to the trailing edge of the rear deck. The front mask features full-width blue lighting and a glazed 'grille', which appear to becoming visual identifiers for EVs.

Acura TL

Honda has released the very first image of the all-new redesigned TL, which will be sold under the company's luxury nameplate. Though only a single front quarter image has been made available, the profile of the new Acura TL is distinctively coupe-like, displaying an overall athletic stance. Apart from the familiar brushed aluminum Acura grille and single surface front bumper, new styling cues include sharp edged bodyside character surfaces anchoring down the design at the shoulder and the rocker panel, and the shoulder character lines' edge looping the front wheelarch surface and running down to the headlamp all the way to the front fascia.