02 Mar 05
Next to the Civic, Honda's new Legend looked a model of predictable sobriety - neat enough in an S-Class-imitating way, but hardly distinctive. Under the skin, though, it has 'SH-AWD', or Super Handling All-Wheel Drive. This not only apportions torque front and rear according to need, starting from a baseline of around 70 percent to the front, but also between the left and right rear wheels in the manner of the 'e-diff' featured in Ferrari's F430. This can effectively accelerate the outer rear wheel to give neutral handling, and when powering hard out of a corner all of the rear wheels' torque can be directed to the outer wheel. It achieves this with electromagnetic clutches in the rear differential.
Other technology includes a lane-departure warning like Citroën's, adaptive cruise control with 'collision mitigation' and an infra-red night-vision system which can pick out pedestrians at night. The Bose stereo features AudioPilot, which detects wind, road and other intrusive noises and sends out the same sounds in the opposite phase, thus cancelling them out. The 3.5-litre, 295bhp V6's sound isn't entirely neutralised, though. UK sales are planned, but there are no details yet.
Honda also showed the latest update of its FCX fuel cell car, now with Honda's own fuel cell stack instead of a proprietary Ballard system. The key is a new aromatic electrolyte membrane which enables the cell to start up in temperatures as low as -20deg C, which is normally a problem for fuel cells because the water they produce makes them freeze up. This latest FCX has 109bhp, will travel nearly 270 miles on a fill of compressed hydrogen, and steps off the line impressively quickly as a brief run on the roads near the show revealed.
It drives so well, and is finished to such a high standard, that it could almost be a production car. There remains just the issue of price - it's worth about 100 Civics - and where to find the hydrogen.
