Down Shift Magazine

Recently while on a 1,100+ mile road-trip designed to put Honda’s 2012 Civic SI to the test we chose to take an unconventional path that wound include both interstates and blue-highways. Winding our way north from the suburbs of Tampa, Florida all the way up to the pastoral woodlands of North Georgia’s Appalachian foothills we were afforded a unique opportunity to enjoy some of the South’s best driving roads, agrarian scenery and small-town eateries.

Simple, delicious and decidedly local the excellently hidden Foothill Grill of Dahlonega, Georgia.

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The 2012 Mazda Road to Indianapolis officially opened this weekend as the USF2000 National Championship, Star Mazda Championship and Indy Lights series took to the streets of St. Petersburg, Florida as part of the IndyCar Honda Grand Prix of St. Petersburg.

Spencer Pigot swept the USF2000 competition claiming both race wins. (Click to Enlarge - 1920x1200)

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Honda was recently spotted at the the Twin Ring Motegi circuit sporting the test car for their 2012 Super GT series that enables teams to equip and use a Hybrid system on race cars…

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For use in the Super GT (formerly the JGTC), the NSX has been highly modified with chassis development by Dome and extensive engine development by Mugen.

Honda's breakthrough engineering in the NSX was a major contributor to the design of the McLaren F1... (1920x1200)

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America’s love affair with the NSX has been rekindled courtesy of a Superbowl commercial featuring Jerry Seinfeld and Jay Leno competing for ownership of the first gen-2 US car. With that fervor for the Japanese mid-engine supercar in mind we gladly kick off our week of featured NSX’s with one of the best  the 2003 Tanabe tuned NSX-R.

Motoharu Kurosawa piloted a 2003 NSX-R around the Nurburgring road course in 7:56, a time equal to a Ferrari F360 Challenge Stradale. (1920x1200)

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Leading into this weekend’s superbowl is an all out multi-media blitz, ensnared by the big game’s advertising budgets we’ve got (2) videos  this week. In the first we see Jerry Seinfeld feverishly fighting for ownership of the first USDM ’13 Acura NSX and in the latter we have Matthew Broderick pining for a much needed day-off, courtesy of his ’12 Honda CRV. #honda nice work this year…nice work indeed.

Long live the NSX... Even in spite of it's legendary lack of power we always loved Japan's first supercar.

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