By Greg Kachadurian
This week, Acura debuts a fantastic new heritage color for the NSX, Ford reveals an impressive new performance figure for the GT500, and it’s with heavy hearts that we announce the loss of one of our own, Charles Barrett.
Acura NSX Gains New Heritage Color
One of the most sought-after colors for the ’97-’03 Acura NSX was Spa Yellow and it’s finally coming back… sort of. The NSX is getting a modern interpretation of the classic color as one of two heritage paints available on the 2020 model. It’s called Indy Yellow Pearl and it’s perfect.
In the days of the first-generation NSX, Spa Yellow was the fifth most popular color and was applied to around 20% of all NSXs between ’97 and ’03. And fun fact: Spa Yellow was known as Indy Yellow in some markets. Anyone ordering a new NSX will have to pay $1,000 for the official Indy Yellow since it’s classified as a premium color, but that’s negligible on a car that starts at $157,500. If you want the other heritage color – Berlina Black – that one is included in the base price. The 2020 NSX is available for order now and will start arriving in showrooms in November. The Indy Yellow 2020 NSX will make its first public appearance during Monterey Car Week at Concours on the Avenue in Downtown Carmel alongside an NSX GT3 Evo. If you can’t make it to Car Week or don’t have $160k to spend on a car, enjoy these photos.
[Source: Acura]
Ford Gives Us More GT500 Numbers
Not to be outdone by the recent launch of the C8 Corvette, Ford has reminded us how badass the GT500 will be. We already knew the supercharged 5.2-liter V8 would produce 760 horsepower, making it the most powerful production Ford ever, and we knew it would be a GT500 that could actually hang with the best of them through corners. It’s the full package: tons of power, mechanical grip with sticky Michelin Cup 2s and magnetic dampers, functional aero with a rear spoiler straight from a GT4 race car, and the largest front brakes of any domestic sports coupe. To help visualize just how capable it is, Ford released a rather impressive performance figure. Starting from a stand still, it can accelerate to 100 mph and then brake back to a stand still in 10.6 seconds. After being a one trick pony for years, the new GT500 is shaping up to be a truly well-rounded sports car. Finally.
[Source: Ford]
Charles Barrett: 1963 – 2019
Obituaries are always hard to write. Even harder when it’s one of your own. Hooniverse has learned that Charles Barrett, whom many of our longtime readers and commenters may know very well, has recently passed away. Charles was one of the first hoons to join this weird corner of the internet we have and was one of the longest-running readers we had. He was known for his wit, his sense of humor, and the kind of weird car obsession that made him a perfect fit here.
One of the guys who knew him best, Jonny Lieberman from Motor Trend, remembered Charles as a “wonderful guy, always a smile, always a laugh, the kind of person you looked forward to saying hello to, even though he’d have you crying from giggles a minute later.”
Since there’s not much car news to cover this week, we’re open to any comments or stories you may have of Charles Barrett. He was an early member of what truly is one of the best communities on the web and I know he’d love to hear from us one more time.
Ross Ballot
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/3f21f4439559a31abf86050a424133bbe82ac33eef36e242dc73c5ebeb14c55b.png
RIP, Charles.
Jeff, it was brave of you to reference such a low point in your life, but did you have to forge a mental connection between Britney Spears and G/B/T porn in order to do that?
I. Miss. Charles.
Terribly.
I knew Charles only through his commenting on **redacted** but he was always a pleasure to read; both his comments on the automotive world and his insights from his (ahem…) very different employment. (See Jeff’s post above – not so different…)
Which road would you take? Hard choices on a gravel road expedition with the kids yesterday.
https://i.ibb.co/ZcrnkYb/IMG-20190809-222531.jpg
Doesn’t that song say the low road will get you there (Scotland) first?
Haha, yep– Loch Lomond. I desperately want to get to Scotland and Ireland to trace out some family history. Unfortunately I think such a trip would bore my kids to tears, so it might have to wait until retirement.
It’s essential for a good upbringing to be bored to tears regularly. Do it!
Stood 2hrs still in the wake of an accident on E6 today, the rock band bench was filled with three kids – Not enough time to get them bored yet. Alas, I am well aware by now that “Mama Mia” has a xylophone track.
Maybe you can do a bit of tracing and a bit of sightseeing, things like the Falkirk Wheel https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qHO9gARac-w or the University of Glasgow https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c9/Glasgow_university_with_sno.jpg (just tell them this is where Harry Potter went to school)…
I’ve been on the Falkirk Wheel – recommended.
Also agree on the boredom – spurs creativity and initiative, at least when not beyond the point of tired/grumpy. I’m not so keen on the idea though that I would inflict it on myself for an overseas trip!
Top Tip: Take the uphill route. That way if your car breaks down you can roll back down to where you started.
Indeed, the Camry has been throwing a CEL irregularly for a month now and my OBD dongle won’t connect to it. Strange noises, too.
The idiot light alone wouldn’t necessarily worry me, but coupled with the strange noises…? I would suggest getting it checked out, unless you’d ultimately rather let it die than repair it. Much like the deck on the back of my house (I want a patio) or my wife’s cat (I prefer the dog), I completely understand such circumstances.
The CEL comes and goes, might have to do with fuel levels or the gas cap. The noises…I suspect a lose exhaust (can’t replicate the noise though and it seems tightly mounted enough) or a transmission issue in the growing. That would be the death sentence. I wanted to replace the Camry this year anyway, but now we just wait for the next big failure. The Honda seems near impossible to sell, too. Only fools who send umpteen messages, but never show up.
The CEL comes and goes, might have to do with fuel levels or the gas cap. The noises…I suspect a lose exhaust (can’t replicate the noise though and it seems tightly mounted enough) or a transmission issue in the growing. That would be the death sentence. I wanted to replace the Camry this year anyway, but now we just wait for the next big failure. The Honda seems near impossible to sell, too. Only fools who send umpteen messages, but never show up.
I have no recollection of Charles except that the olelongrooffan I believe named his Jeep the Charles Barrett special. It was a reference that I never understood and now wish I had.
This weekend I hope to finally get the Thunderbird out of the garage. Oil pan is on and full. It’s down off the jack stands. Just need to top off the coolant, put the plugs in and (hopefully) fire it up.
I did borrow an Autozone loan a tool boroscope and check out the cylinder walls while the plugs were out. They showed a mirror like finish, indicating significant wear, so an engine rebuild is needed. For now I hope to get as many top down drives in as possible before summer ends. I can worry about engine work over the winter.
Bummer. It’s a 390 FE, right? I had to completely r/b the one in my ’66 Monterey back when I repainted it. Not a difficult job, but parts aren’t nearly as cheap for those engines as they are for small blocks. I was especially careful with the rear main seal, as I’ve had two FEs and those always seem to leak.
It’s an FE but a 352. The 390 became standard the next year, in 1961. I’ve not decided what to do. I may buy a 390 and rebuild it, I may rebuild the 352, I may turn the 352 into a 390. They share the same block, slightly different bore and longer stroke.
She started right up and I spent an hour going nowhere with the top down. I’ll figure out what to do after the summer.
428 time!
It, or any FE, would drop right in with no trouble. While I’m not exactly sure what my budget allows, but I’m pretty sure it doesn’t allow a new 428.
https://www.summitracing.com/parts/sca-1-94810?seid=srese1&gclid=CjwKCAjwnMTqBRAzEiwAEF3ndqq3tpM6cyEtsdDZ_1p3ctftDT9N3xTnXE-wJjofhUECfkgqv13hFBoCxMAQAvD_BwE
If only it were that simple. 😀
It looks like the article naming it has been lost from the Hooniverse archives. There is a gap between July and December 2011, and it appears to have happened November-ish.
http://oleragtop.blogspot.com/2011/11/yeah-its-been-quite-couple-months.html
Im working on getting back the lost articles but it’s a laborious process, to say the least
My Honda-engineer neighbor told me about the new NSX yellow a few months ago but refused to show me a picture, as if doing so was like ruining a birthday surprise. She said it was more impressive than the red in person. I’m not a fan of yellow on cars, so I’ll reserve judgement until I see one on the street.
I don’t remember Mr. Barrett (perhaps before my time here?), but he was obviously well-respected and will be missed. Rest in peace, fellow hoon.
He was an old-school Jalop who followed many here when we first launched the site.
Charles will be missed here. I also knew him only through his online presence, but appreciated his wit and comments.
During one of the early Ninja Claus celebration extravaganzas, he was the giver of gifts that got assigned to me. I fat fingered my own address, from house number 6348 to 6438, and my highly competent postal delivered couldn’t figure out the mistake on my short street of about 20 houses, so the package got returned. Charles was kind enough to make the effort to reach out and figure what went wrong and resend the box.
It’s the people that have made this place special, people like Charles Barrett.
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/4da781abb301a2038dc4c235256ea4477c07442162bfa5b950f70cb8cc7ce5c2.jpg
I guess we can’t. blame. Charles anymore. (Whose meme was that anyway? Dearthair’s?)
I wonder how awkward things are gonna be in the halls of Arrow Schmidt-Petersen and Honda Performance Development for the rest of the IndyCar year. Hinch is in the TV ads praising the Honda cars, they’ve got races to run together yet to finish out the year, but next year that organization becomes Arrow McLaren something-or-another with Chevy power (lingering bad blood from McLaren-Honda F1 I suppose.)
I’m mostly talking to avatars, only few real names (mostly from story authors) are known. The first time I’ve heard about Charles was Lieberman on one of the usual podcasts (H’verse/TST?), but it doesn’t matter: Please note everyone that I like what we’re having here, and it’s not good to lose one of us. The impacts are closing in, let’s make it good until they’re finally homing in to get us, too.
Originally I wanted to say something about “check emissions” messages on our Diesel van, but instead I’ll rather end with a high note on how nice the people of my local P-club chaper are: I went to the monthly grill-and-drive-about with my 5yo girl, and they all took care of her while I was talking with other people and tying more contacts. Next week, one of the members will drive out to the club workshop (where affluent people can wrench on and/or store their cars) in order to teach me tire changing and wheel balancing, i.e. the black art. The best things in life aren’t things – that’s true so far.