Honda S2000

Honda postpones roadster replacement but boosts current car

Not long after ditching its F1 team and canceling the new NSX supercar, Honda has called time on several more of its less mainstream models. A convertible version of the CR-Z hybrid is no more, while Acura badged rivals for the BMW 3, 5 and 7-series could be cancelled too. The biggest loss for us though is the S2000 roadster, which is set to cease production this year with no new model or replacement to step into its shoes.

In the meantime, though, Honda is gracing the Tokyo Auto Salon with a bunch of Sports Modulo concepts. Essentially tweaked and body kitted versions of its existing range (its Japanese Domestic Market ones, at that) it is nonetheless a brighter bit of news from Japan.

The S2000 Sports Modulo (main picture) gets a neat exterior bodykit, some funkier lights (including the obligitory LEDs) and a luxury brown leather and carbon fibre-clad interior. No news on if there's any performance tweaks to the standard car's 237bhp 2-litre yet.

Among the other models gaining Sports Modulo attention are the JDM Civic Type-R (our preferred flavour of hot Honda) which is pictured here in Championship White while the Jazz supermini (the amusingly named Fit in the Far East) has been Tangoed inside and out for the Tokyo show. Again, no word on performance or whether any of the tweaks will filter down to production Hondas, but we'd advise crossing your fingers.

Honda scraps plans to build NSX sports car

Honda Motor Co. cancelled plans to build a new Acura NSX sports car as the automaker grapples with the global economic slump.

President Takeo Fukui announced the NSX's demise today as one of several cost-saving cutbacks.

The NSX was expected to have a front-mounted, V-10 engine that made at least 500 hp. It would have been the successor to the first-generation NSX, which had a mid-mounted V-6. That NSX went out of production in late 2005 after 14 years.

Its successor was expected to debut as a 2010 model and was poised to be Acura's answer to the Audi R8 and Nissan GT-R.

The NSX was expected to be outfitted with advanced technologies, including the Super Handling All-Wheel Drive system. It was also likely to get aluminum and carbon-fiber parts to keep weight low.

The program appeared to be on track as late as this summer, when spy shooters caught what looked to be an NSX on Germany's famed Nürburgring circuit.

That car looked similar to the Advanced Sports Car concept unveiled at the Detroit auto show in 2007.

In addition to canceling the NSX, Honda is cutting sales and profit forecasts and executive pay while delaying plant openings. It also scrapped plans to launch the Acura brand in Japan in 2010.