Honda marked the opening of its new expanded research and development center in Silicon Valley, but an old prototype with peculiar proportions really catches attention.
Could this be the new Baby NSX? It definitely looks like the patent drawings that were revealed featuring an unknown mid-engine Honda. But despite how much it looks like those baby NSX patent drawings, as reported by Car Scoops, it's merely a design study from a few years ago, according to Jalopnik.
A Honda spokesperson clarified: "It's a three year old design study made by our LA advance design studio. It's on permanent display in the lobby of our Silicon Valley R&D facility, and was on display at our press conference last week. It's not an S2000 or baby NSX, but it is an indication that our designers continually dream about sports cars." The statement was reported by Car Scoops.
According to another report by Car Advice, Honda is a long-time member of the Silicon Valley technology community. Known for their expertise in the field of cars, motorcycles, industrial equipment, aeronautics and robotics, Honda will be building its new facility--a huge 3,520 square-metre mobility centre--alongside the first facility it opened in 2003.
The focus of attention on the new Silicon Valley centre is on the unique mobility technologies. Honda's R&D boss in America, Frank Paluch, claimed that the new centre will also bring unity among the company's different teams. This will also secure that each department's innovations will be best utilized for future production potential. Aside from these, the centre will be used in collaboration with other companies.
"It's the next step in the expansion of what we've already done here, and this collaboration and partnership is going to give us new seeds that we can plant today to harvest the technologies of tomorrow. We can't do it all ourselves, so we're trying to look more collaboratively," Paluch said.
