Auto Gossip

Press, Volume CXVI, Issue 34147, 7 May 1976, Page 10

Auto Gossip

(ty

Russell Jones)

A diverting advertisement has appeared in “The Press” recently. The New Zealand Motor Corporation, which has just started assembling the popular Honda Civic, noticed in “Motor” magazine that the acceleration time for the Honda from 50 to 80 km/h was the same as that for an exotic piece of Italian machinery — the Maserati Merak.

So, naturally enough, they said so in the advertisement — but only as a footnote. Their catchphrase for the Honda is that good news travels fast, and this must have been so in the advertising copy-writing department because the modest little ad was quickly followed by a much bigger one saying, “When your Honda Civic acts like a Maserati . . . ignore it. (It goes like that.)” Motoring writers agree that the Honda Civic is pleasingly fast for a machine with an 1169 cu cm engine, but as fast as a Maserati? The trick is that the acceleration times were taken in top gear. The

Honda has a top speed of about 150 km/h, so when it is accelerating between 50 and 80 in top it is quite at home. The Maserati, on the other hand, is geared for a top speed of 220 km/h and you would expect to change into top at about 160 km/h — the fact that it can match the Honda under these conditions is a bit of a plus for it. The acceleration time, by the way, is around 9.7 seconds. By contrast, the Maserati will accelerate from stop to 90 km/h in just over 6 seconds, while the Honda takes more than 12 — but that is using all the performance of the car. The Daimler Double Six is the fastest car from 50 to 80, according to “Motor”, but that is because it is an automatic and cannot be “held” in top gear when accelerating hard at those speeds. So any Honda owners! who try to drag off a I Maserati should not be too disappointed if they’re left in a cloud of dust. They might be lucky — they might find one jammed in top gear.