Motorcycles

Honda’s Two-Wheel Comeback

If you’ve ever wondered what Honda would build if it were allowed to indulge every kind of rider at once, the answer just arrived in one tidy press release. American Honda is bringing back eight of its most beloved motorcycles and scooters for the 2026 and 2027 model years, and the lineup reads like a greatest-hits album of two-wheel culture: big-bore adventure bikes, tiny retro playthings, city-smart scooters, and even competition-bred trials machines.

This isn’t a tentative refresh—it’s a full-scale reminder of why Honda still sits at the center of the motorcycling universe. From globe-trotting adventurers to first-time riders commuting across town, there’s something here for nearly every two-wheel identity.

The Africa Twin Still Rules the Map

At the top of the food chain is the 2026 Africa Twin, a machine that’s become shorthand for “ride to the end of the earth and back.” Honda continues to offer it in four configurations: standard or Adventure Sports ES, each available with either a traditional manual gearbox or Honda’s trick DCT dual-clutch automatic.

This is the bike for riders who don’t just want to leave town—they want to leave the pavement, the schedule, and maybe even the continent. With MSRPs starting at $15,199 and topping out at $18,599, the Africa Twin remains one of the more attainable entries into the serious adventure-touring club, especially given Honda’s legendary reputation for durability.

In other words, it’s still the motorcycle equivalent of a well-sorted overland rig—quietly confident, ruthlessly capable, and always ready to go farther than you probably should.

MiniMOTO: Small Bikes, Big Personality

On the opposite end of the displacement spectrum, Honda continues to double down on fun.

The Trail125, Dax 125, and Monkey are the brand’s love letter to its 1960s and ’70s golden age, when small bikes made big cultural waves. But these aren’t museum pieces—they’re fuel-injected, ABS-equipped, modern machines that just happen to look like something your coolest uncle rode back in the day.

  • The Trail125 ($4,199) is the two-wheeled equivalent of a hiking boot: simple, rugged, and endlessly charming.
  • The Dax 125 ($4,199) leans into playful retro style with its T-shaped frame and friendly ergonomics.
  • The Monkey ($4,399) is still the class clown of the lineup, blending chrome, plush suspension, and surprising real-world usability.

These bikes aren’t about speed—they’re about smiles per mile, and Honda knows it.

Navi and PCX: Urban Mobility, Honda Style

Then there’s the Navi, which has quietly become one of the best-selling motorcycles in America by doing one simple thing incredibly well: being easy. With a scooter-like automatic transmission, a 109cc engine, and pricing that starts at just $2,199, it’s the gateway drug to motorcycling.

The PCX ($4,349) plays a more refined role. With traction control, LED lighting, under-seat storage, and a USB-C port, it’s basically a two-wheeled commuter pod—efficient, stylish, and far more engaging than sitting in traffic inside a car.

If your daily grind involves crowded streets and tight parking, these two make a compelling case for ditching four wheels.

The ADV160: A Scooter With a Passport

For riders who want their practicality with a side of adventure, the 2027 ADV160 might be the most intriguing machine here. Think of it as a ruggedized PCX: longer-travel suspension, more ground clearance, and styling that looks ready to escape the city.

At $4,499, it’s a relatively affordable way to get a scooter that won’t panic when the pavement ends.

Montesa Cota: Trials Royalty

Finally, Honda hasn’t forgotten the hardcore crowd. The Montesa Cota 4RT 260R ($9,849) and 301RR ($12,949) are purpose-built trials machines, developed with input from multi-time world champion Toni Bou. These bikes exist for one reason: to conquer terrain so technical most riders wouldn’t even try to walk across it.

They’re niche, sure—but they also reinforce Honda’s claim to being serious about every corner of motorcycling.

A Lineup That Actually Makes Sense

What’s striking about Honda’s 2026–2027 lineup isn’t just the breadth—it’s the coherence. Every bike here serves a distinct purpose, yet all of them reflect the same philosophy: make riding accessible, reliable, and genuinely fun.

From the globe-spanning Africa Twin to the pocket-sized Monkey, Honda isn’t just selling machines. It’s selling ways to ride—and reasons to keep riding.

And in an industry increasingly obsessed with chasing trends, that kind of clarity feels refreshingly old-school. Just like a Honda should.

Source: Honda

News

BMW’s Secret Weapon in the EV Era Is Still an Engine Plant in England

In an industry racing headlong toward batteries, silicon, and kilowatts, BMW is quietly doing something radical: perfecting the internal-combustion engine.

While headlines fixate on EV sales charts, BMW Group’s Hams Hall engine plant near Birmingham has just crossed a milestone that matters far more to driving enthusiasts—25 years of building engines that still make cars feel alive. Since 2001, more than 7.6 million engines have left this unassuming factory, powering everything from humble MINIs to the kind of Rolls-Royces that glide rather than drive.

And no, these aren’t museum pieces. They’re modern, turbocharged, emissions-scrubbed, hybrid-ready combustion engines that prove ICE tech still has meaningful evolution left in it.

The Beating Heart of BMW’s “Technology-Open” Strategy

BMW likes to talk about being “technology-open,” which in plain English means:
We’ll build EVs—but we’re not throwing away engines that still outperform them in the real world.

Hams Hall is the backbone of that strategy.

This single UK plant builds:

  • Three- and four-cylinder turbo petrol engines for BMW and MINI
  • V8s for BMW’s high-performance lineup
  • And the last production V12 on Earth, built exclusively for Rolls-Royce Motor Cars

Yes—the V12 still lives, and it’s hand-assembled by specialist technicians before being shipped to Goodwood, where Rolls-Royce installs it into cars that cost more than a house. That alone makes Hams Hall a kind of mechanical sanctuary in a disposable digital age.

Old-School Power, New-School Intelligence

What makes Hams Hall special isn’t nostalgia—it’s how modern it is.

BMW has transformed the entire factory into a fully connected digital twin. Every machine, robot, and production cell is mirrored in software. Every vibration, temperature spike, and torque setting is logged in real time. Engineers don’t guess—they simulate, predict, and optimize before problems ever occur.

And then there’s SpOTTO.

Yes, that’s a robot dog.

Developed by Boston Dynamics (as “Spot”), SpOTTO patrols the plant using cameras, microphones, and thermal sensors, scanning machines for faults, leaks, and wear. It feeds all that data into BMW’s digital systems, turning Hams Hall into something closer to a living organism than a factory.

The name isn’t random either. SpOTTO honors Gustav Otto—the man whose father invented the four-stroke engine. That’s about as poetic as industrial automation gets.

A Factory That Got Greener Without Getting Slower

Here’s the part no one expects from an engine plant: it’s one of BMW’s cleanest.

Since full production began, Hams Hall has reduced its energy use per engine by 61%. Despite building far more engines today than it did 20 years ago, the site uses roughly the same total energy. All externally sourced electricity now comes from renewables, and natural-gas consumption has been steadily cut.

In other words, BMW didn’t wait for EVs to go green—it cleaned up combustion itself.

That matters, because for the next decade at least, most BMWs will still be powered by engines. Making those engines cleaner and more efficient is just as important as selling EVs.

From i8 Three-Cylinders to Twin-Turbo V12s

Hams Hall’s résumé reads like a BMW highlight reel:

  • In 2001, it launched series production using Valvetronic, BMW’s throttle-less variable-lift valve system
  • In 2006, it began building engines for MINI
  • In 2013, it became the exclusive producer of the three-cylinder engine for the BMW i8, one of the most technically advanced sports cars of its era
  • In 2022, it took over V8 and V12 production, cementing its status as BMW’s combustion crown jewel

Few factories on Earth can go from eco-hybrid triple-cylinders to twelve-cylinder luxury engines under the same roof. Hams Hall does it daily.

Why This Matters in 2026

BMW could have walked away from combustion. Many brands are trying to.

Instead, it doubled down.

By investing in places like Hams Hall—alongside massive EV facilities in Austria, Germany, and China—BMW has positioned itself to win no matter which way the market swings. If EV adoption stalls? BMW has world-class engines. If hybrids dominate? Hams Hall supplies them. If luxury buyers demand V12s? BMW still builds them.

That’s not hedging. That’s engineering confidence.

And as long as places like Hams Hall exist, the idea that the internal-combustion engine is “obsolete” remains what it’s always been:

A misunderstanding of just how good these machines have become.

Source: BMW

NEW CARS

Bluebird Aero: How a Jet-Powered Featherweight Is Chasing Britain’s Next Speed Record

There’s something deeply British about trying to go absurdly fast in something that looks like it escaped from a kid’s downhill derby. The Bluebird Aero is exactly that kind of beautifully unhinged machine: a jet-powered, composite-tubbed, 47-kilogram projectile built by a tiny team of engineers who think 100 mph is a reasonable target for something that barely weighs more than a sack of cement.

This is not a car in the way we normally use the word. It has no engine in the traditional sense, no drivetrain, no gears, and no illusions about being practical. It’s a land-speed record weapon, inspired by the legendary Bluebird machines of Malcolm and Donald Campbell, scaled down to soapbox size but infused with aerospace thinking.

At the center of it all is Russell Annison, a veteran of the Bloodhound land-speed-record project and a former Lola wind-tunnel specialist. Alongside CAD wizard and driver Matt Sadler and brakes guru Adam Rogers, Annison has created something that looks simple but is anything but. The Aero’s carbon-fiber and aluminum-honeycomb monocoque traces its lineage directly back to a Lola gravity racer built for the Goodwood Festival of Speed in 2013. That car was all about minimal drag, and the Aero inherits that obsession.

With a drag coefficient of just 0.22 and an ultra-small frontal area, the Bluebird Aero cheats the air like a racing bullet. Which is a good thing, because its propulsion comes from something equally ridiculous: a 2.8-kilogram gas-turbine jet engine built by JetCat, a German firm better known for powering radio-controlled model aircraft. Spinning at up to 123,000 rpm and delivering 17 kilograms of thrust, the little turbine fires a 700-mph jet stream out the back. It’s loud, violent, and wildly inappropriate—and that’s the point.

In May 2024, Annison strapped himself into the Aero and set a record at 55 mph for a prototype dual-propulsion electric-and-jet vehicle. Even more impressive than the number was the way it got there: the car was still accelerating after the jet was shut down, proof that the aero efficiency is doing some of the heavy lifting.

Now the team wants nearly double the speed. With new 3D-printed dive planes increasing front-end downforce under braking, Annison believes the power is already there for a near-100-mph run. The real enemies now are stability and tires. Yes—tires. The Aero currently rides on Schwalbe bicycle rubber, which is very good at being round but not so great at being asked to survive speeds normally reserved for highway traffic.

Under the skin, the Aero is an engineering jewel box. The bicycle-sourced disc brakes are water-spray cooled. The fuel tank is a bespoke welded aluminum unit. The low-pressure fuel system is designed specifically to reduce fire risk in what is, essentially, a rolling jet engine wrapped in carbon fiber.

If everything aligns, the team hopes to make another run in May—exactly two years after their last record. That timing isn’t accidental. It would coincide with the long-awaited return of Donald Campbell’s restored Bluebird K7 jet hydroplane to Coniston Water, the site of his fatal 1967 attempt to exceed 300 mph. In other words, it would be a week where British speed history gets a very loud encore.

But the Bluebird Aero isn’t just about one team grabbing one number. Annison wants to turn this into a competition. His goal is to challenge students and young engineers to build their own rival micro-record cars and go after the mark. The Aero itself already travels to schools as a rolling STEM ambassador—a 100-mph physics lesson with a jet engine.

In an era when the car industry is increasingly about software, subscriptions, and sterile efficiency, the Bluebird Aero is a reminder of something more visceral: speed as a pure engineering problem. How light can you go? How clean can you slice the air? And how fast can you make something that, on paper, shouldn’t even exist?

A 100-mph soapbox shouldn’t make sense. That’s exactly why it does.

Source: Autocar

Cars and catalogues