Jazz

Accord, Euro and Jazz updates in this issue Safety, style and stay-in-touch features are the keys to upgrades for 2011 on three of Honda’s most popular models: Accord, Accord Euro and Jazz. From new-look grilles to sophisticated touches inside, from Bluetooth to USB connectivity, from cruise control to colours for the modern world, we detail them all in this issue.

AUTUMN 2011 02

HEADLINES

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NO GENERATION GAP HERE > New Honda Civic Si

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IN THE PINK > Travel

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MAJOR DISASTER, MAJOR RESPONSE > Honda Foundation

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COME FLY WITH US > Technology

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BEST OF BOTH WORLDS > Technology

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DREAMS OF POWER > Honda Insight

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Honda motor vehicle products

“TIME TO GET ENGAGED” > Profile

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Australia.

RED HOT HAWAII > Travel

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Executive Editor Mark Higgins Art Director Chris Payne Account Director Stuart Wilson Design, Art & Print Production Mightyworld Honda Magazine Editorial Office: Suite 101 34 Queens Road Melbourne VIC 3004.

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Tel: 03 9820 9942

Honda ONE new look > Honda Online 35

Email: [email protected] For general enquiries regarding or services, contact Honda Tel: 03 9285 5555 Neither Honda Australia nor the magazine’s editorial staff accept

STOCK BUT NOT STANDARD > Australia 36

responsibility for unsolicited

OFF ROAD OPPORTUNITIES > Honda CR-V 40

illustrations. They will not be

TAKING IT TO THE STREETS > Art

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by a self-addressed, stamped

TABLE TOP > Food & Wine

48

to edit all correspondence for

ONE FOR ALL > Honda Dream Team

50

The views expressed in the

FAST STARTER > Honda MotoGP

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manuscripts, photographs or returned unless accompanied envelope. We reserve the right publication. magazine are not necessarily those of Honda Australia.

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ALL IN THE FAMILY > Honda Superbikes 54 WELCOME BACK > Honda Indycar

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NEVER OLD, NEW AGAIN > Honda Accord 58 SPORTY START, SILKY FINISH > Honda Accord Euro

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JAZZIER THAN EVER > Honda Jazz

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SHOWROOM > Complete Honda Range

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DEALERS > Honda Dealers

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Average Net Distribution 1 April to 30 September 2010 157,140

ENVI Carbon Neutral paper is an Australian Government certified Greenhouse Friendly™ Product.

42 Honda Magazine • honda.com.au

Keep in touch at the touch of a button: check out Honda’s website at honda.com.au for all the latest on model changes, media releases, and all that’s new in the world of Honda.

Editor Stuart Sykes, ScotSport

WELCOME

1

Honda Magazine • honda.com.au

Perhaps the best thing to do is get on with life, as Honda was able to do in its home land in early April, resuming production at plants which had been temporarily closed because of the natural disasters. There had been no significant impact on local buyers. As our national Managing Director and CEO Satoshi Matsuzawa said, “While it’s business as usual in Australia, our hearts go out to the people of Japan as they rebuild their lives shattered by the earthquake and subsequent tsunami.” For some relief we need only turn to the Honda Foundation and the good it does here in Australia. As this edition of our magazine proudly relates, we have now gone past the milestone of $8 million in donations to a vast range of charities and other good causes.

2

Lindsay Smalley Senior Director, Honda Australia

Foundation Goes Through Roof

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a

s we closed for press Honda announced upgrades for its ever-popular family workhorse, the Odyssey, and its top-of-the-range sedan, the Legend.

2011 Honda Legend

2011 Honda Odyssey

JAPANESE EARTHQUAKE

In the standard Odyssey there is now A-pillar Bluetooth connectivity and the car gains reverse parking sensors; the Luxury variant comes with sat-nav featuring reversing camera, DVD player, integrated Bluetooth, live traffic updates, SD card map updates and USB connectivity. On the colour front, Crystal Black is discontinued but Premium Mystic Night is added to the range. Legend now has 6-speed auto transmission; the car boasts integrated steering wheelmounted Bluetooth; and two exciting new colours, Graphite Luster and Pomegranate, are now available.

o, we haven’t got our architecture mixed up – but The Honda Foundation has now broken through the $8 million ceiling. Supported by Honda Australia and Honda’s dealer network, the Foundation has now given $8.1m over 19 years to 650 charities and causes, including donations for relief from natural disasters. “Seeing the struggles many people face in their daily lives is both humbling and uplifting, when people overcome these challenges with a helping hand from The Honda Foundation,” said the Foundation’s chairman Mr. Lindsay Smalley. For more details please go to page 10. 

Honda Australia would like to express its deepest sympathy and condolences to the victims of the earthquake on March 11 off the Pacific coast of Tohoku in northeastern Japan and our sincere hopes for the earliest possible relief and recovery of the affected areas.


I

t is impossible to sum up in a few words the effect of the devastating earthquake and tsunami that struck Japan earlier this year. Its consequences were felt by all of us at Honda Australia – we have a handful of Japanese colleagues with us here but, of course, we feel close to our many friends and associates in their home country as well. Like all Australians, and like people all around the world, we were keen to do whatever we could.

Looking ahead, we have details of upgrades to three enduringly popular Honda models: Jazz, Accord and Accord Euro in this issue, while our star performer this time is the outstanding Civic Si hatch – the epitome of Honda’s emphasis on practicality, value for money and making cars our customers want. Insight and CR-V also figure strongly in the pages that follow, demonstrating the versatility of the Honda fleet and its relevance to the way we live our lives today. One man who lives his life inspirationally is Simon McKeon, the Australian of the Year. We first met Simon in this magazine three years ago and I believe you will find him more firmly focused than ever on helping those most in need, and on getting up and getting the job done. On a lighter note you can indulge your taste for armchair travel with features on exciting destinations here and abroad, while the many faces of modern Australia are highlighted in stories of street art and horsemanship in the outback. Honda’s activities in motor sport, whether on two wheels or four, are also here for you to enjoy – and a new regular feature on the best of Australia’s food and wine means there is pretty well something for everyone.

3

+ Who needs 35 years’ experience in the motoring business when you have two Gen Y daughters prepared – nay insisting – on offering points of view on the latest Civic Si hatch? Peter McKay asks – and answers – the question!

Honda Civic Si

> S T O R Y P E T E R M c K AY

>PICS MICHAEL WEARNE

& D AV I D B U R G E S S

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izened old hacks like yours truly remember when the first Civic hatch arrived in the wide brown land in the early 1970s. It made an instant connection with younger Australians, quickly racing into the hearts of a generation of motorists crying out for reliable, smart and economical personal transport in an affordable package. Until then, Honda had been a manufacturer of motorcycles and quirky little sports cars.



Through the nearly four decades since, the Civic has maintained its position as a premium offering a cut above many of the blander products in the segment, but arguably offering greater badge cred, quality and technology, a more generous serving of driving satisfaction and, importantly, a bigger resale return down the road a bit. The Civic hatch went off the market at the end of 2005, but persistent urging from adherents and a huge demand for this model in Europe where it was seen as a game changer, encouraged Honda Australia to bring back a five-door variant in April 2009. 

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5

Assist (VSA) with Traction Control, four-wheel disc brakes with four-channel anti-lock brakes, Electronic Brake Distribution and Brake-Assist. The driver appreciates the worth of cruise control, multi-information display, auto on/off headlights with beam height adjustment, rain-sensing two-speed variable intermittent front wipers, rear parking sensors, fog lights and tyre deflation warning system.

motoring, the Rev gauge acts as a shift light – and when all six lights are glowing it really is time to change up a cog. It’s easy to reflect on a warm and cosy relationship with a succession of Civics, based on a mix of pragmatic and image-related priorities. But would this appeal easily transfer to the more fickle ‘I’ generation, today’s economically enabled, fashion-conscious, technically savvy Gen X and Gen Y brigade. They are, arguably, harder to please and faster to tire of modern consumer products, including cars. Would the priorities of a boomer, including comfort, ergonomics, convenience features, reliability and resale complement or conflict with the purchasing influences on younger users of iPads, iPhones, and iPods? With two paid-up members of Gen Y in the family, and curious to get the views of someone of a fresher age group, I tossed the key to the Civic Si hatch firstly to my musician daughter. Drive it, collect your mates in it, cart your equipment around in

it, play with the audio, and park it, I directed. And don’t scrape the alloy wheels… Larissa loved the choices of radio, CD player, and USB and iPod connectivity, and tried them all. She also appreciated the Bluetooth mobile phone pairing which gave her hands-free capability. Not always the most practical of people, she did however appreciate the bins, drink holders and the large and functional hatch area. The Civic Si features what Honda rather boldly calls ‘magic’ rear seats which give the cargo area stunning versatility and acceptance of long and tall and bulky items. Her electric keyboards and other musical ‘stuff ’ easily slotted into the back. Sporty types will be thrilled to know that flipping the split-fold rear seat flat will allow a fullsized cycle to fit into the rear cargo hatch without the need to remove wheels. 


Honda Magazine • honda.com.au 6

Currency values of the day meant the British-built Civic, a car loaded with gear admittedly, was priced at the end of the market not occupied by products appealing to the dollarsensitive folk. But since the ebb and flow of global economics swung in favour of our robust Australian dollar, and with the British pound looking decidedly saggy, Honda Australia this year grabbed the opportunity to sharpen the pricing of this British import. At the same time the Si scored some positive treatment from the Honda stylists and marketers. Externally, it benefits from a sportier look, with a Civic Type R-inspired mesh grille replacing its clear plastic predecessor.

S i

S i Above right: Larissa (left) and Lauren McKay

drive it, collect your mates in it, cart your equipment around in it, play with the audio, and park it, I directed. And don’t scrape the alloy wheels

And all occupants can enjoy the opportunities presented by a six-speaker stereo with CD player, USB and auxiliary jack and iPod and MP3 compatibility – stuff to satisfy music lovers. Also included: dual-zone climate control air conditioning with rear passenger vents, climate-controlled glovebox and security alarm. The Si hatch’s fetching road manners are helped by the proven Honda suspension design: MacPherson strut front arrangement and torsion beam rear running on 17-inch five-spoke alloy wheels with 225/45 R17 tyres. Sitting low in a very comfortable seat behind the leather-covered steering wheel, the driver has excellent vision over a contemporary two-tier fascia dominated by a most important piece of information – a large readat-a-glance digital speedo. There’s a red start button to push to get the 1.8-litre SOHC i-VTEC engine burbling nicely. Output of 103kW of power and 174Nm of torque is enough for lively performance but not so much that it likes a big drink of petrol. Working in tandem with the hatch’s nice-to-use six-speed manual transmission (there is also an optional five-speed auto), the fuel consumption can be as low as 5.7 litres per 100km (extra urban), using regular 91 RON unleaded fuel. Two sets of ‘Christmas tree’ lights either side of the speedo read-out lend assistance to the driver on two counts. The Eco gauge gives the driver a metaphorical pat on the back for using the right foot in an environmentally sensitive way. The more lights on the Christmas tree, the more efficiently the throttle has been employed. On the other hand, for drivers in the mood for some spirited

C I V I C

C I V I C

Its versatility and cavernous hatch area set it apart, along with the daring and different looks.

Honda also introduced a choice of trim for the swoopy and futuristic interior – either cloth trim or luxurious perforated leather, the latter coming with two-stage seat heating to ease the shock of warm backsides hitting chilly hide in the winter. Importantly, too, with mobile phone chatting illegal and unsafe unless hands-free, all Civic Si models now have Bluetooth phone connectivity. The standard gear is extensive. Passive safety features include Advanced Compatibility Engineering (ACE) body structure, dual front, side and full-length curtain airbags. On the active safety front there are Vehicle Stability

7


the interior is all flowing curves, and the switches and controls are labelled for easy and quick identification. Ergonomically, it’s hard to fault

with the contrasting stitching – similar to a lot of today’s furniture. The cloth patterning would also help disguise any stains. “Looking around, the ‘hockey stick’ door handles are stylish yet easy to use. No broken fingernails here. The alloy pedals add to the racy feel which starts outside with the hatch’s aggressive, athletic stance, snazzy filler cap, and mesh grille. “One thing I noticed too – the windscreen wipers provide an excellent sweep on the glass. No dangerous blind spots. “Driving the Si is a joy too. The manual shift is very direct and fluid, and the engine likes to let rip.” A

camper who regularly drives a few hours to beaches north and south of Sydney, Lauren also noted the Civic was equipped with a full-sized spare tyre and wheel. And space to take her tent and paraphernalia. Two generations of a motoring family have found plenty in the new Civic Si to enjoy and appreciate. 

now there’s a Honda part for every tom, jill and joey.

We believe that a commitment to the environment is ultimately a commitment to the inhabitants and the places that make up the community you share and enjoy. It goes beyond simply complying with ISO 14001 certification standards that help address our impact on the environment. For us at Honda it also relates to how we can help our community. That’s why a portion of our recycled material goes to Wildlife Victoria for a range of animal welfare initiatives. It means their funds can go to the real work of providing secure shelter and rehabilitation. We also believe that a Honda is designed to bring joy. Why should it stop at the road?


S i

+ For more details go to honda.com.au/cars

C I V I C

you seem to be travelling faster than you think. It’s so responsive and smooth

Larissa returned the Si with appropriate reluctance only when the fuel tank was in need of replenishment. This chore, and the accompanying expenditure, is – as any parent knows – not the responsibility of any offspring. What about the driving experience? “You seem to be travelling faster than you think. It’s so responsive and smooth. I floored it once to see how it accelerated…” It was then the turn of my older daughter, an interior designer. She was to comment on design elements but, as a keen driver, would surely have some comments on the Si’s verve too. “What registers so strongly when you get familiar with the new Civic Si five-door hatch is the overwhelming sense of quality,” Lauren offered. “Nothing suggests ‘budget’.” She also loved the practical five-door hatch and the way it has been cleverly disguised to mimic a sporty three-door. Inside, she remarked on the soft tactility of the seat fabric, the open ‘mezzanine’ design of the cockpit, the shape and texture of the switchgear, and even the welcoming touch of the steering wheel … “The steering wheel’s cool. Nice shape and touch. I like the gear lever too; reminds me of a game boy, all metal with no leather ‘boot’. “The interior is all flowing curves, and the switches and controls are labelled for easy and quick identification. Ergonomically, it’s hard to fault. The radio controls on the wheel are handy even though the sound system is conveniently placed high on the fascia, and the info panel is even higher, so the driver doesn’t have to look down from the road. “The soft but durable seat fabric works for me and I like the classy detailing

9

Travel >STORY BELINDA JACKSON >PICS RANDY LARCOMBE + BELINDA JACKSON

+ OVER A THOUSAND MILES FROM THE NEAREST CAPITAL CITY, A DESERT REGION WHERE GOVERNMENTS DON’T GO, THE TINY SOUTH AUSTRALIAN TOWN OF OODNADATTA IS OUT OF SIGHT, BUT NOT OFF THE MAP, THANKS TO THE FOUNDERS OF THE NOW-ICONIC OODNADATTA TRACK. BELINDA JACKSON TOOK A CLOSER LOOK.

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He rather likes deserts, too. In the early 70s, as two young outback motorcyclists from Sydney and Canberra, Adam and Lynnie were walking donkeys and camels through the near-empty central Australian deserts, on a quest to find themselves. 



n their last holiday, Adam and Lynnie Plate disappeared into Rajasthan, India’s desert state. It’s ironic because they were departing from their own town of Oodnadatta, in Australia’s own Simpson Desert. “It takes a while to adjust to the whirling and the activity of Delhi,” says Adam Plate, himself a Sydney lad, “but I love big cities.”

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In 1974, the couple turned south at Alice Springs and, five or six weeks later, hit Oodnadatta and stayed. “Oodnadatta’s roads weren’t too flash then,” Adam remembers, and it’s still not a freeway, but the town of 180 has a museum in the old railway station, the Aboriginal communityowned TransContinental hotel, and the knockout Pink Roadhouse, Adam and Lynnie’s business, which they’ve built over 30 years, bringing up four children here along the way. Oodnadatta got its railway station in 1891, on the line that linked Alice Springs and Adelaide via Marree, where cameleers would porter goods up to central Australia’s remote homesteads. But the route washed out regularly when the rains came, leaving people, stock and goods stranded in the towns, turning them into impromptu, soggy party sites. Economics prevailed, and the last train pulled out of Oodnadatta in 1980 when a new line was built through Tarcoola, further west. The talk was that towns like

SA

London to Sydney Overland Telegraph Line and, last in line, the railway. This road is many things to many people. In summer, there’s an average of two to three cars on the road in a day, but you’ll see 50-plus come winter, and lots of motorbikes. The Track’s seen northbound gold miners with wheelbarrows and steam traction motors, tiny Japanese girls on huge dirtbikes, a bloke who walked up from Ceduna in the south with his horses, a few Chinese and Koreans and plenty of Germans feeding their spiritual connection to the desert. There’s what Adam calls “the rushing 30-something executives” aiming to drive from Adelaide to the Bungle Bungles in the Kimberley in a day, and, on the other side of the coin, early retirement grey nomads with nothing but a vague idea of where they’d like to go. “My daughter’s a journo and my wife writes, and as they say, ‘We’ve all got a story.’” It’s not an easy life, up here. And making a successful living seems even harder. “I’ve seen 50 degrees here – it’s gruelling – and we get in the 40s for six to eight weeks at a time. Summers here are pretty hard work.” But then, as he points out, at

other times, it’s a balmy 27 degrees here and 42 down in Melbourne. The rains that defeated the old Ghan are still unpredictable. After years of drought, the annual Oodnadatta Races, held in early May, were almost washed away. Twenty millimetres belted down on the last hurrah of Australia’s longest-running picnic race meeting which, for the first time in its 120-year history, had fashion on the field judged by an Adelaide fashionista. “The timing from the gods was immaculate,” says Adam with a laugh. “It was too late for people to cancel.” When asked what his wish would be if he could change Oodnadatta, he is momentarily silent. “Aaaah. It’s a fabulous question. But…” Finally, he goes for a catch-all solution, and one that’d be considered by many as surprisingly mundane. “I dislike bureaucracy, but everyone, particularly the big Aboriginal population, would benefit from local government. Our distant cousins in western Queensland at Birdsville have everything. We’ve got bugger-all.” As he states on his roadhouse’s website, “South Australia is a very odd state, 70 percent of its land area

Oo d na d atta

we wanted to create an attraction that would bring people up here, to see what we call the real Australia, a part of the country that many don’t visit

has no local government, so is condemned to thirdworld standards. It’s Canberra transposed: all its inefficiencies without the indulgent budget.” That means dusty streets, no mobile phone, poor water and unreliable electricity, plus no footpaths and a crumbling town hall and other stone buildings. “I like its rugged look, though. You have to go overseas to see poverty like this! When we first arrived, we were on a dial-up local exchange that was answered up to 9pm each night. It was a party line, so you could never plan your business on the phone because everyone knew what you were doing. “There’s no local government to back up anything you do,” he explains, “so Oodnadatta is so backward compared to, say, Birdsville, even though it’s got half our population, but the State Government isn’t going to help, because you’re private enterprise.” He is, in fact, the only private enterprise in the town. “I was inspired by the Nevil Shute book A Town Like Alice and set about bringing things like in-ground pools, a UHF radio network, better road signage and multiple tourist services to Oodnadatta. “But I live here because I wanted to live alongside Aboriginal culture, not in some cosy little farming town,” says Adam. “My kids speak the local language, and it’s an intensely social society. I lived more remotely in the suburbs of Sydney where I grew up.” As he says, life in Oodnadatta is weird, and rough and unpredictable. “With the Oodnadatta Track, we wanted to create an attraction that would bring people up here, to see what we call the real Australia, a part of the country that many don’t visit.” 



Adam says offhandedly.

For a region that’s considered barren, there are plenty of big statements up here. One of the seemingly endless holdings along the Oodnadatta Track belongs to Anna Creek Station, the world’s largest cattle station, roughly half the size of Tassie. There’s the Dog Fence, a 5300km patrolled fence (give or take a few hundred kilometres) which keeps ever-hungry dingos on the north side and uneaten sheep on the south. Lake Eyre is Australia’s largest lake, which reverts from salt pan to bird sanctuary and yacht club headquarters when it fills every 20 years or so. And the Mail Run tour: a 500km-return round journey undertaken twice a week. In amongst all this, the Outback heritage trail that is the Oodnadatta Track was an Aboriginal highway marked by artesian springs, which central Australian explorer John McDouall Stuart also followed in 1862, and then the path of the

O O D N A D A T T A

O O D N A D A T T A

“It was a hippy thing,”

Oodnadatta would die. The old train line is now but a mess of buckled metal and sleepers, but provided the template for the Oodnadatta Track, 650km of outback heritage road from Marla to Marree, via Oodnadatta and tiny William Creek, population 5. The Plates named the track and put it on the map, literally, in 1979. Over a period of years, they’ve marked the route with signs handmade from 44-gallon drums, like big pink lollipops, a welcome sight for those unused to desert exploration. “We just put them anywhere that was a mystery,” says Adam. “In the 70s and 80s, guys died out here due to unmarked intersections.” The mileage signs with local info and UHF repeater frequencies are dotted along the Track, up in the Simpson Desert, and down as far as the opal mining town of Coober Pedy. They’ve printed maps, written their own website, have a toll-free phone line for conditions on the Track and lobbied the State Government as a reminder that while such towns may be out of sight, they cannot be out of mind. The trademark pink buildings of the somewhat obviously-named Pink Roadhouse are fronted by a 1969 Volvo, also candy pink, a colour the Plates hope puts a smile on travellers’ faces. Not that there’s any lack of colour around these parts. “Probably what made me stay was the landscape around Algebuckina,” says Adam of a nearby local beauty spot. “There’s a wonderful array of glistening quartz beds, a lake at one end and the ranges of purples, oranges and reds with a coating of gibber. It is a fabulous range of terrain for southbound travellers after the long grasslands of the Territory.”

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the New England and North-West region.” WRHS transports patients in remote areas needing specialist treatment unavailable to them locally, and carries doctors and paramedics to accident scenes. In the broader scheme of things it can also be pressed into service for waterbombing bushfires, for evacuations and food drops, and join in search and rescue operations. “We never charge for our services so donations are always central to the financial stability of our service,” said Michelle Simpson, Community Liaison Officer Tamworth. 

MILESTONE

E

stablished in 1992, The Honda Foundation

supports local communities and fosters goodwill among

a POWERFUL

Honda Australia,

HAND

the Honda Dealer network and the general

T

public. Drawing its funds from Honda vehicle sales – the Dealer contributes $5 and Honda Australia $10 for every one sold – it has now donated


over $8.1 million

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to charities and other organisations in Australia. 

I

mages of Queenslanders struggling to cope with the enormity of what Mother Nature threw at them in early January will stay with us all for years to come. They were helped in no small measure by the resilience of Premier Anna Bligh, and to assist the Queensland Premier’s Disaster Relief Fund, The Honda Foundation has made a donation of $100,000.

“These floods have devastated communities in Queensland and will have ramifications across Australia for many months to come,” said Lindsay Smalley, Chairman of the Foundation. “The Honda Foundation wants to show its support to the people of Queensland during this very difficult time.” 

amworth’s Woodley Honda has joined The Honda Foundation in donating more than $4000 of Honda power products to the Westpac Rescue Helicopter Service.

The equipment will go towards establishing and maintaining the grounds at their base in Tamworth, NSW. The base has live-in facilities for medical staff as well as a new hangar and engineering facilities. “Rescue helicopters are a necessity in regional Australia,” said Lindsay Smalley. “The Honda Foundation is proud to assist the Tamworth base in improving its ability to deliver services across

actions speak louder D O N A T I O N U P D A T E than words Queensland Premier’s Disaster Relief Fund

Dealer Network QLD $100,000

FareShare Yarra Honda VIC

$20,000

Monash Medical Centre Robert Lane Honda VIC (Mother Baby Unit)

$11,972

Lions Eye Institute Burswood Honda

WA

$10,937

Auto Synergy Honda VIC

$10,000

St. Vincent de Paul Society

Blue Mountains Disability Great Western Honda Services Ltd.

NSW

$7,890

TAD – Technical Aid Capital Honda to the Disabled

ACT

$6,020

Astoria Honda VIC

$5,575

Monash Medical Centre (Southern Health)

Koomarri Capital Honda

ACT

$5,000

Interchange Outer East Inc. Ferntree Gully Honda VIC

$4,411

Drug Arm Australasia Peter Warren Honda

$2,784

NSW

Rainbow Riders Inc. Rex Gorell Honda VIC Anglican Care

Macquarie Honda

NSW

$1,875 $1,750

Road Trauma Support Ringwood Honda VIC Services Victoria

Loan car

The Chris O’Brien Larke Hoskins Honda NSW Lifehouse at RPA Rosebery

Loan car

for more information go to hondafoundation.org.au

‘R

efugee’: the word has been in our language since the 18th century but came into its own, tragically, in the 20th century and persists still more painfully in the 21st. Put simply, it means ‘a person driven from his or her home to seek refuge, especially in a foreign country’. Beneath that simple definition may lie a world of troubles. As anyone who follows the news must know, Australia has suffered her own difficulties in accommodating refugees, but there are some places in this country where the first concern is to make sure such people find help as they face the daunting task of settling into a new environment. One such place is Mamre Plains in St Marys, NSW, a community project of the Sisters of Mercy, Parramatta. Staffed by volunteers at Mamre Homestead, a historic rural property now restored to its original glory, Mamre provides training and employment services for the disadvantaged, among whom are Sudanese refugees who need help with English, living in Australia, road safety and a host of other areas. And among the refugees, most affectingly, there are always children... Did we say ‘restored’? Not the Mamre Homestead playground, and that’s where The Honda Foundation comes in. The Foundation recently teamed up with Great Western Honda in Penrith to contribute $14,440 towards the upgrading of the Homestead’s playground, now almost 20 years old. The children attending the ‘Rainbow Connection’ crèche at Mamre have a new, larger and well-equipped playground to enjoy while their parents attend classes at the Homestead. Their own refuge, you might say... 


A MIGHTY

15

>HondaJet

+ Honda has successfully completed the first flight of its FAA-conforming HondaJet advanced light business jet. The event is a significant step in Honda’s aerospace program


leading to delivery of aircraft in 2012.

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he first conforming HondaJet lifted off in December 2010 from Honda Aircraft Company’s headquarters at the Piedmont Triad International Airport in Greensboro, North Carolina. 


TECHNOLOGY

17

completion of its aircraft production facility on its Greensboro campus. The 266,000 ft2 HondaJet production facility is scheduled for completion this year, with the final phase of interior buildout now underway. Upon completion of the production facility, Honda will begin the process of moving equipment and personnel into the facility and undertaking pre-production preparations and training necessary to support HondaJet production ramp-up beginning in 2012. 


to develop a classleading aircraft

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Honda also has completed mating of main assemblies for its third FAA-conforming aircraft, which is now in the systems installation phase of completion. A total of five FAA-conforming aircraft, including one additional flight test aircraft and one additional structural test aircraft, are planned to support the HondaJet certification program. While Honda enters the flight test program with its conforming HondaJet, the company also nears

About HondaJet Honda Aircraft Company has amassed orders for well over one hundred HondaJet advanced light business jets. Scheduled for first delivery in the third quarter of 2012, the $4.5 million HondaJet is Honda’s first-ever commercial aircraft and lives up to the company’s reputation for dynamic performance together with superior efficiency. The HondaJet proofof-concept aircraft has accumulated more than 500 flight test hours and attained both a top speed of 420 knots (483 mph) and a maximum altitude of 43,000 ft. in flight testing. The HondaJet incorporates many innovative technological advances in aviation design, including a unique over-the-wing engine-mount configuration that dramatically improves aircraft performance and fuel-efficiency by significantly reducing aerodynamic drag in flight. This innovative approach to airframe design also lowers ground-detected noise when overhead and allows for a more spacious cabin and greater cargo capacity. The HondaJet is powered by two highly fuel-efficient GE Honda HF120 turbofan jet engines. The production HondaJet flight deck features a Honda-customised Garmin® G3000 next-generation all-glass avionics system incorporating a class-leading layout with three 14-inch landscape-format displays and dual touch-screen controllers for overall avionics control and flight plan entries. The HondaJet Avionics Suite is the most advanced glass flight deck available in any light business jet and provides state-of-the-art integrated avionics functionality featuring split screen MultiFunction-Display capability, satellite weather, graphical synoptics, digital audio and optional Synthetic Vision. 

STOP PRESS The first FAAconforming HondaJet has achieved a maximum speed of 425 KTAS (787 km/h) and Mach 0.72. This was recorded at 30,000 ft. on 11 March and surpasses the company’s performance commitment of 420 KTAS for the production HondaJet.


these results reflect Honda’s focus and determination

during which time the aircraft’s flight characteristics and performance were analysed and systems checks were conducted. Various test data gathered during the flight was transmitted real-time to Honda’s flight test telemetry operations base within the company’s world headquarters facility. “This is a very important milestone for the HondaJet program,” said Michimasa Fujino, Honda Aircraft Company President and CEO. “This aircraft was assembled and tested under strict FAA [Federal Aviation Administration] certification processes and we are very pleased to have achieved this successful first flight. Our team has worked extremely hard to reach this critical step in the HondaJet program, and these results reflect Honda’s focus and determination to develop a class-leading aircraft.”

“We are very encouraged by our initial review of the flight data, which indicates the conforming HondaJet performed as expected. As we move forward, we will continue to focus all of our efforts and energy to deliver to our customers the most advanced light business jet yet created,” said Mr. Fujino. To support the company’s certification program, Honda has completed its second FAA-conforming aircraft, which has already undergone numerous structural tests required for commencement of certification flight testing.

H O N D A J E T

H O N D A J E T

The HondaJet remained aloft for 51 minutes,

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it seeks viable technologies for future mobility. It’s essentially a simple system that gives drivers the

Honda’s hybrid range: Civic Hybrid, Insight and CR-Z

best of both worlds. TECHNOLOGY >Honda Hybrids

U Honda Magazine • honda.com.au

Battery

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h-oh... You’re doing the right thing, out on the bike, getting some exercise into those muscles and joints, and suddenly you see a dirty great hill looming ahead. Grit the teeth, push as hard as you can – and look forward to the cruise down the other side. Now, if only you had a little extra source of energy to help get you over the hump...

over a decade after Honda introduced its first hybrid, it is at the heart of a growing number of cars in Honda’s range

and over a decade after Honda introduced its first hybrid offering, Insight generation one, it is the system at the heart of a growing number of cars in Honda’s range. The ideal combination is the range and power of a ‘normal’ car with economy and ecofriendly qualities. So you take a small engine packed with Honda’s advanced technologies and you add an electric motor, taking energy from an on-board battery, which is also a generator capable of storing energy to that same battery. Indulging ourselves for a moment with some alliteration, we might say Insight was the pioneer; Accord and Civic in particular have been the practical ones; secondgeneration Insight is something of a perfectionist; and CR-Z is the powerful performer. It’s an enviable range of qualities, yet all of them depend on the same technology. In Honda’s hybrid system an electric motor is used in

HYBRID VEHICLES

ENVIRONMENTAL PERFORMANCE social responsibility

The CR-Z has a 1.5-litre four-cylinder 16-valve i-VTEC engine that works with Honda’s ultra-thin Integrated Motor Assist to achieve both frugality and sporty performance. And the hybrid battery comes with an eight-year warranty for peace of mind. See? Best of both worlds. 

Honda’s hybrid system eliminates the ‘Uh-oh’ factor. Our cyclist needs extra energy to cope with the hill – so the hybrid’s IMA electric motor kicks in to give the ‘normal’ engine a helping hand. On the descent the cyclist eases off the pedals; the hybrid switches to regenerative braking under deceleration and energy is stored for the next ascent. Simple...


colours to the hybrid mast as

it’s a cyclical process whose beauty is in its simplicity. It might well have been the basis of modern motoring, for the idea of hybrid power was around a century ago until it got shunted into a siding by a certain American who steam-rollered the industry when he invented the automated assembly line and made traditional cars so much cheaper to make and buy. Honda is convinced it is the sensible basis for early 21stcentury motoring, and as anyone who has looked closely at cars like CR-Z will have realised, it comes at no cost to the joy of driving, which is at the basis of Honda’s car-making philosophy. PERFORMANCE fun

+ Honda has pinned its

conjunction with a highly fuel-efficient petrol engine, usually of small capacity, for greater fuel and emissions efficiency. Working in tandem they reduce fuel consumption, especially in start or acceleration mode; but the function of the electric motor is also to deliver more torque – the sheer grunt the cyclist needs to get over that hill – at low engine revolutions. This is what’s called a parallel hybrid, and this is the Honda way. The engine is the main source of power in a lay-out that combines engine, motor (where the traditional flywheel would be, between the engine and the transmission), generator and batteries. At start-up and low speed, the electric motor kicks in to help the engine get the vehicle up and running. Under gentle acceleration, the engine only is used; when powerful acceleration is called for, engine and electric motor work in synch; and under deceleration, valves are closed, combustion ceases, and the kinetic energy usually dissipated as heat through braking is recovered, the electric motor now acting as a generator to store that energy in the batteries for future use. Like all things to do with the internal combustion engine,

REDUCED FUEL CONSUMPTION cheaper to run

TRANSMISSION

Electric motor

PETROL ENGINE

That, in a nutshell, is what a hybrid system gives you,

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R >STORY THOMAS CULLEN


It’s uncanny how quietly the Honda Insight hybrid glides down the road when its electric motor is doing all the work. It brings just a hint of déjà vu as houses and suburbs flit silently by outside the Insight’s contemporary cabin. The rumbling aural soundtrack we expect from more than a century of internal combustion engines is missing. It’s like watching television on mute. 


>PICS MICHAEL WEARNE

+ In our last issue we featured early information on the second-generation Insight. Thomas Cullen has since driven Honda’s latest high-tech hybrid – and he liked what he saw.

Honda Insight

emember how as a child you flew in your dreams? Gliding soundlessly and free along the suburban streets near your home, swooping low over neighbours’ letterboxes, carving between power poles like a slalom racer. The feeling was effortless, silent, blissful. Freedom.

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in typical Honda fashion, the all-new Insight is much more than just a new, superefficient form of motoring

The new Honda Insight debuts Honda’s ingenious ECO ASSIST driver technology, which gives real-time feedback when the car is being driven efficiently and when it’s not. For instance, when the car is being driven efficiently the speedometer’s digital background glows a pleasing green, thus helping the driver to develop fuel-efficient driving habits.

traffic lights, the Insight shuts down the petrol engine ensuring there’s no frivolous waste of fuel while stationary. It starts again the instant you touch the accelerator – a trick the first-gen model couldn’t do. Here’s another: Imagine you’re cruising suburban streets, perhaps driving to work, perhaps doing the school run, perhaps heading out for an evening of entertainment. The Insight’s IMA evaluates the circumstances, and when suitable, shuts down the petrol engine, leaving the electric motor to move the Insight serenely and efficiently to your destination. It’s so peaceful you’ll wonder if you’re dreaming. 



The first-generation Insight (2000) 24

Game on!


No engine noise, hardly any rumble from the low rolling resistance tyres keeping the Insight firmly planted on the bitumen, and just a whisper of wind as the car’s wedge-shaped hatchback body cleaves the air like a razor-sharp Samurai sword. It’s uncanny, and strangely addictive. It’s a glimpse of an exciting new world, of a whisper-quiet, eco-friendly future. And it is here today. The all-new Honda Insight arrived in Australia late in 2010, the second technology tour-de-force from Honda to wear the Insight badge. The first, appropriately, landed with the new century, giving a glimpse into the future of eco-friendly motoring and cementing Honda’s reputation as a technology leader.

Insight Generation One combined everything Honda knew about eco-motoring in one impressive package. Its aerodynamics were unrivalled for reducing drag; the chassis minimised weight and maximised inertial moment; the smallcapacity hybrid engine extracted every possible kilometre from each drop of fuel. Its revolutionary powertrain utilised Honda’s Integrated Motor Assist technology, IMA. In theory IMA sounds so obvious, so simple, and yet none had thought of it until then. Cars expend so much effort accelerating and lose much of that hard-won energy when braking. IMA captures braking energy and uses it to supplement acceleration. The second-generation Insight takes that evolutionary base and goes so much further. It can actually run on electricity alone. In typical Honda fashion, the all-new Insight is much more than just a new, super-efficient form of motoring. It takes everything Honda learned with the first Insight and packages it in a practical, user-friendly fivedoor hatchback – one that requires no compromise and has no steep learning curve. The Insight’s compact external dimensions make

I N S I G H T

I N S I G H T

Where is the guttural, mechanical grumble that has always accompanied driving?

inner-city driving and parking a breeze, and yet they cloak a remarkable roomy interior with plenty of space for occupants and luggage. The interior’s theme is undeniably cutting edge: eye-pleasing sweeps, intuitive controls and lots of cubby holes for life’s accoutrements, all integrated with the latest technology that supports the Insight’s fuel-efficient goals. To the layman driver, the Insight looks and drives just like a normal car, and is priced with Honda’s typically keen edge against similar sized vehicles. In fact, the Insight is Australia’s most affordable hybrid. Of course, for those who desire a little more luxury, like satellite navigation, reversing camera, bigger alloy wheels and more, there’s the VTi-L. That is perhaps Honda’s greatest achievement with the Insight: so much technology in such an unassuming and practical package for so little money. Spoiling yourself and saving the planet never felt so good. Speaking of saving the planet’s resources, the Insight’s IMA does everything it can to reduce your need for fuel. Its 1.3-litre petrol engine utilises light materials and low friction to maximise power and minimise thirst. It sends drive to the wheels through a highly-efficient CVT (Continuously Variable Transmission) gearbox which always has the right ratio to call on. And, just like the first Insight, the new Insight’s electric motor sits between the engine and the gearbox adding its electric reserves to your accelerative needs. That means plenty of poke when you need it, and an ADR (Australian Design Rules)-tested fuel economy of just 4.6L/100km. When you come to a stop at

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>STORY BELINDA JACKSON >PICS MICHAEL WEARNE

T

here’s no pinstriped suit, no shiny shoes, no tie. When he enters the room, Simon McKeon is in a pale blue striped RM Williams shirt unbuttoned at the neck, casual trousers and a pair of brown loafers. Yet with a backdrop of Melbourne’s skyline, up here in the rarefied air of the 23rd floor of the uber-wealthy Macquarie Bank offices, he’s perfectly at ease.





+ Belinda Jackson revisits Simon McKeon, the current Australian of the Year, in a conversation ranging from sailing to Alan Bond, micro-financing and homelessness – and gets the message loud and clear

Profile

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In fact, it’s his familiarity with them as the executive chairman of the bank’s Melbourne operation that has helped carve his name onto the plinth as 2011’s Australian of the Year, recognised specifically for his many years of work in the Not For Profit (NFP) sector. Subjects he currently works with are as wide-reaching as they are breathtakingly complex: homelessness, climate change, mentoring of indigenous children, heroin addiction. This is not sexy stuff: we’re not talking rescuing albino tigers from urbanisation or beautiful, maltreated children from ghastly orphanages, though there is a hint of the latter in the decade McKeon spent on the board of World Vision.

sector, you can think about alleviating scarcity of resources and making hard decisions, such as, ‘Do we go to deficit for a year?’ It’s a fulfilling experience you don’t get elsewhere, such as getting involved in a campaign to change government policy, or organising a fundraiser that works.” And it’s not just about slumming it with instant coffee in the boardroom. “Regardless of what skills you bring to the board, you have to experience it. You’ve got to get dirt under your fingernails,” he says. “There are no guarantees in life, but I’d rather do something a bit flawed, rather than do nothing at all. Just because there’s a possibility of ‘shit happens’ is not an excuse not to do anything at all,” he says with an apology to paraphrasing Opposition leader Tony Abbott. “It’s time to get engaged.” 

Info Business for Millennium Development: encouraging Australian businesses to operate in the Third World b4md.com.au Global Poverty Project: taking concerted action on extreme global poverty globalpovertyproject.com Red Dust: mentoring indigenous children in remote communities reddust.org.au Pro Bono Australia: probonoaustralia.com.au Volunteering Australia: volunteeringaustralia.org



It’s obvious McKeon is no stranger to boardrooms.

the notfor-profit sector tackles the unwanted tasks, and catches those who fall between the cracks

to have a business sector,” he says simply. “It is never going to meet every need.” And in any case, he says, it’s up to us, as individuals, to contribute. “Julia Gillard must have given a sigh of relief when she realised I didn’t have my hand out for money,” he says with a genuine laugh. McKeon’s heroes are “obviously the Mandelas et cetera, but also the people on the ground in the back of nowhere in Colombia – young people in their 30s who are beautifully idealistic, doing amazing things in difficult circumstances.” There is a cause for us all,” he said on accepting this year’s award, “from homelessness to human rights, from the environment to emergency situations, from connecting with refugees to striving for a better deal for the original inhabitants of this continent.” He also points the way to getting involved, with a number of organisations set up to help people decide where best to use their talents, including Pro Bond Australia and Volunteering Australia. Yet he dismisses the idea of board-sitting on NFP charities as a feel-good game for fat board cats. “I have my business committees,” says the man who has headed Macquarie’s voraciously successful Takeover Panel since 1999. “I’m no saint. I’m not spending 24 hours a day doing NFP stuff, but I’m very happy to have a weighting more in favour of NFP boards: they provide greater challenges than a corporate board which, at the end of the day, faces the greatest challenge of positive profit. Shareholders expect it.” “In comparison, in the NFP

M c K E O N

but I’d rather do something a bit flawed, rather than do nothing at all

(patron of the Australian Olympic Sailing Team, McKeon and crew held the world speed sailing record for 11 years until 2004, and are gearing up for a new challenge), about hybrid cars, foreign aid and fixing an aged chairlift on his beloved Mornington Peninsula, an hour south of his home in Melbourne’s beachside suburbs. When Honda Magazine caught up with the corporate financier three years ago, he spoke of his passions of the time: switching off the lights for one hour on Earth Day, an international soccer competition for homeless people, solar power… This time, these passions are all rolled up into one message that is targeted at all Australians: if you are in a position to offer your time and resources, the NFP sector needs you. “The award creates a fabulous opportunity to talk to whoever wants to listen,” says McKeon of his recent projection into the national limelight. He talks of nurturing the NFP sector, which, he says in turn nurtures our nation, describing it in his acceptance speech as “a sector which willingly tackles the unwanted tasks, responds to our needs when neither business or government is able to, and catches those of us who fall between the cracks”. As one who has sat on dozens of boards since he went part-time in his role as chief of the Melbourne arm of Macquarie back in 1994 to devote more time to the NFP sector, doesn’t he despair the need for constant, seemingly endless fundraising? Not at all. “Government is never going

S I M O N

there are no guarantees in life,

His work is purposeful: on his appointment as chairman of the CSIRO last year, he stated his aim is to use the position to move climate change up the public and political agenda. And he has true empathy: diagnosed a decade ago with Multiple Sclerosis, he’s decided to do something about it; he is chairman of MS Research Australia. Meanwhile, he and his wife Amanda care for his intellectually disabled sister, Diane, and McKeon is ambassador for National Disability Services (Victoria), the peak body for the disability industry. McKeon was the dark horse of the Australian of the Year 2011 race, with indigenous rights lawyer Larissa Behrendt tipped to win, so it came as a surprise to even him to have been awarded the honour on Australia Day. “In 50 years of Australia having an Australian of the Year, I’m only the third with a serious connection with business … and one of those three went on to jail,” he says with a wry grin. He is, of course, referring to Alan Bond, who received the award jointly with Galarrwuy Yunupingu in 1978. The lack of representation of the corporate world in this arena saddens him. “The business sector I know has many people who have made a contribution beyond business,” he says, using their management, marketing, finance or legal skills for the NFP sector. At 55 years, McKeon is happily married, the youngest of his four boys having just completed high school. While he gets ready for the interview – one of hundreds at this time – the conversation touches on his great passion of sailing

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+ Forget surf and sand: what’s hot in Hawaii is lava, and THE WORLD’S BIGGEST VOLCANO. Will Gray’s been right to the heart Travel

> S T O R Y + P I C S W I L L G R AY

of the matter.

a 30

here, Hawaii is at its most extreme, the Earth at its most pure and raw, and few other natural thrills come anywhere close

From a distance, the hazy blur of steaming smoke and glowing lights had looked like the dawn of the Earth and now it was right there in front of us. Just three metres beyond the boat’s bow, this churning chaos of billowing steam, hissing ocean and exploding red-hot lava was forming the newest rocks on the planet. Here, Hawaii is at its most extreme, the Earth at its most pure and raw, and few other natural thrills come anywhere close. 



s our fragile little boat pitched and tumbled on ocean waves rolling in across the Pacific, our adrenaline was buzzing and our nerves were increasing with every second.

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The beautiful chain of islands known collectively as Hawaii only exists because of one single outlet of magma. Over thousands of years, this ‘hot spot’ has created a large row of shield volcanoes, all lined up and separated in a gentle curve thanks to the movement of the Pacific plate over the stationary outlet of molten rock. Lying more than 4,000km

Ni i h a u

Kaua’i

from the nearest landmass, the seven main islands are Niihau, Kaua’i, Oahu, Molokai, Lanai, Maui and Hawaii (also known as Big Island). Each is slightly older than the next, and visiting a few in turn offers a real-life geography lesson.


Steam clouds rise over the continuous flow on Big Island

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The lush rainforests and well-developed canyons of ancient Kaua’i are a clear contrast to the stark dusty moonscape craters and early green shoots of life found on middle-aged Maui. But the most stunning and unique landscape is the barren black solidified flows, steaming craters and glowing orange lava found on the youngest island of the chain, Big Island. Mauna Loa, the earth’s largest volcano, is

Oahu Honolulu

Molokai

Lanai

responsible for creating most of Big Island. It is one of the most active volcanoes on the planet, having erupted 33 times since the first documented case in 1843, but since 1983 it has sat silent. Instead, nearby Kilauea, known as the home of fire goddess Pele, has taken over the mantle: lava has been flowing out of its craters non-stop for 27 years, during which time almost 5km of new land has been created and is now clearly visible stretching flat out into the sea. Kilauea’s shield eruption is, in relative terms, one of the more predictable types of volcanic activity. It allows visitors several different safe

Maui

Kahoolawe

Hawaii over (Big Island) thousands of years, this ‘hot spot’ has to see lava flows but, as created a large ways with all volcanoes, the area row of shield around it is naturally highly volatile and it is still not easy volcanoes, to get that close to the action. all lined up Sea, land and separated and sky And that is why we found ourselves in a twin-hulled in a gentle powerboat, flying along the curve spectacularly rugged black

rock coastline, pocketed with open lava tubes, with a distant orange glow our primary target. Although our experienced captain Marvin, a Pacific Ocean fisherman turned tourist boat operator, assured us it was safe, our senses said otherwise when he cut the engine and we

sat waiting for the plumes of sulphurous steam to part momentarily as the ocean waves underwent continuous instant vaporisation on the 1,000 degrees Celsius rock along the cliffs in front of us. When it did clear, the sight of lava trickling into the sea like treacle was incredible. So too were the fizzing newformed rocks, which snorted steam like dragons as they bobbed up and down on the surface before clattering into the side of our boat, not to mention the fact a bucket dunked in the ocean revealed the previously chilly water around us was now close to boiling point. As darkness fell, the orange glow grew even more intense, revealing the lava’s pathway up on the hill and making our non-stop photographs more and more spectacular – but when a sudden bang sent a rock flying into the air and onto the beach a few metres from our boat, it was clear that Pele was telling us our viewing time was up. The boat was an incredibly exhilarating way of viewing the lava, but the more regular approach – from an area of land around a mile from the flow – is still mighty impressive. This is a much more serene experience, but the danger of getting too close is still made clear in stories of the nearby Kalapana village, which was completely buried by lava back in 1990. Even now, the car park attendants make sure everyone lines up nose forwards ready for a quick getaway in case of an emergency evacuation. Although not actually in Volcanoes National Park (the recent flow chose not to stick to prescribed park boundaries) this state area has been well set up and an easy marked path leads past stalls selling impressive volcano photos from local professionals to an ancient

lava flow and a large cordoned-off viewpoint. From here you get a much better overview of the size of the lava field than from the boat, with flickering orange dots climbing right up into the darkness like city lights. Through binoculars, you can also clearly see the activity on the upper part of the coastline, where active lava bubbles and pops, spraying lumps of hot rock high up into the air. The only real way of getting a complete overview of the mountain at work, however, is from the air – and a thrilling 45-minute doorsoff helicopter ride offers the chance not only to see but to truly feel the real beating heart of the volcano. From a helipad at Hilo airport, our flight took a path over the macadamia nut farms and thick forests that benefit from the rich volcanic soil to a region of old lava flows that have created a spaghetti mess of rock streaks in varying shades of black and brown. We followed the flow lines to the steaming Pu’u O’o vent, where we got as close as we dared before banking away and heading down towards the coast, along a line of steam vents and small bright orange ‘skylights’ which mark out the underground lava tube feeding the coastal ‘fire hose’, where the orange magma drips into the sea. When we arrived at this glowing section of lava on the cliff we were suddenly hit by an incredible wall of heat. Circling just tens of metres above the flow for several minutes gave us an incredibly clear view of a massive orange line of lava, clear of steam and close enough to really feel the burn. Although a little less exhilarating than the wild ride on the ocean, the view from above was utterly unbeatable.

Devastation

Flying back across this lava wasteland also revealed the kind of devastation the volcano can wreak and how much of it depends on chance – from a finger of lava cutting into a forest and sparing some trees while annihilating others to the definition of luck itself, known as ‘Jack’s House’, which was left untouched when a lava flow split and went either side of the building. The best way of understanding the true damage potential of the volcano, however, is to drive to what is now the end of the road. Just 22 years ago, on the coastal outskirts of Volcanoes National Park, the road that once circumnavigated the island was sliced in two by the oozing flow erupting out of Kilauea. Now, a small car park marks the end of the ‘Chain of Craters’ road, after which the lava flow has crossed to the sea, halfburying a ‘road closed’ sign in its path and leaving a massive expanse of glittering black rock. Although no longer active, this area, seven miles from the current flow, is one of the highlights of the national park region as the varied flow patterns allow you to really imagine how this new section of land has been created. So too does the crater at Kilauea Iki, which was a bubbling lava lake just 50 years ago but has long since crusted over. This area now offers a fascinating hike on a switchback trail down to a crater floor of rippled lava, massive exploded blocks of rock and steaming vents – with a magma reservoir still sitting just 270m below the surface. Nearby, the massive Thurston Lava Tube gives an insight into how the current flow travels from the volcano 

Clockwise from top: Clouds of steam and glowing orange lava Lava flows closed the island’s circle road 22 years ago The eerie Thurlston Lava Tube is as big as a bus Ne w s h o o t s b r e a k t h r o u g h the cracked lava lake surface at Kilauea Iki Lava boats take visitors within metres of the molten rock


H A W A I I

Growing chain

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Helicopter There are several longserving operators but only a few offer doors-off trips, including Paradise (paradisecopters.com) and Blue Hawaiian (bluehawaiian.com) Lava Boat These usually go from the Isaac Hale Beach Park and operators include Marvin at Mehena (Tel +1 808 965 9879) and Lava Ocean (lavaocean.com)


+ Nothing’s ever so good that it can’t be improved.

That’s part of the Honda way of looking at things –

and it means you will have a new way of looking at

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Eat: This place has a great atmosphere, excellent food and is handily located for late eats after a day in the park, an afternoon at the viewing area or a trip on a lava boat. kaleospahoa.com

nobody actually knows what it will do next. Both Mauna Loa and Kilauea are monitored constantly by scientists, every twitch logged and analysed using instruments in the ground and satellites in space. But while many volcanoes have clear eruption patterns based on earthquakes, weather and even planetary equinoxes, neither Mauna Loa nor Kilauea have offered any

HondaONE from now on.

Sleep: Aloha Crater Lodge A secluded B&B in a rainforest setting just a few miles from the park, this offers several rooms, a hot tub and its own lava tube to explore. alohacraterlodge.com

what is so stunning about Hawaii, though, is that nobody actually knows Into the what it will future? What is so stunning about do next Hawaii, though, is that

As we closed for press the Kilauea volcano had just erupted again at two locations. Serious seismic activity began on 5 March at Kilauea, mainly from the Kamoamoa fissure. Attention was focused on a pit on the floor of Kamoamoa, which is itself in the floor of the Kilauea caldera; the pit measured some 140 metres in diameter and 200 metres in depth. The activity, with lava spatter from the Halema’uma’u crater flying up to 50 metres into the air, was considered serious enough for the Hawaii Volcanoes National Park to close the famous ‘Chain of Craters’ road. New lava flow was coming from the western end of the Kamoamoa fissure itself, with what were called ‘significant changes’ in the surrounding landscape. By the following Friday the activity had ‘paused’, although authorities deliberately did not use the term ‘ceased’... 

I

t’s the virtual place where you really can manage your relationship with Honda, as 50,000 members already do. Already approaching its 10th anniversary, the site has been revitalised and refreshed.

Honda Online

Volcanoes National Park Information on the park museum and visitors centre is at nps.gov/havo while latest eruption data can be found at hvo. wr.usgs.gov/kilauea/ update/maps.html

The shimmering, silky smooth lava flows at the end of the road

RED ALERT

>HondaONE

Land viewing The viewing area is on route 130 at the very end of the road. Aim to get there around 5:30pm before it gets too crowded.

Molten lava streams viewed from above – with an open door helicopter you can feel the heat

conclusive activity cycles to predict their future activity. Hulking Mauna Loa, which rises 17km from the sea floor and amounts to 85 percent of all Hawaiian volcanoes combined, has seen its magma storage reservoirs inflating and deflating for the last 20 years, but a volume of magma equivalent to that which last erupted in 1984 has now collected in the shallow depths beneath. The Hawaiian Volcano Observatory is certain it will erupt again; they just don’t know when. 

When it comes to your own car or cars, there is a personalised homepage where you can upload your favourite picture, be it your car, your family or the two of them in perfect harmony; it also provides instant access to your Honda details and Service History (provided your car is serviced at an Authorised Honda Dealership) and multiple users can work on the one account. Looking further afield, you can share experiences with other members of the Honda family and read Honda Magazine online. And there’s an online Owner’s Guide that helps you maximise your Honda experience by getting the best out of your car. Add the usual tips, announcements, downloads and special offers and you have a site for sore eyes indeed. And you can still find it all at hondaone.com.au 


H A W A I I

Info

to the sea. It may be hundreds of years since lava passed through this giant natural tunnel but it is now one of many underground hollows beneath the volcano and although often packed with visitors in peak times, it can be a very quiet and haunting place when deserted. Back up at the main Kilauea crater, meanwhile, the column of hissing and billowing steam flowing out of the Halema’uma’u vent serves as a strong reminder of how quickly things can change. The much-travelled Crater Rim Drive circling the edge of the volcano once took tourists on a scenic loop around a barren moonlike crater, but it was part-closed as recently as 2008 when the crater floor – not unlike the one in Kilauea Iki – dropped away, opening up a vent and taking part of a car park with it. The road can still be driven, although not in full circumnavigation, but the best viewpoint is now at the Jagger Museum, which itself is a perfect complement to the park’s natural wonders. Informative exhibits include incredible strands of volcanic glass known as ‘Pele’s Hair’ and examples of the explosive A’a and smooth Pahoehoe lava types that can also be found in situ at the end of the road.

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+

Australiana

>STORY PICS JAMES Mc E WA N

a

celebration of the Australian stockman’s way of life, as


useful and relevant today as 200 years ago.

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Herds are still mustered and walked for hundreds of plodding kilometres by drovers on horses. Campdrafting may sound ominously like some kind of military prep school, but in essence it is simply a contest where horse and rider work together to cut a bullock from a herd or other oneyear-olds in a corral, known as the ‘Camp’, manoeuvre the beast out of the camp, into an arena then hustle it through a figure-of-eight course and through a finish gate – all against the clock. 


+ Campdrafting may now be a sport but it is also a trial and

ustralia, unlike other ‘big sky’ countries such as Canada and the USA, has an unbroken history of working on horseback. Although graziers here were just as quick to adopt the automobile and the tractor to the wide-open spaces, the stockman with his horse who could cut out wild cattle from the bush was highly prized.

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testing the equipment to its limits”), Graham and David York are up early for days before the Wallumbilla Campdraft, mustering, sorting and organising health checks on their cattle before loading them on trucks. The process of mustering one-year-old bullocks is a tiring and very frustrating operation. They are quick on their feet, agile and seem to like breaking out of the herd and heading for the horizon. “They’re just like human teenagers, stupid sometimes and a bit evil, always looking to escape!” Graham said, with his usual ready grin. Graham, David and their farmhands use Honda quad bikes for this kind of mustering as they can accelerate from walking speed to flat out to head off an escaping bullock. Once the cattle are mustered into holding yards David and Graham sort them out,

they’re just like human teenagers, stupid sometimes and a bit evil, always looking to escape

looking for only the best beasts for the draft. “Sorting’s an important process,” David underlined. “The cattle are only in the ring for a short time, mostly less than 60 seconds, but they are our cattle and we don’t want them stressed. We need to sort out the healthiest, best fed and watered.” 



at worst it is a frustrating, stuttering, stumbling, humiliating farce when the carefully chosen bullock doesn’t want to play the game and the crack of the judge’s whip says your time’s up. The Australian stock horse was bred to understand cattle, be agile and fast and the Australian stockman has to know how to transmit his instructions through his hands and heels to a ton of powerful horse galloping at up to 50 km/h. The top horses today also have some quarter-horse blood to incorporate that breed’s ferocious acceleration from their quarter-mile competition in the USA. The stock horses’ blood lines come from military mounts and working horses which arrived with the first fleet in 1788. Later fleets brought Arab and Barbary horses, English thoroughbreds and even Welsh mountain ponies. The early pioneers bred selectively from this gene pool to derive a strong, long-distance, versatile horse: good under a saddle or hooked up to a cart.

back into the stadium facilities and the extensive campgrounds, which are open all year round. The Campdraft committee also lends its support to the local State Emergency Service volunteers and community groups in Wallumbilla. “We usually have about 200 riders nominating for the different classes in our event,” said Ronnie ‘Triple R’ Fiedler, President of the Wallumbilla Campdraft Committee. “Our biggest event is the novice draft: we could make it bigger but it would be difficult to fit the 900 drafts in over just two days. “Competitors are drawn from all over Queensland and their professional approach to what is an amateur sport is awesome,” he said “We have great facilities at the showgrounds to accommodate even the largest horse floats and gooseneck trailers. “We like to think that campdrafting is probably the most challenging horse sport there is,” he said. “Competitors need all of the skills a stockman must have, they must be able to read skittish bullocks and have a good horse with cattle sense. “Our key contributors for the competition are the local cattle stations and transport operators – without them and their cattle there would be no campdraft,” he said. Cattle for the event come from 12 or more cattle stations in the district. Operations such as the York brothers’ ‘Oakleigh’ and the Price family’s ‘Mt Hope’ muster anything up to 500 head each of bullocks to transport to the campdraft. Renowned locally as the ‘Breaker Brothers’ for the effect their hard-driving approach to farming has on their equipment (“We’re

C A M P D R A F T I N G

C A M P D R A F T I N G

At best the sport is high-speed choreography,

Steve McNamara is a dedicated campdraft rider who looks the very image of a tall, tough Australian cattleman. “My wife Karen and I do about ten events a year,” he said. “She’s a better campdrafter than me, a bit faster around the course, sometimes I think I’m just along as a truck driver! “Good horses for this event are mostly Australian stock horses with some American quarter-horse in them. They need a combination of strength, agility and an innate ability to read cattle. “From a rider’s perspective you need to pick your beast well.” he added. “We say that you pick the one you’d like to buy. Personally, I look for a kind head, enough intelligence, a combination of good speed but not too wayward. You don’t want a lump of dough.” Today’s tournament is the opening of a two-day event held in normally sleepy Wallumbilla, 40 km from Roma in Queensland. Despite its size Wallumbilla has one of the biggest, best-run and best-staged horse events in Queensland. The town’s income is historically tied to the cattle and wheat industries and, in recent times, to natural gas production. Locals also commute to work in the nearby regional centre of Roma. But there are still plenty of volunteers for the campdraft. The first campdrafts were staged on cattle stations around the district during the 1920’s and continued until the current site at Wallumbilla showgrounds was created. The events and the showgrounds have been steadily improved and enlarged since then. Money raised from the event has always been ploughed

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>STORY ROD EIME >PICS MICHAEL WEARNE

properly prepared and driven, some of Australia’s most notorious roads were easily traversed in this near bulletproof runabout


+ It’s fair to sa

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y that not e veryone dr iving a Hond ross -coun a CR-V was try safari, anticipatin but that’s e ga xactly what we did.

gruelling c

But the Honda CR-V shed its urban image and carried us on an effortless odyssey across sweeping plains and parched deserts in relaxed comfort more akin to a family sedan.


a

gainst a backdrop of the harsh Australian outback, one expects to see hardcore, fully-tricked 4WD beasts bristling with massive spotlights, armed with bullbars and winches.

CR-V cruises easily and economically, gobbling up the miles but not the fuel. We enjoyed 10.0L/100km across our 3000-kilometre trek from Mt Kosciuszko to Coober Pedy via Lake Eyre, with loads of luggage on board. As our journey progressed from well-dressed bitumen to naked limestone, the CR-V was able to adapt seamlessly thanks to its Real Time 4WD and smooth 5-speed automatic transmission with Grade Logic Control. Smarter than your average 4x4, CR-V’s 125kW, 2.4-litre DOHC i-VTEC engine will apply power to the rear wheels only when the front wheels require assistance. Combine that with the intelligence of the all-wheel drive system, ABS brakes, traction and stability control, and a cabin with six airbags, and you have the complete package.

With seven contenders in the hotly contested compact SUV segment, the thirdgeneration CR-V still leads all contenders. Fairfax motoring journalists took the entire segment out for a drive and found the stalwart CR-V tops in the group despite serious new competition from Korea, Germany and Japan. “Not only does it drive well but it scores highly for interior design, engine and gearbox combination, noise refinement, comfort and practicality.” wrote Jez Spinks after the exhaustive test. The CR-V performed effortlessly on the highways and country roads from Kosciuszko to the Flinders Ranges, but the roads were about to become gnarly, with bitumen a thing of the past. Heading out of the grandeur of the Flinders Ranges in spring, we made a beeline for the vast nothingness along the Oodnadatta Track. Sand, gumball-sized pebbles and the occasional water-filled fords were all par for the course along a route that took us to the shore of Lake Eyre and on to the opal outpost of Coober Pedy. So harsh and remote is this town, many choose to live underground to escape the baking summer heat. Astronauts come here to train and film crews shoot sci-fi features in the otherworldly terrain. As we rolled into the carpark of our subterranean hotel, the CR-V had taken the whole South Australian outback in its stride proving that, properly prepared and driven, some of Australia’s most notorious roads were easily traversed in this near bulletproof runabout. 


Out on the open road,

Ho n d a C R -V

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I

> S T O R Y + P I C S B E L I N D A JA C K S O N

. urban

cilling..

en -ups, st g, paste


.

inda Jackson

vers Bel

ty, disco

t proper art is ho

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Above: Mays Lane Art P r o j e c t , Sy d n e y

“Those kids tagging [leaving their signatures] along the train lines are creating their identity, and they’re learning such skills as [spray] can control,” says street artist Rone, a member of noted Melbourne street art crew Everfresh. Most grow out of it, many others, like Rone, will continue the life of an artist in one of many manifestations, perhaps maintaining their street art while simultaneously moving into graphic design, advertising and even fashion design: think surf, skate and streetware. 


Art

in g, bomb

+ Taggin

f you thought that all that graffiti along the train lines was just kids being destructive and wasting taxpayers’ money, you’re just so last century. This is art, baby, art. Well, that’s the point of view if you’re a street artist/urban artist - whatever you want to label yourself.

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Make no mistake, street art is hot,


and the celebs know it. Brad Pitt has coughed up almost a quarter-million dollars on a single piece by the world’s most bankable street artist, Britain’s appropriately-named Banksy. Celebrated Perth artist Stormie Mills’ sad-eyed characters grace not only the hip strip of his capital’s Howard Lane, but also, by request, walls of the world’s great capitals and National Gallery of Australia has staked a holding, fighting it out with other internationally prestigious galleries. Curators talk excitedly of ‘live paint’ sessions and other Aussie street artists on the rise: Vexta, Kill Pixie, Miso, Lister, Phibbs… of course, you’ve got to have a name. “Signing yourself ‘John’ is so boring,” says Rone with a grin.

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‘The businessman and the a r t i s t ’ , b y P h i b s & M e g g s y, ACDC Lane, Melbourne ‘Hotel’ signal box by Simon Degroot, Brisbane ‘Urge’ signal box by Pen Donovan, Brisbane ‘Ganesh’ by Deb, Hosier Lane, Melbourne ‘Sambhavna’ by Swoon, M e t r o G a l l e r y, M e l b o u r n e


I make art for the real world, and I like to interact with the world, so the streets as an urban environment are ideal for that

Clockwise from above:

A R T

A R T Bottom: Lunchtime in C e n t r e Wa y, M e l b o u r n e

have increased the fines for minors carrying cans, at the same time they’re increasing the amount of legitimate street art zones in our cities.” Take, for example, Union Lane, a beautifully illustrated strip that runs off Melbourne’s Bourke Street Mall. The narrow lane is a breathtaking spray of colours, from rich golds to glossy magentas; the permits to paint here are moderated by the City of Melbourne. Or the curated panels along Mays Lane in Sydney’s St Peters, which change regularly, the new art heralded by invitationonly opening nights, while Brisbane City Council has long run a program that invites anyone – from artists to schoolkids – to transform the city’s grey traffic light signal boxes into works of art. “Legal art and murals,” says the Brisbane council, “[discourage ugly street art as] vandals seldom attack the work of other artists.” That’s not entirely true, given the temporary nature of street art, which can be bombed by taggers in a matter of days or scrubbed off within 12 hours by those same councils, as artists report particularly in Brisbane and Adelaide, and most famously in Melbourne in 2008, when it was discovered the council had erased art worth thousands by the same media-savvy Banksy. Whatever its origins, street art, like all artistic genres, is divided by periods, media and techniques, from pasteups to marker pens, stickers to tagging, 3-D sculptural items and freehand work to stencilling. Walk the laneways of Melbourne’s CBD and you’ll spy, amongst the Virgin 

S T R E E T

S T R E E T Below: Artists at work, M a y s L a n e , Sy d n e y

And meanwhile, in Melbourne, art space Metro Gallery recently exhibited the works of the poster-girl of the genre, US artist Swoon, who, with a real name of Caledonia Dance Curry, really doesn’t need a pseudonym. With the exhibition already half-sold prior to its politician-rich opening, the most expensive piece carried a $25,500 price tag. Blurring the line between fine artist and street artist, Swoon has created a sensation at the prestigious Venice Biennale art exhibition and her paste-ups – drawings or block prints on paper which are then glued onto a public wall – are now more likely to be torn down by a keen collector than rendered obscure by a layer of spray paint. “As an artist, I make art for the real world, and I like to interact with the world, so the streets as an urban environment are ideal for that,” she says. She lists Berlin, Barcelona and Brooklyn amongst her favourite cities for street art. Paris and Rio also frequently top that list. “A city has to have a slightly democratic feeling [that encourages people to create]. They’re not just buttoned-up, polished places, but cities with a lot of expressiveness,” says Swoon. Why is street art so desirable right now? “It’s the visual look of the 21st century,” says Sydney-based artist and writer Chris Tamm. “You could also say tagging is a contemporary style of calligraphy and hip hop is poetry,” he says with a laugh that belies serious intent. “People have tolerated it and now they’ve become more positive and responsive toward it. While councils

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A R T Ne d K e l l y s t e n c i l s b y H a H a , Duckboard Lane, Melbourne S w o o n , M e t r o G a l l e r y, Melbourne Phibs, Mays Lane, Sydney HKC, Union Lane, Melbourne


‘I have a dream’ by Andrew A i k e n a n d J u i l e e P r y o r, Ne w t o w n , S y d n e y

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Info STREET ART TOURS Melbourne: Melbourne Street Tours, $69pp including guide, map and refreshments, (03) 9328 5556 melbournestreettours.com Sydney: Wallup Tours, $60/hour up to four passengers, larger groups possible, 0418 865 739, wallup.net Adelaide: Street Dreams, on request, streetdreams.com.au

GALLERIES

he says. “It is an insider’s language of symbols and logos, and because people didn’t understand it, they mythologised and demonised it, linking it with gang culture and crime.” “Art and advertising dance a merry dance continually,” he adds. “Artists saw advertisers using public space like billboards to sell sh*t, and they thought, we can use that space to sell ideas.” Sometimes the work is commissioned, such as the Red Cross’s tongue-in-cheek ‘Forcing children to fight a war is cool,’ work in Melbourne’s Duckboard Place, and much has formed the backdrop for countless glossy new car and motorbike ads. “Street art is mainstream now,” says Andy Mac. “You can never get as many people into a gallery or museum as you can get onto the street. There’s no gatekeeper, and no-one’s gonna stop you if you want to make art.” 

Clockwise from top: E v e r f r e s h S t u d i o s , F i t z r o y, Melbourne Mays Lane Art Project, Bathurst Regional Art Gallery D L C , M a y s L a n e , Sy d n e y M i k e M a k a t r o n , Ve s p a H o u s e , Collingwood, Melbourne

Sydney: Urban Uprising Gallery, urbanuprising.com.au China Heights, chinaheights.com Melbourne: Until Never Gallery, untilnever.net Metro Gallery, metrogallery.com.au, Michael Koro Galleries (Blender Studios), michaelkoro.com, Backwoods Gallery, backwoodsgallery.com Brisbane: Edwina Corlette Gallery, edwinacorlette.com Adelaide: Magazine Gallery, (08) 8212 3773, Format Collective, format.net.au Perth: Gadfly Gallery, gadflygallery.com

Union Lane, Melbourne Honda Magazine • honda.com.au

S T R E E T Clockwise from above:

Marys, Indian elephant gods and suffering Christs, the heads of such icons as Ned Kelly and Obama or our own Kevin Rudd, a whip-wielding Julia Gillard and even Wikileaks founder Julian Assange, much of it the work of respected stencillist HaHa. Possibly the most famous piece of street art in Sydney is the Martin Luther King ‘I have a dream’ mural on Newtown’s King Street. Painted in 1992, it survives, featuring the civil rights protestor’s face and immortal words, though it has since morphed to include Aboriginal rights. “Some street artists are political, some want to get famous, some want to make money, do something pretty or advertise their graphic design business. Some just want to do a nice monument to their cat,” says Melbourne street art pioneer Andy Mac, himself an artist and curator of the seminal Citylights Project and Until Never gallery, in Melbourne’s home of street art, Hosier Lane. When he set up in 1998, there were but clean walls in what are now Melbourne’s key street art hot spots. “We created the conditions - like a garden - for art, and it influenced a generation of artists until 2003-04, the year it went berserk, and then unbelievably crazy,” he explains. It’s no mistake, he says that the boom coincided with a rise in conservative governments in Australia and abroad, with artists reacting to political situations, inspired by previous generations such as the 1968 Paris student riots and the US race riots. “The general public didn’t understand street art,”

47

Food + Wine


wakame tartlet, throw in some freshly shucked oysters with lemongrass sorbet and a glass of wine and watch the river traffic passing. We really are the lucky country.

Not only is Greenhouse (100 St Georges Terrace, Perth WA 08 9481 8333) the pin-up for the eco-friendly restaurant movement, its food doesn’t suffer for the right-on green message. After successfully trialling his ideas with temporary pop-ups in Melbourne, designer Joost Bakker lent his experience to this Perth project headed by a dynamic young team. It features straw bale walls and a rooftop garden that pumps out produce for the kitchen. Head chef Matt Stone, a graduate of the kitchen at Perth’s Star Anise, even has a grain mill to make flour for baking bread onsite. The earthy menu includes a breakfast dish of spanner crab and scrambled egg tart. At dinner it might be the cabbage, mint and pomegranate salad or a slow cooked lamb shoulder. Served, of course, with a large side order of green.

It is said that a trip to the underground chambers of the Mildura Grand Hotel is one of Australia’s great gastronomic pilgrimages. Certainly its restaurant, Stefano’s (Langtree Avenue, Mildura VIC 03 5023 0511), has won nearly every award going. Critics’ praise for country restaurants is often dampened with talk of replicated city cooking or quaint ‘friendly’ service, but Stefano’s has regularly pipped its city rivals for the big ticket gongs. Stefano de Pieri was born in Treviso, near Venice, migrated to Australia in 1974 and moved to Mildura in 1991. His menu is driven by magnificent seasonal produce treated with respect. The fivecourse menu changes daily according to de Pieri’s whims, but the memory of a bowl of tongue stock with parmesan or the coconut bavarois can linger for years. This pearl doesn’t expect the diner to live by a restaurant experience alone. There’s also a café-bakery and cellar door with bar.

Tassie is a place that, for many of us outsiders, evokes nostalgia with its Georgian architecture; sleepy towns and CWA-style cakes. But there’s no gazing in the rearview mirror at Garagistes (103 Murray Street, Hobart TAS 03 6231 0558), a restaurant as edgy as any going down in our big cities. Not that edgy means modern with over-the-top Philippe Starck accessorising. This former garage receives its update courtesy of smart communal timber tables and stools. Chef Luke Burgess worked under Tetsuya Wakuda and had a spell at Noma, Copenhagen’s ode to the reinvented art of forage cooking. The inspiration of both is there to see on the menu: wild rabbit with bread sauce, peas, clams and puffed buckwheat and a dish of marinated kingfish with miso and Japanese turnip. Wakuda’s Japanese influence is glimpsed again when fresh wasabi mixes it up with quinoa and an egg yolk dressing for tartar of wallaby.

South Australia has gifted the rest of the country some of its finest chefs; fortunately there’s still plenty of talent left to explore in the southern state. David Swain’s cooking at Fino (8 Hill Street, Willunga SA 08 8556 4488) has left reviewers salivating, one describing the experience as being founded on “restraint, maturity and giving a voice to local producers”. The setting is an old whitewashed building, the menu plays a lofty homage to the seasons, from an elegant Woodside chèvre with peas, lemons and shallots to the Wild Coorong rabbit and boccalaro sausages. This McLaren Vale restaurant is worth a sizeable detour.

Melbourne has long provided inspiration for Australia’s dining trends. Cutler & Co (55-57 Gertrude Street, Fitzroy VIC 03 9419 4888) headlines the city’s musttry roster. Pascale GomesMcNabb’s sexy recrafting of an old metal work factory melds seamlessly with chef Andrew McConnell’s innovative and technically precise creations. It might be heirloom tomatoes with house-made ricotta, brik pastry and white balsamic or a sweet finale of violet ice cream, chocolate ganache, sour cherry and clove meringue. The ingredients used are warmly familiar yet the final product never predictable. Throw in some slick service and a kicking winelist and it’s no wonder Cutler & Co is the first Melbourne stop for most interstate chefs and foodies.  Honda Magazine • honda.com.au

>STORY SCOTT BOLLES

W

hy is it those stories that feature bucket lists often feel more about hastening a quick exit from this life to the next than actually enjoying yourself before you go? I’ve just read one that includes climbing an active volcano, spending 24 hours alone in a jungle, and swimming with sharks. Take it from someone naïve enough to have flirted with two of the other suggestions on the list – skydiving and owning something Not every dining experience under sail – that if the has to reach the heady heights of the gastro-temple. activity doesn’t nearly get you, the upkeep will. It might be a restaurant where the setting is as Even the most important as the food. exorbitant dining is Rickys River Bar & small change compared Restaurant (2 Quamby with mooring fees, and Place, Noosa Heads QLD 07 5447 2455) is eating has the just such a place. Perched advantage of engaging on the banks of the Noosa River, the casual setting all the senses from a and water views are just comfortable and safe the tonic to unwind and position of being get in the holiday vibe. seated. Australia also The service is engaging, and Rickys deserves some happens to have some of the world’s must-tick credit for tapping early the tapas craze that has swept boxes in the dining Australia faster than city department, so here parking meters. A dish of scallop taramasalata are a few suggestions.

Tetsuya’s (529 Kent Street, Sydney NSW 02 9267 2900) consistently places on lists of the world’s best restaurants, a meal at the Sydney restaurant one of those treats every Australian should be lucky enough to experience at least once. It is expensive, and sitting through a double-digit parade of small dishes isn’t for anyone with culinary ADHD, but watching the parade of staff delivering and describing each and every one of those creations is a sight to behold. The restaurant’s JapaneseAustralian chef, Tetsuya Wakuda, made his name in a small restaurant in Rozelle before moving to grander digs in the city. Wakuda’s signature confit of ocean trout has followed him around since the early days in his career, his repertoire includes beef short rib with mustard miso and a sorbet of pione grapes with summer pudding. Tetsuya’s isn’t without its Australian contenders on global best lists, but it remains the bestknown Australian restaurant around the world and a must-do for international culinary tourists.

eating has the advantage of engaging all the senses from the comfortable and safe position of being seated

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A prime example: the Honda Insight Women’s International Grand Prix series at the very end of 2010, when Mel Hoskins took out the fourth race in the series at Coogee. “We have the strength to change our plan from day to day now,” said a delighted Gilmore. “Everybody expected us to race for me for a sprint today, and that’s why we manage to do so well now – because every member of the team is capable of winning.” It was Gilmore, mind you, who went on to win the overall title in that series with a beautifully-judged sprint finish on the final day at Cronulla as the Dream Team continued where they had left off in 2009-10. In the first week of January 2011 Cromwell won the second round of the Bay Cycling Classic at Portarlington in Victoria. By the time they got through the final criterium (short-course) event at Williamstown, Gilmore was once again the overall title-winner for the third time with two stage wins, but the HDT took out the

everything just comes together with these girls – we’re a really tight unit teams and sprinters’ titles to underline their all-round competitive edge. “Everything just comes together with these girls,” said Gilmore, “we’re a really tight unit.” Just to point out that they don’t have it all their own way on the national roadracing scene, Gilmore and co. missed out on the 2011 Oceania Road Championship when Rochelle came fourth on a day when she graciously acknowledged that winner Shara Gillow was “in a class of her own”. Gilmore also had to give best, this time to Chloe Hosking, when Australia’s



W

hen your team is led by a racer who’s won Commonwealth Games gold, World Cup gold three times, World Championship silver and multiple national titles, you might think it was all about her. Not in the Honda Dream Team, it’s not. Rochelle Gilmore is the star in question, but with team-mates like Tiffany Cromwell, Peta Mullins, Melissa Hoskins and Megan Dunn she knows the HDT is no one-woman band.

+ The Honda Dream Team is just that: a team of elite women cyclists having a huge impact on the two-wheeled scene

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Honda Sponsorship

>PIC MICHAEL WEARNE

T h e D r e a m Te a m : Ti f f a n y C r o m w e l l , Melissa Hoskins, Rochelle Gilmore, Peta Mullens and Megan Dunn

elite women enjoyed the new Rendition Homes-Santos Cup prior to the elite men’s event at the 2011 Tour Down Under in South Australia. Stephen Collins, Honda Australia’s General Manager Sales and Marketing, sees professional cycling as a wonderful opportunity for the company. As he said when launching the Honda Insight Grand Prix series, “Honda has strong links with cycling globally. The Honda Insight Grand Prix Series will give Australia’s many up-andcoming female cyclists the opportunity to compete on home soil against the best cyclists in Australia and international stars that are renowned criterium specialists.” There were 60 cyclists and live television coverage for that series and Gilmore knows this is just a taste of things to come: “It is very pleasing to see Honda’s ongoing commitment has already begun to raise the profile of the sport domestically,” she said, “and it would be great to see other companies follow Honda’s lead.” Australia’s brilliant eightmedal haul at the 2011 World Championships is another indication of the sport’s importance heading into the London Olympic Games. That’s the event Gilmore had her sights set on as she embarked on her 2011 international campaign with Team Lotto-Honda– one that will take her to cycling’s traditional heartland in the Low Countries, to China, Spain, Italy, France and Denmark before we see her again in Australia for the Noosa Grand Prix. 

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motor sport > M o t o gp > S tory M AT T H E W C L AY T O N > PIC motogp.com

his own, but the combative Australian has shown he’ll be a hard man to beat in his return to Honda this season

here’s something about Jerez that just doesn’t agree with Casey Stoner. Honda’s star rider has never won at the famed track in southern Spain in any World Championship class, and has stood on the podium just once. This year all signs pointed towards him ending that run of outs, but fate – and an old foe – had other ideas.


Stoner had qualified the RC212V on pole for the second straight race, but inclement Spanish weather threw a spanner into the works. The 25-year-old made a good start and led for the first five laps in the drizzle before being passed by an aggressive Marco Simoncelli (Gresini Honda), but was matching the Italian’s pace when he was sideswiped by Valentino Rossi’s Ducati at Turn 1 on lap 12. After the race, won by Yamaha’s Jorge Lorenzo, Rossi immediately approached Stoner to apologise, with the Australian commenting that “your ambition outweighed your talent” in a terse exchange. Later, Stoner lamented the loss of a chance for a second victory to kick-start his second stint with Honda in the premier class. “It was a little bit disappointing from him – such an experienced rider and pushing so hard that early in the race. It was very easy to crash in these conditions,” Stoner said of Rossi, “but it’s disappointing to lose so many points so early in the season without it being my fault.” Stoner’s Spanish frustration was magnified by his knowledge that in the early stages of the 2011 season, the RC212V was the bike to beat. The season-opener under lights in Qatar was a Stoner showcase – fastest in every practice, pole position, and his fourth win at the Losail Circuit in the last five years. Repsol Honda team-mate Andrea Dovizioso said before the race that he felt the Australian would be “impossible to catch”, and so it proved – but not before the third member of the factory Honda trio, Dani Pedrosa, provided Stoner with a stiffer challenge than expected. The diminutive Spaniard qualified second behind Stoner and the two swapped positions at the head of the pack for 12 laps before Stoner put the hammer down, eventually winning by over three seconds from Lorenzo, who passed a fading Pedrosa in the latter stages. For the Australian – who made his MotoGP on a satellite Honda machine back in 2006 at the same circuit – the result was the perfect start.

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“Everything with Honda so far has been amazing,” he said. “It definitely couldn’t be any better. This weekend we’ve just been getting stronger and stronger. Tonight the bike was fantastic; it has been for all the sessions. I’m very proud to be racing for Repsol Honda and to take my first victory in the first race.” A day after taking second in the Spanish Grand Prix, Pedrosa had further surgery on his collarbone to remove the titanium plate and screws that had been causing a build-up of pressure – and loss of strength – late in races. The 25-year-old hoped the one-month break between the Spanish and Portuguese rounds of the championship would allow him to return to full fitness for the remainder of the season. Of the other four Honda riders competing in MotoGP this season, Simoncelli has shown the most impressive pace – and with it, his inexperience at the top level. The 24-year-old, in his second season in the premier class, looked to be on course for his maiden MotoGP

MotoGP Calendar 2011 Mar 20 Losail Qatar Apr 3 Jerez SPAIN May 1 Estoril Portugal May 15 Le Mans France Jun 5 Barcelona Spain Jun 12 Silverstone UK Jun 25 Assen Netherlands Jul 3 Mugello ITALY Jul 17 Sachsenring Germany Jul 24 California USA Aug 14 Brno Czech Republic Aug 28 Indianapolis USA Sep 4 Misano Italy Sep 18 Aragon Spain Oct 2 Motegi JAPAN Oct 16 Phillip Is Australia Oct 23 Sepang Malaysia Nov 6 Valencia Spain

podium finish in Spain before pushing too hard and crashing while leading the race, but the lanky Italian has been a regular in the top five throughout most practice and qualifying sessions, suggesting a first visit to the rostrum isn’t far away. While the opening rounds of the MotoGP season have been eventful, the action in the second season of the Moto2 category – where fields of 40 bikes with identical Honda 600cc engines squabble for the top 15 points-paying positions – has been just as entertaining. Italian Andrea Iannone headed the standings after the first two rounds; the 21-year-old finished second from a lowly 16th on the grid in Qatar, and went one better in Spain, taking victory after starting from 11th. 

everything with Honda so far has been amazing


T

+ Casey Stoner’s Spanish drought continued through no fault of

53

> PIC GRAEME BROWN

+ The Netherlands: Old Masters, wheels of cheese and stolid faces? Think

D

ateline Phillip Island, late February: round one of the 2011 World Superbike Championship. It’s the first outing for the reborn Castrol Honda race team, once the scourge of the two-wheeled world, now back in business thanks to the re-liveried Ten Kate Racing team, proudly owned and run by cousins Gerrit and Ronald ten Kate.


“When our World Championship racing adventure was first beginning, many years ago now, Castrol Honda was the one team in the paddock which everyone looked up to, whose professional and performance standards we all wanted to achieve,” says Ronald. He’s a man who goes racing to win, but travels with a twinkle in the eye, a ready smile and a willingness to engage in conversation about his twowheeled world. How did this all start, we wondered? “Well, the entire family is riding bikes, has connections with bikes; it was a way of transport for the older generation within the family – they all had motorbikes, so the two of us as young kids were always on the back of some uncle to get around.” With Gerrit leading they gravitated to motocross, and by the time Ronald was in his teens his cousin was already in business – and looking to bigger and better things.

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“The technology of street machines had reached a level where you basically only serviced them: oil out, filter off, filter on, oil in, check the brakes – just maintenance. He wanted the mechanics to be able to open engines, see everything, make things better. That was the initial pick-up to motor sport for us. When Gerrit started his racing team – without even knowing he was starting something like this! – I became the mechanic. “Step by step you grow as a team, from the national championship you grow through to European, then to world level, then from world level you become like a front-runner, then all of a sudden Honda Europe is coming to ask if we would like to work together. And at that point it became clear that we could have a shot at something big. That’s when we sat together and said, ‘OK, now we have something in front of us, now we can really build something like a professional outfit, we can really move onwards.’ So that was decision time: are we going to go for it or are we just going to entertain ourselves like we have done till now?

again. There’s a Dutch company doing Honda proud in the competitive world of Superbikes... and having fun in the process.

So we said, ‘OK, let’s give it our all!’ That early alliance with Honda has grown into a unique relationship based around both racing and production bikes for customers. “When you start to race with Honda, the first couple of years is building a relationship with them – having confidence in each other, having trust in each other – whereas nowadays we have committed ourselves, being an exclusive dealer, doing all the tuning, racing products, only focused on Honda. It’s like a marriage now! It has its ups and downs, as usual, but I must say that the ups are far more and far higher than the little downs.” One of the special things about TKR is the close kinship between their racing and their production bike business. “Within a couple of years we had started to build engines and later on complete machines for our customers worldwide, so the specific heart of the company, the tuning and racing part, is linked to production machine racing. We just love it with production bikes. It would be way more easy if we would just collect a bike, race-ready from a race department from any of the manufacturers around, with an update every now and then, but we have true mechanics and engineers who like to create their own stuff, make the bike better and improve. Now we have a role to play within the Honda racing family.” Experienced rider Ruben Xaus described TKR as ‘the essence’ of World Superbikes. We wondered what Ronald made of that? “The essence of the championship is the local dealer going racing, I think, not purely works bikes with works mechanics around but a bunch of enthusiastic, passionate people. I think we are the most private of the top teams. It’s not all hugs and kisses, but the spirit of doing things together, working as a team – and in ‘team’ there is no ‘I’ – is really one of the things we push for. We used to be a dealership with a racing team behind us, but now actually it turns out to be a racing team with a dealership hanging on!” 

WSBK Calendar 2011 Feb 27 Phillip Island Australia Mar 27 Donnington Park UK Apr 17 Assen Holland May 8 Monza Italy May 30 Salt Lake City USA Jun 12 Misano Italy Jun 19 Aragon Spain Jul 10 Brno Czech Republic Jul 31 Silverstone UK Sep 4 Nurburgring Germany Sep 25 Imola Italy Oct 2 Magny Cours France Oct 16 Portimao Portugal

#1 AGAIN! The reborn Castrol Honda team claimed its first World Superbike victory when Jonathan Rea came home first in race 1 at the third round, the team’s home race at Assen. The Irish rider followed up with a strong podium finish in third place in race 2 despite late-race tyre problems to kickstart his season after early injuries. Twelfth and fourth at Phillip Island, Rea then took fifth and sixth at Donington Park before his Dutch success. “I’m happy to be back where I belong, in the winner’s circle,” he said after his seventh career win. “That’s exactly the right sort of confidence and momentum that we need to take to the next races.” After three rounds Rea lay fourth on 79 points with team-mate Ruben Xaus fourteenth on 26. 

the spirit of doing things together, working as a team, is one of the things we push for


motor sport > S u p e r b i k e s

55

motor sport > I n d y C a r

+ Sport’s a lot like life: it has its ups and downs. Just ask Indycar ace Mike Conway...

O

n May 30, 2010, Mike Conway was living many racing drivers’ dream: he was competing against the cream of the Indycar crop at the greatest racing facility in the world, the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, in the fabled 500. With one lap to go, dream turned to nightmare when Conway’s #24 car took off, flung skyward by the left front wheel of Ryan Hunter-Reay’s slowing, fuel-starved machine. Conway survived the horrific impact with a broken leg and a compression fracture to a vertebra, his season over – but lucky still to be alive.

On April 17, 2011, in just his third race back, the 27-year-old Englishman scored his maiden Indycar victory in the third round of the IZOD series on the streets of Long Beach. Ironically, Conway and Hunter-Reay are now team-mates at Andretti Autosport, and his victory sent a signal to the two giants of the series, Team Penske and Target Chip Ganassi Racing, that they may not have it all their own way again this year. Conway got past Penske’s Australian driver Ryan Briscoe on the 72nd of 85 laps at Long Beach to become the first new winner in the series since Briscoe himself triumphed at Milwaukee back in 2008.


IndyCar Calendar 2011

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Mar 27 St Petersburg USA Apr 10 Alabama USA Apr 17 Long Beach USA May 1 Sao Paulo BRAZIL May 29 Indy 500 USA Jun 11 Texas USA Jun 19 Milwaukee USA Jun 25 Iowa USA Jul 10 Toronto CANADA Jul 24 Edmonton CANADA Aug 7 Mid Ohio USA Aug 14 New Hampshire USA Aug 28 Infineon USA Sep 4 Baltimore USA Sep 17 Motegi JAPAN Oct 2 Kentucky USA Oct 16 Las Vegas USA

Dixon as he and third-placed Franchitti claimed their 10th double podium finish as team-mates. Power, naturally, saw things a little differently after his ninth career Indycar win: “It was an awesome day, I’m very happy. The restarts were the key to the race today.

for the fight ahead...” That fight is sure to be against Penske’s Will Power and CGR’s Dario Franchitti, among others. Franchitti, going for a third straight title, put down a marker for 2011 with victory in the season-opening Honda Grand Prix of St. Petersburg, his 27th career win taking him level with the great Johnny Rutherford. The Scot went round polesitter Power on the outside of Turn 1 on lap 5 and led for 94 of the remaining 95 laps. Power then hit back by winning the Honda Indy Grand Prix of Alabama at Barber Motorsports Park, although the Aussie’s tactics earned some caustic comments from secondplaced Kiwi Scott Dixon in the second CGR car. “Let’s just say Will Power was determined today,” said

I had to get the jump on Scott [Dixon] every time and we were able to do it. This is the second [full] year we’ve been together as a team, and I feel like we’re much more solid, but still improving all the time. We need to be better on the ovals this year, and we will be. We want to win the championship.” With three rounds gone Franchitti leads the series on 122 points from Power on 115, Tony Kanaan of KV Racing Technology on 87, Newman-Haas Racing’s Oriol Servia on 80 and Conway on 74. 

welcome back “His comeback is now complete,” said team owner Michael Andretti, a Long Beach legend in his own right – his own first and final wins came on the Californian streets. “The first time we put him in a race car, I could tell he had potential. I’m just so happy he was able to (win) this early and win one of the greatest races here in Long Beach. I’m just so proud of him and the whole team.” Conway himself admitted he had doubted his ability to make it back to the top flight. “Initially, I saw the injuries I had, and I wasn’t sure when I’d get back,” he said. “Things like that can definitely stop your career. But I was just determined to not let it, determined to


things like that [injury] can definitely stop your career. But I was just determined to not let it, determined to get back to fitness, and get back in a car

get back to fitness, and get back in a car. “As soon as we were kind of talking to Michael (Andretti), it was really exciting times, knowing that we could possibly be with such a good team like Andretti Autosport. This year, just full of energy and just all ready

57

Honda Accord Euro 2011 >PIC MICHAEL WEARNE

J

azz came here only at the start of this century. Accord, on the other hand, has been an Australian favourite since it first arrived on these shores way back in 1977. It’s a car that never grows old – and once again Honda has ensured the 2011 Accord range stays as fresh as ever.


The current Accord range offers buyers a choice of engines, from a powerful 202 kW V6 with Vehicle Cylinder Management (VCM) to a frugal 132 kW 2.4-litre four-cylinder unit. Two chrome bars and a revised bumper design announce the latest changes, with a chrome highlight strip across the boot lid, while the four-cylinder VTi-L has new five twin-spoke 17-inch alloy wheels. We all know what a difference some music can make, so the latest Accord’s audio system is easier to get around and there’s a new USB port in the centre console as well. To keep you right in touch an A-pillar mounted Bluetooth is built in. On the safety front an auto-dimming rear-view mirror will help night-time driving, with front parking sensors and a new foldaway key design also standard across the range.

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Taking things a step further, in a new variant the Accord VTi-L now comes with satellite navigation and a reversing camera. The Accord was the first Japanese car to win the coveted Wheels Car of the Year award in 1977 and is Honda’s most decorated car globally. The eighthgeneration Accord won Drive Car of the Year in 2008 as well as Drive’s Best Large Car award the same year. 


+ Touches of luxury plus safety upgrades highlight the 2011 Accord Euro.

O

ne of Honda Australia’s best-selling cars is about to become an even more rewarding buy. In mid-2011 the Accord Euro – which has sold over 60,000 units in this country since its introduction in 2003 – will benefit from a new-look exterior and some subtle touches to its interior as well.

A new three-bar grille will replace the outgoing two-bar version while the new Euro also comes with a re-sculpted front bumper, fog light surrounds and ventilation apertures. The rear lights are now soft red and the boot lid comes with a chrome strip. A new satin-finish garnish on the door handles, console, steering wheel and other interior components makes Euro even more welcoming, while an anti-dust feature has been applied to the cloth trim on the entry model. The entry model now has the option of 18-inch alloy wheels, auto headlights and rain-sensing wipers.

The Luxury Navi benefits from new bi-HID headlights with auto low/high beam and a cornering function which operates at speeds up to 40kmh, a first for Honda. Further upgrades across the Accord Euro range include steering wheel integrated Bluetooth, a new foldaway key design, USB connectivity and Trailer Stability Assist on all models. Powered by a lively 147 kW four-cylinder engine with a slick six-speed manual or smooth fivespeed auto with grade logic control, the second generation Accord Euro is as sporty and fuelefficient as ever. 



Honda Accord 2011

>PIC MICHAEL WEARNE

+ Elegance and enhanced safety are the keys to Accord in 2011.

59

more than just a service

>PIC MICHAEL WEARNE

+Music to the ears: Jazz has more safety, style and features at no extra cost.

a

lmost a decade since it came to this country, Jazz has been given a significant facelift – but the good news is it comes at no extra cost. In fact the VTi-S comes down by $1000, while other models have an added-value upgrade of up to $3400.


First and foremost, all Jazz models come with a five-star ANCAP safety rating. Front/side/curtain airbags are standard across the model range, as are front and rear seatbelt reminders, ABS with Brake Assist and Vehicle Stability Assist. Jazz still comes with a choice of 1.3-litre or 1.5-litre engines. The VTi variant now comes with cruise control, 15-inch alloy wheels and a full-size alloy spare; VTi and VTiS come with sporty bumpers, side skirts, fog lamps and a gunmetal grey grille. For VTiS, add a rear spoiler and 16-inch alloy wheels for new-look, bang-up-to-date styling package.

60

Inside, the Jazz range comes with USB connectivity and with A-pillar Bluetooth, another first for the model. There’s also a new-look satin-finish centre dash panel with system controls and multi-information display for ease of reference. Two new colours, Polished Metal and Fresh Lime Green, mean Jazz buyers now have a range of seven finishes to choose from. Nice headache to have... Jazz was Honda’s fastestselling model when introduced in 2001. These new upgrades should do nothing to slow things down! 


There’s more about owning a Honda than just the sheer enjoyment of driving it. Part of the experience is the satisfaction of knowing it’s professionally cared for with Dedicated Honda Care. Dedicated Honda Care is a total commitment to Honda maintenance that only your Honda Dealer can provide you. We understand your Honda

We fully understand your Honda, including all the latest technology. We will always provide you with clear and reliable information about your Honda.

Unbeatable value

Our everyday pricing guarantees unbeatable value and comparable or better prices than you would find anywhere else – day in, day out.

Honda Genuine Parts

We only fit Honda Genuine Replacement Parts which are backed by a Nationwide Guarantee. After all, only the real thing can be trusted.

Maximise resale value

Maximise the resale value of your vehicle by upholding the consistency of your Honda with regular Honda Genuine Services.

Total customer satisfaction We commit to total customer satisfaction. We will attend to your enquiries and concerns within the time agreed.

Maximise safety

How important is safety to you? At Honda we are committed to maintaining the safety of your Honda.

We deliver on time

We will ensure that your vehicle is delivered on time, in excellent condition.

Integrity

We pledge to conduct ourselves with integity and professionalism at all times.

Accurate quotes

When servicing your vehicle, receive accurate repair appraisals.

Factory trained technicians

We put technicians through extensive factory training programs so they know what it takes to keep your Honda at the peak of performance. They call on all their Honda training plus a unique range of advanced Honda Vehicle Communication Interface equipment and specialised tools when maintaining your Honda.


Honda Jazz 2011

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+ People are the driving force behind Honda, so it’s no wonder

For prices, please contact your Honda Dealer. † Leather includes some PVC vinyl material. * The fuel consumption figures quoted are based on ADR81/02 combined test results. You may experience different results depending on driving conditions and the condition of the vehicle.


For full specifications, please go to honda.com.au/cars

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JA ZZ

JAZZ GLi Features 1.3 litre 73kW petrol engine 5-speed manual 5-speed auto with Grade Logic Control 5.8 man / 6.6 auto L/100km* ANCAP 5 Star safety rating 6 airbags (front/side/curtain) Vehicle Stability Assist (VSA)

ABS with EBD & Brake Assist Bluetooth phone connectivity iPod/USB audio connectivity Security alarm Air-conditioning Magic Seats flexibility system

JAZZ VTi GLi Features plus: 1.5 litre 88kW petrol engine 6.4 man / 6.7 auto L/100km* 15" alloy wheels Aero front & rear bumpers Aero side skirts Fog lights Cruise control

CITY

CITY VTi Features 1.5 litre 88kW petrol engine 5-speed manual 5-speed auto with Grade Logic Control 6.3 man / 6.6 auto L /100km* ANCAP 5 Star safety rating 6 airbags (front/side/curtain) Vehicle Stability Assist (VSA)

ABS with EBD & Brake Assist Bluetooth phone connectivity iPod/USB audio connectivity Cruise control Security alarm Air-conditioning Steering wheel mounted audio controls

CITY VTi-L VTi Features plus: 16" alloy wheels Fog lights Rear seat under-tray Premium cloth seat trim Leather-wrapped steering wheel† Tile and telescopic adjustable steering

CIVIC

CIVIC GLi Features 1.8 litre 103kW petrol engine 5-speed manual 5-speed auto with Grade Logic Control 6.9 man / 7.2 auto L /100km* Low Emission Vehicle (LEV) 6 airbags (front/side/curtain) Vehicle Stability Assist (VSA)

ABS with EBD & Brake Assist Cruise control Tile and telescopic adjustable steering Single CD audio with MP3 auxiliary jack

CIVIC VTi-L VTi Features plus: 16" alloy wheels Auto climate control air-conditioning Rear seats 60/40 split fold down & tip up Security alarm Steering wheel mounted audio controls

CIVIC HYBRID

CIVIC Hybrid Features 1.3 litre 85kW i-SDI petrol engine with electric Integrated Motor Assist (IMA) CVT auto with Grade Logic Control 4.6 L /100km* fuel economy

Ultra Low Emission Vehicle (LEV) 6 airbags (front/side/curtain) Vehicle Stability Assist (VSA) ABS with EBD & Brake Assist Front active head restraints 15" alloy wheels Fog lights Auto climate control air-conditioning

Security alarm 6 CD audio with MP3 auxiliary jack

O D YSS E Y

CIVIC Si

CIVIC Si Features 1.8 litre 103kW petrol engine 6-speed manual 5-speed auto with Grade Logic Control 6.9 man / 7.2 auto L /100km* 6 airbags (front/side/curtain) Vehicle Stability Assist (VSA) ABS with EBD & Brake Assist

Deflation Warning System (DWS) Rear parking sensors Cruise control Dual zone climate control air-conditioning Auto dimming rear view mirror Auto on/off headlights Security alarm

Climate controlled glovebox Engine push start button 17" alloy wheels Fog lights Bluetooth phone connectivity iPod/USB audio connectivity Leather interior† (optional) Heated front seats (optional)

CIVIC TYPE R

CIVIC TYPE R

Deflation Warning System (DWS) Dual chrome triangular exhaust Cruise control Dual zone climate control air-conditioning Alcantara sports bucket seat Leather wrapped steering with red stitching†

Rev indicator Aluminium sports pedals Engine push start button 18" seven-spoke alloy wheels Auto on/off headlights with height adjustment Fog lights iPod/USB audio connectivity

Features 2.0 litre 148kW petrol engine 6-speed manual 3 door hatch body style 9.3 L /100km* 6 airbags (front/side/curtain) Vehicle Stability Assist (VSA) ABS with EBD & Brake Assist Rear parking sensors

JAZZ VTi-S VTi Features plus: 5-speed auto only Steering wheel paddle shifters 16" alloy wheels Aero rear tailgate spoiler Sports cloth seat trim Leather-wrapped steering wheel†

CIVIC SPORT VTi-L Features plus: 2.0 litre 114kW 8.3 man / 8.4 auto L /100km* 17" alloy wheels Electric sunroof Leather seats† Leather-wrapped steering wheel†

I NS I G H T

INSIGHT VTi Features 1.3 litre 72kW petrol engine with electric Integrated Motor Assist (IMA) CVT auto with Grade Logic Control 4.6 L /100km* fuel economy ANCAP 5 Star safety rating 6 airbags (front/side/curtain)

Vehicle Stability Assist (VSA) ABS with EBD & Brake Assist Front active head restraints Security alarm 15" alloy wheels Auto climate control air-conditioning Ecological Drive Assist system (Eco Assist) and ECON button

Rear parking sensors Bluetooth phone connectivity iPod/USB audio connectivity Single CD audio with MP3 auxiliary jack Steering wheel mounted audio controls

INSIGHT VTi-L Insight VT-i Features plus: 16" alloy wheels Satellite navigation with live traffic updates and integrated Bluetooth phone system, reversing camera and DVD playback capability

A CCO R D

ACCORD VTi Features 2.4 litre 133kW petrol engine 5-speed auto with Grade Logic Control 8.8 L /100km* 6 airbags, VSA, ABS, EBD & Brake Assist Bluetooth phone connectivity

ACCORD VTi LUXURY VTi Features plus: Leather interior with heated front seats† Electric sunroof 8-way power adjustment driver seat Auto on/off headlights Satellite navigation with reversing camera

ACCORD V6 LUXURY Features 3.5 litre 202kW V6 petrol engine with Variable Cylinder Management (VCM) 5-speed auto with Grade Logic Control 10.0 L /100km* 6 airbags, VSA, ABS, EBD & Brake Assist

Dual zone climate control air-conditioning Auto HID headlights Leather interior with heated front seats† 8-way power adjustment driver seat Satellite navigation with reversing camera Front & rear parking sensors

A CCO R D E U R O

ACCORD EURO

Trailer Stability Assist (TSA) 17" alloy wheels Rear parking sensors Cruise control Security alarm Dual zone climate control air-conditioning Premium audio with 6 CD & 10 speakers Bluetooth phone connectivity

ACCORD EURO LUXURY

ACCORD EURO LUXURY NAVIGATION

ODYSSEY

Security alarm Front & rear independent double wishbone suspension 16" alloy wheels Rear parking sensors Dual zone auto climate control air-conditioning Retractable 3rd row seats Bluetooth phone connectivity iPod/USB audio connectivity

ODYSSEY LUXURY

Tri-zone climate control air-conditioning Satellite navigation with touch screen, live traffic updates, integrated Bluetooth phone system, reversing camera and DVD playback capability iPod/USB audio connectivity

C R -V

CR-V

Security alarm Cruise control Remote keyless entry Central locking Body coloured power door mirrors with side turn indicators Steering wheel mount audio controls Bluetooth phone connectivity

CR-V SPORT

CR-V LUXURY

LEGEND

LEGEND

ANCAP 5 Star safety rating 6 airbags, VSA, ABS, EBD & Brake Assist Active front head restraints Active Front Lighting System (AFS) Auto HID headlights Front & rear fog lights Electric sunroof with key-off operation

Leather interior with heated front seats† Remote keyless entry with driver recognition for driver’s seat, steering wheel and door mirrors Dual zone auto climate control air-conditioning 10-way power adjustment front seats

17" alloy wheels Satellite navigation with reversing camera Premium audio with 6 CD/DVD changer and 10 speakers Bluetooth phone connectivity iPod/USB audio connectivity Steering wheel mounted audio & phone controls

Features 2.4 litre 148kW petrol engine 6-speed manual 5-speed auto with Grade Logic Control 8.9 L /100km* ANCAP 5 Star safety rating 6 airbags, VSA, ABS, EBD & Brake Assist

Features 2.4 litre 132kW petrol engine 5-speed auto with Grade Logic Control 7 seats 8.9 L /100km* fuel economy 6 airbags (front/side/curtain) VSA, ABS, EBD & Brake Assist Front active head restraints

Features 2.4 litre 125kW petrol engine 6-speed manual 5-speed auto with Grade Logic Control 10.0 man / 10.0 auto L /100km* Real time 4WD system 6 airbags, VSA, ABS, EBD & Brake Assist

Features 3.7 litre 226kW V6 petrol engine 6-speed with Sequential SportShift paddle shifters and Grade Logic Control 10.7 L /100km* Super Handling All-Wheel Drive system (SH-AWD)

Euro Features plus: 18" alloy wheels Auto on/off headlights HID headlights with washers Electric sunroof Leather interior† Heated front seats Front & rear parking sensors

Odyssey Features plus: 17" alloy wheels HID headlights Aero front & rear bumpers Aero side skirt Rear tailgate spoiler Electric sunroof Leather interior with heated front seats†

CR-V Features plus: 17" alloy wheels 5-speed auto only Electric sunroof Front fog lights Dual zone auto climate control air-conditioning Double-deck cargo shelf 6 CD audio with 6 speakers

Luxury Features plus: 5-speed auto only Satellite navigation with reversing camera Auto hi/low beam switching Active cornering lights

CR-V Sport Features plus: 8-way power adjustment driver’s seat Leather interior† Heated front seats Reverse parking sensors Automatic on/off headlights


that Honda has an array of vehicles to answer every driving need.

63

+ Thinking Honda? Think Honda Dealers – there are over 100 of them countrywide, but our list should help you find one in your area. VICTORIA


Artarmon Scotts Honda Tamworth Woodleys Motors Toowoomba Peter Roberts Bairnsdale Pace Honda (02) 9431 2333 (02) 6763 1555 Honda (03) 5152 0150 Ballina Honda East Taree Manning Valley (07) 4637 5555 Ballarat Ballarat City Honda (02) 6686 7186 Motors Townsville Pickerings Honda (03) 5331 5000 Batemans Bay Alan May Honda (02) 6552 1088 (07) 4726 5555 Bendigo Innes Motors (02) 4472 1100 Wagga Wagga Wagga Motors Tweed Heads von Bibra Twin (03) 5442 9010 Bathurst Bathurst Honda (02) 6933 0100 Towns Honda Bentleigh East Astoria Motors (02) 6338 2000 Warwick Farm Peter Warren (07) 5523 7400 (03) 9579 1988 Bega Bega Valley Motors Honda Warwick Graeme Collins Berwick New World Honda (02) 6492 2333 Honda (02) 9828 8111 (03) 8794 0000 Blacktown Trivett Honda (07) 4661 2533 Wollongong Wollongong City Brighton Robert Lane Honda (02) 8822 1111 Motors Woolloongabba Southside Honda (03) 9563 9999 Brookvale Col Crawford (02) 4227 3799 (07) 3895 3895 Bundoora Northway Honda Motors (03) 9066 3100 (02) 9941 1390 QUEENSLAND WESTERN AUSTRALIA Collingwood Yarra Honda Coffs Harbour Fitzroy Honda Atherton Redding Honda Albany Albany Honda (03) 9288 9000 (02) 6652 3122 (07) 4091 1344 (08) 9842 5522 Doncaster Eastern Honda Dubbo Sainsbury Bundaberg Bundaberg Honda Bunbury Bunbury Honda (03) 9856 1333 Automotive (07) 4153 3288 (08) 9721 1000 Essendon Fields Essendon Honda (02) 6884 6444 Cairns Trinity Honda Burswood Burswood Honda (03) 9374 8000 Gateshead Macquarie Honda (07) 4050 5040 (08) 9311 7555 Ferntree Gully Ferntree Gully (02) 4947 5000 Caloundra Caloundra City Geraldton Midwest Honda Honda Gosford Central Coast Honda (08) 9921 2966 (03) 9758 9888 Honda (07) 5491 5522 Kalgoorlie Goldfields Honda Frankston Travis Honda (02) 4324 5744 Cleveland Keema Bayside (08) 9021 7310 (03) 9786 1022 Griffith Griffith Honda Honda Mandurah Peel Honda Geelong Rex Gorell Honda (02) 6969 5080 (07) 3383 1333 (08) 9582 6200 (03) 5223 1633 Hamilton Kloster Honda Cooroy Daddow’s Honda Melville Prestige Honda Heidelberg Courtney & (02) 4922 0592 (07) 5447 6133 (08) 9317 5700 West Patterson Honda Homebush Larke Hoskins Gladstone Motorworld Osborne Park Honda North (03) 9287 1588 (02) 8789 6888 Honda (08) 9449 9000 Hoppers Westside Honda Hornsby Hornsby Honda (07) 4971 5777 Crossing (03) 9974 5555 (02) 9472 2100 Gympie Pacific Honda SOUTH AUSTRALIA Horsham Wilson Bolton Kingswood Great Western (07) 5480 5222 Adelaide Nordic Honda Honda Honda Hervey Bay Bay City Honda (08) 8229 2355 (03) 5382 0157 (02) 8805 9570 (07) 4124 0000 Glenelg Dave Potter Honda Mildura AutoSynergy Leichhardt Rick Damelian Indooroopilly Westpoint Honda (08) 8294 3444 (03) 5022 0927 Honda 1300 033 971 Modbury Formula Honda Mornington Peninsula Honda (02) 9560 1000 Ipswich Blue Ribbon Honda (08) 8265 9555 (03) 5975 9755 Lismore Ireland Honda (07) 3280 3400 Mt Gambier Carlin & Gazzard Oakleigh Garry & Warren (02) 6621 2662 Kunda Park Sunshine Coast Honda Smith Maitland Hunter Honda Honda (08) 8723 8881 (03) 9564 6666 (02) 4999 6710 (07) 5409 1500 Tanunda Lynas Valley Honda Prahran John Blair Honda Moss Vale Southern Highland Mackay Carlisle Honda (08) 8563 2045 (03) 9529 1255 Honda (07) 4957 0700 Ringwood Ringwood Honda (02) 4868 1477 Maryborough Maryborough City TASMANIA (03) 9871 6888 Narellan Macarthur Honda Honda Burnie Motors Honda Shepparton Darryl Twitt Honda (02) 4636 8000 (07) 4123 0000 (03) 6430 2482 (03) 5821 9477 Nowra Nowra Honda Mount Isa Malouf Honda Hobart Honda Central Traralgon Gittins Valley (02) 4422 0111 (07) 4743 8866 (03) 6234 0300 Honda Orange Honda Auto Centre Newstead Austral Honda Launceston Greg Crick Honda (03) 5173 3999 (02) 6362 7169 (07) 3364 1700 (03) 6331 8411 Warragul Warragul City Parramatta Trivett Classic North Lakes Torque Honda

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Warrnambool

Honda Honda (07) 3384 5700 (03) 5623 5633 (02) 9841 8888 Nundah Northside Honda Coast Honda Port Macquarie John Patrick Honda (07) 3635 5200 (03) 5561 1300 (02) 6584 1800 von Bibra Robina Robina Rockdale Collins Honda Honda NEW SOUTH WALES (02) 9599 4888 (07) 5575 0500 Albion Park Shellharbour Rosebery Larke Hoskins Rockhampton D C Honda Honda (02) 9313 8833 (07) 4999 1200 (02) 4257 2800 Scone Saunders Honda Southport von Bibra Gold Albury Baker Honda (02) 6545 9822 Coast Honda (02) 6041 8400 Sutherland Tynan Motors (07) 5556 2900 Armidale Hardman Honda Honda Springwood Highway Honda (02) 6772 8411 (02) 8545 8888 (07) 3808 1111

NORTHERN TERRITORY Alice Springs Darwin

Peter Kittle Honda (08) 8952 5500 Darwin Honda (08) 8981 3827

AUSTRALIAN CAPITAL TERRITORY Belconnen Phillip

Rolfe Honda (02) 6253 3899 Capital Honda (02) 6221 5200

THE JOURNEY

Start your journey as a Honda owner today with Honda Financial Services . *

Whether your new Honda is for personal or business use, Honda Financial Services can offer you a tailored solution.

Personal Finance Options** • Consumer Loan • Personal Lease

Business Finance Options • Corporate Plan • Chattel Mortgage • Finance & Novated Lease Our national network of Honda Dealers is ready to help, so to start your journey today, visit your local Honda dealer.

Honda Financial Services is a registered business name of Macquarie Leasing Pty Limited ABN 38 002 674 982 (ML) who is the financier of these products. ML is not an authorised deposit-taking institution for the purposes of the Banking Act 1959 (Cth), and ML’s obligations do not represent deposits or other liabilities of Macquarie Bank Limited ABN 46 008 583 542. Macquarie Bank Limited does not guarantee or otherwise provide assurance in respect of the obligations of ML. **The Honda Consumer Loan and Honda Personal Lease are regulated by the National Credit Code. ML is the credit provider/lessor of these products under Australian Credit Licence. Only available at participating Honda Dealerships.

*