UPDATED: Honda hints at new European advanced design studio

On the eve of the 2011 Tokyo Motor Show, Honda Design's Creative Director, Toshinobu Minami, announced that the company is looking to once again open a design facility in Europe. The announcement came during a presentation at the R&D Center in Waco, just outside the Japanese capital and, while not confirmed, Minami-san strongly hinted that the UK would be a likely candidate to play host to Honda's revitalized European design operations. He cited the country's existing manufacturing and administration facilities, as well as a wealth of new talent from the Royal College of Art in particular.

Italian Grand Prix 2012: McLaren lock out the front row.

McLaren has locked out the front row for the Italian Grand Prix at Monza with Lewis Hamilton on pole and Jenson Button second. Lewis Hamilton grabbed pole position in Monza this afternoon for McLaren  in qualifying for the 2012 Italian Grand Prix, with a second place for Jenson Button locking out the front row for McLaren. It had looked throughout Q1 and Q2 that it would be Ferrari who were dominant and likely to take pole, but Alonso suffered a rear roll bar problem at the start of Q3 and ended at the bottom in tenth place.

One Lap of the Web: Senna's sweet go-kart

-- Gran Turismo has always included some, uh, unique car choices for its video games. (Sure, the Patent-Motorwagen is significant, but hot-lapping the 1-hp horseless carriage in "Gran Turismo 4" wasn't exactly riveting, unless you used cheats.) So that's why Ayrton Senna's go-kart from the 1978 World Karting Championship should be interesting -- it's nowhere near as fast as his Lotus 97T, but it shows that "Gran Turismo" wasn't kidding when developers said they wanted fans to chart the entirety of Senna's life. Plus, if you make it go 352 mph you can finally stick it to Prost.