New Honda OSM concept takes to world stage

With sales of dry ice having sky-rocketed, Europe’s ‘Final Countdown’ on pause button and more sheets than at Johnson’s the cleaners, it can only be British Motor Show time once again.

One of the first car manufacturers to feel the heat of the paparazzo’s flashbulbs was Honda, as it whipped the covers off its all-new OSM low-emission, lightweight sports car concept.

As we first reported a couple of weeks ago, the Honda OSM two-seat roadster concept may not have the catchiest name ever – Open Study Model if you recall – but it more than makes up for this by having a lot to say for itself we’re told. Namely on account of its environmental and fuel saving attributes.

Although we'll have to take Honda's word for it as quite how the Japanese manufacturer aims to tackle these issues is unclear at this stage because of an absence of exacting technical data. Maybe it’s got a little stage fright?

Then there’s a perfectly logical explanation for this. You see Honda has no plans to put the OSM concept into production at this moment – we suppose the words ‘concept’ and ‘Open Study’ act as clues.

Honda also goes to great lengths to excuse itself by admitting the OSM will be used solely to garner interest and feedback from its customers attending the British Motor Show before it decides what further stages it will take the OSM too next. And by that token we’re not referring to further motoring jamborees.

The exterior you can see plainly for yourselves, whilst the insides of the OSM require a description of sorts. The centre console is more a central binnacle, where the core instrumentation is housed, throwing up facts and figures pertaining to your driving in bright blue digits set against a black background panel.

This matches the trim inside the car, with the seats and door furniture trimmed in a new, gloss-effect blue leather, accompanied by white leather sections, in line with the exterior body colour, a one-off paint called Mystic Pearl.

The predominant driver controls and functionality are shown amid an intuitive, fluid layout, with everything being within easy reach. A centrally-mounted semi-sequential gear shift, along with paddle shifts either side of the steering wheel and a red ignition ‘start’ button points us in the general direction that for all its as yet unannounced eco-profiting, don’t come at a cost to Honda’s underlying sporting pretensions in this will it-wont it ‘design study’.

We’re trying to show that low emission cars can be attractive,” says Andreas Sittel, Project Leader for OSM. “There is no reason why a car that’s more environmentally friendly can’t look great too – and be sporty and fun to drive.” You said it.