2003 Honda Studio E Concept - Putting a New 'Spin' on the Element
What's going on? Is the Detroit auto show becoming SEMA and SEMA taking on the role of Detroit? I guess if the vehicle in question is any indication there aren't a lot of rules in the automotive business anymore.
Most major automakers are now using the annual Specialty Equipment Market Association's Las Vegas show, what is fast becoming one of the largest auto related trade spectacles in the world, for introducing upcoming models while Detroit is becoming the harbinger of chopped and channeled portable boom boxes.
Enter the Studio E, based on Honda's radical new Element crossover (just what that term means is getting blurry). It stretches the now fine line between concepts and customs. Even Honda's press material highlights its entertainment system over and above all of its other modifications. But that said there's good reason.
While not at all practical to the majority of users, especially compared to the infinitely flexible Element, the Studio E would have every teenage DJ-wanna-be pestering his parents to buy one were it available. Inside its panel-side styling, accessible via passenger side or rear cargo doors, sits an on board personal computer with a 17-inch LCD screen and inputs for turntables, musical instruments or what-have-you into its digital mixing studio. A 42-inch Fujitsu Plasmavision screen (that folds down from the center of roof and displays out the back) provides visual entertainment for the ultimate beach party while an 800-watt Eclipse audio system with a rear-mounted CD/DVD head unit, three amplifiers, 11 speakers (two 2-inch tweeters, six 5.25-inch mid-range speakers, one 6.5-inch subwoofer, two 10-inch subwoofers), courtesy of Fujitsu, provides the sound. A Sony CD/DVD head unit with flip-down display (WX-7700MDX) is positioned up front.