I second that idea. I remember that letter Honda sent so long ago, and I remember thinking it was just a scare tactic. Though these days its so easy for ANYone to get something taken down, due to abuse of the DMCA...
What about the original logo? I couldn't find it and I searched for like a half hour seeing if anyone ever posted it as an attachment...no dice. I had it in my sig for the longest time, but that hosting service went under long ago...this is all I could find (attached, and yes, it was the image stealing banner)
And I also found this, the letter saying we couldn't use the Honda name:
http://www.hstuners.com/forums/showthread.php?t=13174