With the retirement of the Honda S2000 recently, Honda was for a while left with no real niche sporty model. Just a bunch of sedans, wagons, MPVs and SUVs, which if not for a few exciting products such as the Type R seemed a little sterile for a company with its kind of heritage and brand image.
The Honda CR-Z, which pretty much looks like a two seater short wheelbase version of the Insight to me, could be considered Honda’s new niche model, especially since the new NSX has been cancelled. During the development of the CR-Z, Honda took a look at a few cars like the MINI, the Elise and the Scirocco, and it was the performance of the Elise that was the inspiration of the CR-Z development team during the development process.
The car definitely looks interesting and the focus seems to be on driving pleasure. The CR-Z had better be damn good in the handling department to make up for its rather anemic amount of horsepower! I’m really hoping that this new ‘CR-Z’ is in fact not the sole variant, and a high revving version could come later. Why not, since they’ve managed to mate a gasoline engine and electric motor with a manual transmission. The K20A could use the motor to help it with the low end torque that it lacks and the sheer high revving madness can take over later! Now that would be damn fun!
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"FUN" is the word for CR-Z
nice one, Honda!!!
A car for poor gooks. Handling? Its front wheel drive. Someone needs to tell the jibbering chinks that front wheel drive != sports car, its strictly for econo boxes with spoilers for boy racers.
its a car with s2000 front combined with a prius butt!
The K20A could use the motor to help it with the low end torque that it lacks and the sheer high revving madness can take over later! Now that would be damn fun!
Can't agree with you more!!! But if put F22C… i think this is a different story!!!
Seems ugly to me..
Better make sure it can drive like a Lotus or Top Gear will have a hammering with this car. Successor to S2000 is a very very big claim indeed.
aah..I'm getting myself an Integra Type-R.Wonder if this CR-Z's better.
rear so ugly..
Lol said,
January 21, 2010 @ 2:40 pm
A car for poor gooks. Handling? Its front wheel drive. Someone needs to tell the jibbering chinks that front wheel drive != sports car, its strictly for econo boxes with spoilers for boy racers.
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tell this to the WV Golf GTI owner, if you dare.
facade of crz i still can't get used to it instead of concept, however new epic of honda create a new history. This car combine civic R performance and insight technology with merge into it. I'm getting exhilarate pull hand over this hi-tech sport machine.
bold claims about the handling e.g. benchmarking against the MINI, Scirocco and Lotus Elise… even if the CR-Z turn out to be half as good, then they should sell this in Malaysia CHEAPER than the Civic Hybrid (RM129k)… definitely I'll be buying the CR-Z…. even if it is ugly and slow… at the end of the day, you can only drive daily around 110-120kmh… what can u get for less than RM129k (assuming if Honda priced it around the Civic Hybrid) but will handle almost as well as a Mini, Scirocco… let alone a Lotus Elise… all 3 cost more than RM200k..
p/s: do we still hv the hybrid incentive in 2010? I hope we still do now…
Inspired by Elise performance? I think not considering that its 122 bhp @ 174 nm at a weight of 1260kg…unless that electric motor is Godlike
hmm…nice story….still i dont think its anywhere near a scirocco, mini or elise. its a nice car though
the front overhang is demn long. looks almost like tapir
they speek in japanis not in ENGLISH!!!
the other concept variant is much nicer…why did that select this concept to go to the production line?
i really think the another cr-z is having better aesthetic package.
don't be fooled.. this isn't a car. its a baboon.
Honda has become the new Subaru…. Subaru now produce bland looking cars just like Honda used to… Honda now design weird looking cars just like Subaru did a few years ago with the Tribeca, Impreza bug-eye etc….
where have all the good designers gone in Japan?
"A car for poor gooks. Handling? Its front wheel drive. Someone needs to tell the jibbering chinks that front wheel drive != sports car, its strictly for econo boxes with spoilers for boy racers"
what time line are you in anyway? its a sporty hatch which is popular in Europe, which is the home of sporty front wheel drive hatches..
With electronic LSD, it can just go well around a corner as a RWD car, but in a smaller more efficient package..
the more i see this car the more i want a 2 seater, manual.. >:)
nmh said,
January 22, 2010 @ 1:38 am
the front overhang is demn long. looks almost like tapir
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normal for front wheel drive car, since most part of the engine is in front of the front axel… some more, european regulation requires the car to provide adequeate pedesterian protection, so that extra tip is cushy area incase you hit a pedestrian.. or at least suffer little damage in a bumper fender
actually. this car looks similar to the insight. i think they decide to use the cr-z name cause it sound a lot cooler than "insight"
Agree, honda is getting ugly, and putting cheap interior in the car, at least over malaysia here are getting that…
unofrtunately…it doesnt rev much..only till 6000