HONDA CRZ ~ Model Of Cars

Thursday 20 October 2011

HONDA CRZ

03:01 Shahid No comments

HONDA CRZ

Finally the 2011 Honda CR-Z has come down off the stand at the auto shows and it's sitting right here on the asphalt on Naruto Skyline, a mountain road down the spine of Shikoku, the smallest of the main islands of Japan. We've been waiting to get behind the wheel of the Honda CR-Z since the concept first appeared at the 2007 Tokyo Motor Show, and now we're getting our chance.

HONDA CRZ

Already there's plenty of hype building for the car's introduction to the U.S. late this summer, as American Honda has already built a Web site to promote the car's arrival. But this is the real car in front of us, ready to be released into the Japanese market, and Honda officials tell us that the American version won't be much different.

HONDA CRZ

The 2011 Honda CR-Z asks a lot of questions. The recession has dramatically affected Honda's adventurous engineering spirit, and the company has had to sell its Formula 1 team, cancel the development of its new front-engine replacement for the Acura NSX and end the sale of the Honda S2000 in America. Does this company still have the imaginative engineering that makes it so different?

The Honda CR-Z is certainly a different kind of car. A hybrid can be a lot of things. Clean, clever and fuel-efficient, without a doubt, and a poster child for a forthcoming generation of sensible cars. But fun?

Honda has been working hard to make sure that the 2011 Honda CR-Z makes us remember the Honda CR-X, its two-passenger coupe built from 1983-'91. Just as with the CR-X, the mission here has been to build a small, smart, eco-friendly coupe for the modern era. Lightness and efficiency are the key attributes, because the combination of 122 horsepower and a curb weight north of 2,550 pounds tells you the Honda CR-Z is not going to be blowing too many doors off a Bugatti Veyron any time soon.

Here on the Naruto Skyline, the CR-Z defies its critics in cyberspace, who have been quick to dismiss the idea of the first hybrid with a six-speed manual transmission. It proves surprisingly taut, sporty, agile and entertaining as it tackles the twists and turns of the Shikoku roads.Of course, it's a totally different car from the CR-X coupe. That is to say, it's not some kind of cut-down Honda Civic coupe with a manic 1.6-liter VTEC twin-cam engine screaming its way to an 8,000-rpm redline. Nor is it a redo of the original Honda Insight, the slippery 1.0-liter hybrid coupe that Honda launched back in 1999 as the first hybrid to go on sale in the U.S.

Fact is, the 2011 Honda CR-Z falls somewhere between the two — both in terms of design and in the amount of performance on offer. Honda believes that this is the right combination to build a network of CR-Z enthusiasts from Mini-type buyers who like the idea of a smart premium-style compact, only with the green image that a hybrid conveys.

The Honda CR-Z is like a Tesla Roadster, but without the $109,000 price tag.

While the Honda CR-Z is loosely based on the current four-door Honda Insight sedan, you'll be cheered to know that the Honda engineers have massively improved the formula by shortening the wheelbase, widening the front and rear track and making the structure far more rigid.

The car measures 160.6 inches from end to end, 68.5 inches wide and only 54.9 inches to the tip of its antenna. The wheelbase is 95.8 inches, some 4.6 inches shorter than the Insight, and the Honda CR-Z retains the suspension of the Insight platform with front MacPherson struts and a rear torsion-beam setup. The bad news is, Honda claims only a 97-pound reduction in weight from the Insight sedan.

Once you pull open the somewhat heavy door, a novel interior design awaits, a kind of cost-conscious, Honda-type attempt to deliver the arty style of a Mini or Fiat 500. The low-set driving position is just what you want in a performance car, and the pedals and shift lever feel perfectly placed. The sport seat offers fine all-around support and looks good. The instrument panel is a busy mass of buttons, lights and switches, but there are cool touches like the usual entertaining display of power flow through the internal combustion engine and hybrid system.

Don't look back, though, because rear vision is badly hampered by that dramatic, sloping roof line, especially into the blind spots over your shoulders. In Japan, the Honda CR-Z comes as a 2+2 with kid-size jump seats behind you, but the new small Honda will be strictly a two-passenger vehicle in the U.S.