Mugen reportedly considering tuning Honda CR-Z
Honda CR-Z – Click above for high-res image gallery
While the idea of a performance-tuned hybrid may have seemed nonsensical only a couple of years ago, as the earth-friendly vehicles become more mainstream, the sub-segment will undoubtedly grow to attract a fair share of our attention. Case in point: reports from overseas indicate that Mugen is seriously toying with the idea of creating a high-performance version of the upcoming Honda CR-Z.
The Honda tuner par excellence shares a close, even familial relationship with the factory, and it reportedly sees the electric motor in the hybrid drive as a sort of replacement for a turbocharger, offering a bit of low-end boost to small gasoline engines that are down on torque. The result could redefine the Japanese hot hatch as we know it.
Gallery: Tokyo 2009: Honda CR-Z concept
[Source: Autocar]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Ashley Jones 1:39PM (10/26/2009)
They tune everything else from Honda. Why should this be any different??
Reply
Fooman 2:19PM (10/26/2009)
Agreed, this is kinda like saying Shelby will make a Mustang varient. or Alpina will tune a BMW...
Heimbachae 2:24PM (10/26/2009)
i thought the mugen si was just a body kit and some wheels.... how is that tuning??
speedball3 4:37PM (10/26/2009)
The Mugen Civic Si also had revised dampers, so I suppose that counts as "tuning."
As stated before, I don't care if Mugen tunes the CR-Z. I just hope they don't sell it in the US as a separate model like the Civic Si. Honda should spare us the lame Mugen model and give us the real deal Type R (applies to both the Civic and CR-Z).
waijai 1:41PM (10/26/2009)
Don't like the look of it...I'm sure a full Mugen package will tack on at least $10k to the pricetag.
http://www.tunedperception.com
Reply
Vincenzo 1:47PM (10/26/2009)
Imagine a new generation of the Honda tuners.
They will buy laptop batteries on eBay, solder packs of them, and connect to a secret red button "Super Boost". Then they will add passenger pedals to charge the batteries.
Reply
LaserRed38 7:27PM (10/26/2009)
Brilliant!!
larry raines 1:49PM (10/26/2009)
Tuned hybrids are so cool, most of the time they can only tweak the suspension and handling - but it wont be long until they start to figure out how to mess with the ECU.
when I was a kid we would take slot cars and twist the magnets inside their case or something to make them faster - forget now what we did - but they went faster.
Reply
MeiSooHaityu 2:03PM (10/26/2009)
Funny thing is , tunning the motor almost seems counter intuitive to the vehicles mission :)
Mugen does do good work though, it would be nice to see if they can improve some of the short comings the Honda hybrid has had in the reviews.
larry raines 2:11PM (10/26/2009)
Why counter intuitive? I get what you are saying, but say the energy is coming from a clean place, like charged from solar cells on your roof, or whatever?
MeiSooHaityu 2:51PM (10/26/2009)
Possibly then, hard to say. It seems like the crowd buying these cars love the challenge of Hypermiling. I can see wanting a sporty feeling car, but ultimately they purely want economy above all else (even over function is some cases).
I would think the sports minded crowd would rather get a small diesel or I-4 hatch (and still maintain great fuel economy).
To make a sporty suspension and look in a hybrid makes sense, but doing anything to the motor to hurt economy (even a small amount) seems counter intuitive to that demographic. Even getting some additional electricity through roof cells, wouldn't help hevy foot driving.
larry raines 3:08PM (10/26/2009)
I meant if this was a plug in hybird to charge it at home with cells on the roof of your house. TONS of people have solar cells on their home roofs now and can charge plug in hybirds like the Volt. I for one would love a performance hybird or plug in hybird or electric car. Like the Tesla, or the Fisker Karma. Those cars are performance focused, zero - or near zero emissions cars.
I see where you are coming from though, given the current product offerings, the idea of a high performance hybird is still foreign - and that has created a divide between eco minded people and performance minded people.
being an eco & performance minded person, I guess my options are currently limited to the Lightning GT, Fisker Karma S, & Tesla, (Porsche Panamera soon) and some concepts like the Fraser Nash Namir, Rinspeed iChange, Venturi Voltage,
nastinupe 2:06PM (10/26/2009)
Meh... I'm not feeling this car. Come on Honda, mooooove me!!!
Reply
jonnybimmer 2:06PM (10/26/2009)
Isn't it obvious Mugen will play with the CR-Z? Especially when they've done all the other models like Ashley Jones stated. I'm more interested to see if the performance upgrades will really make an impact or it'll just be a bunch of nice aero parts with a handful of extra hp like normal. Or perhaps they'll make something like the Civic RR? Might not be much faster than the stock Type R, but it sure looked impressive!
Reply
Adam F 2:11PM (10/26/2009)
maybe they'll make a Mugen version without batteries and a k20a stuffed in there instead! that's what I'd like to buy.. it'd still be nice and good on fuel, my only concern with this is headroom, all the current Honda's have headroom problems with the exception of the fit. my EP3 is a real pain in the neck ;-)
Reply
PJ 2:22PM (10/26/2009)
What I'd like to see is a K20 *with* the batteries left in. Imagine a four-cylinder that goes (and sounds) like hell from 6,000-8,000 rpm, with a wallop of electric-motor torque starting at 0 rpm to cover the bottom end.
A similar setup could work wonders for Mazda's rotaries.
Glancing Aft 2:26PM (10/26/2009)
Wasn't the reason the Accord Hybrid canceled because consumers wanted a hybrid that got good fuel economy not sporty performance? Why do they think this will be any different?
Reply
chconline 3:01PM (10/26/2009)
Because this is a dedicated 'sporty' vehicle, not an Accord Hybrid which itself doesn't appeal to enthusiasts. The CR-Z at least offers a 6MT.
naggs 3:32AM (10/27/2009)
if you can call anything that shares the insight powertrain sporty
the batteries are dead weight, step one dump those anchors and put a real engine in there
naggs 3:33AM (10/27/2009)
if you can call anything that shares the insight powertrain sporty
the batteries are dead weight, step one dump those anchors and put a real engine in there