Why Won't Honda Make A CR-Z We Want?

The Honda CR-Z has a lot of potential.  It's really a neat little car.  I drove one a while back, and there's a lot to like about it.  It's got a well-appointed, comfortable and high-tech interior.  It's light, and it handles pretty well.  Fuel economy is decent, and in sport mode the IMA battery assist gives you a useful thump of torque.  But frankly, for those expecting a CRX Si, it's a massively disappointing car.  I mean, here's this sporty looking low-slung hatchback with a racy interior, and it has less power than a lot of garden tractors.  It's terribly slow, and after a while the game of "how many corners can I take at wide-open throttle?" becomes boring.  Adnan drove one too, (check out his video review, it's very slick), and I think we came to the same conclusion: cool car, why am I getting beat off the line by a minivan?

This is weird.  Because Honda use to make some seriously exciting cars.  They weren't especially complicated like the CR-Z, either.  Remember the old DC2 Integra Type-R?  Or the Acura RSX-S, Honda S2000, even the Del Sol VTEC?  They were all lightweight, razor-sharp compacts with engines bursting with energy well beyond their weight class.  The zing of the high-lift cam on a GS-R or Prelude is still alluring after all these years.  The CR-Z?  It's a guy wearing a muscle shirt - with no muscles.

Why is it then, that everyone but Honda has come up with a solution to the CR-Z's boringness?  And why won't Honda build any of them?  Of course, there's the well known Mugen CR-Z RR concept, which won't be going into production, at all, no way.

Perhaps over the top, yes.  The widebody fenders, carbon-fiber everything, 4-piston brakes, lightweight wheels and all that would make this a pretty expensive production car.  But the engine is what we really need - Mugen adapted a small centrifugal supercharger to the CR-Z's 1.5L gas motor, while retaining the IMA Hybrid system.  191bhp and torque, strong low-end response, enough power to actually be fun, all while retaining good fuel economy.  Honda hasn't ruled out the possibility of the Mugen supercharged engine entirely, but I wouldn't cross my fingers.  Then again, that's not the only hot CR-Z out there.

This is a CR-Z built by LHT tuning in Pinellas Park Florida, as feature in Honda Tuning magazine (as you can tell from the water mark).  These are the same people that built the K-Sight (1st generation Insight with a 2.0L K20 Civic Si motor.)  So not surprisingly, they've called it the KR-Z, and taken out all that Hybrid junk.  In goes a K20Z3 (the 2.0L VTEC motor from a 2006-2009 Honda Civic Si).  They custom tune it with Hondata FlashPro and stick on a free-flowing header and exhaust, good for 210+whp - more than double what the CR-Z puts to the wheels stock.

This is a turn-key package that retains A/C, cruise, power steering, VSA, all that.  Here's what boggles my mind:  if a small performance shop in Florida can do this in a streetable, emissions legal package - umm, why can't Honda?  Or rather, why won't they?  Talk about a money maker:  Take one CR-Z and one K20Z3 with LSD transmission, blend, bam - CR-Z Type R.

httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KmOffqwWrJU

Not the greatest video, but you get the point - it idles quiet, no check engine light (although the "Check IMA" light is funny, considering there is no more IMA), everything works, and it's fast.  Of course, when it comes to building tuned Hondas with something different, there's no one quite like Bisimoto Engineering in Ontario, California.  (Not Canada.)

Wild looking, huh?  Unlike the LHT car, the Bisimoto CR-Z still has it's 1.5L L-series motor.  And the IMA Hybrid setup.  Thing is, this car is making a little more than the original 122bhp - try 533.  That's a useful jump.  (Perhaps the intercooler was a hint.)

Of course, multiplying a car's power by more than 5 requires some fortification.  The bottom end is built (Arias pistons, sleeved block, custom rods, ARP fastening hardware) as well as some head work (ported, Bisi valvetrain, Bisi custom cams) - but the big change is obviously the turbo.  A Turbonetics 70mm turbo and a whole slew of other trick parts lets the CR-Z put down 464 horsepower and 327lb-ft of torque at the wheels - correcting for drivetrain loss and you get 533 crank horsepower.

httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PdC71yOU4UM

Now, of course a built-motor huge turbo show car/dyno queen isn't what Honda is going to build and sell to customers.  But this was just to show what's possible using a modified version of the stock CR-Z powertrain, which is apparently quite a lot.

httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xYOmb67iNp8

On a low-boost shakedown run (11psi, 287whp) it ran a 14.2 second quarter mile at 98mph.  This is also with the stock ECU programming in place that closes the throttle for a full second during every full-throttle shift, which you can clearly see in the 1-2 upchange.  Considering that's a lot faster than most Civic Si's run in the first place, there's potential for serious awesomeness here - low 11's?  High 10's?

Yes, the Bisi CR-Z is extreme.  And the Mugen RR is pretty ridiculous as well.  But what I'm saying is, Honda needs to take a hint.  Right?