Honda CR-Z test drive since 2010 hatchback

The test drive of the compact hybrid Honda CR-Z. Sport-car or not?

Finally, Honda CR-Z went down from the stands of the auto show and is now right in front of me, on the asphalt of the Naruto Skyline Mountain Road, passing along the Sikoka ridge, the smallest of the main Japanese islands. We have been waiting for this moment since the concept of this model was presented at the Tokyo Motor Show in 2007. And so he has come.

Advertising does not get tired of screaming about numerous upcoming premieres for the American market, Honda even developed a special website where new products will be announced. But we have a real car, ready to enter the Japanese domestic market, and Honda claims that the American version will not be very different from this.

Honda CR-Z asks a lot of questions. The recession was very negatively affected by Honda's adventure, the company had to sell its Formula 1 team, cancel the development of a new antennettime project, which was supposed to replace Acura NSX, and stop selling the Honda S2000. Did the company have the special ingenuity that makes all its brainchild so special?

Honda CR-Z is definitely an unusual car. The hybrid can be very different. He, without a doubt, can be pure, smart, economical, he is a harbinger of the whole generation of intellectual cars. But can he be funny?
 

Smart car
Honda engineers tried very hard to make Honda CR-Z remind us of the Honda CR-X model, a miniature compartment produced from 1983 to 1991. As in the case of CR-X, the developers faced the task of creating a small environmentally friendly compartment for the modern world. Lightness and efficiency are the main criteria, since such a power ratio (122 hp) and mass (1,156 kg) is unlikely to allow this car to break Bugatti Veyron or something like that.

Here, on the Naruto Skyline, CR-Z highway challenges critics, which literally immediately began to deny the idea of \u200b\u200bthe first six-speed mechanical transmission for a hybrid engine. Our baby turned out to be surprisingly tightened, sports, dynamic and fascinating, briskly swallowing the turns and bends of this mountain serpentine.

Of course, this car is very different from the CR-X compartment. This is not to say that this is just a trimmed Honda Civic with a manic 1.6-liter engine with the VTEC and TWIN-CAM system, with a wild cry of 8,000 revolutions. And this is not the alteration of Honda Insight, a brisk hybrid with a liter power unit launched in production in 1999 as the first hybrid car for the American market.

In fact, Honda CR-Z should find himself approximately in the middle between these two, both in terms of design and in terms of dynamics. Honda believes that it is necessary to create a network of CR-Z lovers among people who prefer elegant compact cars with premium design, which are also concerned about modern ecology issues.

CR-Z resembles Tesla Roadster, however, without a cost of $ 109,000.
 

Racing hybrid
In general, CR-Z is built on the basis of the four-door Honda Insight, but, to our great joy, Honda engineers worked well on it, significantly shortening the wheelbase, expanding it in front and behind and making the entire design as a whole more rigid.

From the front to the rear bumper, the car has 4 080 mm length, its width is 1,740 mm, and the height is only 1,395 mm (to the tip of the antenna). The length of the wheelbase is 2,435 mm, which is 116 mm less than that of Honda Insight, although CR-Z has the same structure of the macPherson rack in front and torsion in the back. The bad news is that a new car has lost weight in comparison with Insight by only 43 kg.

Having opened a somewhat heavy door for such a crumb, you plunge into the legendary design, the Honda attempt to combine the acceptable cost and style of the mini or fiat 500. Low driver's landing is exactly what you expect from a sports car, pedal and speed lever are located exactly where where necessary. Sports sitting provides excellent support and looks very stylish at the same time. The dashboard is a bunch of buttons, light bulbs and switches, but, again, not without exquisite strokes, such as a very exciting display, which reflects the current power developed by the internal combustion engine and a hybrid power unit.

It’s better not to look back, because this expressive sloping roof is strongly interfered with the rear review, it will be especially difficult to consider something directly behind the shoulders. In Japan, CR-Z will be sold as a four-seater car with a 2+2 seats scheme with tiny rear seats (just right for the child), but on the American market the new small Honda will be exclusively double a double compartment.
 

This is power
A in-line four-cylinder engine with a volume of 1,496 cm with DOHC and I-VTEC systems (changing the phases of gas distribution and valve lifting time), borrowed from Honda Fit, develops 114 hp. at 6,000 revolutions per minute and 145 nm of torque at 4,800 rpm. It is aggregated with a six -speed mechanical transmission with gear rates from the European Honda Civic.

Like Insight, Honda CR-Z is equipped with a parallel hybrid system based on an electric motor with nickel-metal batteries. According to Honda, this motor issues 14 hp, and as a result of some complex calculations made by the engineers of the company (do not ask), the combined capacity of CR-Z received from both engines should be 122 hp. At 6,000 revolutions per minute and 174 Nm of torque in the range of 1,000-1 500 revolutions (167 Nm in the case of choosing an optional variator).

Three driving modes are responsible for the sports of the hybrid system of CR-Z. Three backlighting buttons on the central panel offer you to choose the Ecomony (economical), Normal (ordinary) or Sport (sports) mode, depending on the selected mode, the inner ring of the tachometer is illuminated by green, blue or red, respectively. Each of the modes offers a different degree of opening of the throttle, force on the steering wheel, the reaction of the brake system and the power of the hybrid system.
 

He is alive!
Having launched the engine, you will immediately recognize this characteristic boring sound. But having selected one of the six gears of mechanical transmission, you begin to look differently at things, with each subsequent transmission the picture becomes more pleasant, since this tight, accurate lever with short strokes is very reminiscent of CR-X.

From the very beginning, the CR-Z suspension makes a much more favorable impression than you expect, it is much better than Insight, with a very informative and sharp steering control. The front racks are equipped with forged lower aluminum levers, which allows you to reduce the non-resonant masses, the rear N-shaped torsion (allows you to very compactly placing batteries of the hybrid system) does not interfere at all.

As for the driving, the Honda CR-Z is sharp and stolen both in the city and the highway. Most likely, this can be considered a merit of a large torque on the bottoms provided by an electric motor. Within the framework of the Honda hybrid system, an electric motor is not just a device that allows you to stop and run a 1.5-liter gasoline engine at traffic lights or to travel silently in a parking lot near a shopping center. It gives an additional 57 nm torque, when the gasoline engine only goes to working turns. Thus, the CR-Z power unit feels great in the range between 1,000 and 5,000 revolutions, which contributes to unexpectedly smooth movement without power failures.

On the highway, CR-Z calmly maintains a speed of about 130 km/h, suspension with sports elements provides stability, but not rigidity. On the winding highway Naruto Skyline CR-Z, thanks to the electric power steering with small gear ratios, an elastic front suspension and wide Bridgestone Potenza Re05/55 R16 tires on special light discs, it will be eager to pass the specified course. Due to the proper degree of information content of the steering CR-Z, it is absolutely predictable and understandable.

We also rolled on Honda CR-Z with a variator (CVT), but also with its engine with reduced power (111 hp, 143 Nm of the configuration requirement), the car accelerates willingly and very evenly.
 

Three working regimes
A request obsessed with technical innovations.

This 1.5-liter Honda Fit engine does not belong to the number of sports, it becomes noisy at 5,000 revolutions. If you continue to put pressure on the gas, then very soon it begins to stutter, since it rests on the cutting installed at the mark of 6,500 rpm. In this mode, the engine sounds very tense, which is difficult to call pleasant. At the very limit, CR-Z begins to show insufficient rotation and roll, being confused with such violence. And after several hot lifts and descents, the brakes began to overheat. Horror.

Meanwhile, the difference between Economy and Sport modes is very noticeable. In sports mode, the gas pedal becomes much sharper, it seems that Honda suddenly gets an additional 50 hp. But at the same time, it is necessary to remember that in the Economy mode, CR-Z does not have EV, he cannot, like Prius, go only to batteries in zero emission mode of waste gases, without making a single sound.

As for economy, the American division of Honda claims that CR-Z with six-speed mechanics will spend 7.5 l/100 km in the city and 6.3 liters per hundred along the highway, while CR-Z with a variator should consume 6.5 liters 100 km in urban mode and 6.1 liters along the highway.
 

Is it CR-X or not?
 
So what can be expected from Honda CR-Z? The company claims that the abbreviation CR-Z means compact Renaissance Zero, which should attract the attention of fans of the brand to the origins (zero), to accept the challenge, thrown by the creation of a new compact car that is not connected by the traditional compartment.

On the roads, Sikoku CR-Z proved that, not being a worthy opponent for Nissan GT-R, he will nevertheless be interesting to future customers, especially those who care about the environment. It meets very high requirements, and it very much resembles CR-X, which we have greatly romanticized over the past 20 years.

With the cost in Japan, from $ 25,000 to $ 27,600, CR-Z can be considered quite expensive, but the orders for it were not less. Let's wait until the summer and see if the magic of Honda will affect the Americans.


 

Source: Insideline