Quote:
Originally Posted by Maxim
I don't really see a single positive to this car....
It's front wheel drive. It's slow. It's not nearly as light as it should be for sporting the amount of power it has. The hybrid system adds complexity and weight. The mileage is worse than a much faster diesel Golf GTD, the handling is nothing fantastic. And it seats two. So, it's a slow, complex, front wheel drive dedicated 2 seat sports car. That's a 10-word way to say "retarded."
Modifying it to make 200hp and adding a race suspension nets you a car that's prohibitively expensive, still FWD, still slow, still front heavy, and still a worse performer than a modified GTD. Maybe it will handle well...but not while it accelerates, because it's front wheel drive and you will invariably run into understeer. There is no way around that. No amount of limited slip trickery can overcome the basic laws of physics, only mask them. You cannot ask a tire to apply corning force as well as accelerative force at the same time and maintain the same amount of grip.
Honestly I'd have to say that out of cars released in the last 10 years that were just completely pointless, the CR-Z would have to rate near the top. It's up there with the Murano Cross-Cabrolet.
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The big Honda Tuners have been doing some stuff to fix the problems. The CR-Z has some potential even with it's 2600lb curb weight and 1.5L Lea. There is plenty of room for weight reduction, but that is not really necessary on a DD. If a CR-Z driver wanted more power, the Lea is fairly boost compliant, but there is a distinct lack of aftermarket support(the CR-Z shares an engine similar to the Fit). Heck the Lea would make a half decent N/A engine if someone spent the coin. The
Spoon CR-Z used a modified head, custom Vtec, higher rev range, and made 145BHP combined(stock is 111BHP combined).
FWD is the domain of the vast majority of DD cars, and Honda advertises the CR-Z to be sporty not a sports car. Eg the CR-X was sporty but it wasn't a sports car without a lot of work.
The handling is better than average and as far as hybrids go(which the Tesla is NOT) it is the cheapest sporty hybrid and the only one with a 6spd(even the Fit/Civic guys would be jealous of that fact alone). Plus the style, the style
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