Honda CR-Z Mugen: First photos revealed

Honda CR-Z Mugen at Goodwood nFestival of Speed 2011

Honda CR-Z Mugen - almost ready for Goodwood

Honda has revealed the first photos of the Honda CR-Z Mugen ahead of its reveal at the Goodwood Festival of Speed in July.

We got news a couple of months ago that Honda were getting Mugen to do a tuning job on the CR-Z Hybrid and put together a ‘Concept’ for this year’s Goodwood Festival of Speed.

But it seemed clear that although Honda were keen to point out that the Honda CR-Z Mugen would be a one-off, it was unlikely to stay that way. Honda are desperate to inject a bit 0f aggression in to the lethargic CR-Z, and a nippy Mugen version would help its image no end.

The Mugen CR-Z gets a wider track and five-step adjustable dampers, bigger brakes and a chunky drop in weight thanks in part the carbon fibre bonnet (what, you didn’t notice?).

All this helps deal with the extra power on offer. Although the Mugen CR-Z keeps the quite arthritic 1.5 litre of the base CR-Z, it’s had a nice supercharger bolted on which gives the 1.5 a nice 197bhp and 181lb/ft of torque, and there’s more to come after the electric motor’s been given a seeing to.

Mugen have left all three driving modes in place and claim that Eco mode will still deliver more than 50mpg and even when ‘Mugen Mode’ is selected fuel consumption will still be mid-30s.

Finally, the Honda CR-z Mugen looks like it has a chance of being the car the CR-Z promised to be.

We’ll find out at Goodwood.