Mugen Honda CR-Z to be supercharged

The Mugen Honda CR-Z special planned to show at the Goodwood Festival of Speed this year will get a supercharger and deliver 200bhp – and still be a hybrid.

We’re not the biggest fans of the Honda CR-Z, despite it being a decent-looking car. It’s a car born out of the necessity for Honda to produce a car that can compete against the Toyota Prius by offering a small, sport hybrid. Only it doesn’t.

It does try, though. Honda has endowed the CR-Z with a reasonably sporty setup and even blessed it with a proper gearbox instead of a woeful CVT. But it’s not enough. Something has to be done.

We already know that Honda has in the pipeline a CR-Z with a conventional, and all-new, turbocharged 1.6-litre petrol engine with Honda’s VTEC-i variable camshafts, offering  either 160bhp in standard guise or 200 bhp in a Honda CR-Z Type R.

But we also know that Mugen are going to produce a Honda CR-Z and whisk it along to the 2011 Goodwood Festival of Speed this Summer. And now we know a bit more.

The Mugen Honda CR-Z will keep the 1.5 litre petrol lump of the regular CR-Z hybrid, and the IMA electric motor. But the ICE will get a supercharger to get up to around 200bhp, although what that does to its eco credentials we have no idea.

It seems as if Mugen are planning on using the instant torque of the electric motor to get the CR-Z away briskly, bringing in the supercharged lump to seamlessly deliver some decent acceleration. Dampers have had a tweak, there’s bigger brakes and a wider track.

Sadly, the Mugen Honda CR-Z is a one-off special. Probably