Honda CR-Z Brochure and Specs Leak

One of the highlights of the recent Tokyo Auto Show (pretty much a home market Japanese-only show this year) was the Honda CR-Z Concept.

The car first appeared at the 2007 show, but the model introduced at the show this year was supposedly a nearly 100% preview of the production model. That has proven to be correct now, as a brochure for the production Honda CR-Z has leaked, giving us a good bit of information.

See, it looks nearly identical to the "concept" - and that is a good thing. The CR-Z promises to be the best looking Honda in a long time.

The CR-Z is somewhat of a successor to the original CRX (and also somewhat, the Insight), an extremely efficient and fun to drive vehicle that got saw big increases in used values during the recent spike in fuel prices. It has an aerodynamic shape, and you guessed it - a hybrid drivetrain. The rumors were true!

In Japanese market spec, here are the translated figures: the CR-Z's 1.5-liter 4-cylinder makes 112 horsepower at 6,000 rpm, coupled with an added 14 hp from an electric motor.

Hybrids have always had an impressive torque versus horsepower due to the nature of electric engines, and that carries through here. The 4-cylinder engine makes 107 pound feet of torque at 4,800 rpm, and the electric engine boosts that by another 57 lb-ft at 1,000 rpm (!).

Overall, those figures don't sound too impressive, and the result is a 0 to 62 (Japanese figures) mph time of 9.7 seconds. I suppose that is better than the Honda Insight's figure of 12.5 seconds, but still not anything to get excited about.

Hopefully, there will be increased power for the United States market, and maybe tuners like Mugen will up the performance ante a bit.  Credit goes to Temple of VTEC for scans of these brochures.