A Look Back & Towards the Future of the Honda CR-X
Toma Woo’s Honda CRX, originally uploaded by RKT Vision
The Honda CR-X was truly an amazing machine back in the 80’s. It was lightweight (1,800 lbs), nimble, superb on gas mileage (18 city/33 highway), and could sprint from 0-60 in around 8-seconds, which back then was pretty decent.
It is no surprise than many of these cars are still being tuned and driven on the road today. Due to its lightweight and well-balanced design, a highly-tuned CR-X in the right hands can actually walk a Lamborghini Murcielogo (3,637 lbs). If you don’t believe me, have a look for yourself…
The CR-X is also much more than a dedicated sports tuner, as it is also widely excepted as a reasonably tunable hypermiler vehicle, capable of 55 mpg without too much effort. The Honda has enjoyed status as the import car of the year for Motor Trends back in 1984, and was announced amongst the Car and Drivers 10 Best List in 1988.
The CR-X was replaced by the much less popular and successful Del Sol in 1993, and then put to rest in 1995. Over the years we have heard talk about a reintroduction of the infamous CR-X in modern gear. Perhaps an updated rendition, with a new VTEC engine designed to compete with some of the top import dogs of today.
While Honda has yet to have made any significant moves towards reinstating the CR-X to their lineup, many automotive reviewers say that Hyundai may have already beat them to it. Hyundai’s Velostar concept has been praised as being everything that a modern day CR-X should be.
originally uploaded by superciliousness
Hyundai has given the Velostar a green light and we expect it will be out on the road no later than 2012. Speculation is the new Hyundai will be packing a 2.0-liter inline-four packing somewhere in the range of 150 to 180 horsepower. This should fit it comfortably between the 2.0 T Genesis Coupe (212 horsepower) and the Elantra Touring Edition (141 horsepower).
Considering the relatively small size of the Velostar (21-inches shorter than the Genesis), it might not be such a downgrade on performance to the upper-echelon turbo Genesis as one might think!
June 27th, 2009 at 1:23 am
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