With the new Euro 5 emission levels making the Civic Type R redundant
, Honda has been thinking of ways to reintroduce a high performance hot hatch to its line up. Rumour has it Honda is working on a 1.6 litre turbocharged engine at its Tochigi research & development office.
The CR-Z has been earmarked to take over from the Civic Type R; currently the CR-Z is only available as a Hybrid. It comes with an 112bhp 1.5-litre petrol engine mated to a 14bhp electric motor. Insiders have said that the new engine will come in two forms, a standard 160bhp version and a highly tuned 200bhp one.
The highly tuned 1.6 litre engine is aimed at providing the performance of a typical 2.0-litre engine from a capacity of just 1.6 litres. Honda aim to achieve such high performance from the smaller engine by using forced induction and Hondas patented VTEC-i fully variable camshaft timing system. The new downsized, more powerful engine has also been penned for the Jazz, Civic and Accord.
The new engine and hot hatch has been triggered by a drop off in sales for the Hybrid model, Honda needs the CR-Z to continue to do well in its home Japanese market. Honda has been thinking about a high performance version of the CR-Z for a while, at the Las Vegas Motor Show it showed off a concept which had the existing hybrid engine boosted with a turbo.
Honda needs a replacement for the Civic Type R; it was/is very popular amongst the car enthusiasts and demonstrates the Japanese car manufacturers ability to produce a hot hatch. To keep its newest customers loyal it has to keep producing hot hatches to grab and keep their attention. A Honda Accord dealership in Southport has suggested that the new engine may be used in Hondas executive four door saloons Type R model.