Mugen at Goodwood Festival of Speed
Mugen at the Goodwood Festival of Speed
At the recent 2011 Festival of Speed held at Goodwood, MUGEN presented not one, but two Concept cars for their World public debuts - both cars based on the increasingly popular Honda CR-Z hybrid.
Developed and
built in the United Kingdom in conjunction with Honda (UK) as a performance
concept car, the CR-Z MUGEN is centred around the MUGEN iCF system whereby the hybrid Honda IMA
system is coupled to a MUGEN supercharger installation and electronics package,
all working in integrated harmony to give up to 40% increase in torque and 60%
increase in overall power. A net weight saving of over 50kg plus uprated
suspension and brakes combine with the extra power to provide an overall
driving package that boosts the performance of the car to Civic Type R levels, shaving
as it does over 3.5 seconds off the standard cars 0-60mph time.
The unique
feature of this car is that the driver still has the choice of 3 driving modes
and, as with the standard original car, the "ECON" mode can still offer the
opportunity to reduce fuel consumption and attain as much as 50 miles per
gallon.
The CR-Z MUGEN
concept has been produced to demonstrate that it is possible to take a hybrid
car and develop it to provide genuine performance characteristics, whilst still
retaining the economic and environmental values for which the Honda IMA hybrid
powertrain has been designed.
At the touch of a
button the driver makes his own choice of economy and/or outright performance.
In parallel, the engineers
at M-Tec Company have been developing their own car in Japan. Dubbed
the MUGEN CR-Z RR, and named after the first road car ever produced by MUGEN (the
MUGEN Civic RR), the CR-Z MUGEN RR Concept is a design study produced to
demonstrate the styling and build quality for which the MUGEN brand is famous.
The car is
finished in a unique shade of Orange and features many carbon weight-saving panels
including bonnet, doors and a rear tailgate; with a full-length flat underbody
leading into a rear diffuser, also all in carbon, to provide aerodynamic drag-reduction.
For the interior
the Orange theme continues with many styling touches including MUGEN-branded
Leather/Alcantara front seats, a one-off Orange
gearshift knob, and a double-DIN display unit incorporating chassis and engine
data logging along with the ability to "learn" a circuit and then track the car
during laps of the circuit by GPS to record performance data.
Now that they
have been unveiled to the World, both cars will continue to be used for
marketing and media purposes while development continues in the background, and
although there are no fixed plans in place at this time for any further
production, all feedback and opportunities will be investigated to explore the
potential for any aspects of these programmes becoming commercially available
in the future.
