Honda CR-Z inspired by the Lotus Elise, says its designer
By Andrew C., 30 Aug, 2010. 0 Comments
2011 Honda CR-Z
Terukazu Torikai, Honda CR-Z's chief chassis engineer, talked about the basic concept of the CR-Z in a short video recently released on You Tube. According to him, the new hybrid sports car has been inspired by the Lotus Elise. He also said that the CR-Z is intended to create a fun-to-drive sports car that has some of the characteristics of the Elise, the Mini and Volkswagen Scirocco.
Torikai also said that Honda is confident that it succeeded in giving the car the agile handling of the Mini and easy-to-drive performance for daily use. While the CR-Z was being developed, he revealed that many cars were brought in for comparison and benchmarking. In particular, it was the Elise that inspired them throughout the entire development process. He said that they placed emphasis on ensuring the electric power steering was sufficiently sporty and they also wanted the car to have predictable control from its Insight underpinnings.
Meanwhile, the body stiffness is of a similar level to the Civic Type R's. With regards to the development process, he said that the car was sent to Europe at each prototype stage to be tested under various road conditions. This was done to check if the desired performance had been achieved.
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