Will the Honda CR-Z really appeal to the tuning crowd?

AutoBlog: Will the Honda CR-Z really appeal to the tuning crowd?

2011 Honda CR-Z According to John Mendel, executive vice president for automobile sales at American Honda, people his age (55, for what it's worth) remember the seminal CRX as a highly tunable and fun-to-drive little hatchback that happened to get excellent fuel economy. Sure, we'll go along with that. Mendel continues, though, to suggest that the Japanese automaker expects its new CR-Z hybrid hatch to sell in large numbers to those older-generation tuners. Really?

Sure, we suppose we can buy the argument that the tuning crowd will see the the car's hybrid system as more than just a means to boost fuel efficiency. After all, it does add about 20 horsepower to the car's final output. But bear in mind that the power figure we're talking about is still just 122 ponies and 128 lb-ft of torque. And that's not a lot of power to work with, though we'd imagine the six-speed manual gearbox will help extract those overworked horses.

Now that it's a decade old, the original two-seat Honda Insight has indeed earned a bit of credibility from the tuner crowd... but most of its credentials come from all-out engine swaps that allow the car's light weight and aerodynamic prowess to truly shine. We can't imagine much of that going on with this brand-new CR-Z. But what do we know? Here's hoping that Honda's upcoming sporty hybrid hatchback beats all of our lofty expectations.