The Car Girl On Assignment- 2011 Honda CR-Z

Edmonton, AB/ Vancouver, BC:

The weather is hot and sunny and it's a beautiful day to test drive the latest and greatest from Honda: the The 2011 CR-Z 2-door, sports-coupe, hybrid. Yes, it's a hybrid! And what a fantastic little car. It is captivating, fun to drive and a wonderful new addition to the Japanese auto manufacturer's lineup.

From the outside, you’ll notice that Honda incorporates the progressively raked roofline and the sharply truncated tail. Now if you feel like you’ve seen this before, you probably have. The 1980’s and 90’s CRX sports coupe had a similar flare. Also, the first generation Insight and FCX clarity fuel cell vehicle had similar styling. In my opinion. I love how the CR-Z looks. I give it two green thumbs up. I tend to find Honda 'plays it safe' when it comes to exterior styling. But that's changing. Earlier this year the Crosstour made it's street debut and was anything but conservative-looking. Kudos to them. While there are some extremely polarized opinions about its quirkiness, I give the Crosstour big HECK YES. Feel free to disagree. But that's enough about the Crosstour...

The interior fit and finish of the CR-Z is equally impressive, and it's not boring!! It is comprised of various soft touch materials and a lot of nice textures that blend very well together. I’m particularly taken with the cloth upholstered sport seats. They’re comfortable to sit in and, I think, they look very chic. Also, the 3-D display is very future forward and user friendly. It’s almost impossible to get lost in this cabin so that gets two thumbs up from me.

Under the hood of the CR-Z is a 1.5L, 4-cylinder, i-Vtec engine combined with Honda’s Integrated Motor Assist which is their 10-kilowatt, Direct Current Electric motor. It has an output of, brace yourself, 122 horsepower and 128 lb-ft of torque. Those numbers might seem modest, and they are, but the CR-Z still has a good amount of pep and get up and go when accelerating.

The best part about the CR-Z is that is comes standard with a 6-speed manual transmission! While that might not be so exciting for some, I think it's rad. The other hybrids available to us only come in automatics and I'm always up for a shift! Woot woot.

Another fantastic part about this two-door, two-seater is that there is tons of trunk space. Although it's small from the outside, it's big on the inside. There is also lots of head and legroom up front since there are no back seats. In total, there is 25.1 cu-ft of trunk space and that space goes a long way. After arriving back in Canada from my European vacation (more to come on this!) I was a little apprehensive when I went straight from the airport to Honda to pick up the CR-Z with all our baggage. We had 2 full-size suitcases, a large duffle bag, 2 large carry-ons, a laptop, backpack and purse. Was my anxiety without just cause? It sure was. All the luggage fit like a glove into the back. It was amazing on so many levels, one because it was 2am and I really didn't want to go home in a taxi and come back for the vehicle!!

Having had the opportunity to not only drive the CR-Z on city streets and on the highway, I also put it through the ropes around the Stratotech kart track (http://www.stratotech.ca/) in Sturgeon County, Alberta. This gave me the chance to really test its handling. Did I have a great time throwing it around the track? Yes. Did it handle well? Yes. Better, in fact. I thought the suspension would have been a little looser and a little sloppier in turns but I was wrong. Would I drive like I drove on the city streets? Nope, but when I have the chance to, I will!

There is only one trim of CR-Z, which makes things very simple. But fear not, Honda has made sure that it comes very well equipped. Complete with ABS brakes, Bluetooth, a leather-wrapped steering wheel and much more, the 6-speed manual transmission has an MSRP of $23,490. The CVT transmission has an MSRP of $24,290. For a 2-door hybrid, that will save you money at the pump, that’s not a bad deal.

As you can gather from the above, there are a lot of highlights about this vehicle so it was hard for me to find my top 3, but I did and here are my Highlights and Lowlights for the 2011 CR-Z.

Highlights:

1) Cool styling on both the inside and out

2) It's a HYBRID!!

3) Great on gas and gets lots of looks

Lowlights:

1) Looks a lot faster than it is!

2) C-pillars are wide and can inhibit visibility

3) TBD!!

An Interview With Canadian Racing Star Paul Tracy

I was recently at he Honda Indy in Edmonton, Alberta and caught up with Canadian open wheel racing star, Paul Tracy. We chatted about cars, racing, what’s in his garage and why he was grounded frequently growing up! Check it out…

The Car Girl: Thanks for joining me, Paul. What age were you when you first started to get involved in Motorsport?

Paul Tracy: My first race was when I was probably 5 or 6 years old. My dad came home with a go-kart and we went out to the go-kart track. There was a race, we entered it, and that was it. We ended up going back to the go-kart track every week after that.

TCG: Was Motorsport something that you had suggested or was it something your father brought into the home?

PT: My dad has always been a car guy. He’s always had exotic cars and different types of sports cars. It wasn’t really something I suggested but what had really prompted it was that I had a little mini-bike when I was a kid. I had it in the garage and I got in trouble for showing it to my friend. I had started it up and the throttle had stuck and it took off across the garage and went through the garage door. My dad took it away from me and then I got grounded and a couple weeks later he came back with a go-kart.

TCG: So that was kind of a blessing in disguise?!

PT: Yeah!

TCG: When you were growing up, what kinds of cars did you idolize? Was there something that you wanted to drive, i.e. I’m 6 years old now but I can’t wait until I’m 16 to drive…

PT: I don’t know. My dad always had nice cars. He had lots of different kinds of sports cars.

TCG: What kinds of cars?

PT: My dad had Ferrari’s, Lamborghini’s, every kind of car you can imagine. Rolls Royce’s, MG’s, you name it. He would buy stuff cheap and sell it for more. He’s always been into that kind of thing. I guess I’ve always dreamt of driving racecars not so much street cars.

TCG: When you turned 16, what car did you get?

PT: My first car when I was 16 was a Fiero. A 1984 Fiero.

TCG: What colour was it? Red?!

PT: It was red! I crashed it quite a lot. It lasted about 6-7 months before I had crashed it enough to where my dad took it away.

TCG: And then which car did you get after that?

PT: My dad gave me a pickup truck from his work, which was all beat up. I got grounded from having the Fiero taken away, and got a pickup truck after that. It was a Chevy.

TCG: I read that you were into collecting electric vehicles, is that correct?

PT: No, I don’t know where the ‘electric’ came from, maybe it was ‘eclectic!’ I have a bunch of old vehicles now, like a 1964 Lincoln Continental, a ’64 Buick Riviera, a 1951 Mercury, so I don’t know where that came out because I don’t own an electric vehicle. I heard that the other day too. Somebody made that up!

TCG: Could be worse, right?!

PT: Yeah!

TCG: I also read, correct me if I’m wrong, that you’re into motorcycles. What kinds of motorcycles do you have in your garage?

PT: I have a couple of different Harley’s, I have a Chopper and in the next couple of weeks, if no races come together, I’m going to a motorcycle rally with a couple of friends.

TCG: I know you have multiple cars in your garage, what’s your favourite car to drive for everyday purposes?

PT: Everyday, I drive a CL600 (Mercedes Benz). My wife has an S600 (Mercedes Benz). I like to drive my older cars but in the summertime in Vegas, it’s really hot, so it’s difficult to get them to run cool enough and not have a problem.

TCG: What advice would you give to kids or individuals looking to get into motorsport?

PT: It’s very, very difficult nowadays. It’s really hard to find sponsorship and keep sponsors happy. It’s not like it was in the 80’s and 90’s where sponsorship was easier to come by. Now, if you really want succeed and make it here, it’s not just the driving of a car, it’s a full-time job trying to find and raise the sponsorship and capital to do it. And when you have that, you have to over-deliver to the sponsors. What you say you’re going to do, you have to go over and above everything you say you’re going to do. Because if you don’t, they’re not going to come back.

TCG: I remember asking you this question in 2004 when you were in Vancouver for the Molson Indy race. I asked, do you prefer, Tim Horton’s, Kristy Kreme or victory donuts?

PT: I like Tim Horton’s!