In the music world, a remix is an iconic old song that has been made fresh, young and hip again. Honda’s Remix, which just made its international debut at the Los Angeles Auto Show, manages to do the same thing in an automotive context, bringing to mind the lightweight and sporty CRX, a car still missed by enthusiasts worldwide.
Purely a styling exercise, the front-wheel-drive Remix is styled by Ben Davidson of Honda’s Advanced Design Studio in Southern California, a young designer who through no small coincidence likes to spin tunes as a DJ in his spare time. By mixing fluid lines with geometric shapes appearing on nearly every surface of the car, Davidson has crafted a car with a jet-fighter-esque canopy that manages to recall the much-loved CRX yet at the same time be thoroughly modern. As a compact, lightweight, fuel efficient and sporty 3-door hatchback, the Remix will likely appeal to young urban folks with a strong sense of style…but who also need a little bit of practicality in their lives, which is provided by a generous rear storage area. The Remix show car does not have an engine and a transmission at the moment, but Honda says a possible production version likely would be powered by a small displacement 4-cylinder mated to a 6-speed manual transmission. The suspension and brakes, we’re told, would be tuned on the track for crisp driving manners.
Although there are no plans to build a production version of the Remix, Honda, like all automotive companies, builds styling exercises each year to gauge public reaction. At the Los Angeles show, and others thereafter, Honda will capture data on the car, and possibly learn that it should build a production version. We feel that Honda will more than likely incorporate some of the Remix’s unique design elements into a sporty new compact 3-door hatchback and call it the CRX. Fans the world over will be delighted.
