[carlg1212]

First off, I love you guys. I mean, not love love, but it's cool to see people into their cars. Second, what I'm about to write will probably piss people off. Don't take it personally.

If you want a fast car, buy a fast car. If you're freakin' loaded with cash and can't find a way to spend it fast enough, drop a K20 engine in the CR-Z. Sure, it'll set you back $6,000 plus labor, and you'll need to bash around the engine compartment to make some room for it, plus the ECM, stability control, air conditioning and other features might be lost (and the CEL stays on forever...bye-bye emissions test pass), but hey, it's your money. Oh yeah, don't forget transmission refit and suspension upgrades that'll be required if you really want to push it. All that for ~225 horses.

The point is, you're limited by your engine. The stock CR-Z engine can only do so much. It's efficient, I'll give it that, and sporty, but it ain't a 454 big block. Don't think you'll squeeze extra horsepower out of it, you can't. You can free up horsepower, but the most you'll ever get is 122 hp, and that's at 6000rpm. Have you heard it @ 6000rpm? It's a banshee screaming.

I'm going to take a wild arse guess, but I bet most of us didn't buy the CR-Z for performance. Or maybe some did, I dunno, it doesn't matter. Point being, sure, you could piece-meal together a fast CR-Z, but it's going to freakin' cost you, big time.

I am, at times, just baffled at what I read on this forum. And Mugen is too, most likely. Reason being, we have the division of labor to thank for the low cost of stock performance cars. The CR-Z aint' one of them, folks.

If you want performance, check out the 3.6L 323 HP V6 Chevy Camaro. The cost? The same as a CR-Z.