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Eco motoring's just got sexier. Or less unsexy. Either way - meet the Mugen-tuned Honda CR-Z in the picture above.

It's a one-off prototype from Honda's go-to tuners, Mugen. And we dearly hope it gets put into production.

Its superchargerising and spanner work with the IMA hybrid system means power from the 1.5-litre i-VTEC engine's boosted from 84kW to nearly 150kW and 245Nm of torque. And it's lighter, too: Mugen detached 50kg from the chassis, replaced the bonnet with a carbon-fibre one and bolted on lightweight Mugen alloys.

The reckoning? Honda claims it reaches 100km/h in a similar time to the Civic Type R (6.6 seconds) but can still manage 4.7L/100km in eco mode. It does hike to 7.8L/100 when you deploy full-fat Mugen mode, but we'll let it off.
 
Can you think of a potentially cooler factory hybrid, TopGear.commers?