2006 Honda Remix Concept

The 2006 Honda Remix was Honda’s idea of a small, lightweight sports car that could still carry more than a helmet and a bad decision. Designed in California as a two-seat concept, it mixed a low roof, wraparound glass, front-wheel drive and hatchback practicality into something that looked like a CRX sent 20 years into the future.

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The Story Behind the 2006 Honda Remix

Honda unveiled the Remix on November 29, 2006, at the Los Angeles Auto Show. It came from the Honda R&D Americas Advanced Design Studio in Southern California, with Ben Davidson serving as lead designer. Despite some later sources placing its development in South Carolina, Honda's original press material specifically says Southern California.

The goal was simple: explore a compact two-seat sports car that was light, agile and fun without becoming useless in normal life. Honda gave it a large rear cargo area and described the design as a balance between sports-car character and everyday practicality.

There is an important catch to its mechanical specifications. Honda's original release described the Remix as being designed around a front-wheel-drive small-car platform, four-cylinder engine and six-speed manual transmission. The Petersen Automotive Museum, which now owns the concept, identifies the actual show car as a non-functioning foam-and-clay mockup. In other words, these were the intended mechanicals, not the specifications of a running prototype.

2006 Honda Remix Specs

Specification	Honda Remix
Year	2006
Manufacturer	Honda
Type	Two-seat sports car concept
Lead designer	Ben Davidson
Design studio	Honda R&D Americas Advanced Design Studio, Southern California
Debut	2006 Los Angeles Auto Show
Construction	Non-functioning foam-and-clay concept model
Engine concept	Four-cylinder
Transmission	Six-speed manual
Drivetrain	Front-wheel drive
Platform	Small-car front-wheel-drive platform
Suspension	Sport suspension
Brakes	Performance-oriented brakes
Tires	Performance-oriented tires
Seating	2
Production	One concept model known

Honda never released displacement, output, dimensions, weight or performance figures, and because the displayed Remix was not a running prototype, filling those blanks with Civic Si specifications would be guesswork.

What Made the Honda Remix Different

The Remix was shaped like a compact hatchback that had been squashed into a sports car. Its most obvious feature was the wraparound canopy, which Honda said was intended to give the cabin a fighter-jet feel. The windshield, side glass and roofline visually flowed together over a very low body. An aluminum-colored finish was chosen specifically to make the surfaces and curves easier to read.

Underneath that shape was a very Honda idea: keep the mechanical layout simple. Front-wheel drive, four cylinders, six manual gears and a sport suspension are hardly exotic, but that was the point. The Remix was supposed to get its fun from low weight and response rather than a heroic horsepower number Honda never bothered inventing.

It was also more practical than its proportions suggested. Behind the two seats was a sizable, easy-access cargo area. The formula naturally recalls Honda's CRX, and the Petersen describes the Remix as following the tradition of Honda's performance-focused hatchbacks from the 1980s and 1990s. Honda itself, however, never officially announced the Remix as a new CRX or promised a production version.

What Happened to the Honda Remix?

The Remix stayed a design study. It never entered production and never developed into a publicly documented running prototype. The surviving concept was later donated by American Honda to the Petersen Automotive Museum, which lists it as part of its collection and has featured it in its Modern Concepts display.

That also explains why engine output and performance figures remain blank nearly two decades later: there was no hidden 200-horsepower prototype waiting to be road tested. It was sculpture with a drivetrain proposal.

Why the 2006 Honda Remix Matters

The 2006 Honda Remix Concept captured a formula Honda once did extremely well: small car, four-cylinder engine, manual gearbox, low weight and just enough cargo room to justify owning it. It never became a production car, but as a snapshot of Honda's mid-2000s design thinking, the Remix is a surprisingly clear answer to a simple question: what if the practical Honda hatchback grew up wanting to be a sports car?