Odyssey International: Masthead
  Automotive Adventures & Product Launches  

CR-Zummer in the City

August 26th, 2010

CRZTorontoSkyline.jpg

When I started driving in 1966, my thriving hometown, Moncton, New Brunswick had a population of about 25,000. Taking advantage of its geographic location, the city touted itself as ‘Hub of the Maritimes’ and as teenager I considered that cool. I really was growing up in the big time.

The only four-lane street or highway in the area was a mile-long stretch that was the new link to the city’s community swimming pool, a popular place for those like me not fortunate enough to ‘summer cottage’ it at Shediac Bay.

Only new impressive buildings were allowed along the wide stretch of perfectly smooth asphalt. General Motors, Ford and Chrysler adorned the road with their Atlantic zone offices and parts distribution warehouses, massive brick structures surrounded by manicured lawns and perfect hedges.

It was dubbed ‘The Golden Mile’ and instantly became the place to go for a spin. We always listened to the local AM radio station and songs like The Lovin’ Spoonful’s rock anthem of summer would fill the car, and the imagination.

“Hot town, summer in the city, back of my neck getting dirty and gritty.”

Indeed my cronies and I, with freshly-minted drivers licences and a fleet of daddy mobiles and $200 clunkers, got to know the hot spots. While most consisted of where best to pull over to watch who else was cruising, the local radio station continued to pump us with tips on what was cool in the “Hustling Hub”.

Of course, we already knew what night the cutest girls were car hopping at the A&W and what new muscle car was sitting in the showroom of the Ford dealership at the edge of the marsh on the north side of the city.

It was common knowledge that at night, parking areas near the mosquito-infested marsh were optimum places to pick up radio stations from New York or Boston.

I’d listen to The Lovin’ Spoonful’s, “Hot town, summer in the city” and imagine summer in a big city, a real metropolis where you didn’t drive down the street waving to every 5th car. A world where subway trains ply the underworld, there are many A&Ws and it’s hot and humid.

I was recalling those days last week on a summer drive-about as my wife Lisa and I spent a few days in Canada’s urban capital, Toronto. We were engulfed in a frenzy of business meetings but peppered the stay with bits of family fun.

Our ride was a 2011 Honda CR-Z, the all-new, two-seat gas electric hybrid that sips fuel like a miser while affording something not usually associated with hybrids. FUN! This quick-handling, comfy coupe is nimble and really is fun to drive, especially with the available 6-speed manual transmission.

Fun driving doesn’t have to be aggressive or fast and this car offers driving enjoyment without ‘green guilt’ or spending a fortune at the fuel pump.

Staring out at Toronto’s CN Tower from the rooftop bar of the trendy new Thompson Toronto hotel, we started talking about superlatives. Everyone likes them. Biggest, tallest, longest, fastest, slowest and tiniest have always been topics of discussions whenever folks gather. The coolest places to eat, hottest people, best museum and the coolest hot spots are in many cases in the eye of the beholder though.

It didn’t take long for us to come up with a plan to check out the level of coolness in Toronto and as a salute to the fading summer of 2010 we came up with a plan. So next Tuesday, August 31st, five teams of Torontonians head out on a fuel-sipping road rally around the GTA.

Their mission? Uncover the cool, the hot and the funky of what makes Toronto their capital of summer cool on the CR-Zummer in the City Challenge.

How are they going to do it? Honda has provided a fleet of five Honda CR-Z sporty hybrids for them to drive in their eight-hour bid to out-Toronto each other by finding out what’s cool, what’s hot, what’s bomb and what’s hip about TdotO.

They will pit their knowledge and resources to determine the coolest animal at the Toronto Metro Zoo, lunch at the hottest restaurant, coax the hottest (or coolest) Torontonian into their CR-Z and more.

At the end of the day, they will vie for the Zummer in the City Award and a donation to the charity of their choice. A website, cr-zummerinthecity.com, offers more information on the Challenge as well as a means for the public to advise a team of their choice and even coach them along the way.

When it’s over, we’ll have a Toronto vision of Summer in the City. Then perhaps the next time I’m in Moncton, even though the marshes on the north side of the Hub City are now home to a four-lane city bypass and a sprawling mall complex, I can hang around the parking lot, tune in to satellite radio and catch a version of “Summer in the City”

Older News