A sign of the times for sports car enthusiats with Honda’s CR-Z Hybrid named at the Best Sports Car by British Magazine What Car? in its 2010 Green Awards.

Honda is scheduled to launch the CR-Z in Australia later this year.

What Car? Editor-in-Chief, Steve Fowler said: “The CR-Z is small, light and looks just right and it’s powered by hybrid technology which means it’s clean and efficient to run too. The CR-Z is the greenest and most cost effective sports car available in the market today.”

The trick with the CR-Z is a unique three-mode drive system which delivers the agile on-road dynamics demanded by enthusiast drivers. With handy torque from its petrol-electric drivetrain, a sporty six-speed manual transmission, low sports car-like driving position and a good-looking body, the CR-Z really is a sports car for today.

In fact Honda is struggling to keep pace with demand for its green sports car – 10,000 orders were placed during CR-Z’s first month on-sale in Japan and 500 British buyers lined-up to take delivery from the first shipment into that market.