Back in the 1990s, if you wanted respect on the wild streets of Mira Mesa (a sleepy little suburban hamlet just North of NAS Miramar, which was the original home of Top Gun Naval Fighter Weapons School) you needed to take whatever base boat anchor engine was in your Civic/Accord/Whatever and drop in something with […]
This next car comes as a tip from Matt who writes: The first thing that sticks out is the top mounted turbo (literally). But there’s also sketchy wiring, several parts needed, and, well, the fact that he’s slapped this big turbo on a car with 200,000 miles. Find this 1993 Honda Accord EX offered for […]
I hate to ask this rhetorical question yet again because I know the answer…but I have to do it. Why…oh why are all of the preserved low mile equipped classics equipped with nausea inducing slushbox autotragic transmissions? We know the answer. It is simple. If the car had a manual gearbox, the owner would have driven it more than 2 miles a day because it would have been enjoyable to do it. But…here is yet ANOTHER sloppy slushbox survivor from the 80s. Find this 1987 Honda Accord DX Coupe offered for $5,800 in Old Saybrook, CT via craigslist.
The Honda S2000 is known for its legendary F20C inline-4 that pushes the limit of what a product engine should be able to do. The VTEC equipped 2.0 liter (later increased to 2.2 liters in the F22C1) pushes 237 horsepower out of its small engine by revving to 8900 rpm. The mean piston speed of about 5000 ft/min was something that only race cars could achieve and people wondered how long the Honda built engine could last with this much internal stress and piston ring wear and con-rod forces. This next seller doesn’t mention if he has ever rolled in a new set of bearings, but the engine has 422k miles and appears to have never been rebuilt. Maybe the next owner can take this car to 1 million miles. Find this 2001 Honda S2000 offered for $9250 in Treasure Coast, FL via craigslist. Tip from Ali.
Seeing a car like this reminds me that Honda made some great manual transmission equipped cars back in the 1990s and this one is…whoa…2010? Are you serious? A 6-speed manual in a 2-door Honda coupe in 2010? Hang on. Consults various interweb sources of information. This is the 8th generation Accord, 2008-2012 and obviously it was available with a stick, it was replaced with the 9th gen Accord 2013-2017 which was also available with a 6-speed in the i-4 and V6 coupe, which was then replaced by the 10th generation Accord which started in 2018 and was available with a 6-speed in a sedan (the coupe was discontinued) until the 2021 model year when Honda made the Accord only available with some terrible CVT or a 10-speed-slushbox. We only have ourselves to blame because instead of driving new cars we’ve been tooling around in old depreciated manual-gearbox BMWs and 60s muscle cars but I still weep for the future of mankind. Find this 2010 Honda Accord Coupe offered for $8,600 in Sunnyvale, CA via craigslist.
I’ve never owned a Honda Prelude, but if I did buy one, it would be from the fifth and final generation (1996-2001). Many have been turned into Fast and Furious inspired hoopties, complete with coil over suspensions and fart can exhausts, but not today. Today we’ve got one with what appears to be the stock H22A that pushes 195 horsepower into the front wheels — and it wasn’t a slow car back around Y2K. But you don’t drive this car to win traffic light drags, you drive it to enjoy the snick-snick Honda shifter and the feeling when VTEC kicks in (yo). Find this 2000 Honda Prelude offered for $4,000 in San Diego, CA via craigslist.
Somebody the other day was lamenting the death of cheap project cars, but I think the discussion may have been premature. This next car is about as cheap as you can get for a classic Honda CRX, and I am intrigued despite the multiple issues it faces. And yes, it will need to be towed. Find this 1988 Honda CRX Si offered for $1200 in Palmdale, CA via craigslist.
The Civic comes in three flavors. First up is fast — the Type R or Si version or modified. Then there is the plebian sedans that you see driven around by grandmas and by people who view a car like they view a dishwasher or a pair of pliers. And finally, there is the Civic VX…which V for very, and X for xtreme. Actually, I’m not sure what VX means, but I do know that it came from the factory only in the hatchback and it pushes out 92 horsepower from a 1.5 liter D15Z1 VTEC-E equipped 4-cylinder attached to a manual gearbox. If don’t like to drive a Prius and if you like to get your fuel economy the hard way…this is the car. Find this 1992 Honda Civic VX offered for $5,200 in Prairieville, LA via ebay. Tip from John.
I wonder if someone looked at the Honda S2000 and said “this car is too heavy and too safe…I’m going to fix that.” A few hundred yards of welding rod and a few bent pieces of aluminum later this next beast emerged from the shed. With 240 horsepower from the 9000 rpm screaming Honda VTEC engine and the curb weight of a wicker basket, this thing should fly. Find this 1965 Lotus 7 Replica offered for $9,750 in Dublin, CA via craigslist. Tip from Rock On!
If you are going to drive something that looks like a vintage racer, you might as well get something that performs like a vintage racer, which isn’t like the latest turbocharged Caterham offering or one of those three wheeled Slingshot things. Cars from the golden age of the automobile were slow, even race cars, and there is nothing wrong with that at all. Find this 1980 SSR1 Speedster offered for $10,950 in Surprise, AZ via ebay.