Original vintage 1980s Honda advertisement for the company's sporty compact car, the Honda CRX - "No matter how high-tech a car may be, this cannot provide the joy of driving alone." In Kanji Japanese.
The Honda CRX is a front-wheel-drive sport compact car manufactured from 1983 until 1991, with nearly 400,000 produced during this period. Although there are many supposed definitions for the initialism CRX, the most widely accepted is "Civic Renaissance Experimental".
Redesigned for the 1988 model year and produced until 1991, the CRX was popular for its performance, nimble handling, and good fuel economy. The CRX was replaced by Honda's Del Sol, which was marketed as a CRX in some markets. Now considered a classic, Honda aficionados value these vehicles for their potential on the track and for their stubby, but good looks.
Dimensions: 16 inches wide by 10.25 inches high. This is a two-page advert.
Need a reminder of how cars used to be smaller, lighter, simpler? The Honda CRX will teleport you back to the mid-1980s, when Hondas were still in the ascendancy and the NSX supercar was still a glint in Japanese engineers’ eyes. But with its sporty two-seat design, excellent performance, and nimble handling, it can also be viewed as the reincarnation of the low-priced sports car.
In the fall of 1983, Honda dropped a bombshell.
The new generation of Civics were not only all-new and highly advanced, but there were four complete unique and distinct bodies. Nobody had ever done something like this before. It was an automotive milestone. And one of those four was something utterly unique and unexpected: a two seat sports coupe; essentially a fixed-roof sports car, at a highly affordable price – the CRX. It was simply the best combination of performance, handling, quality, economy and price then and perhaps ever.
In the U.S., the CRX was marketed as an economy sport Kammback – the rear of the car slopes downwards before being abruptly cut off with a vertical or near-vertical surface – with room for two passengers while Japanese and European market cars came with a 2+2 seating arrangement.
Approach the Civic CRX today and one things strikes you immediately: it is absolutely tiny. At just a dozen feet in length, it’s not far off the regulation footprint for a Japanese K-car and looks dwarfed by a typical 2025 parking spot, like a young teenager in an adult suit.
This brings several benefits: the CRX wraps around you when driving and you can nip into gaps in traffic that bigger, bulkier moderns would baulk at. More importantly, the lack of mass brings a pleasingly light curb weight of just barely 1,800 pounds, with all the commensurate benefits to performance, handling and economy.
Open the door, jump in and soak up the retro atmosphere. The Honda CRX smells straight from 1985: a mix of ageing plastics, zebra-stripe cloth upholstery and gracefully ageing hardware. A prominent tachy is redlined at 7000rpm, hinting at the high-revving histrionics to come. The basic cabin controls are simply laid out, with few surprises. The CRX is a relic from an era before cupholders became the norm for overfed and watered modern passengers. This is a car for driving, not being pampered.
The zero-to-60-mph sprint is covered in just 9.1 seconds, compared with 10.4 seconds for a standard 1984 1.5-liter CRX. In the standing quarter-mile, the Si stops the clock in 16.4 seconds at 81 mph, compared with 17.4 seconds at 77 mph. The margin widens further at higher speeds as the injected car attains 100 mph in 36.3 seconds, about eighteen seconds quicker than a standard CRX, and its top speed jumps from 103 to 112 mph. At the same time, the injected motor is every bit as smooth and torquey as the standard one and is much easier to start and operate in cold weather.
The added thrust makes the CRX even more of a blast on winding roads than it was before. Although the injected car comes with the same sport suspension and wheel and tire sizes as the other 1.5-liter CRXs, the 20 percent power boost makes it easier to exploit its capable handling. Entry and exit speeds in corners can be closer to the car's limits, and the extra power allows the handling balance to be adjusted with the throttle over a broader speed range than before.
Driving a Honda CRX today is a joy – a blast from the past and a reminder of the joys of an analogue past master. This is a brilliant relic from yesteryear and a reminder that small, lightweight sports cars are a rare breed – how we miss affordable, fast fun.