7 awesome cars Honda needs to bring back! NY Daily News
Honda needs to bring back these cool cars
We like Honda, a lot. From the economical Civic and family-minded Accord, to the Acura brand’s suave MDX sport-utility and upcoming NSX supercar; when it comes to product, Honda has a lot of excellent stuff.
But from time to time, when we’re feeling especially sentimental, the Daily News Autos team looks back on some of the cars that Honda inexplicably brushed aside.
The legendary little CRX, famed for its frugality and razor-sharp treating, was supposed to be reborn with the similarly petite CR-Z. But with more of a concentrate on hybrid tech and EPA economy numbers, the CR-Z lacked the sparkle and sizzle of its much loved ancestor.
With that being said, permit us to present a broad range of cars that Honda should consider reviving, to help regain the brand’s legendary engineering edge, along with the youthful appeal that made Honda the darling of everyone from suburban families on a budget, to metro-based tuners with a need for speed.
The Honda S2000 revved higher than many outright track cars.
Later versions of the S2000, such as this two thousand nine example, featured a larger Two.2-liter engine with a rev limit of 8,000 rpm.
The S2000 was like a Mazda MX-5 Miata, but with much more of a Sega Genesis look and feel to it. The very first models were famous for having an insatiable appetite for revs. In other words, you had to ping that digital tachometer all the way to 9,000 rpm to get the most of the S2000’s wild and wonderful little Two.0-liter 4-cylinder engine. In fact, when it was fresh, this naturally-aspirated engine had the highest horsepower output in terms of power-per-displacement of any car on the planet. Dual wishbone suspension, a rigid chassis, and precise 6-speed manual all made the S2000 convertible a driving delight with unlimited headroom.
The Honda CRX is an unlikely spectacle car hero. The proof is in the driving, however.
The chopped rear end is the most distinctive design feature of the nimble CRX.
We’re not going to lie; the Honda CRX is no beauty queen! That truncated tail isn’t everyone’s idea of automotive allurement, but the real charm of the CRX is found inwards, specifically from the perspective of the driver’s seat. Way back in the hairspray-fueled 1980s, the CRX HF (High Fuel economy) was scoring economy figures that would shame many modern fuel-sipping economy cars. The second-gen CRX received more power and a fully-independent suspension, to create a giant-killer of a spectacle hatchback packaged in one very unassuming package.
The Acura Integra Type-R featured a hand-assembled engine, stiffer rail, and lighter bod.
The Integra Type-R is still a front-wheel-drive spectacle legend almost fifteen years after the last one was sold in the U.S.
As Honda’s luxury brand, Acura could have been content to be the mature and conservative face of the automaker. That all went out the window thanks to the legendary Integra Type-R. Lighter, lower, and more powerful than the standard Integra – Acura’s entry-level model until it was substituted by the RSX – the Type R’s utter output of 195-horsepower didn’t arrive until you spread the 1.8-liter 4-cylinder to 8,000 rpm. Honda’s engineers were without mercy when it came to making the Type-R lighter – air conditioning was a dealer installed option, sound-deadening material was significantly diminished, and even the glass was thinner. The Integra Type-R is considered by many to be the best treating front-wheel-drive car of all time. Should it come as a surprise Honda is ultimately bringing the Type-R badge back? Of course not! Then again, it shouldn’t have taken this long in the very first place.
Automakers have now pretty much abandoned the station-wagon segment. That’s a shame, especially since they make a lot of sense for people who need the cabin space but not the overall size of an SUV.
This one thousand nine hundred ninety one Accord LX Wagon isn’t NSX levels of cool, but we still love it.
For a time, it seemed every Honda Accord was finished in this shade of Teal Green.
From the world of high spectacle to the area of car pools and school runs. The Accord wagon was a magnificent and useful device, and a member of a now nearly-extinct breed of family-focused wagons. The era of the SUV – and now the arrival of the crossover – helped relegate the Accord wagon to the automotive scrapheap in the sky. It shouldn’t have. With the Accord’s proven track record for economy and reliability, adding a entire lot more cargo room only makes a good thing that much better. Not everyone wants a sport-utility, yet almost no one offers a budget-conscious wagon anymore. Honda, you could have this field all to yourself, should you choose to come back to it.
Honda’s slick and free-revving 4-cylinders gave the Prelude straight-line power to match the car’s love of corners.
Neither too sporty nor too mainstream, the Prelude was a fantastic blend of functionality and driving joy.
The final generation of the Honda Prelude still had the dynamics of a sport coupe, but the design (inwards and out) was much less distinctive.
Cooler than an Accord coupe, tho’ not as all-out wild as the Integra Type-R and S2000; the Prelude coupe occupied a unique sports coupe niche in the Honda/Acura lineup. Our dearest is the fourth-gen model, built from one thousand nine hundred ninety one to 1996. From the bullet-nose front to the wrap-around glowing dashboard display, this is the Prelude that best captured the tech-meets-performance ethos that made this front-wheel-drive coupe so popular. Fitted with a slick and responsive 4-cylinder with Honda’s lauded VTEC (Variable Timing and Lift Electronic Control), the Prelude was a sports car that maintained all the polite manners of a family sedan.
The Acura Legend Coupe packed lots of style into a two-door form. You could also get a 6-speed manual gearbox in this luxury coupe.
The style and stance of the Legend Coupe leads you to believe it’s rear-wheel-drive doesn’t it?
The Legend Coupe disappeared when the RL arrived in the mid-1990s.
We miss car names, even if marketing gurus will tell you the concentrate should be on promoting the brand, not the specific model. The Acura Legend was much more than a fine name, however. The second-gen model, particularly the slick and powerful-looking coupe, blended distinctive design with proven Honda/Acura mechanicals. At a glance, you’d swear the 1991-95 Legend Coupe was rear-wheel-drive, and possibly V-8-powered, versus the front-wheel/V-6 combo that actually motivated this posh Acura down the road. A 6-speed manual gearbox was also suggested, providing extra credence to the car’s sporting nature. The RL that substituted it was far too much of a Lexus LS copy – and the curvy Coupe was axed entirely. Acura has been lacking a world class luxury two-door ever since.
Believe it or not, the two-passenger del Sol was based on the Honda Civic platform.
From this angle, you’d think the del Sol had its engine in the back.
This one is certain to stir up controversy, partly because the Del Sol nudged out one of the other cars in this list. When the sun-loving del Sol arrived, so went away the nimble CRX. Based on the Civic economy car, the del Sol had the outward appearance of a mid-engine sports car (scaled down a size, or two). The removable targa top let in the sun – or the “Sol,” if you choose – while the 1.6-liter 4-cylinder provided spirited spectacle, with the added benefit of modest fuel bills. Okay, this is no Type-R, but the del Sol was an entertaining variation on the mainstream Civic upon which it was based. With the Civic Concept recently shown at the Fresh York International Auto Demonstrate, Honda is demonstrating it’s ready to take some chances and have a little more joy in the near-future.
Did you find this article helpful? If so, please share it using the “Join the Conversation” buttons below, and thank you for visiting Daily News Autos.
7 awesome cars Honda needs to bring back! NY Daily News
Honda needs to bring back these cool cars
We like Honda, a lot. From the economical Civic and family-minded Accord, to the Acura brand’s suave MDX sport-utility and upcoming NSX supercar; when it comes to product, Honda has a lot of excellent stuff.
But from time to time, when we’re feeling especially sentimental, the Daily News Autos team looks back on some of the cars that Honda inexplicably brushed aside.
The legendary little CRX, famed for its frugality and razor-sharp treating, was supposed to be reborn with the similarly petite CR-Z. But with more of a concentrate on hybrid tech and EPA economy numbers, the CR-Z lacked the sparkle and sizzle of its much loved ancestor.
With that being said, permit us to present a broad range of cars that Honda should consider reviving, to help regain the brand’s legendary engineering edge, along with the youthful appeal that made Honda the darling of everyone from suburban families on a budget, to metro-based tuners with a need for speed.
The Honda S2000 revved higher than many outright track cars.
Later versions of the S2000, such as this two thousand nine example, featured a larger Two.2-liter engine with a rev limit of 8,000 rpm.
The S2000 was like a Mazda MX-5 Miata, but with much more of a Sega Genesis look and feel to it. The very first models were famous for having an insatiable appetite for revs. In other words, you had to ping that digital tachometer all the way to 9,000 rpm to get the most of the S2000’s wild and wonderful little Two.0-liter 4-cylinder engine. In fact, when it was fresh, this naturally-aspirated engine had the highest horsepower output in terms of power-per-displacement of any car on the planet. Dual wishbone suspension, a rigid chassis, and precise 6-speed manual all made the S2000 convertible a driving delight with unlimited headroom.
The Honda CRX is an unlikely spectacle car hero. The proof is in the driving, however.
The chopped rear end is the most distinctive design feature of the nimble CRX.
We’re not going to lie; the Honda CRX is no beauty queen! That truncated tail isn’t everyone’s idea of automotive allurement, but the real charm of the CRX is found inwards, specifically from the perspective of the driver’s seat. Way back in the hairspray-fueled 1980s, the CRX HF (High Fuel economy) was scoring economy figures that would shame many modern fuel-sipping economy cars. The second-gen CRX received more power and a fully-independent suspension, to create a giant-killer of a spectacle hatchback packaged in one very unassuming package.
The Acura Integra Type-R featured a hand-assembled engine, stiffer rail, and lighter bod.
The Integra Type-R is still a front-wheel-drive spectacle legend almost fifteen years after the last one was sold in the U.S.
As Honda’s luxury brand, Acura could have been content to be the mature and conservative face of the automaker. That all went out the window thanks to the legendary Integra Type-R. Lighter, lower, and more powerful than the standard Integra – Acura’s entry-level model until it was substituted by the RSX – the Type R’s utter output of 195-horsepower didn’t arrive until you spread the 1.8-liter 4-cylinder to 8,000 rpm. Honda’s engineers were ruthless when it came to making the Type-R lighter – air conditioning was a dealer installed option, sound-deadening material was significantly diminished, and even the glass was thinner. The Integra Type-R is considered by many to be the best treating front-wheel-drive car of all time. Should it come as a surprise Honda is eventually bringing the Type-R badge back? Of course not! Then again, it shouldn’t have taken this long in the very first place.
Automakers have now pretty much abandoned the station-wagon segment. That’s a shame, especially since they make a lot of sense for people who need the cabin space but not the overall size of an SUV.
This one thousand nine hundred ninety one Accord LX Wagon isn’t NSX levels of cool, but we still love it.
For a time, it seemed every Honda Accord was finished in this shade of Teal Green.
From the world of high spectacle to the field of car pools and school runs. The Accord wagon was a killer and useful device, and a member of a now nearly-extinct breed of family-focused wagons. The era of the SUV – and now the arrival of the crossover – helped relegate the Accord wagon to the automotive scrapheap in the sky. It shouldn’t have. With the Accord’s proven track record for economy and reliability, adding a entire lot more cargo room only makes a good thing that much better. Not everyone wants a sport-utility, yet almost no one offers a budget-conscious wagon anymore. Honda, you could have this field all to yourself, should you choose to comeback to it.
Honda’s slick and free-revving 4-cylinders gave the Prelude straight-line power to match the car’s love of corners.
Neither too sporty nor too mainstream, the Prelude was a fantastic blend of functionality and driving joy.
The final generation of the Honda Prelude still had the dynamics of a sport coupe, but the design (inwards and out) was much less distinctive.
Cooler than an Accord coupe, tho’ not as all-out wild as the Integra Type-R and S2000; the Prelude coupe occupied a unique sports coupe niche in the Honda/Acura lineup. Our beloved is the fourth-gen model, built from one thousand nine hundred ninety one to 1996. From the bullet-nose front to the wrap-around glowing dashboard display, this is the Prelude that best captured the tech-meets-performance ethos that made this front-wheel-drive coupe so popular. Fitted with a slick and responsive 4-cylinder with Honda’s lauded VTEC (Variable Timing and Lift Electronic Control), the Prelude was a sports car that maintained all the polite manners of a family sedan.
The Acura Legend Coupe packed lots of style into a two-door form. You could also get a 6-speed manual gearbox in this luxury coupe.
The style and stance of the Legend Coupe leads you to believe it’s rear-wheel-drive doesn’t it?
The Legend Coupe disappeared when the RL arrived in the mid-1990s.
We miss car names, even if marketing gurus will tell you the concentrate should be on promoting the brand, not the specific model. The Acura Legend was much more than a fine name, however. The second-gen model, particularly the sleek and powerful-looking coupe, blended distinctive design with proven Honda/Acura mechanicals. At a glance, you’d swear the 1991-95 Legend Coupe was rear-wheel-drive, and possibly V-8-powered, versus the front-wheel/V-6 combo that actually motivated this posh Acura down the road. A 6-speed manual gearbox was also suggested, providing extra credence to the car’s sporting nature. The RL that substituted it was far too much of a Lexus LS copy – and the curvy Coupe was axed entirely. Acura has been lacking a world class luxury two-door ever since.
Believe it or not, the two-passenger del Sol was based on the Honda Civic platform.
From this angle, you’d think the del Sol had its engine in the back.
This one is certain to stir up controversy, partly because the Del Sol nudged out one of the other cars in this list. When the sun-loving del Sol arrived, so went away the nimble CRX. Based on the Civic economy car, the del Sol had the outward appearance of a mid-engine sports car (scaled down a size, or two). The removable targa top let in the sun – or the “Sol,” if you choose – while the 1.6-liter 4-cylinder provided spirited spectacle, with the added benefit of modest fuel bills. Okay, this is no Type-R, but the del Sol was an entertaining variation on the mainstream Civic upon which it was based. With the Civic Concept recently shown at the Fresh York International Auto Demonstrate, Honda is demonstrating it’s ready to take some chances and have a little more joy in the near-future.
Did you find this article helpful? If so, please share it using the “Join the Conversation” buttons below, and thank you for visiting Daily News Autos.
