I built two different 1st gen CRX’s for Improved Touring earlier in my life. The first one I drove as a street car for a year before converting it to a race car. These cars will always reside at or near the top of my favorite car list. Light, nimble and aesthetically perfect. If I were building a fun car based on one of these I would drop a 1st gen Integra 1.6L DOHC motor in it.
If this reads as a bit of a conversation between myself and David Wallens, well, that’s basically what it is 🙂 The photo shoot was done about 5 years ago, which is why there’s reference to louvers that aren’t exactly visible.
Such a cool little vehicle. Too bad we’ll never see its like again.
I test drove an HF variant of the 1st gen and even the fuel miser version was fun.
I owned two 2nd gens and they are still one of my all-time favorites.
When the Fast and Furious ricer phase was big around here, it seemed like CRX were always some of the worst offenders. Crazy loud exhausts, revving at everything getting cruises and shows shut down. Years later most of my friends still dont much care for the cars of the time. Lots of hate for stuff like 90s civics, integras and RSXs, but the early CRX is still pretty much unanimously loved. This is largely a group of domestic guys who will tell you 400whp in a 3200 pound car is slow, and dont understand th virtues of the miata, but every time we see a CRX its always followed by 15 minutes of “man did you see that CRX? You never see clean ones anymore”, “I wish I could find one”, “Ive always wanted one of those” and “those things are so cool.” That always said alot about these cars to me.
Unfortunately like someone else said I dont think we will see the likes of these again. Id love a mechanically simple, small, lightweight,, pretty, fuel miser that has a little performance bent.
In reply to Opti :
Wasn’t it mostly the second-gen that got the F&F treatment? That was the chassis that got all the love from the tooners. The first gen was forgotten by a lot of people as soon as the jellybean showed up.
I can confirm that “you never see clean ones any more, COOL” is very much the common reaction.
In reply to Keith Tanner :
Yes around here it was mostly 2nd generations causing all the havoc. The first and second generations are loved though.
Best friend had a non Si with the 1.5 carb’d engine in high school. This was late 90s. We loved it. Such a blast even without the hot engine. We used to fit four people in it by having them squish in, lying flat in the back. Until he ran out of luck and crashed it into a curb. No ABS and 17 year old driver is a BAD combo.
Before he could earn the money to get it fixed, a guy crashed into it when it was parked outside our high school. He took the insurance money and bought a 240sx.
Glad you’re enjoying one of the last ones left!
Here’s the full ownership build diary for those who don’t know it already.
