Honda Talk
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yakee73
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I was met by a few very enthusiastic Honda employees, including Mr. Kurt Antonious, the Assistant VP of Honda's PR department. The collection is Kurt's baby and he led the charge in putting together this showcase of Honda's history in America. It's been around for about 10 years now.
The collection includes former press cars, cars used for advertisements, preproduction models, and even a few that were purchased from private owners. It was quite a sight to walk into the building and see the rows of Hondas under the lights.
Naturally, the autmotive displays start off with the Honda N600, the first Honda car to be imported to the United States. This particular '71 N600 was restored by the Takata seatbelt corporation before becoming a part of the collection.
The N600 could be had for just $1395 when it was new, and it delivered 40 miles per gallon. It was quite a bold vehicle choice compared to the land yachts that populated American highways at the time. Because of those wide open American highways, the N600 got a power increase over its 360cc Japanese market counterpart.
Here's the '71 Z600, marketed as a sportier version of the N. Again, imagine one of these driving around on streets full of Pontiac Bonnevilles, Ford LTD's and Chrysler New Yorkers...
Next comes the car that truly put Honda on the map in America - the first generation Civic. From 1973 to 1979, Honda sold 700,000 of these cars! Amazingly, you still see first generation Civics on the road in California from time to time.
Here's a second generation Civic Wagon looking showroom fresh just like most of the other cars in the collection.
The '84 Civic Wagon - capable of 46 miles per gallon! This is very much the spiritual predecessor to the Honda Fit, which caught the US market by storm when it was imported for the '07 model year.
Here's one of my personal favorites of the collection - a mint '86 Civic Si Hatchback.
This was the first Civic Si sold in the states, making 91 horsepower from its 1.5 liter SOHC engine.
Here's a fine example of a fourth generation Civic sedan. Still can't believe this model will be a quarter century old soon!
Continuing with the Civic lineage, here's a '93 EX Coupe - one of the first VTEC Civics sold in America.
A fuel-sipping CIvic HX representing the sixth generation fo the iconic model. Seeing all of these pristine Civics in once place takes on a new meaning when you remember just how hard it can to be find stock, clean Civics out "in the wild."
The collection also includes a nice selection of Honda's race history.
This Civic Si touring car for example.
Here's Bob Boileau's '74 Civic race car. At one time this was known as the world's fastest Civic after going 146mph on the banks at Talladega.
Now we're talking!
There's a large slice of Honda's open wheel history in the US to be seen here.
This Lola T92/00 was used to debut Honda's CART IndyCar program back in 1993.
Dario Franchitti's Reynard CART machine from 1999.
Now the IndyCar stuff is cool, but I'm guessing you guys might be more interested in the Real Time Racing Integra Type R.
This was the SCCA World Challenge T/2 Touring Driver's Championship winner from 1997 to 2002. Real Time is of course still active in World Challenge, campaigning Acura TSX's in the same livery.
Another Real Time car - Peter Cunningham's '91 NSX from the GT class of the World Challenge. In its later years the V6 was equipped with a supercharger , good for over 500 horsepower.
This Honda City Turbo II is one of the only non-USDM models in the collection. I wonder how this would have gone over in the states?
I'll wrap part one here, but check back for tomorrow for more from this great collection!
There are only a couple days left of Honda month before we move along to our new format, but there's plenty of cool Honda material left to post.
Here's the second part of my visit earlier this week to American Honda's private car collection in LA.
Before entering the collection itself, there's display that includes photos of the original American Honda store on Pico Boulevard in Los Angeles.
Inside, there's also a full size replica of the original storefront, which opened in 1959.
I highlighted some of the Civics in the collection yesterday, so now let's look at a model that's equally important to Honda's history in America - the Accord.
1976 was the first production year for the Accord and the collection houses this pristine '76 model - looking very much like an enlarged Civic. To think that a car this small was once considered a "midsize" in the US shows how much cars have changed since the '70s. This car would like a toy alongside today's Accord.
Looking down the line gives a nice representation of how the model evolved.
By 1990 the Accord had become the best selling car in the United States. The collection includes a '91 Accord Wagon - the first Honda designed, engineered, and manufactured exclusivley in the US. These were even imported to Japan where they came with "US Wagon" badges.
Perhaps I'm a bit biased having owned one, but I consider the fifth generation Accord to be one of the best car designs of the 1990's. The styling still holds up today, and you might agree after seeing this '94 Accord Coupe.
The Honda Prelude is another model that is represented well in the collection. Here's a first generation model, originally released in 1978.
The second generation Prelude, which hit the market in 1983 was the first Honda to feature double wishbone suspension. This '83 model was powered by carbureted 1.8 liter that made 95 horsepower.
Fast forward a decade and you have the 1993 Prelude, which featured Honda's unique 4-wheel steering system.
How can you leave out the CR-X? All generations are represented in the collection, including this Mugen-tuned '84 model.
This particular car was used as prototype for Mugen parts. A true Hachi-Maru Hero.
The more refined second generation CR-X. Again, how often do you see a CR-X this clean on the street?
Can't leave out the car that replaced the CR-X, the Del Sol.
Honda has taken a lot of risks as an auto company, not the least of which was the introduction of the Acura brand in 1986. At the time the idea of a Japanese luxury brand was unheard of and it would be a few more years before Toyota and Nissan followed suit with the introduction of their own luxury brands. One of the two cars in the Acura lineup at launch was the Legend sedan.
The other would be the '86 Integra with its 1.6 twin cam engine - the first of many great cars to wear the Integra name.
This car is one of the vehicles that Kurt purchased on his own to add to the collection. After finding the car locally, he had it repainted and it was added to the collection as is. What a find!
A very clean example of a DA chassis Integra, although it's not the rare GS-R model with the 1.7 liter VTEC engine.
Another one of Acura's signature models - the Legend Coupe.
What we have here is one of the most desirable cars in the collection, a 2001 Phoenix Yellow Integra Type R with only 3,000 miles on the clock.
At only 10 years old, this ITR is already a bonafide collector car. Who wouldn't want this thing in their garage?
You couldn't have a Honda collection without the flagship. This first generation NSX had 120,000 miles on the odometer. The fact that it was even driven 120,000 miles is a testament to how great of a car the NSX was.
Also included in the building, some of Honda's past concept cars. Interesting to see how some of these designs have aged quite a bit, while others haven't.
Kurt is working on getting a HondaJet as the next big part of the collection. He plans to hang it from the ceiling Smithsonian style!
Word has it there are even more cars in storage that could be in here, and expansion may be in the future.
I'd like to thank Kurt and everyone else at Honda for opening up the collection and showing us around!
-Mike Garrett
