So from one death trap to another. The literal coffin on wheels. A CRX.
These are pretty rare now and this was actually a fairly decent one. Had some issues, sure, but overall it was saveable.
This was a Ballade Sports model, which was the top model back then. Had the good engine, the brown top ZC with EFI, none of this poxy carby thing. Fun car to drive, lots of power for such little weight. It also made lots of noise…. 116db at 3000RPM is what I tested it as. It droned, it roared, it was almost intolerable. The intake was also so loud that on a cold start it would drown the super loud exhaust out. It was a battle of suck and blow.
The body was decent, nothing too major (although when I sold it the buyer got it on a hoist and proceeded to let me know it’d been in a frontal at some stage), just some cracks in the front guards…. oh and the sunroof didn’t open… because it was now a sheet of alloy plate. The previous steel lid rusted out so the PO made a new alloy lid and sealed it into the hole. It didn’t leak, but it wasn’t a sunroof anymore.
Speaking of cracking guards, sounds odd, doesn’t it? Well, in order to make the car as light as possible, most of the front exterior panels (except the bonnet) were plastic. Brittle, 80s plastic. Don’t lean on an early CRX’s front guards, the owner will kill you. It also helps with the coffin on wheels thing…. plastic isn’t great at absorbing impact.
I eventually sold this to a guy who ran it for a few years as a daily. Not sure where it is now. Would love to own it again now and tidy it up.
1984
1.6L ZC browntop
Manual
No-sunroof
Sucky pod
A mean zorst (had an RS*R sticker, sooooo, maybe RS*R?)
Some legit as fark Autostrada wheels
Update 8/3/20 – Unfortunately it appears this car is off the road and has its registration on exemption. It hasn’t had a WOF since 2016.
Update 14/9/20 – It turns out this car is still around. It had a lot of “improvements” over the years. Spotted for sale on Facebook.
Update 23/4/21 – Oh look, it’s back again. Thankfully someone has reversed most of the “improvements”, but it’s still looking tatty around the edges. Interestingly it’s lost about 20,000km since I sold it! They were asking $8k, now dropped to $5.5K. I hope someone buys it and restores it.
