I was in the town centre the other night, as usual full of very expensive cars, barely notice anymore, Porsche, Ferrari, Bentley, BMW, Audi etc etc so its very rare for anything to impress me, we all know most of the expensive stuff is fast. However, I saw to young lads in a scabby looking Honda Civic, sort of angular hatchback, later 80's, early 90's, scruffy as f*ck, loud exhaust, have seen (and heard) it about and nowadays its all odd panels, anway it got hoofed up the road and jesus did it shift, might be just the fact most people drive sensibly so you notice when somebody acts daft but it looked quick and sounded amazing.

What would be in one of these, judging by the state of it, I would be surprised if it was anything expensive which leads me to beleive there is a possibility of a cheap track day car. I know they do them in America but there doesnt seem to be much of a scene over here for old Hondas.

 

if it was the less attractive square kind of back then it would have been pre 1991, 1991+ was the roundier more shapely one..cud be any engine in that man but more than likely the 1.6vtec with a bit of engine work, 200bhp easily with some mods with wicked vtec and ****all weight make em greeeat fun!

 

Must say, I was impressed, been reading about Honda engines, good article here

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Honda_B_engine#B16A1

I have only had very limited experience of the Honda unit, it was in a Rover 216 Coupe Auto I had briefly, now that did not howl but it was still going after 120,000 miles which is long after the Rover K series would have conked out, just to add confusion, the current civic Type R uses a Honda K series, unrelated to the Rover unit but an unfortunate name.

That could be an interesting possibility, as well as old Honda's which at that age are rare, there are loads of old Rovers running Honda units, Coupe's and allsorts and they are very very cheap, bung the right engine in, strip it out and go and ruin it on a track. I suppose it depends how heavy the Rover shell is compared to the Civic. The Rover Coupe had independant rear susp so they do handle fairly well (in context).

 

Honda's are very expensive, and only reliable if fastidiously looked after. 3-5k oil services is a must with v-tecs all there life. They aren't my bag to be honest, but my mate is really into them. Had a Civic 1.5 and dreamed of a CRX VTI. And he found a 80-k ****ter no history on a H and payed - wait for it £2500 !!!!!!!!!!!!

I whooped him in my diesel Skoda too which upset him, but he is a toss driver. The point is, they are quite useful, but not a budget track car.........

 

This makes the Honda VTEC sound like a bad engine. Most informed people people know them to be astonishingly reliable and strong performing engines.

 

Just to verify, the engines will go on and on if looked after !

 

They are great engines, some reckon they are next to the RB26 engine..

 

My Prelude had done close on 300k when I sold it - and is still going strong now, having done a couple of trackdays this year.

As has been said, regular oil changes and they'll last for ever

 

The first car to benefit from the B16a engine was a late eighties Civic; the model that was replaced by the EG series cars. They were very rare though.


Simon

 

300k! holy moly, i would like to shake your hand driving ms daisy
they were rare enuf yeah.. i prefer the EG shape myself, can get a mint 92 1.6vtec sir for not bad money these days, great fun and are made to rev their heads off