after driving a sluggish clio for years, i've earned myself 4 year NCB:) so now i can afford insurance on a faster car,what are the views on the Prelude 2.2 vtec?? any other cars worth thinking about that cost 3k ish and reliable?

[Edited by monk2003 - 3/26/2003 7:30:17 PM]

[Edited by monk2003 - 3/26/2003 7:33:33 PM]

i have a jap import 1993 model.

2.2 vtec 197bhp, the uk ones are not available unitl about 96 and are 185bhp. they have the h22a vtec engines that are widely regarded as one of the best engines honda has ever produced.

mine has about 65k on the clock and goes pretty well. does about 28mpg. they sound awesome when you hit 5750 RPM and according to K&N a 60 quid filter should gain you circa 16bhp.

mines still limited to 112mph but thats not a problem really, would only cost 100 quid to derestrict and then it will hit 140+.

more cruiser than sports but with toys like climate control/cruise control.


crap piccie i'm afraid :)

http://www.grp56.dial.pipex.com/prelude.jpg

cheers for the info, pretty much made up my mind of getting one, just need to sell my car and look for a nice example, i know they are pretty thirsty but what mpg i'll be looking at at a 70mph cruise on the motorway??

Most important thing is to check that there is no sign of kerbing as the tracking (with the 4WS) is costly and a nightmare to get right.

Great car though and thouroughly enjoyed mine :)

As SiPie says, the 4WS is expensive to align and can add another £100 to a main dealer service. Not sure exactly what the process is but somehow they need a special tool to lock the rear wheels in place whilst aligning the fronts.

I have a 5th gen and get the tracking checked anually. I never, ever kerb the wheels but you'd be amazed how out of align they'll get driving around on normal crap road conditions (potholes, etc).

Get yourself over to http://forum.hondarevolutions.com. Ok, you're going to get some biased opinions but you'll also learn loads about them. I'm sure there's a couple for sale there too.

Paul

[Edited by MikT - 3/27/2003 3:27:27 PM]

I thought the DOHC VTEC was available in UK since 1993?

Not a chance.Maybe 3hp if you are lucky and then you'd have to reset the ecu once a week, which you'd need to do with any mod to the H22A (via the 7.5v fuse) being removed for a few secs) to stop it learning the new paramiters. You would have to spend an awful lot of money on choice selective products on a H22A to gain 16hp. Not very tunable at all, Honda did it all for the engine
Induction, manifold and exhaust plus an Apexi Vtec controller would gain you about 12-15hp (if you are licky) but the vtec crossover point would not suffer from that sharp dip you see on so many dyno sheets, Less kick in the pants as the cams change over, but again much smoother and much less power loss at the point of crossover. Another nice mod are Unorthodox underdrive pulleys. Nice low down gains where the h22a suffers and you can really tell the difference although there is contoversy about the harmonic dampener issues but thats another story and I've got to go to work...

just quoting the figures (and dyno charts ) from the K&N site :)

real test is a dyno b4 and after :) but that would add another 50 quid :)

watch out for the abs sensors at each corner as they cost about £160 a go from honda. My friend has a 92 2.3 prelude and is quite impressive with performance and handling but my m8 has had to replace 3 sensors so far.
Another owner had to replace 2 for his 95 2.0 prelude.

Otherwise nothing else goes much wrong