IT USED TO BE SO SIMPLE

THE HONDA CRX S IS WHERE ALL THE GOOD STUFF STARTED.

The CRX Si is about as angry looking as Hondas got back in the Eighties. Which is to say, you still kind of want to pinch the little scamp's cheeks.

“I FIRST DROVE a friend’s non-Si CRX at an autocross in 1984,” recalls fabled Honda racer Peter Cunningham. “It was so good. It had great handling and balance and a good power-to-weight ratio. So, on June 28, 1986, I leased a CRX Si for four years. And when I wasn’t racing it, I was using it to tow my other race car.”

In the early Eighties, most new cars had carburetors. In 1980, the only Ferraris the factory sent to America were the 308 and the Mondial, both powered by a carbureted 3.0-liter V-8 with 205 hp. The Toyota Corolla was rear drive with a solid axle through 1983. Chevrolet sold the antediluvian Chevette until 1987, and the 1981 Ford Mustang’s only V-8 was a 4.2-liter rated at 115 hp. The Germans? VW’s GTI didn’t make it here until 1984, and from 1982 through 1985, the only way to buy a mid-size Mercedes-Benz (the now-beloved W123) was with a diesel engine. The two-seat CRX Si looked like half a hard-boiled egg, never generated huge performance numbers, and didn’t sell in enormous quantities, but it was the vanguard of every coming good thing.

Ashtrays were as big as stereos in 1985.