Honda was a major adopter of all-wheel steering, during that technology’s brief heyday. But it was the the Prelude, that Honda normally showered that feature on, to pretty good advantage. But this CRX is determined to keep up with its bigger brother, no matter what the cost.
Just for the record, I’m an idiot.
Are you referring to your earlier comment? I changed the headline, because of it! I should have added a reply to your comment.
DRAT! Yes, I was referring to the earlier comment! I thought I’d went crazy and that it said rear-steering all along!
Sorry about that 🙂
Weren’t we all just talking about dog tracking a few days ago?
Shame – looks like a Si.
This makes me think of the old car and driver article where they put a second CRX engine in the back of a CRX
http://www.carlustblog.com/2008/02/car-lust–twin.html
I saw that car for sale years ago at a high-end used car lot in San Rafael ,CA. I’d have bought it if I had two dimes to rub together at the time. By then it had gone through a second round of mods, and the Civic drivetrains had been replaced by Accord drivetrains with larger motors.
I kinda thought they went about it the wrong way. You see, they could have used a HF and gotten 50 mpg in normal driving. Then turned that engine off, put it in neutral, and started up some monster rig in the back like a Porsche 6 turbo or something else with over 200 hp that was still lightweight. Why restrict yourself to just another 75 horsepower when you have to go to all the trouble to put it in there?
Perspective: this was built when factory-built AWD cars were in their infancy. The premise was to increase power, AND convert an existing car to AWD with off the shelf components. I’m pretty sure the Volkswagen rally team built a few competition Jettas in the same way.
Honda used an active system didnt they? PSA used a passive system my 406 had it and my Xsara has it, great fun on twisty roads
Pretty sure the Honda system was passive too. Rods and linkages. IIRC, it was Nissan who used computerized active rear-steer, on the 300Z
I thought the Prelude one was active, as was Mazda’s although they didn’t work in the same way. Passive rear steer usually refers to geometry & bushing effects.
Ah. Yeah, I’m using “active” to mean “computer controlled” and “passive” to mean “entirely done mechanically.”
The Honda system was purely mechanical with a shaft running down the center of the car from the front steering rack to the rear steering rack. To make it transition from the low front steering angle/ rear same steer to high front steering angle/ rear counter steer they used a bunch of monkey motion linkages.
In the end it was overly complex and expensive for a benefit that most consumers in most situations couldn’t tell was there.
The other car in the photo is a GD Series 626 Mazda, which really was available with 4-wheel steering.
No 4wheel steer 626s in the US, it was only available on the MX-6 derivative. Mazda’s system was much simpler with electronic control of the rear steer.
I see this all the time with cars parked on main drags in town. The car gets parked overnight, somebody comes along at 3 AM, smashes it, and goes on their merry way.
Too bad about this CRX, it looked pretty clean.
Happened to my sister-in-law in the late ’60s. My brother was on R&R in Tokyo, and she went to see him. Left her car at her folk’s place in Chicago and it got totaled by a drunk. His car was pretty well trashed, too, so he got a trip to jail. IIRC, their insurance got dropped–Allstate.
Allstate sucks big time. Encourage your friends to drop them.
I want to try donuts with this rig.
As a 5 year year old four years before BIG WHEELS were Invented…. I Had A Metal Version called the X -15 …It Was silver Blue…. Had I handlebar sticking strait up to steer the 2 REAR WHEELS….. While I pedaled and the front wheel just plowed thru.. It was an Awful set up… Never saw another one… Anyone Else?
I always wanted To Try one of those 4 wheel steering Preludes… What was that like?
Curbside Casualty!
4 wheel steering is cool and all, but unfortunately the rear steers to the right, permanently. Makes for a funny handling.
my grandpa gave me his ’91 CRX a year before he past away it got only 36,000 miles and reel clean i didnt not like the stock color baby blue metallic so i painted it a nice black mica and painted the seats black window tint and xenons and got a bad ass sony audio 20000 watt with 2 sub woofers and im rebuild the suspension to a comp level me and some buddies are working on puting in a turbo to upgrades ii costing me big$$$$ but atleast the car was free)