This dyno day coverage comes from all the way back in 1997, so we had to march back to our archives, pick out the magazine, and dig out the scanner.
To zoom in, hold down the CTRL (or Command on a Mac) key and then hit the “+” key.
Want to read about the coolest cars in amateur motorsports? Get …
You can read it for free in 42 days or subscribe to GRM+ to read right now.
Already a member?
This photo cracks me up for some reason. Like JG is obviously waiting for a victim to sit in that chair for... something.
That CRX appeared in Car & Driver right around the time that I got my first subscription. I wonder if it still exists?
Super Synchronicity. It does. I believe it's still in FL, so perhaps Joe still owns it. I'm tempted to look him up, I've still got the original issue with that car in it.
(RX7) cutting the airbox was really 10hp gain? speed holes! and the turbo car is only 17hp more? wow
Amazing how horsepower levels are so much higher now, even when comparing these modified cars to stock cars of today.
Ed Higginbotham wrote: This photo cracks me up for some reason. Like JG is obviously waiting for a victim to sit in that chair for... something.
That's back when we had GRM logo folding chairs.
I remember reading that article. 
I'm trying to remember whether I ever cut the airbox lid on my TurboII-It seemed so easy and so cool I sure planned to.
I contacted some ... contacts and now know more about Super Synchronicity's whereabouts. Unfortunately, the car is in storage in "not running but I'm totally going to fix it" status 
Current owner - who has owned it for at least 20 years - isn't interested in selling.
K-Swap the CRX. Both ends, of course. 
In reply to Msterbee :
Totally. Oddly, I recently came across a few photos of that CRX....
I did get the owner to give me a price, but it was higher than I was willing to pay at the time, especially since it needed some work. He put the car up for sale publicly a year or later and it got some social media attention. Prices for cars also spiked (as we all know) so the high asking price started looking more reasonable in comparison to the market. It's now been purchased and a YouTuber is doing what YouTubers do.
The problem with buying a car like that is that a good part of the value is in the provenance, so doing things like converting it to manual or dropping in K series engines damages that value. If you can turn the conversion into money - a well-monetized YouTube build series - that's not a big problem. You're looking at the return on the build series, not the value of the car. You might even give it some new provenance if you're good enough. But if you buy it for yourself because of its history it's an awkward line. So I didn't.
One of my other big concerns was that I might not enjoy driving it as much as I enjoy my current CRX, and there would be no way to find out without buying and fixing it.
I love that this car popped up in Latest Topics this morning.
Two days ago, I dug out the October 1985 issue of Car and Driver (which was probably the first issue that I paid for, rather than just reading in in the school library) specifically to read about this car. My main purpose was to read again about how poor the Mugen body kit was, and to relive some of the craziness of vintage Car and Driver.
I would love to own this car in it's C/D form, but I don't think I'd be compelled to pay a ton of money for it.
And I think that any stock CRX in good condition would be way more fun to own.
In reply to Woody (Forum Supportum) :
The car is currently owned by Randy Carlson, his IG handle is bugnbox.
He has been trying to get it all back to the way it was when C/D owned it, even thought it is mostly in that shape. IIRC, he was looking for the wheels and had to get the fuel cell redone.
You can see the C/D wheels here:
IIRC at the time of sale the car needed a new fuel cell bladder and at least one halfshaft. It's a very cool thing, I'm glad it's being restored instead of "built". I'd take it down to Racing Beat and see if there's anyone there who remembers putting it together :)
As I recall, we didn’t know that this very CRX was coming to that dyno day. At the time, chassis dynos were still fairly new, and we held several dyno days to introduce our readers to them.
People would just register. As far we we knew, someone was simply bringing a Honda CRX.
I still remember that car/article/issue.
"The only link between the two drivetrains is....the road."
So um this is a really cool story concept and I would ask to bring it back but it probably sucks logistically. Or people's cars wouldn't be all the way dyno-ready despite you guys having some excellent articles on how to make them so. It can take a long time to get an older car dyno ready. With all of the '70s/'80s cars in this article that were already 10-plus years old I'm surprised not to hear about vacuum line woes.
In reply to GCrites :
Yeah, looking back, they all went fairly smoothly. I can’t recall any blown engines, massive failures or thrown tools.
We had some mild cars that barely broke a 100 at the wheels up to SCCA GT1 cars rolling in without bodywork. We had dudes with CRXs hanging with vintage racers. Good times, good times.
Keith Tanner said:I did get the owner to give me a price, but it was higher than I was willing to pay at the time, especially since it needed some work. He put the car up for sale publicly a year or later and it got some social media attention. Prices for cars also spiked (as we all know) so the high asking price started looking more reasonable in comparison to the market. It's now been purchased and a YouTuber is doing what YouTubers do.
The problem with buying a car like that is that a good part of the value is in the provenance, so doing things like converting it to manual or dropping in K series engines damages that value. If you can turn the conversion into money - a well-monetized YouTube build series - that's not a big problem. You're looking at the return on the build series, not the value of the car. You might even give it some new provenance if you're good enough. But if you buy it for yourself because of its history it's an awkward line. So I didn't.
One of my other big concerns was that I might not enjoy driving it as much as I enjoy my current CRX, and there would be no way to find out without buying and fixing it.
My K-swap comment was not serious A car like this should be restored to exactly how it was when it was built, or as close as a person can come to making it so. Then sell it to fund the K-Swap version on a second-gen CRX.
Hmmm... Not twin-engined but looks entertaining.
http://www.carnewscafe.com/2019/12/this-mid-engine-rwd-89-crx-looks-insanely-cool/
You'll need to log in to post.
