Life with a 1985 CRX Si

In reply to Desmond:

An 89 CRX si isn't at 4k until a little over 80mph in 5th gear.

That is correct :D

In reply to Desmond:

Yeah, I know.

Everyone drives 80 on the freeways here. Probably not the limit, but its the "traffic limit".

I don't want to derail a thread tho. Keith, are you just going to keep the car as a fun, weekend driver, or do you have future plans for it?

I have crazy, bonkers cars. But I like cars that are simple fun as well - and that's what this will be. I'll probably use it as a daily driver, trading off against my turbo 1990 Miata. I'll do a bit of refinement to things like the suspension and deal with any problems that come up. But engine swaps, custom headers, different engine management - that's off the menu at the moment. The lack of ultimate power isn't a big deal, it's the way the power is delivered I find interesting. And this car is interesting.

I've realized that I have a set of Thule crossbars with the "short roof adapter", originally used on a 1993 Civic hatch. I'll bet they'd work on this thing.

More! You guys are the only ones I can pretend are listening, so humor me my ramblings.

Got the chance to actually take a run at the corners in my commute. Car's not bad, actually. Added 4 psi to the rear tires and dropped the fronts by 2. Now I have 30F 32R. We'll see what that does to the handling.

Got the sunroof to open all the way by adding some assistance. I think it might need new cables, something's definitely slipping at a certain point in the range. It opens partway without complaint. Pity, it's fun fully open. I'll have to disassemble this and find out what's going on.

I've gone about 100 miles since I filled up the tank. The needle is now coming off F. Are the legends true? Is this free fun?

I was informed today by my wife Janel that this is obviously my midlife crisis, and it was cheap. So she's taking the rest of the budget for hers. I never knew we had a midlife crisis budget.

And now, gratuitous pictures. Car likes wax. The paint is so much happier. Here's what was waiting like a little puppy after work.

Say ahhh! Underhood.

You know, all sunroofs should work like this.

There are three cars in this picture. The Seven is the orange bit in front. The CRX is the heaviest and may be the least powerful of the three.

Man that thing is cool! Thanks for starting this thread, it's great fun! Keep it coming!

Keith Tanner wrote: More! You guys are the only ones I can pretend are listening, so humor me my ramblings. Got the chance to actually take a run at the corners in my commute. Car's not bad, actually. Added 4 psi to the rear tires and dropped the fronts by 2. Now I have 30F 32R. We'll see what that does to the handling. Got the sunroof to open all the way by adding some assistance. I think it might need new cables, something's definitely slipping at a certain point in the range. It opens partway without complaint. Pity, it's fun fully open. I'll have to disassemble this and find out what's going on. I've gone about 100 miles since I filled up the tank. The needle is now coming off F. Are the legends true? Is this free fun? I was informed today by my wife Janel that this is obviously my midlife crisis, and it was cheap. So she's taking the rest of the budget for hers. I never knew we had a midlife crisis budget. And now, gratuitous pictures. Car likes wax. The paint is so much happier. Here's what was waiting like a little puppy after work. Say ahhh! Underhood. You know, all sunroofs should work like this. There are three cars in this picture. The Seven is the orange bit in front. The CRX is the heaviest and may be the least powerful of the three.

Maybe it's the angle of the shot, but the CRX looks huge compared to the Mini...

as tiny as a CRX is ….it is huge compared to an original Mini

Derpy 80s fun makes my pants tight! I rode to school most of 1998 in a '90 CRX, and even then I knew it was going to be a benchmark car in a few decades. Thanks for journaling your adventure - Im reliving highschool watching this thread....

Did I mention that the Mini is actually newer than the CRX? And yes, there's quite a difference in size. The Mini even has four seats.

The pressure change in the tires seems to have helped the car. It's not exactly rotating on a drop throttle, but using the Mini technique of "turn in and nail the gas" the car works well. I'll try a couple more adjustments and see before I order a sway. Or maybe I'll just do it anyway, I know I want to.

wbjones, you say you have a 22mm rear. Looks like Suspension Techniques and Addco make 19mm. What kind is yours?

That CRX would be an absolute riot with a D16Z6.

I remember riding around in these and the same generation Civic and being surprised how much room there was inside.

SWMBO's son has a 1g CRXundergoing a DOHC swap in the driveway now.

Keith Tanner wrote: wbjones, you say you have a 22mm rear. Looks like Suspension Techniques and Addco make 19mm. What kind is yours?

went back and looked at the original FS page .. and I miss-remembered … it's a 7/8" Suspension Techniques bar … which is 22.xxmm … which is how I tend to remember it

Keith Tanner wrote: I registered the car today and proceeded to come up with lame excuses to drive it everywhere. With Van Halen's 1984 blasting away because, well, because. Did I mention this is a car I really wanted in high school? I would have loved to find one in the driveway on my 16th birthday. Maybe I'll look up my high school girlfriend's address and go cruise by her house slowly, blasting "Jump". Anyhow. The car was hard to heel-toe. So I took a bunch of slack out of the throttle pedal. Car liked it. It also didn't flow over the road the way I felt it should, so I checked the tire pressures and found them all north of 40 psi. The door jamb calls for 24, so I decided to put 32 in the front and 28 in the rear to see. Car liked it. The coolant looked a bit mungy at the cap, so I drained and refilled. Car didn't seem to have an opinion, but I liked it. So far, so good. The car's coming into focus - no big changes, but it's just getting a bit better. Then I got home, and decided that oxidized hood needed attention. The PO had also used some sort of detailing product on the car that left the most indelible water marks I've ever seen. So I pulled out the wax and got at it. I should point out that I've had this particular can of carnauba wax since 1996, and it's about half gone. I don't wax cars. But check out the difference. Wax on left, "before" on right. Last time I was at a Miata event, I won a big thing of Mother's car care products. There were some clay bars in there so I tried them. The car liked it. The result was the first picture in this thread, the clean car in the driveway. But there was still that missing emblem. So I dug around in my drawer of emblems (no, really). The Lotus one had a bolt spacing that was about 1/4" too big, darn it. The Chevy Nova one would fit, but was wrong. The Cadillac and Mini ones had the wrong spacing. But I found one that was perfect and slotted right in. Heh heh. Happy car. Let's look at that cute butt again.

You have some well developed writing skills. Very nice.

Keith:

That thing is cleeeean

The first car I bought was an 86 CRX DX. I loved that car. After driving my parents 73 Beetle for 6 years, it felt like a rocket. Unfortunately, I learned the hard way how little I knew about driving and it died an early death.

If I could find one that clean, I'd buy it in a heartbeat. Have fun with it.

While parking beside a Mini makes the CRX look big, parking beside a MINI does not.

This morning, I found an original '87 CRX brochure tucked away in my attic, er, I mean... archives.

Actually, I got a phone call from the seller of this little car on the way home today. I bought the car via the son, but dad was the real owner. Turns out he has a bunch of paperwork about the car, including the bill of sale, a brochure and a bunch of other things. He's going to send them to me.

I think he was also feeling me out, making sure I knew what I had. I sent him the picture of the CRX parked in my garage by the Mini and he got pretty excited

That's good Carma.

I feel as if I've been approved for adoption.

In reply to Keith Tanner:

Keith, Please stop. I can't take any more of this punishment.

In reply to Keith Tanner:

Its kind of strange that after all the Miata's you've owned and/or worked on, and all the CRX's and Civic's I've owned, you just bought this and I just bought a Miata...