What do you do when you have a soft spot for Hondas and your friend is selling his CR-X del Sol? That was a problem Rui Cota had to deal with very recently and like a true hero – if you ask me – he bought the car for himself. What a guy!
I must admit, I had never been so close to a del Sol before and until this day I hadn’t realise how small this car really is. But that’s not a bad thing, not at all…
Stay with me just a bit more with this “size issue”, before we take a walk around Rui’s CR-X.
Cars these days are getting a lot bigger while the engines, on the other hand, are having their size greatly reduced or even being completely removed in favour of electric motors due to safety and environment regulations. So, a car nowadays kind of just has the purpose of getting someone from point A to point B with all the commodities and confort people could only ever dream about a few years back and, to be fair, the vast majority of brands are rather good at it, giving S-Class gadgets and features to their main stream, best-selling and considerably cheaper models. But what if all you want is to keep things simple and enjoy a B-road slightly faster than you really should?
I’m afraid the answer to that question can only be found on the used car market and this is where the del Sol comes to shine, a gem we won’t get many chances to be presented with from any manufacturer in a near future.
Honda made this car like grandma did those cookies back in the day, do you remember? Impossible not to like. Sporty looks, curvier than its predecessor but now with only one extra seat, in case you want to carry some luggage, and it is so light that even when equipped with just the entry level engine, it will provide a good laugh – or not, depending on the driver’s skills – through out every corner. But of course, being a car with a huge range of aftermarket parts available and community support, its original engine went away and now it sports a B18C from the Honda Integra, because as the old and wise used to say, there is no replacement for even the slightest bump in displacement. Unless you have a turbo, or two, or ten…
Fortunately, maybe, this is not the case and you can hear this little CR-X rumbling from miles away.
Exterior wise, bigger and wider Stance Mindset wheels were fitted, wrapped with stretched 195/45R15 Toyo Proxes all around and apart from the slightly modified front bumper, it kept the original looks. Coming from a petrol 1.2L Seat Ibiza 6L, this is a big step further in Rui’s car history and, in my opinion, a much better base overall. With almost an endless list of possibilities, Rui already has some plans for the upcoming future, but those will remain secret and since I couldn’t get enough of the CR-X, maybe we will meet up again sometime soon.
Comments
Breve descrição que encaixa bem num carro aparentemente tão pequeno de corpo, mas grande de alma….
One of the best examples i’ve seen. Nice pics 🙂