Hot compacts of the 1980s and 90s, in both hatchback and coupe formats, were automotive life staples when your servants at Totally That Stupid were growing up. The fastest versions of the Honda Prelude, Acura Integra, Toyota Celica, and many others got all the attention – and the buff-book review accolades – for good reasons: They were quick, light, handled well, and were usually quite affordable, at least in hindsight. Continue reading
Tag Archives: Honda Prelude
1985 Honda Prelude EX: Disposable Sports Car #10
One of our favorite sayings around the TTS offices is that “nostalgia is a funny thing.” Meaning, often times we recall the cars of our past with a special fondness, often focusing on the parts of them we enjoyed – looks, smells, handling, colors, you name it – as opposed to the parts that made us sell them or otherwise move on. Of the TTS crew, I am the one who repeatedly drinks from the same well. I’ve owned multiple Mercedes W123s and W126s, two green Alfa Spiders, and even a pair of grey 1985 Honda Preludes. With the Mercedes I seem to be on a never-ending quest to find the perfect example. With both the Alfas and the Hondas I think it’s some subconscious effort to reclaim a part of my youth, the first of each having been my first and third car, respectively.
1986 Audi Coupe GT: Disposable Sports Car #9
This Craigslist ad is a terrific example of precisely how not to sell your car. The Audi Coupe GT was the poor man’s Ur-Quattro and was the foundation upon which the Coupe Quattro was based. It is the Porsche 924 to Audi’s 944 – separated by driveline differences and more importantly big, bulging fender flares. Still, the Coupe GT is a worthy car in its own right and while not a sports car in the traditional roadster, rear wheel drive sense offered a very 1980s GT driving experience in the same market niche as the Honda Prelude, Toyota Celica, and arguably the Alfa-Romeo GTV but with a distinctly Germanic flair. In any case, there is no excuse for someone – clearly an enthusiast – who owns this car not to take the time to present it properly to his potential customers.
1984 Toyota Celica GTS Convertible: Rare, Especially in This Condition
We’ve discussed before how convertibles were very much a dying breed going from the 1970s into the 1980s. While there were a handful of holdover cars from another era from Alfa Romeo, Fiat (badged as Pininfarina or Bertone due to Fiat’s official withdrawal from the U.S. market), and the like, it was widely believed that convertibles would soon be consigned to the history books thanks to ever-increasing safety standards from the US Department of Transportation and other safety Nazis. Still, a few mainstream manufacturers kept the torch burning for the convertible in the form of special, low-production convertible versions of their sporting coupes. Today’s case in point is the attractive Toyota-ASC collaboration on the Celica GTS Convertible. They were only produced for two years – 1984 and 1985 – with just 250 1984s hitting the streets, making this clean red car for sale here on eBay in Katy, Texas for just $4,200 especially rare. There were about 4,500 produced for 1985.
1991 Acura Integra GS: Endangered Species
I drove a second generation Honda Prelude through much of my five-and-a-half years of college, after the Alfa Spider rusted away and I managed to trade-in the VW Quantum wagon of death on the happy little Honda that Could. I loved that car. Call them boring, call them soulless, but those were the days when Honda made fabulous-handling, well-balanced, reliable front-drivers with some of the best manual transmissions I’ve ever felt in a FWD car. As graduation loomed I started thinking about what I’d buy once I found that big, high-paying job that comes with every bachelor’s degree in communications. The then-new second-generation Acura Integra was the logical choice.
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