Yahoo Autos Junkyard Gem: 1983 Honda Civic Sedan
For the 1984 model year, the brand-new third-generation Honda Civic became a lot bigger and got a new suspension, forever distancing itself from its N600 ancestry. That made the 1983 Civic the final car of a very significant era in Honda history, and I've found one of these rare machines in a Denver-area car graveyard.
The second-generation Civic was a bit larger than its 1973-1979 predecessors but was still recognizable as the amazingly reliable and fuel-efficient car that arrived here just in time for the 1973 OPEC oil embargo. This car's curb weight was still under a ton, at 1,973 pounds (the base '83 Civic 1300 3-door hatchback scaled in at a mere 1,773 pounds).
The Civic sedan for 1983 came with just one engine choice: this 1.5-liter 12-valve four equipped with the innovative CVCC dual-combustion-chamber system. It was rated at 67 horsepower, seven more than the 1.3 engine in the cheaper Civics that year. Sadly, the sporty Civic S trim level was available only on hatchbacks here.
The CVCC system got increasingly complex in order to keep up with ever-stricter emissions requirements, leading to the terrifying "Map of the Universe" vacuum-hose tangle in the 1985-1987 cars. The 1983 diagram under the hood of this car looks intimidating, but could still be understood by ordinary mortals.
In practice, the CVCC-equipped Hondas were very reliable, despite the weird two-carbs-in-one design and all those vacuum lines. I've owned a half-dozen CVCC engines over the years.
What really makes this particular Junkyard Gem a special piece of history is its transmission: the Hondamatic. 1983 was the last year for this oddball motorcycle-derived gearbox in the Accord and Civic, after which Honda made the transition to ordinary automatic transmissions.
