Yahoo Autos Junkyard Gem: 1987 Honda Prelude Si
When Honda introduced the original Prelude as a 1979 model, it was a sporty-looking machine with plenty of Accord components, a generous helping of luxury and convenience features, a curb weight just a bit over a ton … and not much power under the hood. The second generation of Prelude appeared in North America as a 1983 model, and it was markedly bigger, sleeker and more powerful than its predecessor. Sales of second-gen Preludes continued here through 1987, and I've found a final-year example with the hot-rod Si package in a car graveyard in Phoenix, Arizona.
This fuel-injected 2.0-liter engine showed up when the Prelude Si debuted late in the 1985 model year, and it gave the car impressive acceleration. I daily-drove an '87 Prelude Si (red, of course) for a while in the middle 1990s and thought it was respectably quick. This one was rated at 110 horsepower and 114 pound-feet, which was decent for a car that weighed just 2,426 pounds.
The most compelling reason to buy a fuel-injected Honda in 1987 was that the fuel-delivery systems on carbureted Hondas had become so complicated (due to increasingly strict American emissions requirements) by that time that their vacuum-hose diagrams resembled a map of the universe (or the notorious Afghanistan Stability/COIN Dynamics PowerPoint slide). By contrast, Honda's PGM-FI system worked very well and had simple plumbing.
Contrast that diagram with this one for the dual-carb-equipped 1988 Accord (the base 1987 Prelude's 1.8-liter engine used a similar system). Which one would you rather have when the engine developed a misfire or wouldn't pass a smog check?
The MSRP for this car was $14,945 with the five-speed manual transmission, which it has. That's about $41,366 in 2023 dollars. The base 1987 Prelude with the carbureted 1.8 engine cost $11,995 ($33,201 after inflation).
