When you consider its history with motorcycles, Honda has long been engaged with wind in your hair (hey, wear a damn helmet!) motoring. Today’s Nice Price or Crack Pipe CRX TT will certainly tousle your locks but will its price also prove hair-raising?
Well talk about your small world. As pointed out by several of you, yesterday’s panther painting imbued 1983 Matra Murena was part of an eclectic collection owned by a fellow Jalop who goes by the handle Junkman.
And, while the planet may be as cozy as that Murena’s three-seat cabin, fully 76% of you felt that Junkman’s price for it was just too much, panther or not.
The Murena went out of production to make way for Matra’s game-changing J11 Espace people mover. Front-wheel drive with 4 swinging doors and three-rows of seats, the Espace proved the unexpected model for first generation of Honda’s Odyssey which debuted a decade later.
I’ll bet you don’t even remember that Odyssey, as it wasn’t the most engaging product Honda’s ever built. The CRX on the other hand is pretty memorable, as it was both a rewarding drive - even in cheap seat form - and was as cute as a non-cockroach bug. Sadly missing from the CRX mix however, was a peel-back top.
That was rectified in the first generation CRX by Straman Caochworks who decapitated about 300 of the cars. That resulted in something that was for all intents more than a Suzuki Swift convertible, but less than the yet to be introduced Miata.
When the CRX was redesigned to be bigger and feature a cool split-window hatch, the work that would be required turn that car into a drop top proved vastly more daunting. Somebody however, was up to the challenge.
This 1989 Honda CRX TT is of course an aftermarket conversion, and from what I can gather was done for a Texas dealer. The work looks pretty well engineered – for what it is. You’ll note a frame extension below the factory rockers, and a vent wing-like bar that supports the A-pillar for the door glass channel.
The top itself is long duck dong, mimicking the factory hatch lines and looking kind of like an old man’s saggy pants... um,with windows. The center section looks like it might be solid, ala the RX7, and the whole thing folds down without impeding sight lines.
The seat belts have been moved from the now missing B-pillars to the door caps which is perhaps the car’s sketchiest aspect. The rest of the interior looks okay, although the driver’s seat has some issue that required the application of duct tape. Of course who of us hadn’t at some point in life?
Mechanically, the car is apparently stock. That means a 1,493-cc SOHC four and what’s probably an unremarkable 5-speed stick. The convertible conversion has to add to the car’s 2,200-lb curb weight so performance is likely duller than stock.
But there’s that open roof and the fact that this is probably the only 2nd-gen CRX drop top – outside of a hold-my-beer backyard Skillsaw effort – you’ll likely see.
Considering the pros and cons of all that, do you think this 148,000 mile CRX-TT convertible is worth its $4,450 asking? Yep, you could get a pretty nice Miata for that – and you probably should – but what if you wanted something weirder more unique than that standard solution?
For $4,450, could this be a suitable way to let your freak flag fly?
You decide!
Houston Craigslist, or go here if the ad disappears.
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Contact the author at rob@jalopnik.com.