Rex Underestimated?

Perhaps I should have asked more for my CRX. The ads have been up* for 24 hours and I've already gotten considerable interest and arranged for one prospective buyer to see the car this weekend.

* On the CRX Community forum, the local Miata club's forum, RacingJunk.com and my workplace's intranet.

Our Truck

I mentioned before that Rex, my 1991 Honda CRX, is our "truck;" we use it to carry large items from Home Despot and other stores. Here's some photographic evidence of our abuse of the poor little car:

Return of the King

Alison's mother, Sharon, came to visit last weekend. She's here to attend Alison's graduation---this Wednesday, seriously Wednesday---and to help us renovate and redecorate the Gronddulbarn. Sharon arrived in Rex, who has been living with her in Naperville for a year and a half. I am, once again, in possession of two cars with a total seating capacity of 4. I can also once more refer to a Miata as my big car.

Car Specs

I'm sure no one cares about these specifications, but a recent discovery inspired me to collect the following specifications about the vehicles I've owned. Keep in mind that these numbers are quoted by the factory, so they may not be entirely accurate at the time of manufacture, and they probably were less accurate during my ownership of the car. (All power and torque values are measured at the crankshaft, not the wheels.)

Specifications of the Automobiles I've Owned

Year, Make, and Model	Curb Weight* (lb)	Power (BHP)	Torque (ft-lbs)	Power-Weight Ratio (BHP/ton)	Torque-Weight Ratio (ft-lb/ton)
1977 Datsun 280Z	2875	149	163	104	113
1980 Honda Prelude	2020	72	94	71	93
1991 Honda CRX	2103	92	89	87	85
2004 Mazda Mazdaspeed MX-5 Miata	2530	178	166	141	131

I should point out that the Miata is now about 40 pounds heavier (when wearing the stock wheels), because I added a 50-ish-pound rollbar and removed about 10 pounds of material from the car. Additionally the Miata probably puts out something like** 182 horsepower and 170 ft-lb now, since I'm getting about half a PSI more boost due to the larger intercooler.

Anyway, the discovery that prompted this post was the true weight of my old Z. I think, when I went looking for it before, I read the value for the 240Z: 2355 lb. (The 280 is 500 pounds heavier because of the larger engine, beefier bumpers, stronger structure to support the bumpers, thicker carpet, a heavier dashboard, and other, more minor changes.) This means that Mia is not the heaviest car I've ever had, as I previously claimed. That makes me feel better. However, I'll miss the looks people give me when I tell them my Miata is the largest car I've owned.

* Curb weight includes all necessary consumables, such as lubricant, coolant, and fuel.

** To make this calculation, I assumed power to be proportional to oxygen consumed, which should be proportional to intake-air pressure. The total pressure is the boost (about 8 PSI, stock) plus atmospheric pressure (about 14.7 PSI). That's all very rough, as is my assumption of a 0.5-PSI increase in boost.

Zoom-Zoom

My recent automotive acquisition has prompted me to examine its place in my auto-owning history. Here's a list of all the cars I've had:

• 1977 Datsun 280Z, white, handed down from my mother.
  
• 1980 Honda Prelude, silver, bought used for me by my father.
  
• 1991 Honda CRX, black, bought used from an individual.
  
• 2004 Mazda Mazdaspeed MX-5 Miata, dark silver, bought used from a dealer.
  

Now, here are few assorted---and unsolicited---thoughts:

• The Miata, like all the others, is Japanese, though it is the first Mazda.
  
• It's the first convertible.
• It's the first with any kind of forced induction.
• It's the first with a 6-speed transmission. (I've never owned an automobile with an automatic tranny, by the way.)
  
• It's the second that's rear-wheel-drive. (The Z was also RWD.)
  
• Only the Prelude had more than 2 seats, and the rear seats on that car were suitable only for malnourished contortionists. Thus, I've still never owned a vehicle with more than 2 usable seats.
• Given my white-silver-black-silver color trajectory, I can only predict (a) that my next car will be white and (b) that I will never own an automobile that isn't some shade of gray.
• The Miata is---and this may come as a surprise to you---the largest car I've ever owned. Not in terms of total length; that distinction goes to the Z. Not in terms of number of seats; that's the 'Lude. Not in terms of usable space; that would be the Rex. No, the Miata, at 2,529 lb is biggest in terms of weight. (The others weigh(ed), in chronological order, 2355, 2130, and 2103 lb.) A lot of that bulk comes from the rag-top and the chassis bracing that's needed to make up for the lack of a fixed roof, but a lot of it also comes from all the safety features that are required on 21st-century cars: airbags, side-impact beams, and so on. Additionally a little of that weight comes from the powered convenience features that are sadly* standard on so many cars nowadays: power windows, power door locks, even power mirrors. I'm just glad the top is manually operated.
  
• Fortunately, the Miata is also the most powerful, so it moves out quite smartly, thank you.
  
• Man, that name is a mouthful!

* Power features cost more, weigh more, and break down more often, so I would really rather not have them. Sadly, only a bottom-tier vehicle or a dedicated and stripped down sports car can get away without including them in this modern era.

1444441

In other CRX news, the other day, I happened to pull into my apartment's parking lot---my flat's car park*---at a very palendromic mileage. Check it out:


If you can't read the odometer in that photo, here's a TGXCU (Team Grondul Extreme Close-Up):


Fun,** eh?

* We at Industrial-Strength Science strive to make our Commonwealth-ian visitors feel at home.
** Sadly, it's just not as interesting if you express it as 232460.7 km.

How-To: Fix Bunching, Moving Floor Mats

My floor mats have been driving me crazy! Perhaps a little explanation is in order. The driver's floor mat in my old-enough-to-drive-itself 1991 Honda CRX has always bunched up and moved around. Maybe my clutch-depressing technique is unusual. Maybe my tiny feet and stumpy legs are the problem. Whatevs. The point is, this issue has plagued me for all of the 11 years I've owned the vehicle. I was recently inspired the fix the problem by a post of the CRX Community forum. Here's how you, too, can have smooth, stationary floor mats.

Cut apart an old wire hanger. (Joan Crawford and my own mommie dearest would be proud.) Then straighten the 2 "shoulder" pieces as much as possible:


Next, bend them to an angle approximately matching the footwell of your car, probably about 45 degrees:


Place the mat over the edge of a coach or what have you to approximate the correct curvature and use duct tape to fasten the ends of the wires to the mat. It's important to get the bend in the correct location.


Add more duct tape to keep the hanger parts in place:


You may not have copious amount of adhesive hook-and-loop (Velcro) closures in your home liek I do---Take that!---but you can buy a box of a meter or so for a few bucks. Cut the hook side into 2 to 4 strips, whatever works best for the geometry of your mat, then stick them firmly to the underside of the mat. Be aware that you may have some kind of rubber mat built into your car's floor carpeting. You need to ensure that the Velcro will land on your carpet and not that built-in mat.


Take the mat out to the car, position it carefully over the spot where you want it, and press it down into the carpet. You may need to press on the curved area to put the correct bend into the wires.

I've had this hacked---ahem, customized---floor mat in my Rex for 2 weeks, and it hasn't bunched, moved, squirmed, or otherwise irritated me. I consider this little project a success.

Return of the CRX

Some of you may know that I drive a 1991 Honda CRX. The CRX, a 2-seat hatchback based on the Civic chassis, was quite popular because it was sporty but efficient. For a time, the CRX HF was the most fuel-efficiency car sold in America, while the CRX Si was popular with performance enthusiasts. Honda ended production of the cute little vehicle in 1991; yes, I have one of the last batch. Ever since that dark time, rumors have occasionally arisen that Honda would resurrect the little egg-shaped car. None of those rumors ever came to fruition, so I'm skeptical about the latest one. According to this article, a "serious design proposal is under way at [Honda's] R&D design studios," spurred on by the success of fun-to-drive small cars like the Mini. This new CRX, if it were to be produced, would be based on the Fit platform, which makes a lot of sense, given how large the Civic has grown since 1991. I guess we'll have to wait to see if this rumor pans out.

By the way, since Honda has also terminated production of the Insight, I'm also hoping a hybrid version of the future CRX will be available.