Honda CR-X SiR

I love cars, and I have done for as long as I can remember. There’s just something so completely unique about the freedom a car can offer you that I find irresistible. If I felt like it, I could wake up tomorrow, decide I want to go to Scotland, get in my car and go. I don’t have to tell anyone, I don’t have to book anything or go through a tiresome airport security check. As long as I have enough money to put fuel in it, it will take me where I need to go.

Because of this, I have developed quite a pastime for car spotting. On my daily routine out and about, I keep a keen eye out for anything interesting that I may come across and I have found myself becoming distracted by the most bizarre things, like the square numberplate on an old Volvo V70 signifying that it is probably an import from Japan, or the football-style hubcaps on a first generation Fiat Panda proudly on display as it’s an extremely rare ‘Italia 90’ model, one made to celebrate the 1990 football World Cup in Italy. It’s the minutiae of looking for interesting cars that I find exhilarating. God, that makes me sound like a huge nerd.

Having recently moved to London, the game of finding cool cars has only intensified. There is an abundance of weird and wonderful cars here and I have spent the last four months ogling over rare colours on family estate cars or foreign-import cars that weren’t originally available in this country. It’s probably a bit of an obsession at this point, but everyone needs a hobby, right?

Anyway, I thought I’d compile some of the automotive oddities I have seen in, around or outside of London into a weekly post on here.

Anything goes: supercars, classic cars, Japanese, German, French, mostly with four wheels but sometimes less, occasionally more.

For the first instalment is a car I spotted while out on a bike ride in Richmond. The square numberplate on the rear struck me first, followed by the tiny dimensions, stout coupe shape and massive exhaust. The unmistakable silhouette of a Honda CR-X sat solemnly before me, a light coating of moss, dried up leaves and tree sap signifying it had been there quite some time. This wasn’t your standard CR-X though, it was the SiR version - the top of the range version equipped with the most powerful engine available in the CR-X and with chassis upgrades to boot. The engine inside is Honda’s legendary B16A, a 1.6 litre, four cylinder, 16 valve, twin overhead cam engine equipped with Honda’s VTEC system to deliver 160bhp to the front wheels, making it the first mass-produced naturally-aspirated (no forced induction by way of a turbocharger or supercharger) engine to make over 100bhp per litre. Interestingly, the SiR you see here has bronze glass and the JDM (Japanese domestic market) numberplate recess, signifying it was originally sold in Japan and will have been imported to England at some point. Being a fan of small hot hatchbacks, this is a car that appeals to me on a massive scale.

Incredibly rare, excellent engineering and a beautiful design gives it an aurora that few cars manage to muster. I’d love to meet the owner and learn about it’s story. Why it’s here, why it hasn’t moved for a while, and what their future plans are with it. Anyway, that was my favourite car this week, and I can imagine

next week will be something equally as weird and wonderful.