PRELUDE TO GREATNESS

BEFORE THE NEW EVOLUTION ARRIVES, WE SPENT SOME QUALITY TIME DRIVING THE OLD ONES. ALL OF THEM.

- AARON GOLD

The Honda Prelude has a storied history, beginning as a strangelooking 2+2, maturing as the showcase for Honda's future technology, and culminating as one of the finest-handling front-drive cars of the 20th century. With a new Prelude on the way, Honda gave us the chance to drive all five previous generations of the car. Here's what they were like, then and now.

FIRST GENERATION 1979-82

For all the journalistic praised heaped on Honda in the Carter years, reviews of the Prelude were tepid. Criticism of its odd styling and useless back seat prompted Prelude owner Brock Yates to pen a defense (Motor Trend March 1980):

"Can one imagine the ecstatic yelping if Porsche produced a 1.7-liter OHC coupe capable of 100 mph for under $7,000?"

Indeed, the Prelude was a hit with the public, and driving it now, we can see why. Its niftiest attribute is the "Centralized Target Meter," a three-dimensional turducken that nests warning lights inside the tachometer inside the speedometer. The AM/FM radio is tuned by a pair of concentric dials on the side of the dash pod, and the way it stores and recalls station presets is impossible to describe but brilliantly intuitive.

The 90-hp 1,750cc CVCC engine coldstarts easily and runs smoothly, quite an accomplishment in the era of emissions infancy. It delivers a meaty midrange but lacks the peaky power we've come to associate with classic Honda fours. You can rev it to 6,000 rpm if you have time, but by 4,500 it's clocked out and on its way to happy hour.