Due to life circumstances, you have only two parking spaces at your residence and will for the foreseeable future. Fortunately the car gods have granted you one space for the JNC of your dreams, no questions asked except it must be 25 years or older. The other must be your daily driver for work and family-hauling duties. It can be however old you want, which means it also be a classic if that fits your particular needs. Please show your work (explain why you choose the cars you name).
What’s in your ideal classic and daily two-car garage?
The most entertaining comment by next Monday will receive a prize. Scroll down to see the winner of last week’s QotW, “What Honda model is the most Honda?“.
There are good answers every week, but this one really had a lot of home runs. The wide breadth of answers showed the love and knowledge y’all have for Honda, and it was heartwarming.
There were many ways to answer the questions, which seems to speak well of Honda as a company. There were those that went with brilliantly-engineered, utterly reliable, and affordable-by-almost-anyone mass-market vehicles like Legacy-san‘s choice of the unassuming Civic, Land Ark‘s pick of the 4th-gen Honda Accord, or Aaron Cake‘s selection of the original Insight. We had a surprising number of respondents nominate the Honda Civic Wagon/Shuttle, including nlpnt, dankan, and JJ, who chose the first-gen CR-V (which is basically a lifted Wagovan).
Then there were those who looked at the engineering tour de force vehicles. Ironically, that includes not only supercars like the NSX, but also models like the eminently mod-able EG Civic as suggested by f31roger, or the EK9 Civic Type R as put forward by Ryan S. Taylor C.‘s S2000 was another excellent candidate, and TheJWT‘s pick of the wild NSR500 motorcycle was an inspired choice.
The winner this week offered something that might not be instantly recognizable to the average person, maybe even the average Honda owner. In that sense it may not be the best representative for the marque, but it does represent the best of what Honda’s engineers can do when unleashed. Rainmeister‘s rousing essay on the RA272 takes the grand prix this week:
The 1967 Honda RA272 gets my nod, even though it is a race car.
Consider that when Honda entered Formula 1 in 1964, it had only been making four wheel vehicles for less than a year (T360 Kei truck and the S500)! One can only imagine that it was the butt of jokes among the established fraternity of F1 teams like Ferrari, Lotus, BRM and Brabham. Yet, Honda had the chutzpah and the courage to take on the challenge.
The following season, Honda entered its second racer, the RA272. This was a home-grown chassis and engine combination that qualified in the top 3 over four of the eight races it entered, winning the Mexican Grand Prix! Back then, only Ferrari and BRM designed and built a complete Formula One car, as others relied on independent engine suppliers like Climax, Repo, Ford and Maserati. What other auto maker can claim to achieving such success so quickly at the pinnacle of motorsport?
At about that time, Honda was facing an even greater enemy in the form of the Japanese government. The Ministry of Trade & Industry was trying to force Honda to remain out of the car business as the bureaucrats sought to rationalize the domestic industry into a few national champions. Honda steadfastly refused to play by those rules. To this day, Honda remains an outsider, remaining fiercely independent while the rest of the Japanese auto industry coalesce around two groups led by Toyota and Nissan.
Honda is the only Japanese automaker to have won the Formula One mfrs championship multiple times, and through two different eras no less. Today, they dominate the GP circuit just as they did in the late 80s and early 90s, having won all 14 races held this year. It was only 6 years ago that Honda was again the butt of everyone’s jokes as their supplied engines to McLaren kept detonating. The lesson here is to never, ever bet against Honda.
The early spark of Honda’s legendary fearlessness, perseverance and engineering prowess in all things four wheels are embodied in that RA272.
Omedetou, your comment has earned you a set of decals from the JNC Shop!
Easy enough, my mechanical aptitude and need for speed way outdo my common sense on a daily basis and like anyone born in the 90’s i’ve got a soft sport for anything flat, wide and equipped with op up headlights. that being said, i also need room for my mullet to blow in the wind and something that suits my fiancees taste and even more insatiable need for speed (be it with a lot more common sense and aircon).
on another note we’re probably starting a family soon so we need two cars that are at least somewhat daily driveable, 4 seats minimum and not entirely ridiculous.
be it that our volvo 940 never came with pop up headlights, our NA miata is only a two seater and mounting car seats in the back of a hijet kipper is sadly illegal we need something else, big coupes!
with so many great cars to choose from there’s two that tick the boxes in their own special way.
pre-facelift mitsubishi 3000-gt/GTO twin turbo with the big sunroof.
this would be the perfect comfortable highway bomber for my fiancee with its high tech refinements. it’d need to shed some weight and get some upgrades here and there to allow for even more fun in the twisties, maybe some more power but it’s a good base!
me, i’m more on the spartan side when it comes to what i want a car to have but i also need similar performance to the 3000-gt/GTO so we can take both to the track.
it’s got to be a third gen again! get me a 91 firebird formula, i’l take off anything that’s not needed and i’l rework the suspension chassis and brakes to make sure it handles too.
let’s aim to get both cars in the 3-4KG per horsepower range and equip em with a tow hitch too for practicality!
To keep in the garage: My MS75 Crown and my Mercedes SL600.
The Ram Cummins dually stays outside.
This kind of question gets harder every time it gets asked, since the cars that now fall into the 25-year gap are the kinds of cars which could almost be modern, “only” cars.
The only problem is the amount of my life that is also now falling into that same gap. I think, if it’s really going to be something really special, and truly the weekend car, I want something premium. I want to really treat myself. But I want to be able to take my daughter, and maybe even sometimes the dog along for the ride. So, I think that means a 1991 SC300. That classic Toyota straight 6 powered, most over-engineered thing they ever built. The NSX would be even more epic, but the NSX does not dog. So, the big GT it is.
And alongside it in the garage I want next year’s Civic hybrid hatchback. All the technology Honda has, inside a relatively sleek, practical package, and it’s also quicker than it needs to be, apparently.
My solution to the two car dilemmas is my 1991 Toyota MR2 Turbo, which I’ve had for over 26 years, and my daily driver, a 2015 Toyota Prius V. TheMR2 was the last car my late wife and I bought for fun before she became ill from a brain cancer. I’ve got plenty of great memories of the two of us cruising down the Oregon coast in it, tunes blasting away and enjoying our lives. The Prius V is my daily because of its practicality and fuel efficiency, something the MR2 isn’t. They balance each other out.
-Honda Accord-|-Acura NSX-|
LOL. I love this!
Currently My Blue M30 is getting ready for JCCS, so it’s in my garage jacked up.
My Previa has been my daily for the last couple of weeks as my clinics have been outreaches as of late (usually I am at Children’s Hospital). But I also drop my kids off in the Previa.
My wife uses the 3rd Gen Sienna for her stuff.
I like my garage as it is now. I have my LS 500 on one side and my 91 Miata on the other side – and we can just skip over my wife’s CX-9 in the middle and pretend that her car doesn’t count to make this easier on me.
But, if we absolutely had to make due with exactly two cars – and we can wait until October for calculating age, I’d go with an IS300 SportCross and I’d upgrade my wife’s CX-9 to a CX-90.
I’ve got a similar combination but a couple generations older, a first gen RX-7 and an LS400.
I didn’t end up with them intentionally but I like their opposite characteristics. The RX-7 has little power and primitive suspension but it loves to rev and is nimble due to its lightness. The LS is like a rolling sofa and has a little grunt, comfortable everywhere.
Right now this combo is perfect for me but for the no limits dream garage I’d switch the JNC for more of a classic and the daily for a little more practicality: Cosmo Sport and S170 Crown estate.
yeah, I could give up the 1UZ for a 1JZ.
Ex-JSDF, de-militarized missile-launched Mega Cruiser (daily), winch-and-ramp-deployable Suzuki Cappuccino (classic) in the bed.
130 Crown VIP cruiser and Levin AE86 drifter. That’s my goal at least; I’ve already got the Crown
My JNC would be my ’97 Miata, as it stands after all these years of maintenance and upgrades. Roll bar, suspension upgrades, brake upgrades, BRIDE Brix on the driver’s side, Flyin Miata peppered throughout, upgraded sound system, OEM+ Nardi wheel / Joyfast shift knob, Volk RE30, R-package front / rear lips, recent Montego Blue respray. Comes with deep black hard top, but let’s remove that, drop the soft top, and hit the road. I had contemplated between this and my ’95 300ZX that’s also been JDM OEM+ upgraded over the years. However, the Miata just feels more of a direct extension to my body and soul when I drop myself into the perfect-fitting seating position. It’ll run and grip and shift all day, and the Alpine will play USB sticks for hours on end. It’s definitely a lot more rowdy than the Z, and the Z arguably looks better, but I couldn’t imagine not having the car anymore.
As for the daily car, people know I have a thing for station wagons / estates. In the past it was a ’94 Accord EX that was swapped to manual, and then a 2005 Legacy GT wagon 5MT and upgrades (suspension, STi BBS, GReddy exhaust, short shifter, sound system, all important boost gauge), and most recently a 2011 VW Jetta TDI Sportwagen 6MT (RIP), also with nice upgrades. Wagons have always been ideal for our family, as it’ll carry all the gear we throw at it, save for a kitchen appliance, drive like a car, and return excellent fuel economy while gobbling up all the miles. If I still had it, I’d be driving our TDI Sportwagen. Sure, I’d like a bit more rear seat legroom, but you can’t find a 6-speed manual diesel wagon with a huge panoramic roof anywhere else in the States. If import was not an issue, then I’d get a 2018 Mazda 6 SkyActiv-D station wagon with the 6-speed manual, which can be found in the UK or Japan. I believe 2018 was when they did a kouki refresh both inside and out, and it looks really good. Diesels are awesome, pack more power density along with fuel economy, and the torque just pulls you away effortlessly. I currently have a Mazda6 sedan and it’s a pretty good car, but if it was a wagon (and diesel), it’d be a GREAT car.
Complicated question but I will try to answer… nothing requires that both vehicles cannot be used at the same time. Also, in my case it would be shared with my sister. I think that after a not very difficult negotiation I would get her to keep my 1997 Isuzu luv pickup 4×2 crew cab with the endless 2.5 diesel and for her to sell her Peugeot 307 (a car that fulfills but does not end up exciting us to the point of have a special affection for it) thus adding a lot of money I could have a Mitsubishi lancer evo V for myself. For practical purposes both vehicles could well be used if there was a need to travel (I do it with the isuzu in Argentina) be for daily use (the lancer has 4 doors and a spacious trunk) or if the terrain becomes more difficult to succeed. Also, if the paved road or the unpaved road begins to have many curves, both can handle it without problems (nothing more fun than going fast in a slow, rear-wheel drive vehicle) in addition to not being intimidating on the streets and my sister could well use it to go to the supermarket or to work.
Lesse….For the classic spot. I’d have to go with 1. my ’86 300ZX. I love that car. It was my first running car, and it’s the one I’ve had most of the first car experiences with. I’ve worked on her, replaced parts. I’ve had a few sketchy incidences while driving her (one being driving home in a ice storm with no defrost). After her wreck a year or so back, and none of the body shops wanting to take because of her age and mileage, it’s up to me, and I feel I owe her to fix her up. the
#2 option for the classic spot would have to be a Datsun 510. Ever since I got that Hot Wheels of one, I’ve kinda fancied the brick.
For the Daily option…I dunno. I love my xB. Fun, practical, has 5 seats, good on gas, aftermarket readily available. Very tempting. Of course, I couldn’t haul a trailer very well with only about 85-90 horsepower to the ground and I’d have to find a trailer hitch attachment for it.
If I have to pick something to tow a trailer with, I’d either go with a first generation Ford Explorer, or a 2005 Dodge Grand Caravan base. The old Dodge that we have has been put through more than her share of miles and hauling trailers. Still up and kicking, although not the mainline van anymore.
Final Verdict…yeah. I think I wouldn’t change a whole lot. I’ll stick with the xB and my 300ZX, but would definitely entertain thoughts on the other options mentioned.