september 2, 2019
there's a weird myth surrounding this specific paint color. it's "Y-49" - Barbados Yellow, as Honda called it - and the myth is that every Honda painted this color is cursed with bad luck from birth. A lot of car accidents and hit-and-runs that seem noticable, I guess; no idea if there's any truth to it.
The only bad luck I ever had with this car was the A/C going out on me in Houston summers - I would get home, soaked through the work polo shirts I so fucking loathed - and that I couldn't keep it.
I have owned over a dozen cars, and I've said good-bye to that many, and this is the one I miss the most. I sold it to have extra cash and avoid storage fees before I took my cross-country road trip, so I didn't have a choice in the matter. But wow, what a phenomenally good car it was from the moment I road-tripped it back home (first road trip story of a then-fledgling desire to Write). Lightweight, mechanically simple, revved to 7,000 RPM, delightful five-speed transmission, gorgeous and comfortable interior, perfect sight lines, an airy cabin, everything still worked (minus that A/C stumble, which later was repaired).
It also, imho, was one of the most tastefully-designed coupes of the 80s - a perfect svelte wedge, inimitably clean, absolutely no pretensions. There is no arrogance in a car this straightforward; it's just a pretty machine. I hope someday I have better luck and can find one and keep it.
