The Prelude of My Childhood: A Love Affair with the Honda Prelude

It's hard to believe it's been over 25 years since I first laid eyes on my childhood dream car, the Honda Prelude. It was 1993, and the Prelude had just undergone a significant redesign, ditching its boxy styling from previous years in favor of a more aggressive, sporty look. The new model boasted a sleeker profile, with a rounded front end that seemed to scream "speed" at anyone who laid eyes on it.

As I recall, I was checking out the local livestock auctions, where 4-H kids would often sell their prized animals for cash. Amidst all the rustic charm and country air, I found myself drawn to the Prelude's bold design, which seemed to stand out amidst the sea of farm equipment and rusty old tractors. The engine wasn't the only new addition to this generation of Prelude; it was also a time when computer technology started to become more mainstream, and I remember sneaking into the computer room at night to research Preludes for sale on eBay.

The signature horizontal tail light gave way to individual lamps, which added to the car's sporty, high-performance persona. The entire style was shifted to a more aggressive fastback look, which further highlighted the Prelude's hard-driving ambition. Under the hood, the Prelude boasted an impressive combination of double wishbone suspension all around and VTEC power, making it one of the most exciting driving machines on the market.

As I delved deeper into my research, I stumbled upon a few notable releases that year. In 1997, Alanis Morissette's Jagged Little Pill was released to critical acclaim, earning several awards, including an Oscar nomination for Best Original Song. On the film front, Con Air had its world premiere, while on the automotive side, Honda introduced the fifth-generation Prelude.

Although it wasn't my first encounter with cars – I'd spent countless hours helping my dad work on his vehicle as a child – this particular year was different. My old man had come back for the fourth time in three years, and we were taking advantage of the hot summer to make some much-needed repairs. As I worked alongside him, holding flashlights and fetching parts, I couldn't help but feel a sense of excitement and anticipation.

That's when I saw them: Manny Moe, Jack, and of course, my dad – all clad in their car enthusiast attire. We were about to embark on a journey that would change my life forever. My initial nervousness gave way to curiosity as we made our parts run, and the cool air conditioning hit me like a slap in the face as I walked through those sliding glass doors.

The sprawling white entryway of the showroom beckoned us home, and that's when I first laid eyes on the Prelude – its sleek design and aggressive stance radiating an aura of power and sophistication. It was love at first sight. Even though I didn't have the courage to say anything, it was clear to me that these guys, if they liked working on cars, then so did I.

The Prelude was in the twilight of its life, still a super solid car but now reveling in the fact that it was still around and well-liked. To address this, Honda introduced a new trim level called the Prelude Type SH, which on the surface didn't seem to bring much change. However, beneath the hood, the 2.2-litre VTEC engine was paired with an innovative Active Torque Transfer System (ATTS) or 80 TS – a clever device that controlled clutches in the differential to send power to the outside wheel in a turn.

This technology proved effective enough that some reviews described it as feeling like the SH Prelude was a rear-wheel drive car. While not quite there, it added to the overall driving experience and made the Prelude an even more desirable proposition for enthusiasts. By 2000, the Prelude had reached its full potential, boasting a whopping 200 horsepower – a round number I have always been fond of.

Despite its impressive specs, the Prelude never received the Type R treatment that some of its siblings enjoyed. However, it did get a boost in performance with the introduction of the Type S model, which added 17 more horses to the mix. Only Japan got this special variant due to Honda's realization that sales were dwindling for the fifth generation.

In reality, less than 10,000 Preludes were sold in the US during its final year of production, making it a niche vehicle that never quite reached mainstream success. Nonetheless, Honda pulled the plug on the Prelude, and I couldn't help but feel a pang of sadness.

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And that's where I left off in my nostalgic journey through the world of Honda Preludes. It was a love affair that would stay with me forever, and as I look back, it's clear that this car played an integral part in shaping who I am today.

The Prelude may be gone from the scene, but its legacy lives on – in the hearts of enthusiasts everywhere, and perhaps even mine as well.

WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enwhy don't people still talk about this thing it's the often overlooked sports coupe meant to do battle with the Toyota Celica there was an SI there was a four-wheel steering there was torque vectoring there was VTEC it was the flagship of the golden era of Honda and it had all the Honda ingredients to attain cult-like import tuner status like your boy this is everything you need to know to get up to speed on the Honda Prelude it was 1978 and things were going pretty good for the Honda company they'd been exporting cars to the US since the beginning of a decade and by 1977 both the Civic and Accord we're changing American minds about the usefulness of small Japanese cars but they had a bit of a gap in their little lineup back in high school we had a gap in our cheer squad lineup and they made me be a flier and the main base it wasn't easy let me tell you anyway they needed something sporty Honda saw that Toyota Celica was doing pretty well with its long hood short deck style and figured they could do the same so they yanked the engine suspension and brakes out of the Accord and threw it into a new chassis drawn up by Chief Honda engineer Hiroshi Kazama the result was the first Prelude and it wasn't very good Honda knew the prelude wasn't great and they still wanted a sporty coupe turns out the first Prelude was just a prelude to the prelude so they went back to the drawing bird and started dreaming up something truly groundbreaking something with what's the word if you want to be noticed you got to have the juice kit Honda kept the long hood and short deck lid but knocked a few inches off the hood height and belt line giving the impression that the new Prelude was a lot lower than it actually was but this presented a new problem for the engineers since the hood was lower there wasn't enough room for the traditional McPherson strut suspension present on the first gen Prelude the new car would need something new enter double wishbone suspension this new double wishbone setup used to control arms running parallel to each other and kept the wheel perpendicular to the ground even around sharp corners on top of that it was much more compared saving space just a quick side note I used to be much more compact as well a little fluffy these days anyway the double wishbone suspension was the missing piece in the prelude puzzle no more understeer and now it was this fun and sporty as it looked the 2nd gen Prelude released in 1983 was the real deal and it was one of the best handling cars of the early 80s in 1985 Honda made the prelude even better by adding disc brakes in the rear and introduced a sport oriented model it had a new fuel injection system and was sporty sport injected hot dog let's call the SI the Japanese version made 110 ponies through the front wheels while we in the US got a smaller engine that only made a hundred why do we always get the short end of the stick you know what it doesn't matter because like pretty much every other Honda through history it wasn't about the power ok the prelude was about driving feel and she delivered people freaking love the things it was one of the only Japanese sports coupes you could buy in the u.s. at the time finally Honda's dream of an affordable sports coupe with realized so did they rest on their laurels did they just sit back high-five and have a cup of tea hell no because that is not the Honda way they rolled their sleeves up and pulled their pencils out they put on their glasses and they got to work making it better lighting Mikey Mikey Mikey 1988 saw the third gen Prelude released they took the double wishbone clicked ctrl-c ctrl-v and put them in the rear making the prelude even better around the bend the new Prelude borrowed a few styling cues from the forthcoming NSX which you can learn about here it's a great car I saw a really clean one yesterday the third gen SI also had the most powerful engine Honda had ever put in a car at this point making 135 her Spurs what a hundred and thirty-five horsepower are you kidding me they should have called this the Honda Jack Nicolson because this is as good as it gets right yeah it is pretty good pause gonna party guys wrong Honda had been working on a little thing for the prelude si called four-wheel steering now the preludes rear wheels would move counter to the fronts making low-speed things easier like parking or cruising by livestock options to check out the 4-h babes and at high speeds the rears turned the same direction as the Front's to help with high speed cornering and Canyon carving who wants a piece of Canyon Honda's sitting on top of the world so they took some time for reflection the team gathered by a koi pond not too small but not big enough to totally dominate the backyard moy tasteful they set silently by the edge of the pool watching fish glide by as delicate cherry blossom petals floated on the water surface hey I got an idea what is it now Greg what if we put VTEC in the prelude silence once again filled the air around the koi pond and Greg's suggestion like the ripples of the koi pond grew in the minds of the engineers they all looked at Greg with tears in their eyes not bad Greg Honda had developed a variable valve timing system called VTEC you ever heard of it you want to learn more about VTEC check out this episode of science garage VTEC made its Prelude debut in 1993 two years before post Malone was born they must have known because they gave it a 2.2 liter engine guys its numerology it makes a lot of sense the 2.2 liter engine made a very impressive 190 her Spurs that launched the coupe from 0 to 60 in 7.2 seconds which is pretty good considering it was 1993 heck back in 93 I was on my BMX bike occasion by the livestock auctions checking out 4-h babes the engine wasn't the only new addition gone were the boxy stylings of the 1980s the new Prelude was rounder and more aggressive up front this is the prelude of my childhood this is the prelude that I would stay up past my bedtime sneaked into the computer room remember computer rooms before everyone had their own computer and every family had a computer in a room and look up preludes for sale on eBay the signature horizontal tail light gave way to individual lamps the entire style was shifted to a more sporty fastback look which further highlighted the preludes hard driving ambition the killer combination of double wishbone suspension all the way around and VTEC power back resulted in one great car 1997 saw the release of Alanis Morissette's Jagged Little Pill oscar-winning film con air and the fifth-generation Prelude with styling that returned to a boxier motif oddly enough that was the same year I fell in love with cars my dad had come back for the fourth time in three years it was a hot summer and my old man was taking advantage of my tiny hands by making me work on his car with him I wasn't really into it to be honest to people helping meant holding a flashlight for him and getting yelled at just like every time you work on a car we had to make a parts run you know because we forgot some parts I'll never forget the cool a/c hit in my face as I walked through those sliding glass doors it must have been how Perseus felt when he first set eyes on the temple of Athena the sprawling white entryway like a beacon to travelers welcoming me home and that's when I saw them Manny Moe and of course Jack if these guys liked working on cars well heck maybe I did too I didn't have the courage to say anything my cowardice ate at me the whole time in the store and then it was too late dad had his parts and we were on our way back out into the summer heat and then I heard something I turned around and there they were I haven't taken this hat off sense not even a shower Prelude purists were a little put off by the new headlights but honestly I think this one has aged the best of all the Louvre oh I'm the only one that calls them that oh I'm weird it's short for Prelude this time around it was a little longer but still super wide the prelude was in the twilight of its life reveling in the fact that it was still a super solid car but as per use andah wanted to make it a little bit better they introduced a new trim level called the prelude type SH and on the surface not a lot was different the 2.2 litre VTEC was still under the hood but this time around it was mated to a little thing called the active torque transfer system or 80 TS it wasn't a walking war machine used by the Empire but a clever device that controlled clutches in the differential to send power to the outside wheel in a turn helping the car rotate the system was effective enough that some reviews said it felt like the SH was a rear-wheel drive car sick by 2000 the prelude had a full 200 horsepower hell yeah round numbers I love it but unlike its civic Integra and NSX brethren the prelude never got the Type R treatment which would have been there was a Type S which made 17 more horses but only Japan got it because you know Honda was beginning to see the writing on the wall for the prelude sales of the fifth gen were dipping hard with a price tag of nearly 40 grand in today's money it was hard for buyers to justify choosing the prelude over the Civic or even the Accord Coupe in the preludes last year of production less than 10,000 were sold in the US so Honda pulled the plug yo dudes we are working hard to double our content new shows all the time to make sure you don't miss any hit that subscribe button you want to buy some sweet donut merch gonna shop donut media follow me on Instagram antes Pumphrey polar donut on Instagram at Dona videowhy don't people still talk about this thing it's the often overlooked sports coupe meant to do battle with the Toyota Celica there was an SI there was a four-wheel steering there was torque vectoring there was VTEC it was the flagship of the golden era of Honda and it had all the Honda ingredients to attain cult-like import tuner status like your boy this is everything you need to know to get up to speed on the Honda Prelude it was 1978 and things were going pretty good for the Honda company they'd been exporting cars to the US since the beginning of a decade and by 1977 both the Civic and Accord we're changing American minds about the usefulness of small Japanese cars but they had a bit of a gap in their little lineup back in high school we had a gap in our cheer squad lineup and they made me be a flier and the main base it wasn't easy let me tell you anyway they needed something sporty Honda saw that Toyota Celica was doing pretty well with its long hood short deck style and figured they could do the same so they yanked the engine suspension and brakes out of the Accord and threw it into a new chassis drawn up by Chief Honda engineer Hiroshi Kazama the result was the first Prelude and it wasn't very good Honda knew the prelude wasn't great and they still wanted a sporty coupe turns out the first Prelude was just a prelude to the prelude so they went back to the drawing bird and started dreaming up something truly groundbreaking something with what's the word if you want to be noticed you got to have the juice kit Honda kept the long hood and short deck lid but knocked a few inches off the hood height and belt line giving the impression that the new Prelude was a lot lower than it actually was but this presented a new problem for the engineers since the hood was lower there wasn't enough room for the traditional McPherson strut suspension present on the first gen Prelude the new car would need something new enter double wishbone suspension this new double wishbone setup used to control arms running parallel to each other and kept the wheel perpendicular to the ground even around sharp corners on top of that it was much more compared saving space just a quick side note I used to be much more compact as well a little fluffy these days anyway the double wishbone suspension was the missing piece in the prelude puzzle no more understeer and now it was this fun and sporty as it looked the 2nd gen Prelude released in 1983 was the real deal and it was one of the best handling cars of the early 80s in 1985 Honda made the prelude even better by adding disc brakes in the rear and introduced a sport oriented model it had a new fuel injection system and was sporty sport injected hot dog let's call the SI the Japanese version made 110 ponies through the front wheels while we in the US got a smaller engine that only made a hundred why do we always get the short end of the stick you know what it doesn't matter because like pretty much every other Honda through history it wasn't about the power ok the prelude was about driving feel and she delivered people freaking love the things it was one of the only Japanese sports coupes you could buy in the u.s. at the time finally Honda's dream of an affordable sports coupe with realized so did they rest on their laurels did they just sit back high-five and have a cup of tea hell no because that is not the Honda way they rolled their sleeves up and pulled their pencils out they put on their glasses and they got to work making it better lighting Mikey Mikey Mikey 1988 saw the third gen Prelude released they took the double wishbone clicked ctrl-c ctrl-v and put them in the rear making the prelude even better around the bend the new Prelude borrowed a few styling cues from the forthcoming NSX which you can learn about here it's a great car I saw a really clean one yesterday the third gen SI also had the most powerful engine Honda had ever put in a car at this point making 135 her Spurs what a hundred and thirty-five horsepower are you kidding me they should have called this the Honda Jack Nicolson because this is as good as it gets right yeah it is pretty good pause gonna party guys wrong Honda had been working on a little thing for the prelude si called four-wheel steering now the preludes rear wheels would move counter to the fronts making low-speed things easier like parking or cruising by livestock options to check out the 4-h babes and at high speeds the rears turned the same direction as the Front's to help with high speed cornering and Canyon carving who wants a piece of Canyon Honda's sitting on top of the world so they took some time for reflection the team gathered by a koi pond not too small but not big enough to totally dominate the backyard moy tasteful they set silently by the edge of the pool watching fish glide by as delicate cherry blossom petals floated on the water surface hey I got an idea what is it now Greg what if we put VTEC in the prelude silence once again filled the air around the koi pond and Greg's suggestion like the ripples of the koi pond grew in the minds of the engineers they all looked at Greg with tears in their eyes not bad Greg Honda had developed a variable valve timing system called VTEC you ever heard of it you want to learn more about VTEC check out this episode of science garage VTEC made its Prelude debut in 1993 two years before post Malone was born they must have known because they gave it a 2.2 liter engine guys its numerology it makes a lot of sense the 2.2 liter engine made a very impressive 190 her Spurs that launched the coupe from 0 to 60 in 7.2 seconds which is pretty good considering it was 1993 heck back in 93 I was on my BMX bike occasion by the livestock auctions checking out 4-h babes the engine wasn't the only new addition gone were the boxy stylings of the 1980s the new Prelude was rounder and more aggressive up front this is the prelude of my childhood this is the prelude that I would stay up past my bedtime sneaked into the computer room remember computer rooms before everyone had their own computer and every family had a computer in a room and look up preludes for sale on eBay the signature horizontal tail light gave way to individual lamps the entire style was shifted to a more sporty fastback look which further highlighted the preludes hard driving ambition the killer combination of double wishbone suspension all the way around and VTEC power back resulted in one great car 1997 saw the release of Alanis Morissette's Jagged Little Pill oscar-winning film con air and the fifth-generation Prelude with styling that returned to a boxier motif oddly enough that was the same year I fell in love with cars my dad had come back for the fourth time in three years it was a hot summer and my old man was taking advantage of my tiny hands by making me work on his car with him I wasn't really into it to be honest to people helping meant holding a flashlight for him and getting yelled at just like every time you work on a car we had to make a parts run you know because we forgot some parts I'll never forget the cool a/c hit in my face as I walked through those sliding glass doors it must have been how Perseus felt when he first set eyes on the temple of Athena the sprawling white entryway like a beacon to travelers welcoming me home and that's when I saw them Manny Moe and of course Jack if these guys liked working on cars well heck maybe I did too I didn't have the courage to say anything my cowardice ate at me the whole time in the store and then it was too late dad had his parts and we were on our way back out into the summer heat and then I heard something I turned around and there they were I haven't taken this hat off sense not even a shower Prelude purists were a little put off by the new headlights but honestly I think this one has aged the best of all the Louvre oh I'm the only one that calls them that oh I'm weird it's short for Prelude this time around it was a little longer but still super wide the prelude was in the twilight of its life reveling in the fact that it was still a super solid car but as per use andah wanted to make it a little bit better they introduced a new trim level called the prelude type SH and on the surface not a lot was different the 2.2 litre VTEC was still under the hood but this time around it was mated to a little thing called the active torque transfer system or 80 TS it wasn't a walking war machine used by the Empire but a clever device that controlled clutches in the differential to send power to the outside wheel in a turn helping the car rotate the system was effective enough that some reviews said it felt like the SH was a rear-wheel drive car sick by 2000 the prelude had a full 200 horsepower hell yeah round numbers I love it but unlike its civic Integra and NSX brethren the prelude never got the Type R treatment which would have been there was a Type S which made 17 more horses but only Japan got it because you know Honda was beginning to see the writing on the wall for the prelude sales of the fifth gen were dipping hard with a price tag of nearly 40 grand in today's money it was hard for buyers to justify choosing the prelude over the Civic or even the Accord Coupe in the preludes last year of production less than 10,000 were sold in the US so Honda pulled the plug yo dudes we are working hard to double our content new shows all the time to make sure you don't miss any hit that subscribe button you want to buy some sweet donut merch gonna shop donut media follow me on Instagram antes Pumphrey polar donut on Instagram at Dona video