Anyone who knows me knows I love loser cars. There’s a lot of things that can make a car a loser, though. We know that Pintos explode, and Vegas melt down, Citations fall apart and anything that’s a mid-to-late-70s Ford can slip a gear and run you over in your own driveway. However, there’s more to loserness than just that. For me, a lot of loserness just comes from being no fun. I am someone who likes to drive, and likes to drive cars that are interesting. I have no love of “Soulless personal transport modules” that blandly do little more than move you from point to point.

For that reason, the mid-80s Honda Civics have always been losers to me. They had lots of ugly black plastic, and were these revvy, sputtery little econoboxes that even made Citations look stylish. Thus, when I had a chance to get one, I knew I had to have it for my loser car museum. While it might be mechanically sound, it’s still one of those cars that I hope we remember so we never go back to anything that bland again.

Check out my build of the Tamiya ’85 Civic below, and tell me what you think

https://adamrehorn.wordpress.com/model-kits/cars/tamiya-1-24-1984-honda-civic/

Adam, as always a bunch of fun reading through your comments and review. Great build as well!

To me the colour scheme is perfectly appropriate for the car itself, all shades of BEIGE!

Cheers, D

Adam,
I really enjoy your history lessons about the cars you're building, as well as their era.

You did an excellent job of recreating one of those eco-wagons that I'd personally like to forget about, including the oil embargo that made them highly desirable cars for years to come. The exterior finish and the basic kit interior are both well done and certainly look the part of what we had to look forward to for our daily drivers.

Tamiya, like most of the Asian manufactures who produce closed wheel cars including race cars, rarely give you a fully detailed car. I usually have to settle for a decent suspension, bottom end of the engine, and a exhaust system. Tamiya's kits are as you said on the high side, but the fit and finish is nearly perfect. Way better then others who charge almost as much.

The fact that Tamiya gave you the option for right or left hand drive is a major plus. The new MGB that I waited nearly two years for is only right hand drive, which isn't what I want nor need. Converting it is a job I'm not looking forward to, but it has to be done.


Joel

Thanks for the compliments, man! I sometimes wonder if my writeups are too involved, or too off-topic (i.e. not realted to just the model itself) but I like to add context and background. It makes it, in my mind, a bit more than a straight "model review". So, knowing that others appreciate it means a lot to me.

I still don't get why the Japanese, who seem to be so detail-oriented, are so un-detail oriented with their car kits. Between motorizing them all and/or them being curbsiders, it's a major drag.

That sucks about the MG. It seems to me that a kit should always have both dashes if it was sold (relatively widely, at least) in an "other-hand drive" place.

Good luck on your conversion project!

Adam,
I'm just like you, and always add in some history of the race car I'm attempting to build. The background of why these cars were built and sold literally as fast as they hit the showroom floor is important. There's a good percentage of the list members who weren't even born when the gas embargo hit, and hit real hard. Nothing like getting up at 4am to get on line at a station you hoped had gas by 5am and then off to work by 7am. $5 max was a real killer too. Some times I'd see a gas tanker pull into a station that was closed while on the way home from work late at night, and there was already a line

Back in the early 1970s the craze were those motorized kit cars. Thank goodness that it didn't last that long. Checkout my 1/18 scale Tamiya Lola T160 TS as I'm still dealing with all those design issues. Not fun for sure. So far I'm winning, but it's not easy.

Joel

My first car was a 1991 Honda Civic EXI. Updated a bit, from the 1987 models. The EXI had more power, wider wheels and body colored bumpers, so less boring, than your standard 1987 Civic.
Man, that car was a fun drive, not a rocket, but not slow either, cornered as if on rails.
After 250000 Km, all that had been changed, in the engine bay, was oil, battery and the alternator.

Unfortunately the car was stolen. All that was ever seen of the car, was the licens plates, the thieves had placed on the roof, of a police car, 40 km, from my home. How cheeky is that.