Famous & rare cars made by Honda in the 80’s and 90’s
Nowadays, the genre of cars known as ‘neo-classics’ is slowly starting to attract more attention. The targeted age group is vehicles from the 1980s and early 1990s. This time, we have caught information that the Neo-Classic Honda Fan Meeting, an event exclusively for Honda and its neoclassical cars, will be held on 3 November 2023 (Friday) at the Amagi Water Culture Village in Asakura, Fukuoka Prefecture. We are excited to visit the site and report on the event, where we are sure to see nostalgic Honda cars.
A neo-classical event overflowing with love for Honda
The Neo-classic Honda Fan Meeting has now been held for the sixth time since its inaugural year in 2018. The event’s theme was “a place for people who love Honda cars from the bubble era of the 1980s and 1990s to exchange information and for Kyushu to get excited about them”. The number of participants and entries from further afield has gradually increased with each event.
This year, 76 cars participated in the event. Most of the participants are from the Kyushu region, but the area of interaction is expanding, with visitors coming from Gifu, Ehime, Hyogo, Okayama, Shimane, and Hiroshima. Some of the distant participants this time came from as far away as Kanagawa by ferry.
There were two interesting initiatives at this event. The first was the designation of exhibition locations according to vehicle type or concept. This not only made it easier for participants to interact with each other but also for the general public to find out what kind of vehicles were on sale at the time. The layout made it very easy for the general public to grasp the situation, such as what vehicles were on sale at the time and how many of them were participating this time.
Another was the establishment of separate awards for different sales channels at the time: the Berno, Clio, and Primo awards. The awards themselves, together with the People’s Choice, were available in four categories in total. While these awards are selected by visitor votes, the Berno, Clio, and Primo awards are selected by the Executive Committee.
Berno (image color: green) sold sporty vehicles and SUVs under the theme ‘Cars become individuality’. The Clio (image colors range from grey to blue), sold luxury and high-end sedans under the theme ‘the car becomes a place of comfort’. And Primo (image color red), which sold compact and mini cars under the theme ‘the car becomes a family’. Although they have now been consolidated as Honda Cars shops, the awards that matched the sales themes of these three former channels, which are no longer around, were a real demonstration of the Steering Committee’s love of Honda.
Honda in the 1980s and 1990s was full of dreams
The Honda of the 1980s and 1990s has an image of being ahead of the pack among domestic automakers in a good way, thanks to technological innovations in production cars and its participation in the second phase of Formula One. In production cars, the VTEC engine. Longitudinally mounted in-line five-cylinder engine. The world’s first all-aluminum monocoque body, and the adoption of 4WS with four-wheel steering.
In motorsport, the first F1 race at the Suzuka Circuit in 1987 and the realization of Satoru Nakajima as the first Japanese regular F1 driver; from 1988, McLaren Honda, with Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost, won 15 out of 16 races and was double champion for five consecutive years after that. Honda was also responsible for the unprecedented F1 boom in Japan, as exemplified by the Showa Shell Sekiyu commercial “Senna-sama”.
In other words, the car models covered by the Neo-classical Honda Fan Meeting 2023 gave Honda many new opportunities to establish the culture of the car in society, involving not only enthusiastic car enthusiasts, but also the general public who were not interested. The meeting was a gathering of cars from that era.
A collection of rare cars rarely seen in everyday life
Observing the cars entered, it is to be expected that many of the “Beats”, which were popular models at the time and whose rarity is the reason why so many are still in existence, are taking part. On the other hand, we were surprised to see 15 cars of the “Prelude”, which sold so well at the time but is rarely seen at classic events!
We had expected a fair number of ‘NSX’ and ‘S2000’ users to attend, but there were a total of five ‘Accord Inspire’ and ‘Inspire’ cars. There were also six ‘Today’ cars, and five ‘City’ cars, so the Neo-Classic Honda Fan Meeting is probably the only event where these two sports cars, which are more representative of Japan than Honda, and the more common cars that drove around town a lot daily in that era, get together almost equally.
Other models include the Accord/Accord Wagon, Inova, Insight (first generation), Integra, Civic, Torneo, Vamos (second generation), Legend, Logo, CR-X, CR-X Del Sol, S-MX and Z (second generation). In addition, the Step Van, Z360, and S800 also took part as special Legends, bringing together enough models to make you nostalgic for those days at the Amagi Water Culture Village in Asakura City, Fukuoka Prefecture.
Some of the users were in their 20s, depending on the model, giving the impression that the “neo-classic” genre is gradually spreading to a wider generation of car enthusiasts. Seeing users from different generations interacting with each other, we felt that the organizing committee was fulfilling its role as a ‘place for information exchange’, which was its objective. From here, new exchanges will be born, which will then lead to the next participants.
The Neo-Classic Honda Fan Meeting is scheduled to continue in the future. If you have read this article and expressed interest in participating in the next one, please check the official account!
translated by DeepL