By its fourth generation, the Honda Accord was all grown up, in more ways than one.
Road & Track had already done a comparison test of the third generation Accord sedan with the Mercedes-Benz 190E and the Honda more than held its own, such that the photo spread to open the article was a closeup of the car's snouts with their hood emblems switched.
The 1990 fourth generation sedan, like this Frost White example, was ten inches longer and seven hundred pounds heavier than the first Accord sedans to hit these shores in our bicentennial year as 1977 models. Back in the mid-Seventies "made in Japan" was still synonymous with cheap and shoddy, and the Accord did as much as anything to turn that rep on its head.
Those first Accords had 72 horsepower 1.8L CVCC carbureted four cylinders, while the 1990 Accord EX sedan Car & Driver tested had a 2.2L SOHC 8V motor with port fuel injection and 130 horsies. Backed with a 5-speed manual, this was enough to get the car to sixty in 9.7 seconds and through the quarter in 17.1 at 80mph. Sprightly performance for a 4-cylinder midsize sedan of the era. It'd run all the way up to 119mph and circle a skidpad at 0.79g, too.
While rumpled around the edges and showing some hints of rust, this thirty-year-old Honda is still plugging along.
It was photographed with a Canon EOS 7D and 17-55mm f/2.8 IS zoom lens in December of 2023.
No comments:
Post a Comment