1997 Honda Prelude With 180K Miles Hits the Autobahn for Top Speed Test
It may not be the fastest thing out there, but this 1997 Honda Prelude has certainly held up well over the past quarter-century.
As any enthusiast worth their salt is well aware, vehicles tend to lose performance and efficiency over time, as miles continue to accrue. This is the circle of life, and precisely why we tend to think of lower-mile vehicles to be more reliable and desirable than higher-mile ones – it’s just science, after all. However, one thing we rarely see are older, high-mile vehicles put to the test, whether that be on the dyno or at the track, and that’s precisely what makes this top speed Autobahn run by a 180k-mile 1997 Honda Prelude so darn fascinating.
As avid YouTubers likely already may have guessed, this particular run was completed by the folks at the AutoTopNL channel, which routinely pushes all sorts of different kinds of vehicles to their limit on Germany’s famous stretch of road, where certain sections have no speed restrictions. However, those rides are usually newer supercars or other fast machines – not a well-worn base 1997 Honda Prelude, that’s for certain.
Thus, the first thing one might be wondering is, just how well has this car held up after accumulating a healthy number of miles? The answer is pretty darn well, at least compared to its original specs. With no mods present other than an aftermarket exhaust, the classic Honda hits 62 mph in around nine seconds on the street, reaching a top speed of 125 mph before it gives up. Those obviously sound like very slow numbers by today’s lofty standards, but we must also put them into perspective to truly understand them.
This particular model didn’t exactly light anyone’s hair on fire when it was new, as it’s little more than a base model cranking out a very modest 133 horsepower and 132 pound-feet of torque. Of course, there were sportier, more powerful versions of this gen Prelude available, which are the more desirable units in today’s world.
Regardless, it’s nice to see that this lesser model has held up so well over the years, even though its owner(s) has clearly driven and enjoyed it over the past quarter-century or so. It certainly isn’t every day that we see a car like this tested to its limits, but it also confirms what we’ve known all along – that Honda makes a rock-solid, reliable vehicle – one that doesn’t drop off much, even with loads of miles on the clock.
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