What Is ‘The Prelude Curse?’
I can’t say I’m superstitious, but we should be a little-stitious about the “Prelude Curse”.
The Honda Prelude is the middle child between the Civic and Accord. It seems that the target demographic of the Prelude was someone with a slightly larger budget than a Civic but didn’t have a need for the full sized sedan. It was not widely accepted by the aftermarket performance scene in the past and has grown into a cult-classic by Die hard fans. It’s possible though, that the Prelude walked so that other platforms can run.
4th and 5th Generation Honda Preludes featured similar power-plants in either Single Over Head Cam (SOHC) or Dual Over Head Cam (DOHC) engine configurations with a big block’ 2.2 liter displacement. These engines were offered in a cable shifted manual or automatic with a troublesome tip-tronic shifter.
Their uniqueness carried over into the engine department, where these engines featured low-friction cylinder walls known as FRM liners. A similar technology was used by Porsche. These engines later were plagued with oil burning problems, tricky distributor setups, and a particular difficulty to be bled. However, if you look at a K-series engine, you can see the similarities and those Can almost power anything.
Interiors of these cars were packed with technology and creature comforts. The 4th Generation Prelude featured an almost full-digital dashboard setup that wrapped the entire width of the car. 5th Generation Preludes were a bit more subtle but had a beautiful analog gauge cluster and some of the best ‘lumbar’ supporting seats to be offered at that time. These design cues can later be found in the Acura NSX and Honda S2000.
Via “Urban Dictionary”
However, there is a curse that these cars bring. A number of enthusiasts claim that a lack of maintenance is usually the cause for back to back issues, but I disagree. It is very likely that Honda deployed far too early of technology into these cars and then later took the learnings from the field to feed into the future designs. The Prelude failed in areas that allows others to shine.
With the new Honda Prelude coming up – will history repeat itself?
You must be logged in to post a comment.