Legends and Legacies: Honda Civic

(Image Source: japanesenolstalgiccars.com) It’s a subcompact sedan that we loved for generations, let’s look back at the first generation that created the trend. By Jerrica Leong

Recently, everybody is raving about the epic video of the agent that drives the new Honda Civic for his day job as a family man and the Civic Type R for his night crawling activities to combat bad guys. The new Civic is garnering a lot of attention with their launch at the Paris Motorshow and the brilliant advertising campaign, many of us are waiting at the edge of our seats for it to start selling! But when did all the rave for the Civic started? Read on and find out.

Turn back to the 70s when the beloved compact sedan first took off as a two door version, the Civic was part of the Japanese invasion along with big names like Datsun and Toyota. It was originally created to be a fuel efficient small car that is simple affordable car but the release was just in time when the Middle Eastern oil suppliers boycott America and the Civic was used to combat the fuel crisis in America.

(image source: favcars.com) The Civic was soon introduced in a three door hatchback, both two door and three door variant were the epitome of the term brilliantly simple with attributes like fuel-efficiency, reliability and environmentally friendly to boot. The independent suspension all round and front disc brakes gives the car a comfortable ride, add in the bucket seats and you will see why the people had loved it.

As the decade unfolded the Civic came in a form of a four door sedan, a five door hatchback and five door station wagon. Along with these variants came the larger and more powerful engines, from the first 1169cc straight four, engines are upgraded to displace 1237cc and 1488cc respectively.

When emissions regulations were in force Honda even created the 1.5 Compound Vortex Controlled Combustion (CVCC) motor as a solution, this motor sold alongside the normal 1.5-litre engine. It is little wonder why the Civic’s competition were left in the dust.

(Image Source: autogaleria.hu) Even back in the 1970s the Civic is fast, the top speed recorded for the 1.5-litre engine was 160kph! Not bad. Do you see the resemblance with the Type R? This first generation was only built and sold until 1979 before the next generation was introduced to the world to renew the craze for the model.

As of the end of 2014, we’re all waiting for the new Civic hatchback and the Civic Type R to come out. But at the meantime let’s watch that video again, don’t forget to press the R button on your keyboard!

(image source unknown)