Home Ā» Four Decades Ago, Car And Driver Put Twin Engines In This Honda CRX, And Now It’s Up For Sale

Four Decades Ago, Car And Driver Put Twin Engines In This Honda CRX, And Now It’s Up For Sale

Dual Engine Crx Ts
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The Honda CRX is one of the most beloved sport compacts of the 1980s. Its light weight offered chuckable handling and it combined sporty Kammback styling with an affordable sticker price. The only problem was that it didn’t have a whole lot of power. Three decades ago, Car and DriverĀ solved that problem in the funniest way possible.

As retold by Car and Driver, the project was the brainchild of the magazine’s then-editor, Don Sherman. “I saw how tidy the driveline was in the CRX,” Sherman recalled. “And the thought occurred to me, why not two of them?” Soon enough, Honda was on board, and the project was underway to build a twin-engine beast.

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You might imagine that this car would be a dusty wreck by now, languishing in some forgotten storage lot. Joy of joys, thoughā€”it’s survived, and what’s more, it’s a runner. In fact, it’s now on sale at Bring a Trailer. Let’s look at the history of this fine machine from the golden era of auto magazines, and what it’s capable of today.

Times Two

The Honda CRX debuted in America in 1983 for the 1984 model year. Based on the Civic, to the point that it appeared in the same brochure, it took the compact’s underpinnings and drivetrain but wrapped them in a sportier body.

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Honda effectively offered two versionsā€”economy and sportā€”with 1.3 and 1.5-liter four-cylinder engines, respectively. It was here that the model was somewhat lacking for the US market. JDM and European CRXs got 80 hp from the 1.3-liter carbureted engine and 110 hp from the fuel-injected 1.5-liter engine. However, US models were available with carburetors only, with the 1.3- and 1.5-liter engines delivering just 60 hp and 76 hp respectively.

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The CRX was not exactly overladen with horsepower when it first landed in the US. Stateside, only carbureted engines were available. Honda’s PGM-FI fuel injection would only arrive later.
Civiccrxloller
However, as part of the Civic lineup, it was noted for its exceptional fuel economy in 1.3-liter trim.

While CRX was a featherweight at just 1,819 pounds, it was nonetheless lacking in the grunt department. That inspired the Car and Driver project, which aimed to double the horsepower in the most straightforward yet complicated way possibleā€”by using two engines.

As capable as automotive writers were in the 1980s, the Car and DriverĀ team wasn’t outright capable of pulling off this build alone. Thankfully, Honda got on board and donated a wrecked car with a good drivetrain, along with other parts for the swap. Los Angeles speed shop Racing Beat was then tapped to execute the actual build, installing in a second 1.5-liter CRX engine in the rear of the vehicle. In order to make the build as practical as possible, both engines were equipped with the three-speed automatic.

A lot of hard work went into the build. The results of the dual-engine conversion, though, were just a shade less than amazing. Despite the step up from 76 to 152 horsepower, the CRX also suffered a weight penalty from the second engine and gearbox, landing somewhere around 2,450 pounds. It was faster, but not by much. The twin-engined car achieved a 16.0 second quarter mile, versus 17.4 seconds for a stock CRX.

Cd Mag Cover 1984 2
The car was a banner project for Car and Driver for several years in the 1980s.

The solution was straightforward enough: install hotter engines. The car was given a pair of 1.8-liter engines from the Honda Accord, complete with PGM-FI fuel injection and their standard four-speed auto boxes. They were good for 101 horsepower each, along with 108 pound-feet of torque. This gave the car a total of 202 horsepower, which was more power than most V8 Camaros in 1985. With the added grunt, the twin-engine CRX achieved zero to 60 mph in just 6.2 seconds, and the quarter mile passed by in just 14.5. Those were swift figures in the mid-1980s.

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According to Car and Driver, the car was eventually sold after the project was completed. It later ended up in Florida for a few decades, where it was found in non-running condition in 2012. In 2023,Ā  it was picked up by Randy Carlson, who you might know as a co-host from Jay Leno’s Garage. He was able to get it running again and demonstrated its abilities on the show in late 2024.

Rather Incredible Car Drivercrx
Rather incredibly, the car comes with a treasure trove of documents regarding its creationā€”from the naming process, to pitch memos for the phase II upgrades.Ā 
1984 Honda Crx Binder10 65715
At one stage, there plans to refit with twin 1.6-liter DOHC engines from Honda’s Japanese arm.

Today

The car has come to be known as the CR-XĀ², including the hyphen that Honda used in some international markets. It was also known as Synchronicity (and later Super Synchronicity) when it appeared in Car and Driver. Whatever you call it, the car is now up for sale on Bring a Trailer, with no reserve.

Despite the decades that have passed, the car presents well, thanks largely to the work put in by Carlson. He’s documented the work on his YouTube channel Carchaeology,Ā where he covers jobs like replacing the fuel tank and some light cosmetic restoration jobs. Today, the car proudly wears CR-XĀ² decals, as well as the Car and Driver logo on the flanks. The Mugen body kit is in fine form, as are the perfectly-period 15-inch MSW alloy wheels.

Bat Photos Car Driver (7)

Bat Photos Car Driver (8)

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Bat Photos Car Driver 13x

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All those gauges help you keep an eye on the dual Accord engines.

What’s obvious from the photos is the quality of the build. The original dual-engine install was attended to with great attention to detail, with the entire engine, transaxle, and front subframe fitted into the rear of the car.Ā  A tidy enclosure was built around the rear engine to create an effective firewall between it and the cabin, which was fully trimmed and carpeted to appear almost stock. The two engines were set up to share a single cooling system, with a larger radiator installed up front to suit.

Beyond the decals, there are other tells that this is a special CR-X. If the quad exhausts aren’t enough, the rows of extra gauges in the cabin help tell the story. There’s also the air intake neatly integrated into the fuel filler cutout.

Bat Photos Car Driver (12)

Bat Photos Car Driver (1)
Such a gorgeous body style. The body kit helps, too.
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The front engine…
Bat Photos Car Driver (4)
…and the rear!

In case you’re wondering about the specifics of dual-engine operation, it’s pretty elegant. As demonstrated in a video on the listing, the engines are started separately. The key is turned to the Start position as per normal to fire the first engine. When it’s running, the key returns to ON as you’d expect. A toggle switch is then flicked, and then the key can be turned to start once more to fire the second engine.

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As for the transmission, a single Accord shifter is hooked to both transmissions to shift them in unison. Reportedly, the shift feel isn’t that unusualā€”and as you’re just putting it in drive, it’s not a big issue. It’s also worth noting that only the front engine has an alternatorā€”so you won’t get heaps far if you try and drive on the rear engine alone.

An extra joy is the memorabilia that comes with the sale. Buy the car, and you get a treasure trove of internal memos and communiques to Honda, invoices, and multiple magazines documenting the project. There’s a ton of history here, and it’s all well-preserved. It’s funny to thinkā€”this is all a product of the typewriter and magazine era. If you tried this with a modern car blog build, you’d get a washed-out inkjet print of some articles at best.

If You Did This Now
It’s wild that all these memos survived. Hand-edited, at that!

Normally, an automatic CRX would be far less interesting than a well-preserved manual. In this case, though, the dual Accord engine swap is hard to top for sheer originality and imagination. Bidding sits at $20,000, with the auction slated to end in approximately 7 days at the time of writing. If you want one of the most unique Honda CRXs ever built, you’ll want to bring a chubby checkbook to this auction.

Image credits: Bring a Trailer
Top graphic: Bring a Trailer; Car And Driver

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EricTheViking
EricTheViking
23 days ago

Car and Driver wasn’t only one with the bipolaric thoughts: a mad Austrian, Kurt Bergmann, thought up of same thing for his Jetta and Scirocco II. He modified a Jetta for two engines in 1981 and did the same for Scirocco II in 1982.

In 1983, Volkswagen started researching into how to work two engines and gearboxes together and did a few Scirocco II prototypes with five-speed manual gearboxes, three-speed automatic gearboxes, and three-speed automatic with automatic shifting disabled and manual shifting enabled. The third prototype had engines with Oettinger four-valve cylinder head. The instrument clusters had two set of gauges: one for front engine, another for rear.

Mercedes-Benz built the A 38 AMG (W168), which was probably the only twin-engined car to be sold to the public. It had two 1.9-litre four-cylinder engines, outputting total 250 bhp. Only four were built…

RustyJunkyardClassicFanatic
RustyJunkyardClassicFanatic
24 days ago

This is so awesome- I want it!

Myk El
Myk El
25 days ago

My mother had a 1985 CRX Si, I’ll be honest, it was quite the workhorse for her but we probably never should have gotten rid of it when we did because it literally wasn’t giving any trouble, my mom still loved it, but my dad fearing the high milage and mom’s very long commute thought they should get her something newer. Now she also loved the Prelude they replaced it with, but the CRX was special.

Toyec
Toyec
25 days ago

The front of it looks extremely Citroƫn BX to me

Captain Muppet
Captain Muppet
25 days ago

My third car was a 86 CRX.
1.3 or 1.5? Neither, it was the 125bhp 1.6 twin cam 16 valve. There was an asymmetric bonnet bulge over the cam pulleys.

I loved that car. I loved everything about it. I loved the standard big ducktail the 16i16 got, I loved the pop-up ā€œemergencyā€ rear seats, the faired-in headlights (the lack of which make your US ones look like their eyes have been poked out), the weird vertical door handles that the 350Z copied, everything.

I put 15ā€ OZ wheels in it, which were huge back then. Iā€™d have killed for the Mugen kit, and I have a model of one on my desk even now.

Unfortunately I got hit head on in it at 40mph by a German guy who forgot which side of the road we drive on in the UK. The car was just destroyed, and I was lucky to survive as well as I did.

Anyway, the twin engine one doesnā€™t have quad exhaust pipes, the outer two are tail pipe trims over the ends of the suspension torsion springs. They used the entire front suspension with the rear engine, and the spring tubes stick out of the back.

ColoradoFX4
ColoradoFX4
25 days ago

Dual engined CRXs, Boss Wagons, driving the Paris Dakar in a stock Grand Cherokee, “escaping” Mexico while simultaneously destroying a number of test cars during a sports sedan comparo…C/D was the best.

Theotherotter
Theotherotter
25 days ago
Reply to  ColoradoFX4

Dakar Jeep? I’ve been reading C&D since 1984 and I don’t remember this.

ColoradoFX4
ColoradoFX4
25 days ago
Reply to  Theotherotter

I misspoke, it was actually the Paris-Moscow-Beijing rally, and it was the April 1993 issue, same one as the Taurus SHO wagon (Boss Wagon V aka The Billy Wagon).

Theotherotter
Theotherotter
25 days ago
Reply to  ColoradoFX4

Thanks – Iā€™ll dig this issue out!

ColoradoFX4
ColoradoFX4
25 days ago
Reply to  Theotherotter

I had to dig it out too. Re-read the “Automotorcar Comparison Test” – C/D irreverence at it’s best.

Deathspeed
Deathspeed
25 days ago

LIES! This was not 40 years ago. I remember it clearly! It was 1985, and this is 2025! Do the math! Oh wait…shit…

Dodsworth
Dodsworth
25 days ago
Reply to  Deathspeed

Sigh. Afeela.

Beceen
Beceen
25 days ago
Reply to  Deathspeed

so. Yeah. Well. Moving on.

Hotdoughnutsnow
Hotdoughnutsnow
25 days ago
Reply to  Deathspeed

I do not like that phrasing in the headline; he might as well have put “Back in the 1900’s…”

Red865
Red865
25 days ago

Or in the Last Century…

Iain Delaney
Iain Delaney
26 days ago

That’s not the only one. C/D, or MotorTrend, got ahold of a JDM CRX Si, with the first fuel injected engine. They thought it was nice, but not fast enough, so they slapped a turbocharger in it, and got the horsepower up to something just shy of 200 bhp.
The article said the torque-steer would, “rip the steering wheel out of your hands” and the acceleration was such that, “the term ‘auger-in’ was appropriate”.

Morgan van Humbeck
Morgan van Humbeck
25 days ago
Reply to  Iain Delaney

Be still my beating heart. That sounds like the perfection of the automobile as a joy delivery device

FuzzyPlushroom
FuzzyPlushroom
26 days ago

Famously never owned by Jane Fonda.

AssMatt
AssMatt
26 days ago

I wonder if/how many might bid because of this mention. How can we measure The Autopian Bump?

Mike F.
Mike F.
26 days ago

Good example of C/D lunacy back in the day. Hell, I’d love to just go through that binder full of documents!

Church
Church
26 days ago

This thing is awesome and stupid and I love it. Also, who greenlit “hubba hubba honda honda” for that cover?

SNL-LOL Jr
SNL-LOL Jr
26 days ago

Holy angular moment of inertia, Batman.

Last edited 26 days ago by SNL-LOL Jr
10001010
10001010
26 days ago

I just watched this on Leno’s YT, I’m surprised he’s selling it so soon. I figured he’d enjoy it for a while.

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