Honda Prelude History - From Prelude To Finale - History Lesson

In this day of VTEC, it's instructive to look back at the '83 Prelude, with its 1829cc displacement and 100 hp. Although displacement increased only 4.5 percent compared with the '79 model, the '83 Prelude gained more than 38 percent in power. This was largely the result of combining a pre-combustion chamber with two intake valves and one exhaust valve per cylinder. Moreover, intake cam timing was staggered for the sake of high-speed efficiency.

Honda determined the intake valve furthest from the exhaust valve should open first, allowing the later opening of the nearer intake valve to benefit from a controlled "blow through" effect which enhanced low-speed performance. In essence, this was an imaginative static solution to the inherent conflict between high- and low-rpm combustion requirements, and it set the stage for Honda's more exotic variable valve timing technology, which was still 10 years in the future.

By 1985/'86, fuel injection and 2.0-liter displacement bumped output of the Sport/injected (Si) Prelude to 110 hp. Acceleration times dropped accordingly, with the '83 Prelude running zero-to-60 in the high 9s. The first 110-hp Si models were another half-second quicker.

With the introduction of the third-generation Prelude in 1988, engine choices resolved themselves into two: a carbureted 104-hp, 2.0-liter SOHC 12-valve (Prelude S) or an injected 2.0-liter twin-cam 16-valve making 135 hp (Prelude Si). By 1991, carbureted Preludes were a thing of the past; and the Si, with slightly more displacement (2056cc vs. 1958cc) and a 9.4:1 compression ratio, was up to 140 hp.

By mid-1990, the Si incorporated another important technological advance, a fiber-reinforced aluminum cylinder block.

It wasn't until the third generation that Prelude acquired a double-wishbone independent suspension at all four wheels. Ironically, however, the Gen3 Prelude acquired more notoriety from its Four-Wheel-Steering (4WS). This complicated scheme addressed the vehicle's inherent yaw rate in an attempt to improve high- and low-speed handling. The mechanical system steered the rear wheels up to 1.5 degrees in the same direction as the front during normal driving. But when the steering wheel was turned more than 246 degrees from centerline, the rear wheels steered up to 5.3 degrees in the opposite direction.

Initially this innovation seemed so exotic one enthusiast magazine predicted that "in the future, 4WS will be an accepted commonplace feature, as fuel injection, radial tires and, to a lesser extent, ABS brakes are today." Alas, it was not to be. Prelude's 4WS was expensive, complicated and ultimately irrelevant.

In 1992, with the arrival of Prelude's fourth generation, 4WS became a simpler, electronically controlled system, but it was gone the next year. Still, it set the stage for Honda's continued determination to minimize adverse effects of front-wheel drive on performance-car handling. The culmination of this effort would be Honda's Active Torque Transfer System, which would appear in 1997.