There can be artfulness in how we live our lives, even down to our relationships with the things we own. Some things gather a nostalgic or sentimental quality: an old t-shirt, a lamp from 15 years ago, maybe a poster that used to hang on a wall or a metal cylinder for collecting umbrellas. Sometimes the bond is accidental and other times more deliberate.
Christopher Hoffman is the subject of the above video by our friends at Petrolicious. We love Petrolicious’s emphasis on documenting the history behind vehicles whether telling the tale of how a certain component originated at the factory level, or the attention of detail they give to people with particularly rare or interesting cars (that and the gorgeous cinematography of their videos).
Hoffman drives the 1987 Honda Civic CRX Si he bought new 27 years ago. Few people think that the car they buy will last three decades or more, but you can see how the CRX has become something more to Hoffman during that time. Though an exceptionally normal-looking car in its day, age has given it a dignity simply by avoiding customizations or attempts to fix it up.
As a Mark Mothersbaugh-esque tune plays around in the background, Hoffman explains the endearingly irrational things about his car that he likes. There’s the 91 aspect: it has a 91 cubic inch engine, produces 91 horsepower, 91 lb-ft of torque and goes from 0-60 in 9.1 seconds.
There’s the thoughtfulness of its construction—a torsion bar front suspension gives it an attractively low hoodline, and a semi-independent beam for the rear axle lets them hide the stabilizer bar inside—which helps it to be a small, snub-nosed coupe with a look so functional that it almost looks cool. In truth, the car doesn’t look long enough, but somehow we like it.
There’s the fact it kind of freaked him out when he bought it because it only had two seats. But then he realized that he never let anyone sit in the backseat anyway.
Or there’s the nugget that this all started in 1977 when his mom let him choose which car she would buy, and for some reason he gravitated to this strange new thing called a Civic wagon.
It’s a fantastic story that shows how a company can stand behind their product 27 years after selling it and still have a happy customer. And that’s something we think worth talking about.