Tucked away on a side street in Carlton lies a factory with no high-vis, no machinery and no workers… Instead inside you’ll find a few car spaces, a pool table, some cozy tables and the aroma of spices.
Garage Cafe have been operating for years but after a short hiatus due to council disputes they’re back open for business with regular car meets all week long.

The occasion of course was for CRX Australia, a club that’s been running since the heydays of Honda’s original boy racer. The CRX.
We arrived long before dozens of noisy Honda’s entered the building to the beautiful sight of two pristine C63 Mercedes parked up next to a very classy BBS coffee table (A favorite of ours from previous visits).

Not long after the CRX’s started to arrive, soon proving that over the years the club has shifted it’s dominance to the newer Del Sol chassis, as prices have come down, the older generations have become rarer and have held their price on the second hand market. Ultimately young drivers have won having Honda’s ever popular DOHC Vtec engine and a removable targa top all in an affordable package.

The popular modifications seem to be wheels and seats, you would be forgiving thinking that they all came with bucket seats as new walking around this group. The factory fitted cloth seats are now as rare as rocking horse poo.

Some had more character than others, however all still maintained a simple approach…

No body kits in sight, just clean factory lines and the addition of front lip. Remember less is more!!

One of the most popular seats in the Honda world, SR3 Recaros removed from a Type R equipped Integra or Civic.

The final numbers finished on 6 x Del Sols & 4 x 2nd generation CRX’s, all in all a nice mix of what is becoming one of the biggest cult cars in the Honda stable.

The 2nd gen’ CRX’s have always been popular in Melbourne with a large amount of owners lucky enough to have the imported SiR version.
Factory fitted with the first run of B16a, suspension tweaks, facelift and some with a moon roof panel from window to window giving the driver a unique experience.

Melbourne has been home to the largest amount of SiR/EF8 CRX’s in Australia with the club seeing as many as 15 at events in recent years.
Some CRX have changed owners in that time and it was great to see an old hero of the club with a fresh lick of paint and a great set of wheels.

This particular car has kept the original B16a power plant with a healthy amount of boost thrown at it thanks to a turbo conversion by Rev Zone, in it’s years with it’s original the car has claimed several trophy’s and awards thanks to close to 200KW at the wheels.

Any colour other than black is quite rare for these imported versions.

Adding a set of BBS wheels the owner has managed to really stand out amongst the sea of black CRX in Melbourne.

Keeping the German theme with the wheels the owner has fitted a sticker from one of the best blogs around, check them out!
https://www.facebook.com/SehrGute

We also spotted a GSS sticker on this rad Del Sol sitting on some Work Equips.

With everyone feeling full from the feast of Satay and Mi Goreng the group decided to venture out into the cool fresh Melbourne air for some photos by the water.

Several J-turns later we arrived together at another iconic Melbourne location for car fans. Underneath the Bolte bridge.

Now with some space to spread out we got to compare all the cars together.

Volk TE37 work on everything, literally!! Post a car in the comments that doesn’t look good on these wheels, we dare you!

It was great to re-visit the old spot now that the Melbourne Star Ferris wheel is finally operational, the light show it puts on as it spins looks great reflected on the dark water.

While the group kept chatting away we moved two of the Del Sols off for a quick snap together. The black one made the trip all the way down from Sydney to join the fun!!

One of the must underrated Honda’s of the 90’s, it’s great to see them finally get their time to shine.

Now pushing the 25 year mark the original boy racer is now thinning in numbers and I hope more owners hang onto their original gen’ 2’s as they’re a pretty special car in the Honda line up.
Well done to CRX Australia and it’s admin team for keeping name alive and bringing these people together.
If you need any help with anything CRX related whether it’s maintaining one or simply finding one jump on the forums or join the facebook group.
http://www.crxaustralia.com/
CRX Australia Facebook Group
Thanks for reading,
– Gwyn.