Everyone, gather ’round the CVCC cylinder head and hear this benediction! I realize that Happy Honda Days have become more commercialized than we’d like, but it’s never too late to bask in the light of The Great Soichiro and The Beautiful Futility Of His Air-Cooled Dreams and The Miracle Of The Compound Vortex Controlled Combustion and, from there find true light and salvation!
Oh, also, I hope everyone celebrating Toyotathon has a lovely saleabration, I guess.
Regardless of what you saleabrate – Happy Honda Days, Toyotathon, Lexus December to Remember, Mercedes Winter Event, Chevy Red Tag Sales Event, Saturnalia, whatever – the important message here is that we here at the Autopian wish you nothing but joy and two-stroke exhaust and warm times with the people you love.
So, we’re giving our staff the day off today, and, I suppose, tomorrow, which I’m told is also a significant holiday even for people who don’t saleabrate Happy Honda Days or Toyotathon, but instead follow a faith that – and it’s hard for me to process this – predates cars. Huh! What do they talk about?
As always on Happy Honda Days’ eve, I like to remind everyone of Soichiro Honda’s magnum opus, the Honda 1300. This was Honda’s first real, non kei-class passenger car, and remains one of the most sophisticated examples of air-cooling an engine in all of automobilia.
This 1.3-liter engine was a dry-sump design that made 97 horsepower and rev’d to a mad 8,000 RPM! And that was in 1969! 97 hp from 1.3 liters in 1969 was no joke, and some versions made up to 116 hp!
But the real magic of the 1300’s engine was how it was cooled – Soichiro Honda pumped air through the engine like water. They called it Duo Dyna Air Cooling, (DDAC) and the finned cylinders had a double-walled cooling jacket – analogous to a liquid-cooled engine’s water jacket – with one layer circulating the cooling air and the other exchanging the heat for, I imagine, some manner of thermal store credit.
The 1300 wasn’t a sales hit at all, and air-cooling proved to be something of a dead end, sadly, but there’s beauty in seeing a dream realized, and that’s what Happy Honda Days is all about, really.
So, again, from all of us at the Autopian, to all of you, we wish you much love and joy and hope you get some fantastic car-related presents. And maybe give them, too!
MERRY MALÖRT DECEMBER TO FORGET, EVERYBODY!
I prefer Happy Honda Days commercials…hope everyone had a Merry Christmas/Happy Holidays/HAPPY FESTIVUS!!! Ha ha
A minty 1300…’you wouldn’t know I won the lottery, but there’d be signs’ type of car.
A HAPPY ACURA SEASON OF PERFORMANCE TO YOU TOO
I’m Inspired by your Vigor this Legend-ary day!
The Church of the 3800 welcomes all.
I’m surprised I’m the first to wish everyone a happy Toyotathon!
I admit religion and ritual aren’t really my forte, but can anyone explain Kiawanzaa for me?
Kwanzaa is the festival of light.
Kiawanzaa is the festival of Korean LED Fog Lights.
And a happy Bayerische Motoren Winter to you, too.
I wish you all the happiest of Volvo Sign and Drive Events! This rite resembles the one celebrated by Volkswagenists, although there’s room for all under the big sales tent, whether they be all electric, solely internal combustion or a hybrid of the two, unlike the strict separation of EV and ICE in the American branch of VW.
Unlike Unitarianism and Judaism, Volvoism and Volkswagenism include the concept of a hell to which adherents are frequently consigned – the service bay, which often includes a purgatorial wait for parts. But the theology diverges with Volvoism’s resemblance to Calvinism, as members of the Costco elect can receive up to an additional $2,000 at this most wonderful time of year.
So rejoice! It matters not what your own faith is – we shall comfort and warm you body and soul with our most excellent pews. Occasionally we may stumble – well, frequently, if Consumer Reports is to be believed – but that reminds us to be humble in the high-definition lights of our God, and also Sven, his chosen senior service representative when the path forward is particularly difficult to find. And be it ever so humble, now and throughout the year, there’s no place like ‘Vo.
I was a Volvoist for a long time, through my Bubbe – consider me a Northeastern Conservative Volvoist New England Region Council of 1998ish believer still, I suppose, though modern shop-intensive teachings drove me away from the faith.
These days I personally celebrate the Toyotathon this time of year, along with the Hondadays and Subanukkah with the rest of my family.