Needless to say, an H22-powered Accord sedan was a pretty hot car, and what was even cooler was that Honda also decided to sell SiR versions of both the Accord Coupe and the Accord Wagon in the Japanese domestic market.īut seeing as how they didn’t build the coupe and wagon in Japan, Honda instead shipped H22A powertrains to the US where American workers fitted them into Accord coupes and wagons and then sent them completed back to lucky drivers in Japan. It made approximately 190hp and helped make the Prelude one of the quickest Hondas you could buy at the time, aside from the almighty NSX. The most important part of the Accord SiR was its engine, the 2.2L H22A twin cam VTEC four-cylinder that Americans had gotten to know from the Honda Prelude sports coupe of the same era. By this point Honda had introduced a SiR version of the Accord with power, handling and other upgrades that made it into a legit enthusiast machine. It’s when the fifth generation Accord went into production for 1994 that things really got interesting. And by the time the fourth generation Accord went into production in 1989, Honda was actually building the more specialized wagon and two-door coupe Accords in the US and exporting them to the Japanese home market. It starts in the early 1980s when Honda opened up its Marysville, Ohio factory to build Accords for its rapidly growing North American market. Hondas Made in America, but Only Sold in Japan Some of these projects made it to the US market in the form of of vehicles like the Mazda MX-5 Miata or the Toyota Supra, while others like Nissan’s iconic Skyline GT-R were never imported to North America and could only be dreamed about from afar.īut did you know that during the 1990s Honda actually built certain high performance JDM versions of its cars right here in America, even though they were never sold in the US. The 1990s were an incredible time for Japanese performance cars, with each of the country’s automakers building entire lineups of fun, fast and interesting cars in a variety of segments. Made in America, But Only for Japan: The Strange Story of Honda's '90s JDM Accord SiRs

Strange story japanese