Flashback – 1985 Honda Jazz/City Futura Cabriolet

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These shots of a perfectly preserved 1985 Honda City Cabriolet were taken in 2008, when I worked in the Helsinki webdesign office in the building behind it. Looking through the photos, I thought to myself, “Has it only been five years?” It certainly feels like a world away, and I hope the Honda is in such good shape even today.

I got the idea of posting such old photos from Robert’s Should Tall Cars Make a Comeback post. “Hey, I have Jazz photos somewhere”, and went to the old Finalgear thread where I had originally posted them. And yeah, if no-one has complained in five years, no-one will probably complain this time either about the photos or the plates.

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Even if the Honda was clean and showed no rust, it really needed a good polish. The white paint was all chalky, with no protective wax coat. Still, the wheels were super clean and the convertible top along with the black bumpers looked good.

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The drop-top Jazz and City ran on a wider track than the regular hatch. The same track was also used in the Turbo versions, but the cabriolet only has a 67-horsepower engine.

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It’s also noteworthy that the cabriolet top was designed by Pininfarina.

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The car was probably imported from Japan second-hand or new, as it’s RHD. It’s also called “City” instead of Jazz, and City wasn’t able to be used in Europe as Opel had the rights for the Kadett City model name back in the day.

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So yeah, like I said – since the car is probably super-rare in Europe, I really hope it’s in such good condition even today.

[Images: 2008 Antti Kautonen]

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9 responses to “Flashback – 1985 Honda Jazz/City Futura Cabriolet”

  1. TurboBrick Avatar
    TurboBrick

    City Futura? Wasn't that also the brand name for Neste gasoline back in the 90's?

    1. julkinen Avatar

      Yeah, I think so too. Remember Terra?

      1. TurboBrick Avatar
        TurboBrick

        "Kangaroo-gas" as my dad called it. I think we had a Toyota Carina at the time, and it didn't like it either. What's the word… surging? "Moottori nypytti pirusti". Anyways, I remember being in the car, going down the street slowly and the engine kept stuttering instead of pulling smoothly. Back to Shell gasoline and it was fine.
        Our local motorsports club had a race engine builder come over to talk about head porting last year. He mentioned that they had a valve-gluing incident that happened because the race gas additive pack reacted badly with the oil additives overnight. So I figure that's what happened to those TBI Astras all those years ago.

  2. MVEilenstein Avatar
    MVEilenstein

    Slightly OT: this Pininfarina guy – he gets around.
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coca-Cola_Freestyle
    I first saw these in Taco Time restaurants around Seattle.

  3. POLAЯ Avatar
    POLAЯ

    With a Licence plate like that, I'd have a black hood.

  4. HSA Avatar
    HSA

    I don't really get the idea of sticking a large decal on the side to declare the body type. This one says boldly "Cabriolet" even though that should be rather obvious as it is. Some cases are more subtle, like the Citroën BX Van:
    <img src="http://hooniverse.info/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/bx3.jpg"&gt;
    which of course is a van mostly when it's time to pay the taxes (vans are taxed less than cars here).
    Then there's the opposite case: the VW Phaeton is only available as a sedan. I've understood that phaeton means an open topped car, more or less synonymous with spider.

  5. C³-Cool Cadillac Cat Avatar
    C³-Cool Cadillac Cat

    I'd still rock a City II turbo as a DD here in Texas…hopefully, it'd be a small enough target I could keep it off the nose of F-350 dually pick-em-ups.

  6. Topokon Guy Avatar
    Topokon Guy

    I have inherited just like this one from my late Dad. In Southeast Asian market it is called Honda City Turbo II a.k.a Bulldog.