japanese cars model: DEL

The Honda del Sol is a 2-seater targa top car manufactured by Honda in the 1990s. Based on the Honda Civic platform, the del Sol was the successor to the popular Honda CR-X. It debuted in 1992 in Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States.

The Spanish name del Sol translates to of the sun, and refers to the car’s opening roof. It featured a removable hardtop that stowed in the trunk and a retractable rear window. Manual and automatic “TransTop” roofs were available.

The Civic Del Sol SiR received acclaim in Japan as one of the first naturally aspirated mass production cars to output more than 100 PS per litre and the first with an electronic targa roof (Transtop model). During its debut on Japanese car show “Best Motoring” reviewer Keiichi Tsuchiya declared the Del Sol SiR to be the most important Japanese sports car for a decade. Performance specifications for the Japan Domestic Market SiR give the two-seater a 0-100 km/h (62 mph) time of 7 seconds and a standing quarter mile time of 14.7 as reviewed by Option magazine in 1992.

Production and sales ended with the 1997 model in the United States and 1998 elsewhere.