The curse of the yellow CRX
The little car is stone dead, not even a single crank or click from the starter. The cables are attached, the battery hooked up, and electricity crackles through the corpse. The engine bursts to life and the windshield wipers thrash madly, refusing to respond to the controls. It’s aliiiive! Alive . . . and cursed!
“That’s so weird, it’s never done that before,” says owner Riley Ouwerling. Just 21, Ouwerling picked up this 1989 Honda CRX after a long hunt. It’s been sitting for over a year while he finishes other projects, and it’s acting a bit spooky after being resurrected.
However, it’s still a Honda. After a moment or two, everything’s again functioning as normal, the 1.6-liter D16 purring away happily. Being Canadian-spec, this 1989 Si has a sunroof, but almost no other options. The interior is a pure Golden Age Honda blend of spartan yet sensible layout, and it is surprisingly roomy despite the car’s small footprint. However, the exterior is where we run into some trouble.
Talk to any fan of the second-generation CRX, and they’ll tell you that Barbados Yellow, Y49, comes with a curse. CRXs painted this color get in more accidents, they have trees fall on them, they’re stolen and never recovered. Honda discontinued Y49 for the 1991 model year, and the rumors swirl as to why. Was it unlucky? Radioactive?
There are plenty more well-known stories of cursed automobiles, from the accidents that seemed to trail parts taken from James Dean’s Porsche 550 Spyder, to strange tales about the 1911 Gräf & Stift Double Phaeton in which Archduke Franz Ferdinand was assassinated. But most of these stories are just that: fictions created long after the car in question was taken off the road. Most of this stuff is just plain made up, as we all like a good ghost story.
What’s weird about the “Curse of the Y49 CRX” is that it is a myth about a more modern car—and a relic of the old internet. It persists thanks in part to an old, undead Geocities site, which is why Ouwerling, who was born 13 years after his car was built, has heard about the curse (albeit after buying his CRX).
First, a quick snapshot of the second-generation CRX, because it is a terrific modern collectible. Launched for the 1988 model year, the second-gen of this thrifty little Civic-based coupe featured a wider track along with Honda’s much vaunted double-wishbone suspension at all four corners. At first, Si models offered not much over a hundred horsepower, but that just meant drivers could thrash that fizzy small-displacement inline-four for everything it was worth.
With a thoroughly satisfying five-speed manual gearbox, the CRX Si was and is a huge amount of fun. By today’s standards it is refreshingly simple, a relic from a time when you didn’t need a minimum of 300 hp to qualify as a hot hatch. The only real problem is the former ubiquity of the Civic and CRX from these generations, as familiarity bred contempt. They were snapped up on the cheap and driven hard, modified, and then suddenly cheap Hondas weren’t around any more.
Values are thus on the rise. And you might expect to pay a little more for a Barbados Yellow CRX, as it was only available for three years, and on the Si model only. But what if your buying considerations were less financial, and more supernatural?
The story around Y49 is a pretty good one. According to internet lore, the issue was specifically with the paint, which contained radioactive elements. The radiation wasn’t enough to cause any harm on the car, but continued exposure on the assembly line allegedly caused workers to become sick. It was their vengance from beyond the grave that created the curse.
There is, of course, no real evidence of any radioactivity. And this theory is further eroded by the fact that you can currently buy a rattle-can of Y49 Barbados Yellow paint off eBay for about $50.
Where the “curse” really seems to come from is a now-defunct website called Team Why-49. Their tagline was, “Not so much a team as a support group,” and the curse seems to have been created as a sort of inside joke. Online car forums are less robust these days, but 10 to 15 years ago, they were thriving communities with members helping each other out, creating updated FAQ posts for newcomers, building how-to lists, and generally sharing enthusiasm. As is typical of internet culture, they also created a whole new framework of jokes and memes. The curse of Y49 is just one example.
It remains, however, a fun story to go with a paint code, and Y49 is a pretty attractive color. Yellow Hondas have a special significance, especially when they are the hue used by legendary Honda tuner Spoon. When Honda wanted to create a limited edition of the previous-generation Civic Type-R, it chose yellow as the color, although Phoenix Yellow rather than Barbados.
There is also a nice epilogue to this story of a supposedly cursed Honda. Despite his young age, Ouwerling already has a wide interest in cars, and he also owns a last-of-the-breed 1996 Buick Roadmaster Estate Wagon with the factory towing package. It’s a whale of a thing next to the little Honda, two bookends that show the variety of what the word “car” can mean.
And among the stickers on the back window of that Roadmaster is one that says, “Support your local gun owner,” with a picture of a paint gun. Ouwerling works at a bodyshop in the paint department, and he is quite skilled. In high school, he won gold at a local competition, and was then awarded the bronze in car painting at the Skills Canada National Competiton, aged just 16.
If there’s anyone who can break the curse of a Y49 Honda CRX, it’s someone who knows his way around a paint booth. For now, though, with winter on the way and plenty of projects and work to keep him busy, Ouwerling tucks his CRX back into its crypt, alongside a Chevy Silverado and a Datsun 620 with a skeleton in the driver’s seat.
As he does so, the wipers on the little Honda go berserk again, seemingly with a mind of their own. But the curse was just a story. Right?
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I miss the old CRX. Such a good car.
Me too. I was not able to afford it when it came out. It’s one heck of a car!
I had a 1989 Y49 stripper that was autocrossed by me and the original owner. I ended up selling it to my brother. Not much later he loaned it to a “friend” who spun out on a bridge smashing the front and rear, totaling it. That friend paid him back maybe $100…then ghosted him. Last he heard later on he was dead. All this happened before I knew anything about the “curse”, but it seems to fit for that car.
I owned this exact car, 89 CRx Si in Barbados Yellow, and loved it. Never heard of the curse before but now I’m thinking that there may have been more to that deer dropping out of the sky into my windshield one dark morning at 5:30 a.m. I was never able to find that deer when the sun rose. Luckily it left enough fur behind on the windshield wipers to prove what happened to the insurance company.
I hate this. It’s not a great collectible. It’s a truly great car! One that deserves to be driven. Easily in the top 5 of the most fun cars ever made. One car that certainly deserves to be more then just a garage queen.
Oh, it’s only tucked away because the owner wants to get it cosmetically perfect, and he’s still doing some training and wrenching on other cars. It’s not going to be a garage queen at all, it’ll get driven a bunch.
I never see these anymore. The salt ate them up like crazy here. Kind of like a Vega from japan.
yup and awesome car.. had first one for two years, then an SI… then that became and NSX for three and a half years.. miss then all… so reliable, docile when cruise and insane as needed… reflection of owner lololol [ now its a gr 86… for the same old feeling ]
Thanks for this interesting story! Had never heard about the Y49 curse. Just a picky former editor’s comment for you … In this sentence, I believe you mean “after” rather than “before.” “It persists thanks in part to an old, undead Geocities site, which is why Ouwerling, who was born 13 years before his car was built …”
Thanks for that correction!
I’ve always, always loved the looks of the little CRX! Our son went completely through a first-gen CRX about ten years ago. I bet some of you forum guys even followed him as he posted the process with words and photos. (Billings, MT) He painted it a blood red with red accents inside. I was so in love with it! He sold it, but I am happy to say my husband’s winter project this year is another first-gen CRX he found a few miles away, that is presently parked in his shop. Can’t wait to rod around in it!
Might be good if it had radiation. Yellow cars are horrible for drawing bugs. My buddies Corvette attracts them like crazy.
“Online car forums are less robust these days”
If only a deep-pocketed company could back the creation of a car forum, have an intelligent and reasonable moderator that actively keeps the community positively functioning, and give it the years it takes to truly blossom from the initial years of growing its base…
I brought an 89 CRX Si this same color back from Hawaii after serving in the Navy. Drove it through my college years at Purdue. Timing belt broke, got rear ended at a stop sign, my father-in-law backed into it in his driveway.
I never heard of the curse before, but I’m a believer!
Most fun can to drive (second only to my classic Minis).
I bought a new silver 88 Si and quickly tired of it’s bouncy roller skate ride and the rev limiter cutting out at just over 6K . Fast forward to 2006 and I leased a RSX Type S which revved just over 8K with a longer wheelbase and it was everything the CRX wasn’t when slicing and dicing through traffic . If people think this car is great fine , but I think it’s way overrated .
Check under the Hood for Rat/Mouse activity–droppings and module wiring for chewing evidences. The wiring presents a treat for both kinds of Rodents. We’ve had such a thing to happen in our neighborhood to 3 Hondas! BTW–some “foreign” jobs have soy-based wiring coverings–apparently a favorite to Rodents. This car has sat, untouched for a while–perfect Rodent bait!
My first new car was a red ’84 1.5 CRX that I waited three months for. Great car. It had to go when family started. Its replacement–83′ Custom Cruiser with extra woodgrain!! Wish I had both of those cars today.
Brother had the yellow 88 Si. Don’t recall any haunting and or death tales….
I had a blue 88 1.5 CRX – great car… Some goomer broke the driver glass and stole the RH door one dark night in ’93. I drove it in the rain to get an estimate and got some looks and comments (nice door!). Went to the junkyard and bought a decent door which the thief could have done but I guess mine was free.
I installed an alarm and a month later it went off (another dark night) and I jumped out of bed to hear the pounding of feet fading away. They broke the driver glass again (I had changed the locks) maybe going for the hatch I can only guess.
No further theft was attempted but that CRX did save my life as well as the female passenger. I can still picture her in a big sedan that crossed my path and missed a t-bone. I was in the LH lane doing 65 mph when the driver of the big car a tourist leaving the airboat rides I bet, decided it was still clear from the time he pulled out from the other side of the 4 lane road (E SR 50 Brevard County line) and my trial began. I locked it up and turned sideways to my left – cleared the offender and spun 360 once before entering the median while pumping the brakes in the dirt and stopping just before the bridge abutment. I considered going back and blessing them but I knew he did not see me and the passenger was looking straight ahead too. So I sat there counting my blessings. Next day the A/C evaporator started leaking (rattled I guess) and more insurance money was spent from the theft claim. Yes, I really liked that CRX handling.
The Canadian Y49 was a mistake to begin with. I had a blue 85, and when I saw the ads for the new 88 SI I had to have one. When I saw an ad with a yellow car my mind was made up. I ordered the car and waited.
3 months after I placed the order the dealer called me and said he had no idea when he could get a yellow one. Apparently, Honda Canada had never intended to import yellow SIs, ony red and black. Somebody in the advertising agency used a photo of an American yellow car, and so Honda decided to bring in 100 units only.
I didn’t want to wait anymore, and the dealer had a black one coming in so I took that. Fantastic car, still wonder what was wrong in my head when I replaced it with a 5.0 Mustang.