"Honda" offered a C.V.C.C. engine to "Chevrolet" and they refused it?

[Bill Ashton]

Wasn't there a Plymouth/Dodge "Horizon" with similar Asian heritage?

 

[OBMG74]

History of the Horizon/Omni manufactured in my home-town, Belvidere, IL:

True Origins

• • The Hemmings platform explains that the car's actual roots trace back to Europe as a Chrysler Europe project.
  • They were direct derivatives of the European Simca/Talbot Horizon, which was engineered by Chrysler's French division.
  • The design philosophy of a front-wheel-drive, transverse-mounted engine hatchback heavily targeted the market segment dominated by the VW Rabbit. [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]

The Volkswagen Connection

• • Chrysler heavily studied and benchmarked the Volkswagen Rabbit during development.
  • Early models (1978–1980) utilized a 1.7-liter Volkswagen-sourced engine and transaxle assembly to fast-track production and meet strict fuel economy rules

 

[gadget73]

Friend had a '79 Horizon with the VW engine. Someone gave him the car, it was an ugly green color. He washed and waxed it and found a decent-looking blue car underneath.

 

[leesonic]

GM partnered with Isuzu and later Toyota.

Ford partnered with Mazda and later Nissan.

Chrysler partnered with Mitsubishi and later briefly and superficially with Nissan.

Honda was odd man out for some reason.

Honda partnered with Leyland/BMC/Rover or whatever the once mighty British Motor Corporation called themselves at that time. Look up a Triumph Acclaim, it's basically a Honda Ballade with a Triumph badge on it (pictured below). It gave Triumph something reliable to sell, and gave Honda a foot in the door.

Later Rover cars, like the 600 and 800, often used Honda engines in them. Or sometimes, they shared a common platform or chassis between them. The Rover 800 was sold as the Sterling in the US, and was by a lot of accounts, an awful car. But it wasn't because of the Honda engineering.

Had Honda been allowed to consider their collaboration with Rover, then maybe the brand would still exist? BMW bought Rover, kept the cherries like the Mini and Range Rover brands, and killed off the Rover brand.

 

[YY1]

Pretty sure that Yamaha SHO engine was a six.

 

[gadget73]

They were both Yamaha engines. The first gen got what was basically a heavily modified Vulcan 3.0 V6, the V8 also had Yamaha heads but the V8 block was sourced from elsewhere.

Just for context though, the first gen was a 3.0 V6 making the same horsepower as the 5.0 V8 in the Mustang but it revved a lot higher. Its not big numbers by today's standards but 225 hp in a V6 circa 1990 was doing something.

 

[SoCal Sam]

GM partnered with Isuzu and later Toyota.

Ford partnered with Mazda and later Nissan.

Chrysler partnered with Mitsubishi and later briefly and superficially with Nissan.

Honda was odd man out for some reason.

Ford once owned the Premier Automotive Group which included Aston Martin, Jaguar, Land Rover, and Volvo.

 

[SoCal Sam]

Another missed opportunity was Ford not bringing the Australian Barra to America.

 

[gadget73]

Is that the awesome I6 engine they run down there? I really wish we had good I6 engines here, not just ones that went slow forever.

 

[SoCal Sam]

Is that the awesome I6 engine they run down there? I really wish we had good I6 engines here, not just ones that went slow forever.

Yes. It had iron block, aluminum head, and forged crank just like the legendary 2JZ. And to bring this full circle to the OP, the Barra was 3 valve just like CVCC.