AJ from 6TWO1.com has just uploaded my Total feature along with all the pictures he took from the day. I've copied it all below, but if the picture links break, have a look
here.
Total Honda Magazine came to me and asked if I could get a feature ready of a CRX. Of course I could & I knew exactly the car to do it on. I met Chris for the first time at a Honda open day on the day I picked up my first DC5. We’ve kept in contact since through emails & car meets and I was happy I could finally give this car the coverage it really deserves. Below, is the exact article I sent to Total Honda Magazine before their editor does their tidying up work so word for word its exactly how I wrote it. Hope you enjoy! I have also included a desktop sized background of one of the pictures. Click the link after the spec list.
When Chris Blackman’s DC5 came back from the body shop, from being side swiped by a rouge, sliding motorcyclist, he felt the love was lost with his treasured Integra and it was time to move on. With a passion for the CRX that had began before Chris had even had his driving licence, he was always toying with the idea of owning one, this time he knew it was time to find himself his lusted after model.
It took four car’s before Chris found a CRX SiR that he was happy to settle with. Unfortunately with purchasing such an old car, normally wanted by younger generations of owners, a good example is hard to find, so keeping you’re eyes open and finding one that needs as little work as possible is the safest bet. Four Cars later and Chris was happy to drive away in his newly acquired JDM Crx SiR.
Chris’s Crx SiR is the top of the range model with the full panoramic glass roof, a very rare and sought after model, even with the glass roof, the Crx is lighter than one with a sunroof. 160bhp n/a from the 1.6 means it is no slouch either.
Ownership of an older Jdm Honda models isn’t always the most straight forward of relationships. After only owning the car a short amount of time, the car had to face its first torrential rain storm in Chris’s ownership. Upon his drive to work the next day he noticed a sloshing noise coming from the boot of the car, after a few months of owning the car and having it in pieces trying to work out what the problem is whilst putting up with the issue Chris finally managed to work it out. One of the roof seams was failing and with a little sealant the problem was soon sorted and the rear interior of the car was put back in giving the car a much more refined drive. Whilst Chris was fitting the interior back together he replaced the faulty boot struts saving himself from near decapitation every time he entered the boot.
Taking the car down to the TGM Sport garage (where his DC5 had been looked after through out his ownership) for a full service & a check over of the car bought about some bad news. Seeing the car up on the ramp showed the underside of the car completely covered in oil, which ment leaving the car with Tom @ TGM to find out what the issue was and then set about resolving it.
Tom initially thought that the issue may have been the diff bearings and seals, replacing these soon showed there was still a bit of play in the o/s driveshaft. Fortunately, one of the TGM staff had a spare gearbox to fit a CRX to hand and swapped over the diff, the casing and also the 5th gear syncro as it was better than what Chris currently had. After 4 Weeks of the CRX being treated at TGM Chris finally got the CRX back in his possession.
A productive couple of weeks saw Chris giving the car some small tidy ups which included fitting a new head unit with Bluetooth for obvious safety reasons. Installing new door solenoids to have remote central locking & refurbing the ageing wiper blades, Chris decided to take the car out for a fun run, only to find yet another issue this time with his brakes failing on him, thankfully without any incident which caused him or the car any harm. A trip to a local garage saw the problem identified as the break fluid turning bad, so a refreshed break fluid was put in, also under inspection the rear calliper had ceased wrapping the discs and ruining the pads from where it had been binding and after a set of new disks and pads Chris was once again set on his way with a rectified Crx.
Upgrades to the suspension was next on Chris’s list of things to do, opting for the increasingly popular MeisterR Zeta S coilovers and a set of cyberspeed lower control arms. Chris took these along to TGM on his next visit which was to get his cambelt, tensioner and waterpump done, but once again Chris’s visit to TGM was not without its newly arising issues. Tom discovered this time that the crankshaft pulley had a chunk missing out of it and would need replacing before changing the cambelt to avoid further garage time & labour charges. This is one of the unique factors that surrounds TGM, they are a very honest garage really there to make the customer happy in the most cost effective way, this is why so many people (Myself included) make the journey no matter how far as you know your car really is in the best hands.

Whilst the car was still there and now with the complications having to be sorted in the future, the designated time was set to change over the suspension to the coilover kit and the LCA’s, overcoming some more issues that Tom found with bushes that needed replacing and Chris’s CRX was finally taking some shape in the direction Chris was hoping for.
Chris set about ordering a new set of wheels for the CRX, as the car is iconic within the car universe, he needed a set of wheels which would equal this and only improve on the CRX looks as well as making sure the fitment and weights make no difference other than improvements to the CRX’s drive. The Rays Volk TE37 was Chris choice & at 4.3kg a wheel without tyres, they are something to be appreciated. As a wheel for track use, these are one of the best. Not only being forged for incredible durability, the weight means the car can shed the pounds effortlessly and safely simply by these very well designed wheels straight from Japan.
The next addition to the car was in the form of a Scorpion exhaust, which Chris explained to me as “a chav brand but it sounds amazing in vtec! Cannot help but smile to the deeper and more refined tone!” he had the exhaust once again fitted by Tom at TGM along with a new radiator as his previous one exploded on him a few weeks prior.
Yet again Chris found himself back at TGM this time with a MeisterR big brake set up. Tom ran into some problems whilst fitting as the kit was initially designed to fit a civic. So Jerrick from MeisterR hand delivered a set of civic callipers so they could rob the parts required to get them to fit to Chris CRX. Along with the front brakes being replaced and a for a second time the rear brake calliper ceasing up, Chris opted to buy a second hand MG kit for his car to resolve this problem hopefully once and for all.
Chris decided that he only wanted to do one cosmetic change to the CRX and that was in the form of a J’s racing replica lip. The Genuine items are very hard to come by now and if you can get hold of one either the time frame will be a horrendously long wait, or the item itself will be very expensive.
After a run day at Santa Pod and a few attempts up the quarter mile, Chris had decided to go and attempting to free up some more power from the B16 and bought a 5zigen 4-2-1 Manifold, along with the manifold, he purchased and fitted a set of Advan AD08s to the TE37s along with also buying the Eibach camber kit with front adjustable ball joints. Once again a visit to TGM was on the cards to have all of the above fitted and thankfully this time with no drama’s, Ken at TGM did the fast road set up on the Crx. I say without dramas until they set about fitting the Manifold, one of the studs in the head was already sheared off causing a slight blow, unfortunately when removing the previous manifold a few of the other bolts that were needed also broke just due to wear & tear. Tom worked his magic, drilling out the old bolts from the head and set about fitting the new Manifold, which proved more of a task than first imagined due to Chris’s new giant radiator, along with a mismatching of air con wires all over the engine bay meant that Tom was going to have to get creative just to get the manifold to fit as it was looking likely this was not to be the case. Removing the air con system was what had to happen to get the new manifold to fit, this all ended up taking the whole day but the new tone that chris describes as “Savage” when the CRX is in vtec was worth all the pain and suffering that Tom had to go through.
Chris decided that he wanted to freshen up the body work of the Crx and set about himself dismantling the car and preparing it for paint. He wanted to source a good condition second hand bumper for the rex along with the door and wing he had found, but this proved to difficult and Chris ordered up a brand new one from Hendy Performance. To save some money Chris had taken apart the car and was willing to spend a lot of time and bravery putting it back together with a fantastic result, the car looks like this could have rolled out of the factory as it is all bar needing side decals on the freshly resprayed side.
With performance still in his mind and the car now having 98 Spec ITR cams and Skunk2 Adjustable cam gears, he is really looking forward to returning to Santa Pod to try beating his previous time of 14.9 seconds.
Chris has really done this CRX justice over the last 2 years, he has given the little car a new lease of life. The Crx has a charm about it, it’s the underdog, which really can hold up against the bigger power carson and off the track. Being able to see a CRX SiR in such a condition with an owner that has so much passion and love for it, is a great marvel. I’m glad that Chris has zero plans to sell the Crx. Mainly due to never getting money back which he has spent on it. But this just means this little car will live on many many more years with an owner that is as set on keeping it as pristine as a daily driven car can be.
