The first Honda Civic I ever saw was in 1978. It was a first generation model and I was shocked to see how small it was. Honda introduced the Civic in 1972, and it truly was a subcompact car. With an overall length of 11 feet and standing only 4 ½ feet high, the first generation Civic was the smallest car I had ever seen. I wondered to myself, “Who would even buy one?” In fact, first -year production was just over 30,000 units. The diminutive size seemed ridiculous to me and it impressed me enough that I penned this cartoon:
The current tenth-generation Civic has been the best-selling small car in America every year since its launch in 2012, with sales in excess of 300,000 units each year. American car buyers have purchased more than 10 million Civics over the course of 43 years.
During World War II, the United States and the Soviet Union fought together as allies against the Axis powers. Shortly after the war, the relationship became suspicious and tense. Americans had long been wary of communism and the Soviets resented the Americans’ late entry into World War II, which resulted in the deaths of tens of millions of Russians. After the war ended, these grievances ripened into an overwhelming sense of mutual distrust and enmity.
In an effort to smooth relations, the racing community staged an automotive dual between the United States and the Soviet Union. Only two cars participated, an American Ford and a Russian Lada.
After only 50 laps of the 100 lap race, the Lada had fallen so far behind, it could never recover. As the Lad slowly fell farther and farther behind, the race sponsors stopped the race to avoid further embarrassment.