It sounds like a marketing prank from 1987. Imagine telling a guy in a Ferrari Testarossa that your front-wheel-drive Honda can out-slalom him because your rear wheels "wiggle" a little bit. He’d laugh you off the road. But then the 1988 honda prelude four wheel steering model actually showed up to the track and started embarrassing elite European supercars.
It wasn't a joke. It was physics.
Most people think four-wheel steering (4WS) is a modern luxury. You see it on high-end Porsches or huge GMC Hummers today. But Honda figured this out with gears and shafts decades ago. No computers. No sensors. Just pure, mechanical genius. Honestly, the way it works is kind of mind-blowing when you realize how simple the execution was for such a complex result.
The Mechanical Magic of the 3rd Gen
The 1988 Prelude Si 4WS was the world’s first mass-produced car with this tech. While competitors like Mazda and Mitsubishi were playing with electronics and hydraulics, Honda went old school. They used a long center shaft that ran from the front steering rack all the way to a planetary gearbox in the back.
It was a "non-linear" system. That’s a fancy way of saying the rear wheels didn't just follow the front ones blindly.
When you turned the steering wheel just a little—like for a lane change on the highway—the rear wheels turned in the same direction as the front. Only about 1.5 degrees. This made the car "crab" over, keeping the chassis flat and stable. It felt like the car was being moved by the hand of God rather than pivoting on its nose.
But if you cranked the wheel hard? Like when you’re trying to park in a tight spot? The system switched. Once you passed a certain steering angle, those rear wheels would pivot in the opposite direction by up to 5.3 degrees. Suddenly, your sporty coupe had the turning circle of a tiny city car.
It Beat a Corvette in a Slalom
This isn't just fanboy nostalgia. Road & Track put the 3rd-generation Prelude through a slalom test back in the day. It clocked in at 65.5 mph. For context, the Chevrolet Corvette of that era—a dedicated American muscle machine—only managed 64.9 mph.
The Prelude was essentially "cheating" the laws of understeer. Because the rear wheels helped point the car, it didn't push wide in corners like every other front-wheel-drive car on the market. You could dive into a corner much hotter than you had any right to.
The Shift to Electronics
By the time the 4th-generation Prelude hit the scene in 1992, Honda decided to join the digital age. They ditched the mechanical shaft for an electronic system.
The computer-controlled version was arguably "smarter." It used speed sensors to decide what the rear wheels should do. At low speeds, it gave you that tight turning radius. At high speeds, it prioritized stability.
However, "smarter" usually means "more stuff to break." Ask any owner of a 1990s 4WS Prelude today about the "4WS light" on the dash. It’s a common headache. Usually, it’s just a dry solder joint in the electronic control unit (ECU). A guy with a soldering iron can fix it in twenty minutes, but if you took it to a dealer in 1995, they’d try to charge you a month’s rent for a whole new unit.
The 5th generation (the last one we got before the 2026 revival) kept 4WS available in Japan and Europe, but North America mostly saw it replaced by ATTS—Active Torque Transfer System. That was more about torque vectoring, trying to achieve the same "magic handling" through the drivetrain instead of the wheels.
Is It Actually Reliable?
If you’re hunting for a classic honda prelude four wheel steering car today, you've gotta know what you're getting into.
The 3rd-gen mechanical systems are surprisingly robust. Since there are no sensors to fry, they just keep working as long as the linkages aren't rusted out. The biggest issue is usually an alignment. Most shops today have no clue how to align a 4WS car. They’ll set the front and completely ignore the back, or worse, they’ll lock the rear wheels straight because they’re "broken."
You need a specialist who knows how to center the rear rack using the specific locking pin hole Honda designed for it.
Common 4WS Red Flags:
- The Warning Light: If it's a 4th or 5th gen and the 4WS light stays on, the system is disabled. It defaults to a standard 2-wheel steer mode.
- Crabbing: If the car feels like it's driving sideways on a straight road, your rear rack is out of alignment.
- Parts Availability: Rear tie rods and specific 4WS bushings are getting harder to find. You’re often scouring eBay or specialized forums.
Why We Don't See It Anymore (Mostly)
You might wonder why every car doesn't have this. Basically, it’s expensive and heavy. The system added about 30 to 50 pounds to the car. In an era where manufacturers are fighting for every mile-per-gallon, adding weight for a "handling niche" is a tough sell.
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Also, modern stability control and torque vectoring do a "good enough" job for 90% of drivers. They use the brakes to tuck the nose in, mimicking that 4WS feel without the extra hardware. But "good enough" isn't the same as the real thing. Anyone who’s pushed a 4WS Prelude through a mountain pass knows the difference.
Actionable Next Steps for Enthusiasts
If you’re serious about owning or maintaining a 4WS Prelude, don't just wing it.
First, get your hands on the factory service manual. The Haynes or Chilton guides are okay, but for the 4WS system, you need the official Honda documentation to understand the planetary gear timing.
Second, check your ECU. If you have an electronic model with an intermittent warning light, don't buy a new one. Open the case and look for "cold" or cracked solder joints on the main board. It's a classic Honda failure point from that era.
Lastly, find a "niche" alignment shop. Look for places that specialize in track setups or older imports. Tell them upfront it's a 4WS model. If they look at you like you have three heads, turn around and drive away. You don't want a "standard" tech learning on your rare steering rack.
Honda proved that you didn't need a V12 or rear-wheel drive to make a car handle like a dream. They just needed a bit of creative engineering and the guts to try something weird.