The most moronic factor I’ve ever carried out in a automotive was in an Acura Integra. My greatest buddy had a circa-1988 first-gen, and we had simply gotten our driver’s licenses. Acura had launched within the U.S. two years earlier, and the Integra was one in all two authentic fashions. We loaded the cargo maintain with instances of Miller and road-tripped on icy highways by way of New Hampshire, each gauge pinned. At one level, he locked in with a man in a gold Saab, who handed us at over 100 mph on a freeway shoulder. Children die day-after-day doing this shit. One cause we survived was as a result of that Integra was so sure-footed.
This story initially appeared in Quantity 18 of Street & Monitor.
Leap to June 2023, and I’m in an Integra for the primary time since. My project: evaluate the all-new, tech-forward, 320-hp turbocharged Integra Sort S and the legendary VTEC-junkie, 195-hp 2001 Sort R. That’s the ITR, and, to these with discernment and expertise, the best-handling front-driver ever mass-produced. Honda/Acura at its present greatest versus peak Honda. No winner or loser, however an illumination of how driving expectations and requirements have modified.
The day started within the previous Sort R, on roads curling by way of hills outdoors Ojai, California. The automotive had simply rolled off the ground of Honda’s Southern California museum, the American Honda Assortment Corridor. Acura offered lower than half as many ITRs within the U.S. because it did first-gen NSXs, and this one had barely over 6000 miles on it. It’s just about price greater than my life.
Not that I handled it that manner. The very first thing this automotive communicates to its driver is need. It needs to run exhausting. By right now’s requirements, it’s tiny. The all-aluminum B18C5 naturally aspirated 1.8-liter four-cylinder places out solely 195 hp. However the packaging is so diminutive, the texture so purely mechanical, that the expertise of energy is on the spot and visceral. One thing superb occurs driving a Sort R on winding, hilly roads. You energy right into a fast-sweeping bend, and the torque simply retains coming. The engine hits 6000 rpm and the variable valve timing shifts the camshaft, making the engine change its pitch as output will increase. The VTEC is an efficient kick within the pants, and the revs rise to the 8400 redline.
The Sort R has no screens, drive modes, traction management, laptop interventions, or auto transmission, and little noise dampening. 5-bolt alloy 15-inch wheels and 195-width tires appear cute by right now’s requirements, however it’s all completely optimized to make the engine within the driver’s ribcage hum. Acura produced the Sort R with a 15-mm-lower experience top than the usual Integra, and that heart of gravity interprets to grip in speedy cornering. The view by way of the windscreen is all fast movement; look within the rearview, and also you see that big yellow wing. You are feeling such as you’re in a race automotive, and for good cause: SCCA Corridor of Famer Peter Cunningham raced almost-stock Sort Rs again within the day, claiming loads of checkered flags.
The cockpit appears like a time capsule, with analog gauges, a digital clock paying homage to an Eighties Atari sport, and a CD participant. Look after a Marlboro? There’s an ashtray on the console and a lighter bearing a smoking-cigarette emblem.
Whereas the Phoenix yellow paint is something however inconspicuous, the ITR’s exterior doesn’t scream efficiency. However quite a few instances through the day, Honda followers stopped to ogle the automotive. At one level, a pair of lovers parked their Acuras on the facet of the highway to document with their telephones as I powered the Sort R forwards and backwards on a twisty strip of pavement, our photographer snapping away from a close-by hill. Their pleasure was infectious however paled subsequent to the pleasure I felt sitting within the Sort R’s driver’s seat.
Once you have a look at the brand new Integra Sort S, you’re struck first by its measurement. The whole lot is greater and heavier. Instead of the naturally aspirated 1.8-liter four-cylinder is similar K20C1 turbocharged 2.0-liter 4 used within the Civic Sort R. Instead of the five-speed is a guide six. (There is no automated for the Sort S.) Instead of the 15s are 19s inside 265-mm-wide rubber. It has 4 doorways relatively than two, precise room for 4 individuals, and extra girth throughout. The trendy Brembos are a lot larger. The dashboard options so many extra knobs and switches. Even the steering wheel feels twice the scale.
Refined design parts run by way of each vehicles. The unchanged Integra emblem is embossed in the identical spot, on the passenger’s facet of the rear fender, and the gear map is imprinted in pink on prime of the shift knob in each. That apart, you can have a look at these vehicles and never know they share a lot of something. The brand new Integra options polished exhaust pipes stretching out of a Sort S-exclusive rear diffuser paying homage to a C7 Corvette’s, solely with three tubes as an alternative of 4.
The Sort S is not only a automobile however a computing gadget. The gauges are all digital. There are three drive modes (plus a customizable possibility), with Sport+ for peak efficiency. There isn’t any ashtray or CD participant, however there’s a massive touchscreen, satellite tv for pc radio, and gadget connection.
Hit the highway, and also you’re struck by how way more energy you may have at your disposal. This motor kicks out 320 hp (in contrast with 195) and 310 lb-ft of torque (in contrast with 130). The torque comes on a lot decrease and appears considerably much less mechanical. The throttle response feels much less on the spot. Ample sound dampening lessens the amount subsequent to the Sort R. However the pleasure of motoring—the best way the engine communicates need—is there. Powering into fast corners, feeling the g-forces jam my bottom into the seat, I really feel the lineage that connects the previous Integra with the brand new. Any engineer can construct neato vehicular expertise, however the very best create pleasure.
In an excellent world, you’d need an previous Sort R for weekend motoring and a extra comfy, quieter, roomier, fashionable Sort S for commutes and highway journeys. Simply don’t fill the trunk with beer and go road racing on icy highways.
Editor-at-Giant
A.J. Baime is the writer of seven books, together with Go Like Hell: Ford, Ferrari, and Their Battle for Velocity and Glory at Le Mans, and The Unintended President: Harry S. Truman and the 4 Months that Modified the World. An R&T editor-at-large, he has pushed vehicles on racetracks everywhere in the U.S. and Europe, going again to 2007. He’s proudly the R&T workers’s slowest monitor driver.
