Highway Head Turner

For Lauren Penfold, a build has to look perfect and draw attention. Her bagged and Bodykitted DC5 certainly does that.

- Emma Woodcock 

Shining like an azure sea, glinting under the insistent sun, the DC5 sits: hugging the ground and scowling through a pair of facelift headlights. The Vivid Blue Pearl paint glimmers at the world around it, soft curves and sharp edges all gleaming brighter, stronger than the sea or sky. Artemis’ heart wrapped up in Aphrodite, this is one Type R that values show every bit as much as go, from tip to Mugenclad tail.

Beneath the bags and bodykit sit a late 2004 DC5 Integra Type R, a post-facelift example with the sharper headlights and more defined brake lights Honda fitted for the final two years of production. For Lauren Penfold, the car’s owner and possessor of exceptional taste, it’s the car she’s always wanted. ‘I’m just a girl doing something she loves to do,’ laughs the 23-year-old graphic designer, ‘And my affordable dream car has always been a DC5 Type R. Years ago, when I first saw one, I was just captivated by it. That car was Championship White and pretty much standard, but I remember saying to myself: ‘I’m going to have one of those.’’

Of course, none of us can jump straight to our perfect performance car. Lauren has, however, always managed to keep it Jap. Her first car, straight after passing her driving test in 2011, was a 2007 Suzuki Swift Sport, which soon gained a basic set of mods: Enkei alloys, BC Racing coil overs and a carbon-fibre bonnet. That’s a nice daily driver by anyone’s standards but it didn’t quite measure up to Lauren’s standards. ‘I wanted a white one,’ she explains, ‘but they were just that bit too expensive when I was looking for a first car.’ A year later, with insurance for a DC5 still out of reach, she swapped her Suzuki out for a brand new, post facelift Swift Sport.