The most moronic thing I’ve ever done in a car was in an Acura Integra. My best friend had a circa-1988 first-gen, and we had just gotten our driver’s licenses. Acura had launched in the U.S. two years earlier, and the Integra was one of two original models. We loaded the cargo hold with cases of Miller and road-tripped on icy highways through New Hampshire, every gauge pinned. At one point, he locked in with a guy in a gold Saab, who passed us at over 100 mph on a highway shoulder. Kids die every day doing this shit. One reason we survived was because that Integra was so sure-footed.
Jump to June 2023, and I’m in an Integra for the first time since. My assignment: compare the all-new, tech-forward, 320-hp turbocharged Integra Type S and the legendary VTEC-junkie, 195-hp 2001 Type R. That’s the ITR, and, to those with discernment and experience, the best-handling front-driver ever mass-produced. Honda/ Acura at its current best versus peak Honda. No winner or loser, but an illumination of how driving expectations and standards have changed.
The day began in the old Type R, on roads curling through hills outside Ojai, California. The car had just rolled off the floor of Honda’s Southern California museum, the American Honda Collection Hall. Acura sold less than half as many ITRs in the U.S. as it did first-gen NSXs, and this one had barely over 6000 miles on it. It’s pretty much worth more than my life.
Diese Geschichte stammt aus der August - September 2023-Ausgabe von Road & Track.
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Diese Geschichte stammt aus der August - September 2023-Ausgabe von Road & Track.
Starten Sie Ihre 7-tägige kostenlose Testversion von Magzter GOLD, um auf Tausende kuratierte Premium-Storys sowie über 8.000 Zeitschriften und Zeitungen zuzugreifen.
Bereits Abonnent? Anmelden
REMADE IN JAPAN
ON A MISSION TO HIGHLIGHT THE COUNTRY'S FINEST ARTISANS, BUILT BY LEGENDS PIECES TOGETHER THE GREATEST-AND MOST EXPENSIVE-SKYLINE RESTOMODS EVER BUILT.
CREASE MONKEY
HOW GIORGETTO GIUGIARO'S FOLDED-PAPER ERA DEFINED THE SEVENTIES AND BEYOND.
WOULD THE REAL INTEGRA PLEASE STEP FORWARD?
A comparison between a 2001 Type R and the all-new Type S reveals much about motoring, then and now.
HUMMER. REBORN
After more than a decade, General Motors' profligate son returns.
THE V-8 BENCHMARK
The E39-generation BMW M5 has been the sport-sedan icon for over 20 years. Can Cadillac's CT5-V Blackwing measure up?
BABY BLUE
The Mazda Miata gets better without changing much at all.
INSANE BROTHERS.FROM OTHER MOTHERS
The Lamborghini Urus Performante presents with symptoms of Completely Bonkers first seen in the Nineties GMC Typhoon.
NO RESERVE
BRING A TRAILER'S ONLINE AUCTIONS ARE TRANSFORMING HOW COLLECTOR CARS ARE SOLD.
Going, Going, Gone
The generational shift that's redefining what a collector car is.
LET'S GET DIGITAL
TO EVOKE PROTOTYPE RACING'S RADDEST ERA, A CLASSICALLY STYLED CHRONOGRAPH WON'T DO