Honda-Tech - Honda Forum Discussion - Integra Type R Press Quotes

Honda/Acura Integra Type R World Press Commentary:

“Once every generation, one car stands out for using advanced technology to provide a new peak of driving pleasure. Our aim was to make the Integra Type R the outstanding car of our generation.” Hisao Suzuki, President, Honda Research and Development, Europe.

“Some car makers talk about building cars for road and track… but Honda went ahead and did it. It’s laid the sauce on thick, too, so the Type R won’t be to everyone’s taste.” Wheels, March 2001

“The weighting of the steering is glorious, the feel of the wheel rim superb and the chassis absolutely intuitive. It practically implores you to rip in and join the fun, allowing the driver to be an integral part of the experience. It’s simultaneously, a tool and a toy, singing its song for you alone.” MOTOR, January 2001

“Toss the Type R into even the slightest bend and you’ll feel it rotate about its axis like a true racecar. Once out, the tail is easily balanced with the throttle just as the automotive gods always intended. Absolutely awesome.” Josh Jacquot; Sport Compact Car, April 2001

“The Type R is a finely honed tool for driving fast, a car engineered in almost every detail not to coddle or insulate, but to communicate. If driving a Type R doesn’t make the petroleum in your blood boil, you should collect your pushrods and go home.” Dave Coleman; Sport Compact Car, April 2001

“The Acura Integra Type R is designed for autocrossers and road racers who revere performance and handling above all else. This car makes no pretense of being a car for the masses. The Type R was designed by racers for racers… It’s an exclusive cult car.” Grassroots Motorsports, April 2001

“The Honda Integra Type R, though, is no normal front-driver. While the bodyshell is starting to look dated (and outrageous with the Type R’s wing), the interesting stuff is all underneath. It’s virtually a road registerable club racer, with braces inside and underneath the boot, as well as across the engine bay; there’s the rock solid race spec suspension, the gun Recaro seats, the thick leather steering wheel and, the secret weapon, a limited slip differential.” MOTOR, October, 2000

“The Honda is really something to savour on a good bit of road. There’s the sensational engine note, full of menace, purpose and anger, the wonderful shift action and the instant throttle response. It’s easy to drive quickly in any weather and it gets its power to the road amazingly well. It’s a furiously busy weapon built to charge over racetracks and mountain passes time and again… if it’s reputations you want to cut down, get yourself a Type R and go hunting… It’s gallant. It’s fast. And it’s a winner.” MOTOR, October, 2000

“A really awesome car. Plenty of bang for your bucks from behind the wheel. The engine sounds fantastic and revs all the way to 9,000 rpm and the power is still there. The chassis surprised me. For a front driver it’s so user-friendly. It turns in superbly and doesn’t understeer or get tailly. It’s quite neutral. It gets a little bit nervous at the rear in the high speed stuff, but it’s very, very hard to make a mistake and get it to do anything drastic. One of the favorite for sure.” MOTOR, October, 2000

“Raw, uncompromising driver’s car that’s too much for some, but so taut, so well set-up and with such a terrific engine, you’ll be gasping for superlatives.”
Wheels, December 2000

“The way the Type R’s shifter is literally perfect in throw and action are unmatched anywhere else. Shifts at redline are rewarded with immediate power delivery in the next gear, steering speed and precision are awesome and seats that actually hold you in place go a long way towards making the Type R a real driver’s car.” Sport Compact Car, November 2000

“The Type R’s chassis and power combination tends to be untouchable when tested under [winding mountain road] conditions, (at least at this price point).” Sport Compact Car, November 2000

“The Integra Type R, however, is a focused, concentrated, near-racecar environment at ten-tenths. It involves the driver more in the business of going fast, supplying keen feedback and amazing control sharpness… We like to think Sport Compact Car readers understand the merits of balance, precision and thorough sorting of a car’s chassis and engine – all of which the Integra Type R exhibits in excess.” Sport Compact Car, November 2000

“The VTEC power delivery is addictive, the chassis is razor sharp, the interior has just the bare essentials, and its one of those cars you need to drive before you die … [the Integra Type R] is one of Japan’s best kept secrets.” EVO Magazine, September 2000

“Bury your preconceptions about front wheel drive and you’ll find Honda’s Integra Type R is one of the world’s ultimate driving machines.” EVO Magazine, August 2000

“The original feisty front-drive coupe, with a jewel-like 1.8 litre VTEC ‘four’ and benchmark handling. The Type R concept at it’s very best. You would never believe a front-drive car could possess as much poise and adjustability as the Integra Type R… Honda must be smiling. It also makes the best noise of any four pot in production.” EVO Magazine, May 2000

“This [car] is the business. This does it all properly. This is a car which someone has taken the time to refine for track work. It does everything terrifically from its direct and exact gearshift to its gear ratios. Honda has done its homework with a sharpened pencil… From the form-fitting winged bucket seats, you’re very much a part of the car. It feels really solid like a real racing car. And it sounds fabulous.” Wheels, February 2000

“The Honda Integra Type R is immensely rewarding, provided you drive it with a purpose. Treated like a daily driver, the bone-jarring ride and booming cabin noise will batter you into submission. But driven hard, as its maker intended, the Type R is the ultimate drug-free high.” Wheels, December 1999

“The Integra Type R is much more than the sum of its parts. Response and reaction to driver input is almost instantaneous, endowing the pedals and steering wheel with a delightful communication. Lightning quick throttle response places a massive strain on the Bridgestone Potenzas as they attempt to disperse the power.” Wheels, December 1999

“The Integra Type R demands attention. Become distracted and you risk losing everything… This is a focused car for serious drivers; posers apply elsewhere… Every little flick of the wheel and stab on the pedal is rewarded with an immediate accurate response.” Wheels, December 1999

“If you want the closest thing to a race car for under [Australian]$30,000 then the Integra Type R is for you.” Wheels, December 1999

“With the race goggles firmly in place, issues like ride quality become almost irrelevant.” Wheels, December 1999

“The Type R surprised us with its aggression on turn-in and with the incredibly tight lines that could be held through the corners.” Wheels, December 1999

“Rewriting the rules of automotive performance, the Type R makes no excuses for its extraneous rear seats, its traditionally suspect drivetrain layout, or its quasi-utilitarian styling. Despite these “handicaps,” the Type R proudly stands out from the crowd as a brutally effective weapon of single-minded purposefulness. The Type R is a giant-killer on the track, taking on cars much more expensive. By all appearances the Type R is untouchable.” Sport Compact Car, April 1999

“Currently the car to have in this sector and a truly spectacular drive. Stripped of all creature comforts, this is a true sports car with a superb, free-revving 187 bhp engine, amazing levels of roadholding and grip with the sharpest steering of any mass-market coupe. Very tough and well-built but lacks any pretense of refinement.” What Car?, August 1999

“… I’d found it was indeed an admirable work of steely Japanese engineering.” CAR, February 1999

“Fundamentally the Integra feels like a simple, rudely mechanical car, but it’s very clever with it. It pares driving down to its raw materials – instant engine response, and a noise to match; fantastic turn-in and feedback (road surface through your seat, grip through the wheel). It takes a few miles to cut through the Integra Type R’s superficial showiness, which is all rawness and racy pretensions, but beneath that, it is an awesome driver’s car. Like the way it drives, its appeal is elemental – that back to basic, deeply psychological pleasure in pointing and squirting in a car, down roads that rip and roar like the winding ribbon of a rollercoaster… This is the pure way.” CAR, February 1999

“The truth is, though, the Integra Type R remains an enigma, titanium gear knob and all.” CAR, February 1999

“… like the off-duty competition car it is, it’s an impossible car to drive absent-mindedly without looking very amateur indeed.” CAR, February 1999

“Limited numbers. Perfectly focused. Marginal business for a major carmaker, true. The kind of product that driving evangelists drool over and marketing saps witter on about as a ‘halo product’ which ‘strengthens the brand proposition.’ ” CAR, October 1998

“… the Integra Type R is pure-bred Japanese – as seductive a reflection of Tokyo’s obsession with the mad, bad and dangerous-to-resist bits of driving as Nissan’s Skyline GT-R.” CAR, October 1998

“There are faster cars than the Integra Type R, sure enough. But few that are as unashamedly emotional in their appeal.” CAR, October 1998

“The Integra Type R encourages you, you sad car purist, to listen for the onset of serious good stuff.” CAR, October 1998

“The Integra Type R feels like it was painstakingly honed as a statement, to reposition Honda as a creator of adrenaline-soused cars.” CAR, May 1998

“The Integra Type R, more than anything else, is defiant narrow casting. You either get it or you don’t.” CAR, May 1998

“…you feel the Integra Type R; there’s an irrefutable mechanical quality. Plunge hard and late into a corner and this car adjusts through neutral to understeer, poised, sharp, accurate.” CAR, May 1998

“There’s cleverness, too, in the way the Cocker Spaniel-on-sulphate alacrity of the engine ties in with the alertness of the limited slip differential, the fabulously tough brakes with Porsche pedal feel and perfectly weighted steering to allow you, quite simply, to get the jollies, big time.” CAR, May 1998

“…the Integra Type R propounds a strictly emotional appeal. There’s nothing rational about a loud, firmly sprung car that will annoy eight passengers out of ten. The Integra Type R exists at one remove from rational. It’s selfish.” CAR, May 1998

“The Integra Type R propounds a strictly emotional appeal… The Integra Type R is emotional like the Blues is emotional… Should you ponder if the Integra Type R be less demanding, you miss the point.” CAR, May 1998

“The Integra Type R appeals to the racing driver in you, the suppressed sliver in your soul which is obsessed with tricky bits of engineering that the person in the street is genetically resistant to, the chunk of your heart which beats faster when you’re on a satisfying road in a satisfying car, the part of you which says you will never, ever, drive a Vauxhall Vectra by choice.” CAR, May 1998

“No European car, irrespective of price, matches the sheer intensity of the Integra Type R. This car re-defines middle-management performance machinery as a product light on deportment and heavy on thrills. But beware. Integra Type R is, above all, addictive. And definitely raw.” CAR, May 1998

“The Integra Type R is as extreme a car as you can buy, irrespective of price. There are days when you will hate the noise, the rort, the big rear wing masking the rear view, a literally uncomfortable relationship with zitular road surfaces, times when the ownership effort seems too damned wearing. But those moments will be outnumbered tenfold by the sheer bonkers perfection of the thing, the way it delivers pleasure – raw, demanding, self-obsessed, techno, laugh-’til-you-burst delight – at a level other car makers don’t understand.” CAR, May 1998

“Like every great lightweight, Honda’s Integra Type R is a brilliant drive because the engineers dispensed with unnecessary luxury items, concentrating instead on honing the mechanical package to maximize the car’s performance, handling and roadholding.” Performance Car, April 1998

“In short, its one very special motor, turning even the shortest journey into a qualifying lap.” Performance Car, April 1998

“Driven as it’s intended the Integra Type R is a blisteringly quick real-world car.” Performance Car, April 1998

“The chassis is a gem, too, with amazing levels of grip and traction but retaining equally brilliant levels of feedback and throttle adjustability.” Performance Car, April 1998

“Its a magical combination of Peugeot 306 GTI 6 fluidity, Ford Puma feel and [Renault] Clio Williams balance but with an infinitely adaptable cornering attitude, from steady understeer through neutral four wheel drifts to tail-out lift-off oversteer without ever feeling twitchy or unstable. All of which goes to make the Integra Type R the most focused, best handling front wheel drive car we’ve ever driven.” Performance Car, April 1998

“Put simply, the Integra Type R is the most enthralling front drive car we’ve ever had the luck to get our sticky mits on. It’s a race-sharpened road car with a hand finished motor, stiffened body shell and Recaro interior…” CAR Performance Car of the Year, January 1998

“Amazingly, the engine isn’t the highlight of the Type R. The chassis is simply spectacular. Whether you’re on the road or racetrack, you can do almost anything with it. Understeer isn’t on the agenda, even in the wet, and with a little fancy throttle work you can vary the cornering attitude from delicious four wheel drifts to lurid oversteer with a lift of your right foot.” CAR Performance Car of the Year, January 1998

“The wonderful thing about this is the forgiving nature with which it lets go. With a little practice you can drive straight to 100% and then start to play.” CAR Performance Car of the Year, January 1998

“Think of the Integra Type R as a sports coupe and you’ll be sorely disappointed. However, regard it as a front drive Lotus Elise with a roof and you’ll be just about spot-on.” CAR Performance Car of the Year, January 1998

“… there is a deftness and dialogue between the steering wheels and the road that’s almost Lotus Elise in its purity.” CAR, November 1997

“Push your luck and the Integra Type R will let go, but it is so informative that you’re never kept in the dark about what’s coming and you can with fine steering inputs.” CAR, November 1997

“… the Integra Type R is one of those cars that you don’t want to get out of. Even after 200 odd miles, deep into Sunday night, I’m still seeking out empty back roads whacking the lights onto full beam and listening to the sound of roadside stones bouncing off of the sills, doing a Colin McRae, just driving and driving fast. This little Honda with the so-what shape has gate crashed a very select club where the only criteria for membership is unalloyed driving pleasure.” CAR, November 1997

“The Integra Type R disguises its front wheel drive layout with sensational track-bred handling.” CAR, December 1997

“Wrist-flick through the gears and extend that marvelous engine to the sort of revs that sends cranks through the blocks of most rivals and you’ll reach nirvana that you would have thought well beyond a front drive car.” CAR, December 1997

“On a racetrack the Integra Type R is the best handling FWD car any of us can remember. It steers more like a race car than a road car, turning in with a sharpness and élan that bely its streetcar disguise. And once committed through a bend, it hangs on with amazing grace… It doesn’t scrabble and scream and drift and porpoise, like many front drive cars on the edge of their abilities. It just powers around the bend in a nicely controlled drift.” CAR, December 1997

“On the track the Integra Type R kisses goodbye to understeer and marks a new benchmark for front drive precision. If it had a little more life at 7/10ths on the road, we’d be hardly able to contain ourselves.” CAR, December 1997

“If you want to know what real top-end power feels like, the Integra Type R will get you closer to [Team Honda Sport Touring Car race driver, Gabriele] Tarquini’s weekend car than anything this side of a Ferrari F355.” Autocar, August 27, 1997

“The Integra Type R is actually closer in character to a Ferrari F355 than the NSX is. If this doesn’t make it the best car ever to come out of Japan, I’m not sure what does.” Autocar, August 27, 1997

“Brilliant. Absolutely and utterly brilliant. The Integra Type R is a supreme driver’s car at a price that makes sense…” Performance Car, November 1997

“Some cars feel fast. Some cars are fast. Some cars, like the Integra Type R, are both at the same time.” Performance Car, November 1997

“Its extraordinary performance combined with its excellent chassis dynamics give the Type R enough point to point potential to embarrass supercars and makes you question the need to spend more than £20k on a sportscar.” Performance Car, November 1997

“The sensation you have is that of being in a racing car, in terms of reaction speed and aggressive driving position.” Gabriele Tarquini, Team Honda Sport Touring Car race driver.

“Incredible. The best road car engine I’ve ever driven on a race circuit.” James Kay former Touring Car Champion.

Here is my list - some are duplicates of initial listing but overall more comprehensive / up to date pulling from multiple sources over the last 27 years including recent re-reviews etc.

ENGINE
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"To my ears, it's not noise at all, and I doubt I'd ever tire of it. Think of it as a power concerto for four cylinders, the lovely sounds of internal combustion in the key of high tech. Played fortissimo, the volume swells to a smooth but robust tenor snarl."
"At about five-seven you might just decide R stands for religious. Ready to rock-and-roll. And definitely raw."
"Near its redline, the engine noise becomes euphoric and the hair on your neck stands on end."
"Just when you think there are no more revs, just when you think you should show mercy, just when you think that redline and hard cut limiters are only a fraction of a second away, someone turns all the lights on and that little 1.8 ups and screams… Its astonishing!"
“If you want to know what real top-end power feels like, the Integra Type R will get you closer to [Team Honda Sport Touring Car race driver, Gabriele] Tarquini’s weekend car than anything this side of a Ferrari F355.”
“Incredible. The best road car engine I’ve ever driven on a race circuit.” James Kay former Touring Car Champion.
"Honda has no peer when it comes to extracting big horsepower from small displacement engines, and the Integra Type-R is yet another proof. Make that a dramatic proof."
"Then again, this is how we imagine a 4-cylinder Ferrari would sound if Ferrari made one, so who's complaining?"
"The gearhead bragging rights you get with the Type-R are equal to those of any exotic car. It is truly Formula One technology for the street, and a at very reasonable price, all things considered."
"The sound is not unlike that of one of the Honda CART engines. This little gem makes some of the most wonderful mechanical music ever."
"There is nothing refined, however, about the cam changeover, fast gets abruptly faster. Though a pacifist, I find this violence seducing, not to mention highly addictive."
"This car is unquiet in the best possible way."
"The motor is a rev junky and is only truly happy when closing in on its 8,000rpm-plus red line and snapping into the next gear to repeat the process. If it sounds like fun, that's because it is."
“In short, its one very special motor, turning even the shortest journey into a qualifying lap.”
"Keep your foot in it to unlock peak power at 8k and it sounds like you're chainsawing your way out of a shipping container full of wasps"
"Most drivers do not know this sound, but sport motorcyclists, accustomed to redlines of 11,000 to 14,000 rpm, are intimately acquainted with it. And with the rush of power that accompanies it. "
"Varying speed and load is an addictive activity, much like in a Ferrari, as the symphony rises and falls at the command of the driver/conductor" (DBF)
"VTEC comes in with a frenetic sprint to the redline at a point in the rev range where the engine has absolutely no right to find more speed - like Mo Farah on the last lap of the 10,000 metres" (CAR)
"Stock, it’s but 1.8 liters and rated at only 195 hp. Small children put out more torque inflicting purple nurples, but the B18C5 is still a thriller."
"The 1.8-liter B18C5 is among the best four-cylinder engines ever produced, a high-revving masterpiece."
"A multi-gear pull in a DC2 is what I imagine railing multiple consecutive lines of cocaine to be like; I can’t count how many times this engine made me say, “Holy shit!” (The Drive, 2023)
Car and Driver chose B18C5 3rd best NA engine eveR in 2012, behind BMW 6.0 V12 in McLaren F1 (2nd place), and F20C in S2000 (1st place)! See article in archive - criteria = specific output, affordability, sound, effectiveness in the application etc

CHASSIS
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"I left the track with the unshakable conviction that this spicy pocket rocket was the best-handling front-drive sport coupe I'd ever driven."
"While I've always considered myself a rear-wheel drive devotee, it only took a front driver as good as the Type R to win me over."
"This car rarely seems like it is front-drive, the limited slip differential and spot-on suspensions tuning working to provide neutral handling in almost all situations."
"The Integra steers with the throttle just as the automotive gods always intended. Absolutely awesome."
"The Integra Type R takes a popular chassis, and with generous sprinklings of Honda race-engineering pixie dust, elevates a front-wheel drive car to previously unimaginable levels of road-going competence."
"Any encounter with challenging roads reveals the Type R's true genius."
"The R simply handles, responds and grips like no other front driver in the world."
"The more revs you pile on, the more neutral it seems to get."
"The combination of taut but supple suspension, a terrifically effective diff, abundant grip and no torque-steer leaves you with one of the purest and least corrupted front-drive helms ever."
"It ignores the surface change, dances across the camber, and as momentum and lateral forces begin to push the Bridgestones beyond even their prodigious adhesive limits, the Type-R enters a completely different realm."
"You feel the nose hint at running wide, but as you apply a little more lock the diff really begins to work, and in so doing brings the tail increasingly into play, to the point where the car actually adopts a mild, natural oversteer stance."
"Three wheels working hard, one barely in contact with the road, the Integra scythes through at unabated speed, no wasted effort, no scrappy corrections, just searing pace and total involvement."
"The whole package dances and exudes feedback and poise. You feel completely connected, fused even to everything that the chassis is doing. It's fantastic fun!"
"But the magic really happened in the corners, where the Integra Type R still reigns supreme in the front-wheel drive segment, offering a handling balance and willingness to rotate that even the recently tested Ford Focus ST can’t touch. It’s really that good, and it’s achieved with good old-fashion suspension and chassis tuning, rather than using any sort of newfangled torque vectoring or other types of electronic intervention. This gives the Type R’s at-the-limit handling dynamics a predictability and immediacy that simply hasn’t been surpassed, not even by the supercomputer-controlled Focus ST and others like it."
“The weighting of the steering is glorious, the feel of the wheel rim superb and the chassis absolutely intuitive. It practically implores you to rip in and join the fun, allowing the driver to be an integral part of the experience. It’s simultaneously, a tool and a toy, singing its song for you alone.”
"Instead you feel the Integra Type-R; there's an irrefutable mechanical quality. Plunge hard and late in to a corner and this car adjusts through neutral to understeer, poised, sharp , accurate."
“Toss the Type R into even the slightest bend and you’ll feel it rotate about its axis like a true racecar."
“Its a magical combination of Peugeot 306 GTI 6 fluidity, Ford Puma feel and [Renault] Clio Williams balance but with an infinitely adaptable cornering attitude, from steady understeer through neutral four wheel drifts to tail-out lift-off oversteer without ever feeling twitchy or unstable. All of which goes to make the Integra Type R the most focused, best handling front wheel drive car we’ve ever driven.”
“Amazingly, the engine isn’t the highlight of the Type R. The chassis is simply spectacular. Whether you’re on the road or racetrack, you can do almost anything with it. Understeer isn’t on the agenda, even in the wet, and with a little fancy throttle work you can vary the cornering attitude from delicious four wheel drifts to lurid oversteer with a lift of your right foot.”
"Call it a Honda or an Acura, this is one of the best handling cars ever made. Forget that it's front wheel drive, it just isn't a factor."
“… there is a deftness and dialogue between the steering wheels and the road that’s almost Lotus Elise in its purity.”
“On a racetrack the Integra Type R is the best handling FWD car any of us can remember. It steers more like a race car than a road car, turning in with a sharpness and élan that bely its streetcar disguise. And once committed through a bend, it hangs on with amazing grace… It doesn’t scrabble and scream and drift and porpoise, like many rear drive cars on the edge of their abilities. It just powers around the bend in a nicely controlled drift.”
"In handling tests, the instantly reacting Integra knocked out a humbling 71.4 mph dash through the slalom - better than every production car MT has tested except the lofty Viper GTS, F355 and 911 Turbo."
"What feels harsh in traffic feels precise, rewarding and exhilarating at speed."
"The chassis rewards commitment quite like nothing else on the road today."
"The leather-wrapped wheel swivels the nose with surgical precision, and the generously sized tires hang on like barnacles."
"As far as front-wheel-drive cars go, the Integra Type R is royalty. These set the bar for FWD performance, and remain one of the best handling compacts ever offered for sale."
"The chassis rewards commitment quite like nothing else on the road today. Be on your toes though, as the inherent adjustability can be a handful, especially in the wet"
"It might be mean to say this, but you don't want this car to be driven by a beginner. It's not about going fast or slow, it's gotta be a driver who wants to have a conversation with the car. Or else it's missing the point for the people who made this car" (Best Motoring 1995)
"Show it some confidence, and the Type R will razor into a corner and grease its back tires in joyous oversteer." (Road and Track 2020)
"It's one of the best handling cars ever made, no front-drive caveat needed." (Road and Track 2020)

OVERALL
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"Once every generation, one car stands out for using advanced technology to provide a new peak of driving pleasure. Our aim was to make the Integra Type R the outstanding car of our generation." Hisao Suzuki, President, Honda Research and Development, Europe
"The Type-R most assuredly is aimed at the lunatic fringe"
"The Integra Type R is a flippant, whimsical, almost toy like thing that is a rolling celebration of freedom."
"If - even - you still think in mph rather than rpm, you're going to hate the Type-R. The Type-R more than anything else is defiant narrowcasting. You either get it or you don't."
"Because the Type-R, as defined by the Integra, is as extreme a car as you can buy, irrespective of price."
"But those moments will be outnumbered tenfold by the sheer bonkers perfection of the thing, the way it delivers pleasure - raw, demanding, self-obsessed, techno, laugh-till-you-burst delight - at a level other car makers don't understand."
"No European car, irrespective of price, matches the sheer intensity of the Integra Type-R."
"This car redefines middle-management performance machinery as a product light on deportment and heavy on thrills. But beware. Type-R is, above all, addictive."
"Now if I told you the two greatest driving machines in the world (my world at least) are the McLaren F1 and the Lotus Elise, you would not think me a fool. If I told you 3rd on the list was a Honda, you might begin to wonder."
"With pin sharp steering, literal go-kart handling and an engine tune right up there with the exotica. Despite this, none of the traditional Honda virtues have been lost."
"The result is one of the most enthralling entertaining and enjoyable cars I have ever driven of any power, price or size."
"For uncompromised performance, the Type R is still the king"
"The Type R was the only car that didn't have us reciting a list of changes we would like to make. The gearing is perfect, the power delivery nearly flawless, the limited slip provides excellent traction, the brakes are strong, the tires are sticky… we're in heaven."
"Do not let the fact that the Integra is due for a complete redesign stop you from buying an 01, because nothing can make this gem shine any less brightly, or the grin on your face any less wide."
"The Integra Type-R is the first car from Honda that's as raw a high performer as a motorcycle."
"The Type-R is a finely honed tool for driving fast, a car engineered in almost every detail not to coddle or insulate, but to communicate."
Fumiyasu Suga: "I would prefer that people don't try to further tune the Type R. No, actually, they shouldn't try. Each upgraded part works in perfect harmony, and fiddling with the factory setting will only lead to a decrease in performance."
"The car is engineered to live all day at a mechanical limit that would sideline other cars."
"It's fantastic."
"The Integra Type-R is the greatest FWD car ever made."
"The Integra is the fastest - and arguably most enjoyable - front-drive coupe on the planet." (written in 2002, hence the fastest part, but, arguably, the most enjoyable part still applies...)
"The overall verdict? Brilliant. It may be boy racer, it may be getting on, and it may be FWD but I love it. So much so that I HAVE TO have one."
"The best front-driver of all time. It takes 50 yards to remind me why the Integra is a fully paid-up member of the hero club."
"The Integra looks lean, like it lives on a diet of rice crackers and skinless chicken."
"It all adds up to something special indeed. In a word: sensational."
"And yet… the Integra feels perfect."
"The Type-R is simply a blast to drive - any place, any time, but especially on the track."
"The Integra Type R DC2 is a legend. A full on, turned up to 11, unique and focused car that is unlike anything else."
"It marries Honda's perfectly benign chassis with an insane redline, brakes that could stop the rotation of a small planet, and that wonderful Torsen diff."
"It's like driving an air-powered impact gun."
"It really is magic and it makes you want to keep driving until the fuel light comes on."
“Some car makers talk about building cars for road and track… but Honda went ahead and did it. It’s laid the sauce on thick, too, so the Type R won’t be to everyone’s taste.”
"These moments, however brief, are intense and thrilling beyond description in the Type-R, and they'll more than make up for the car's annoyances."
“Raw, uncompromising driver’s car that’s too much for some, but so taut, so well set-up and with such a terrific engine, you’ll be gasping for superlatives.”
“Bury your preconceptions about front wheel drive and you’ll find Honda’s Integra Type R is one of the world’s ultimate driving machines.”
“The original feisty front-drive coupe, with a jewel-like 1.8 litre VTEC ‘four’ and benchmark handling. The Type R concept at it’s very best."
"You would never believe a front-drive car could possess as much poise and adjustability as the Integra Type R… Honda must be smiling. It also makes the best noise of any four pot in production.”
"But driven hard, as its maker intended, the Type R is the ultimate drug-free high.”
"This is a focused car for serious drivers; posers apply elsewhere"
"The Type R proudly stands out from the crowd as a brutally effective weapon of single-minded purposefulness. The Type R is a giant-killer on the track, taking on cars much more expensive. By all appearances the Type R is untouchable.”
“… I’d found it was indeed an admirable work of steely Japanese engineering.”
“… the Integra Type R is pure-bred Japanese – as seductive a reflection of Tokyo’s obsession with the mad, bad and dangerous-to-resist bits of driving as Nissan’s Skyline GT-R.”
“…the Integra Type R propounds a strictly emotional appeal. There’s nothing rational about a loud, firmly sprung car that will annoy eight passengers out of ten. The Integra Type R exists at one remove from rational. It’s selfish.”
"Should you ponder if the Integra Type R be less demanding, you miss the point.”
“Think of the Integra Type R as a sports coupe and you’ll be sorely disappointed. However, regard it as a front drive Lotus Elise with a roof and you’ll be just about spot-on.”
“Wrist-flick through the gears and extend that marvelous engine to the sort of revs that sends cranks through the blocks of most rivals and you’ll reach nirvana that you would have thought well beyond a front drive car.”
"There's cleverness too, in the way the cocker-spaniel-on-sulphate alacrity of the engine ties in with alertness of the diff, the fabulously tough brakes with the Porsche pedal feel and perfectly weighted steering allow you, quite simply, to get the jollies, big time."
"What Honda is attempting with the Type-R is to synthesize certain key elements of race cars - throttle sensitivity, rev-lunacy, fetishistic levels of steering and braking precision - for the road."
“The Integra Type R is actually closer in character to a Ferrari F355 than the NSX is. If this doesn’t make it the best car ever to come out of Japan, I’m not sure what does.”
“Brilliant. Absolutely and utterly brilliant. The Integra Type R is a supreme driver’s car at a price that makes sense…”
“Some cars feel fast. Some cars are fast. Some cars, like the Integra Type R, are both at the same time.”
“Its extraordinary performance combined with its excellent chassis dynamics give the Type R enough point to point potential to embarrass supercars and makes you question the need to spend more than £20k on a sportscar.”
“… the Integra Type R is one of those cars that you don’t want to get out of. Even after 200 odd miles, deep into Sunday night, I’m still seeking out empty back roads whacking the lights onto full beam and listening to the sound of roadside stones bouncing off of the sills, doing a Colin McRae, just driving and driving fast. This little Honda with the so-what shape has gate crashed a very select club where the only criteria for membership is unalloyed driving pleasure.”
“The VTEC power delivery is addictive, the chassis is razor sharp, the interior has just the bare essentials, and its one of those cars you need to drive before you die … [the Integra Type R] is one of Japan’s best kept secrets.”
"Appreciating the Integra Type R as a road car at its absolute zenith of factory performance development, we acknowledge its place as a future classic."
"It's a car as sweet and all-consuming as any I've experienced at any price, and as pure and focused in its own way as any Porsche RS. Forget the accolade of greatest front-wheel drive car. The Integra Type-R ranks as one of the truly great drivers' cars of any kind."
"The Type R is a [car] with all the performance and fun factors clicked all the way up. It shows all that's possible when racing engineers tune a road car for serious driving enthusiasts."
"The truth is, though, this car doesn't have any direct competition. It's unique."
"If you have to sell Grandma's antique rocker… raise chinchillas behind the garage… hawk phonics courses door to door… collect discarded beer cans… scour phone booths for forgotten change… or even (gasp!) get a job to come up with the money for an Integra Type R, then do so!"
"The engine may be screaming, but it's from pleasure, not pain. This is a car that loves to be pushed hard and keen drivers will love the excitement and challenge. Any car that puts such a big smile on its driver's face, must be doing something very right indeed."
"This is, essentially, a street-legal race car that makes far fewer compromises than other cars that might be considered competition."
“The Integra Type R, however, is a focused, concentrated, near-racecar environment at ten-tenths. It involves the driver more in the business of going fast, supplying keen feedback and amazing control sharpness… We like to think Sport Compact Car readers understand the merits of balance, precision and thorough sorting of a car’s chassis and engine – all of which the Integra Type R exhibits in excess.”
“Limited numbers. Perfectly focused. Marginal business for a major carmaker, true. The kind of product that driving evangelists drool over and marketing saps witter on about as a ‘halo product’ which ‘strengthens the brand proposition.’ ”
“There are faster cars than the Integra Type R, sure enough. But few that are as unashamedly emotional in their appeal.”
"If your level of automotive commitment includes auto slaloms or car-club lapping days at a local race track, the Type R and you were made for each other"
"Keep driving like a madman, working the shifter like the action on a rifle bolt, and the Type R gobbles up curvy pavement like The Flash late for a doctor's appointment."
"It really does feel like a race car for the road, as if Honda designers have made a car for enthusiasts, and screw the rest."
"There really is little else that feels like this, it is a unique experience, and after a few miles I realize I am smitten."
"If Acura ever decides to go searching for its soul, it's downstairs in Gary Robinson's parking spot." (referring to 98 ITR)
"Although, I'd live with an E30 on the highway for the driving feel it provides. It's a car that's greater than the sum of its parts, like the ITR. It's also the only M3 with a driver's soul in it. E46 is more like a midlife crisis accountant couch potato's soul... not that there is anything wrong with that, it's just not a replacement for the driving experience an ITR provides." - good quote from another Dave on H-T ITR forum...!
"Fundamentally the Integra feels like a simple, rudely mechanical car, but it’s very clever with it. It pares driving down to its raw materials – instant engine response, and a noise to match; fantastic turn-in and feedback (road surface through your seat, grip through the wheel). It takes a few miles to cut through the Integra Type R’s superficial showiness, which is all rawness and racy pretensions, but beneath that, it is an awesome driver’s car. Like the way it drives, its appeal is elemental – that back to basic, deeply psychological pleasure in pointing and squirting in a car, down roads that rip and roar like the winding ribbon of a rollercoaster… This is the pure way."
“… like the off-duty competition car it is, it’s an impossible car to drive absent-mindedly without looking very amateur indeed.”
Pure, simple but blindingly quick, the finest front wheel drive car we've ever tested! (Autoexpress)
This demonic funster will have you shouting 'banzai' around every corner
“There’s an overwhelming sense that this car was built to be brutally caned.” Top Gear
"Stand by for an identity crisis. The Honda badge says 'sensible'; the whopping spoiler and bold 'Type R' logos say 'insensible'; the 8,500rpm red line on its hand-finished engine says 'spank me'."
The ITR was a high-point for Honda. It was more focused and rare than the S2000 and far more affordable than the NSX. In my mind, it's the best "sports" car they ever made. You can mod a GSR all you want--- it may go faster than an ITR, but it will never be the same.
"The pay-off for the Integra's genius is a ride that will dislodge your fillings and so much noise from the road and engine, you'll think your ears will implode. That's what happens when Honda doesn't bother to fit any sound deadening to keep the weight down. And there was no standard radio to counter the din." (you poor sissy, better stick to Buicks !)
"They really are worth all the praise - utterly phenomenal cars. The sense of connection and feedback is so many levels above most tuned cars I've driven, let alone stock ones. The engine is sublime, the chassis is so adjustable with the throttle, and there's this weird sense that the driven wheels are somewhere around your thighs. It's a truly brilliant bit of engineering. They are practical, quick, raw, and to top it all off, pretty much indestructible."
"If you think the Fiesta ST is like an ITR, you're a moron" (Fiesta forum - funny stuff !)
"Most of the people who are reading this may think that "DC2R (including remodeled ones), enough to use for everyday use", but in general it is incorrect · · · It is an overwhelming minority from the viewpoint of the whole car society, only the density of people with such feelings being high only around themselves (lol)" (Japanese owner blog)
"While the engine is a highlight, it doesn't shine markedly brighter than any other element - that's how good the whole car is."
"You forgive the car's low-speed idiosyncrasies, because the rewards for driving hard are so high"
"Everything you heard is true. The car is visceral and alive. It's not for amateurs."
"I've driven a few hundred performance cars and I've never driven anything that would replace the Type R's spot in my garage"
"The experience is a hard one to sum up because it's so raw, so visceral"
"There has rarely been such a perfectly matched engine and chassis combination"
"It's one of the all-time greats, this car"
"This has to be one of the best driver's cars of all time, right up there in the top echelon alongside machines worth ten times more"
"If you find yourself setting an alarm for 5 am for no reason other than to go for a spirited drive on an empty road, it has to be a pretty special machine. It I owned this Integra, I'd be up and out the door before sunrise seven days a week"
"But this car is not really about statistics. It's about sensations, about the pleasure derived from the sights, sounds and smells of a precision machine doing its driver's bidding."
"It's a very Japanese exercise, the creation of something so exquisitely satisfying in the way it elevates the mundane to art."
"But the beauty is in the Type R's detail - and in the driving experience it allows you, the individual behind the wheel, to create."
"The high rev limit gives the car long, furious blasts of power in each gear before you squeeze the strong brakes for the corners and dance on the pedals to find lower gears for the exit"
"Numbers aside, this high-performance stripper is a blast to drive."
"The Integra itself was nice, but this has a little extra." (Caretaker of Honda Museum in CA)
"The wail of the engine speaks directly to the speed freak in your soul and the light, quick shifter, strong clutch and instant throttle response let you speak right back." (SCC)
"The confidence the Type R inspires soon transforms its operator into some near maniacal loon, zipping through shifts clobbering the accelerator with spite, expecting to see the Type R blink."
"You can't expect what the Type R has, in other cars" (Best Motoring)
"Driving the Integra Type R is to discover an immediately induced lunacy – you cannot help but have a crazy amount of fun" (Motor1)
"It's not merely an engine thing, either – everything is perfect. Changing gear is a singular delight and the controls are all perfectly weighted" (Motor1)
"This is the drive that superlatives were invented for – half an hour behind the wheel and I need another 30 minutes before I stop wibbling by the roadside. It’s a transcendental experience" (Motor1)
"Racing cars only really start to work when you push them hard, and the DC2 is no exception"
"It's gloriously simple too, a good reminder that the contemporary fascination with modes, settings and configurability really cannot match a well set-up and well engineered car"
"What this is then is a recreational drug, and like all good drugs it is a high that you want to experience again and again. But as any addict can tell you, the good times just don’t last if you’re shooting up every day" (The last part is false…!)
"ITR is the best FWD car ever made" (Autocar, 2019 comparison w/CTR) - slightly more superlative than EVO saying best handling FWD ever…
"Money being no object you should immediately buy an Integra because it’s superb in all the ways that modern cars simply aren’t any more." (CAR)
"In short it’s an absolute joy to drive – there is a lot of hype surrounding it and on this occasion it’s entirely justified." (CAR)
"Few street cars have ever achieved such a magic blend of precision, comfort, practicality and affordability" (BAT)
"To fully appreciate the allure and importance of the great pinnacle cars, you need to drive or race them at their limits." - Dr. Gregory Whitten said that about the Ferrari 250 GTO - NOT an ITR quote, but quite similar and appropriate for ITR
"Its candle burned out long before its legend ever will" (Top Gear)
“But then how do you choose between an E30 M3 and a DC2 Integra Type-R? It’s like being asked who would win in a fight between He-Man and Lion-O from ThunderCats. Impossible, almost disrespectful, to call. Ultimately, none of these cars will give the sort of easy, almost lazy thrills you can get from just pushing a throttle pedal attached to a big V8 or a 500bhp turbocharged lump. You need to work to get the rewards. And, because it’s really your entire focus, the chassis needs to be sparkling. But when a manufacturer gets it right and one of these cars comes alive down a good bit of road, it is absolutely mesmerizing.” EVO Magazine Dec. 2012.
"History should have stopped with Integra Type R" (R/T, 9/2021)
"Progress is the hope built into the human soul. Things will get better; small changes become big improvements; Utopia is only a few tweaks away. People instinctively crave progress. But unchecked, progress can also overwhelm the already near-perfect. Like, duh, the 1997 to 2001 Acura Integra Type R." (R/T, 9/2021)
"The Integra Type R may have been the only front-driver at the rodeo, the car with the humblest roots, but it proved itself worthy of every minute of those two decades of adolescent yearning." (R&T, 2020)
"Yes, a front-wheel-drive Honda with less than 200 hp really is somehow one of the most exciting cars of all time" (The Drive, 2023)
"It’s a driving experience with no modern analog and one that somehow ranks among the very best cars I have ever driven." (The Drive, 2023)
"It’s proof that you can have rear-wheel drive, all the power in the world, and enough tech to confuse Star Trek’s Borg and still fall short if you can’t tie together the fundamentals." (The Drive, 2023)
"Even if you don’t venture into the upper reaches of the tach more than once a week, the audible and tactile feedback still make it one of the most exciting cars I’ve ever driven." (The Drive, 2023)
"With all due deference to fleeting memories of reading about and desiring bigly the Renault Clio Williams back in the 90's, this has to be the best car from the best era of cars." (Commenter on The Drive ITR article, 2023)
"I wanted my work to feel a certain way" (Shigeru Uehara talking about DC2R)
"I wanted the car to feel as if it were about to boil over, so you would feel alive" (Shigeru Uehara talking about DC2R)
"The Integra isn’t a race car, but it suggests the purpose. Or maybe, if you have driven actual, purpose-built race cars, and you know how they aim their engineering, it simply reminds you of the feeling." (Hagerty/Sam Smith, 2020)
"Legend. It’s a word that is often banded about too much, and used in the type of quantity that gives it about as much potency as a watered-down beer. However, for this car, it’s as appropriate as pouring custard on to an apple crumble."
"The best handling FWD car of all time and one of the best engines to rev of all time. What more can you ask for ? This is the best that FWD has to offer, so it you aren't convinced by now then I give up."
"People instinctively crave progress. But unchecked, progress can also overwhelm the already near-perfect. Like, duh, the 1997 to 2001 Acura Integra Type R."
"The Type R was raced relentlessly, but it’s best appreciated as a full-immersion entertainment experience"
"If you want an Acura to drive straight into a wall, get a new MDX. But if what matters is mechanical seduction, get an original NSX or a preserved Type R. Or, even better, get both. Then drive them. Hard."
"Driving the Type R is the best kind of hard work. Honda put all the power way up on the top shelf and gave you a close-ratio gearbox and a dainty, precise shifter to help you climb up there." (Road and Track)
"The Integra Type R may have been the only front-driver at the rodeo, the car with the humblest roots, but it proved itself worthy of every minute of those two decades of adolescent yearning." (Road and Track)