Big Phat R

https://petrolicious.com/articles/from-boy-racer-to-modern-collectible-the-first-honda-integra-type-r-is-the-one-to-get

Comments?

feck

It's OK enough BPR, but doesn't tell us or even casual readers much. It also copies and pastes from all the other sources this:

These engines were reportedly ported and polished by hand, and the 8,400rpm redline provides some solid evidence to the fact. Other features of the Type R cars were a seam-welded and strengthened chassis.

The very early heads were, but pretty quickly they went mechanical(though Honda kept putting the polishing pic in their JDM catalogues). If you look at say an unmodified 98 head(wolrdwide) you should be able to see casting marks and no polishing. The car isn't seam welded either. There are extra spot welds and steel plating/bracing. Good pics though.

dave7

Right I'm pretty sure the seam welding thing is a myth, that gets repeated so often that it is taken as fact.

zeroptzero

That's exactly right, I've been saying that for a while. People really stretch the race car theme when talking about the Type R. The Type R chassis is not seam welded, like they do in true race cars . From what I've read it has extra seam sealer used along the seams, which does add some added stiffness, but nothing like seam welding. Glad to hear someone actually debunking this myth.

Marky Mark

Great read. This only does greater things for the Golden Era Honda market. Big name bloggers have been really putting the Integra Type R on a pedestal lately. Its the modern day 80's baby's 69 Camaro.

moopmoop

Ugh that name is so stupid. Just call it 88-00 Civics/94-01 integra .

milano2kdc2

Holy crap this is me. I thought they were seam welded this entire time. I can't believe I learned a new Type-R fact today after all these years.

feck

Understandable Milano, it's repeated pretty much everywhere there's an article on the model. It's also said of the JDM only EK9 Civic R and haven't seen evidence of that either and I knew two examples pretty well back in the day. Same goes for the "ported and polished by hand" stuff. Honda themselves continued to promote that as a thing all the way through the run in the Japanese market brochures.

Having stripped a couple R's down to the bones( EDM/JDM examples) and a non R 1.6 JDM(I got a completely rust free set of rear arches from that, just in case...), there are more welds on the R. In a few places the spot welds are closer together. They also look more "hand made". There are also thicker panels around the rear suspension points(IIRC there are other thicker pressings elsewhere) and you have the bolt on bracing on top of all that, so it's definitely stiffer than the base Integra chassis. For its era it was a pretty stiff chassis.

milano2kdc2

Wow even more Type-R facts today. Extra spot welds should be able to be added to any integra but thicker panels cannot. I would say that is a larger difference that should be advertised. Thanks for the info!

jdmark1

iTrader: (2)

Yeah I can't remember where I saw it, but years ago I did come across an official Honda illustration pointing out where the thicker panels were on the rear of the car to reinforce the chassis.

Klasse

It's in the brochures, and someone translated it here:

jdmark1

iTrader: (2)

Yep that's the one! Wow thanks for posting that. I haven't seen that since the year I bought my Integra and was just starting to learn about them. It's weird to think that Honda was still pushing the seamless welds myth while still officially illustrating the reinforced chassis and how the ITR was actually made stiffer vs the other Integras.

ff terror

dave7

Or was it from a Best Motoring video? I'll have to rewatch them.