Car shopping for is tough. Especially proper now, with stock woes and sellers inventing costs off the tops of their heads, it’s typically simpler to begin your procuring at residence — studying evaluations, impressions, and spec sheets, whittling down your choices to the few vehicles value truly going out and seeing.
But these spec sheets are bullshit. You can have a look at dyno charts and legroom dimensions all day, and none will actually let you know what it’s wish to drive the automotive. Case in level, the brand new Acura Integra Type S: On paper, it’s an up-spec Civic Type R. On the street, it’d simply be the right automotive.
Full Disclosure: Acura flew me out to Ojai Valley, CA to check the brand new Integra Type S. They paid for my meals, lodge, airfare, and surprisingly long-yet-beautiful trip from LAX. Turns out California is large.
What’s New About The 2024 Acura Integra Type S?
Naysayers will let you know nothing about this automotive is new, it’s all borrowed from the Civic. Acura will let you know that a lot of the automotive is brand-new for the Integra line, with all the pieces from the drivetrain to the physique panels to the seats being freshly launched for the Type S. The reply, as is normally the case with these items, lies someplace within the center.
The large change with the Type S is the drivetrain. The automotive will get the identical 2.0-liter turbo 4 and six-speed guide transmission because the Civic Type R, so the naysayers nab some extent there. But to tie up the sport, the Integra makes extra energy, has a greater exhaust be aware, and retains the always-excellent Honda shift really feel.
To tip the scales additional in direction of Acura’s facet, there’s extra to the Type S than an engine. Its suspension is robotically adjustable, just like the normal Integra, nevertheless it will get far stiffer than in any of that automotive’s modes. Even the Comfort setting within the Type S appears intent on reminding you that you simply shelled out the additional money for the efficiency model – you gained’t be spilling your drink over bumps, however there’s no forgetting you’re within the Fast One. In Sport+, it’s almost Type R-stiff.
The brakes are upgraded past these of the A-Spec, large Brembo calipers squeezing 4 pistons onto rotors the dimensions of a Miata wheel, and so they disguise behind light-weight 19-inch wheels that fill widened, flared fenders. The entire automotive is 2.8 inches wider than the bottom automotive, permitting Acura to widen the monitor by 3.5 inches up entrance and 1.9 within the rear. All this for additional grip — grip you’ll be able to actually really feel whereas driving.
What Are the Specs?
The Integra Type S makes 320 horsepower at 6,000 RPM and 310 lb-ft of torque, flat from 2,600 all the way in which to 4,000 on the tach. It’s 186 inches lengthy, 74.8 inches vast, 55.4 inches tall, and weighs 3,219 lbs. It has 37.4 inches of rear legroom, the stereo has 16 audio system, and the reverse gear ratio is 3.757:1. None of this issues.
I can let you know that the Integra Type S makes extra horsepower than an M235i Gran Coupe, that it has extra torque than an Audi S3, or that it’s lighter than a Golf R. But no spec sheet will let you know in regards to the feeling via the Integra’s entrance wheels because the limited-slip differential forces that energy to the bottom; no single numerical worth can quantify the way in which the rear finish kicks out in a good nook. The specs on the Type S are spectacular, however this — greater than possibly another — is a automotive that’s a lot greater than its specs.
How Does It Look?
Gorgeous. The normal Integra is already a nice-looking five-door, however the Type S rework actually modifications the automotive’s visible character. The vast entrance intakes, the enlarged grille, the massive fenders — all of them give the Type S an aggressive, nearly brutish look. There’s no complicated it with the bottom mannequin, and no mistaking it for any staid people-mover. It appears imply.
My tester was accomplished up in Apex Blue, which might be my selection had been I to purchase one. It’s a coloration shared with the bottom automotive (solely the Tiger Eye yellow is unique to the Type S), nevertheless it’s a terrific sufficient hue that I’m not complaining. I do, nevertheless, suggest the non-obligatory accent copper wheels that my tester didn’t have. Maybe it’s simply the previous Subaru proprietor in me, however blue and copper is only a lovely combo.
How Does It Drive?
Better than it has any proper or motive to. When I say the specs don’t matter, I imply there’s no approach a 3,200-lb, 320-horsepower automotive ought to really feel this good. Through a twisty canyon street, the Type S is the satan in your shoulder, at all times telling you to go quicker, nook more durable, brake later and carry extra velocity. It’s by no means unsettled by what you throw at it — enter a nook too scorching, slam on the brakes too arduous, crank the wheel too far, it doesn’t matter. The Integra stays composed via all of it. If you’re fortunate, the automotive could even neglect it’s front-driven for a minute, and kick the tail out like a BRZ.
Of course, coming into a nook too scorching is less complicated stated than accomplished. The Brembo brakes are actually improbable — not on the extent of one thing just like the Focus RS, certain, however that might be overkill on a automotive unlikely to see a lot monitor time.
The suspension by no means feels unsettled, holding tempo with each bump and switch the California canyons throw at it, and the grip from the entrance finish is actually one thing particular to really feel because it pulls you thru to the nook exit. The steering via these corners is extra muted than the Civic Type R, much less communicative, however removed from being boring.
More than something, although, the Integra actually feels prefer it desires to be doing this. When Honda revamped the Civic Type R from the FK8 era to the FL5, that automotive turned extra severe — much less playful and goading, extra centered on lap time supremacy. The Integra splits that distinction, feeling extra raucous than the FL5 with out being as infantile because the FK8. Its exhaust pops and burbles on deceleration, its shifter feels so good slotting its approach via the gears, the automotive effortlessly accelerates to speeds far larger than you ever meant to hit. Through all of it, although, the Integra solely asks one query: “C’mon, is that it?” If you preferred the impish character of the Veloster N, however need one thing constructed for adults, right here’s your automotive.
How’s The Interior?
There’s one thing troublesome to explain in regards to the Integra’s inside. I’ve spent loads of time in these vehicles — I reviewed one on the preliminary press launch, Acura handed me the keys to at least one for Pikes Peak, and now this — and every time one thing has simply felt proper. Truthfully there isn’t a lot to distinguish its design from the Civic, past some revised vents and nicer supplies, however the automotive at all times in some way finally ends up feeling like residence. The Type S seats, with their improved bolstering for cornering consolation, handle to make the inside even nicer. It matches me, it’s a improbable place to be.
As my drive within the Type S started to wrap up, and I traversed the previous couple of miles of the drive route, the clouds that had plagued the entire day began rising darker and extra ominous. Normally that’s an indication to move residence — get out of the automotive, and into the lodge, earlier than the skies open up. But within the Integra, all I believed was how good it might be to spend a rain storm in that driver’s seat. Pull off someplace, crank the stereo, and simply let the drops pound down on the roof. A automotive should be fairly rattling comfy to make sitting nonetheless within the rain tempting.
How Does It Compare to the Competition?
Among its opponents, the Type S is a little bit of an oddball. Its $50,800 MSRP is dearer than the $46,800 Audi S3 or $47,600 BMW M235i Gran Coupe, and it comes on the extra value of pushed wheels — each of these choices ship energy to all 4 corners. The pitch, then, is that the Integra is neither the finances choice nor the luxurious selection. Out of the entry-luxury-performance phase, the Integra is the true driver’s automotive.
The different large competitor to the Integra comes from inside the home — the Civic Type R, which might go almost spec-for-spec with its upscale sibling. But even the toned-down appears of the FL5 Civic don’t slot in in every single place in addition to the Type S’s aggressive-yet-classy exterior does. The Civic is much less comfy, extra centered on all-out velocity in monitor driving. It’s possible quicker round a monitor than the Integra, however I’d fairly take the Acura to work. Your selection will rely on which of these issues extra to you.
Final Thoughts
Too typically, we get wrapped up in numbers. Horsepower, torque, weight, space beneath the curve. These are all necessary sufficient, however they don’t inform the complete story — and typically, they disguise the very best elements of a automotive. Honda and Acura have proven this time and time once more, constructing vehicles that punch properly above their weight class on velocity, dealing with, and luxury.
The Integra Type S is a type of vehicles. It’s quicker than you assume will probably be, extra comfy than its stiff suspension would recommend, and simply a lot enjoyable to chuck round. The automotive is a cushty, pleasing place to spend your time, and should you get the chance to push it via the twisties it’ll reward you want few different vehicles can.
But there’s an elephant within the room, one whose trumpet sounds suspiciously just like the phrases “$52,000 after destination.” That’s greater than Type R cash, greater than you’d pay for the Integra’s German competitors. For $7,000 much less, why not simply get the Civic? If I had the cash, and had been out there for a four-door sporting automotive, it’s one thing I’d need to spend a very long time contemplating.
And, for this evaluation, I’ve. For almost two weeks, I’ve been occupied with the Integra and the Civic and which I’d fairly personal. When it actually comes right down to it, does my 26-year-old again actually need the Integra’s extra consolation? Do I truly desire the Type R seats? Does the Integra add seven grand value of worth above the Civic?
Yes, it does. The Acura’s exhaust be aware alone begins to make up the hole, and the automotive’s raucous nature rapidly joins in. It’s extra comfy than the Civic whereas in some way being extra entertaining at authorized speeds — the speeds you and I truly drive frequently. The Type R can solely be totally uncorked on monitor, however the Integra doesn’t want ten tenths driving to place a smile in your face.
Driving the Type R, when my time was up, I introduced the automotive again to the paddock and handed it off to the subsequent driver. In the Integra, I slowed to a crawl as I approached the drive route’s finish — I didn’t need to give the automotive again. I nonetheless don’t. For my imaginary, hypothetical cash, give me the Integra Type S any day.
2024 Acura Integra Type S Manual Specs
Engine sort
Intercooled Turbo Premium Unleaded I-4
Transmission/Drive
Manual w/OD
Source: jalopnik.com