The Story :

After owning and modifying my first car, a Rover 216 GTi I had a thirst for something more powerful, and it was the screaming Twin Cam Honda engine within the rover that led me to the Integra Type R. I wanted one for nearly two years before I was eventually able to afford one with the help of my dad and a Marks and Spencer loan he took out on my behalf. It was by chance that the one I eventually purchased after sifting through Autotrader was the same one I first saw for sale some eight months earlier at a car show known as Weston Wheels.

When I purchased the car in March 2004 for £7900 it had already been fitted by the previous owner with the DC Sports Cat Back SS Exhaust system, DC Sports manifold, Decat pipe, AEM V1 long track air intake and Nology HT leads. Feeling like this setup was a little incomplete without pushing some additional fuel in I had soon purchased an Apexi VAFC II (a piggy back fuel controller). This was followed by various suspension upgrades, including a near new set of Koni top adjustable shocks and Eibach springs, lowering the car by 20mm, camber adjusters, new Rota Grid 16" wheels with forged alloy wheel nuts and an array of new bushes.

  

After starting Tatsu Car Club with a few friends I found myself atttending many shows often with the car in a prominent position at the events and I felt the car was in need of a little tidying up with regards to a few stone chips and parking dents. It was returning home from JAE in 2005 that encouraged me to bring forward my plans as the car was hit from behind by a tailgating numpty in a V3ctra.

  
 

Anyway having know the guys from Avon Custom for some years after building their website I went to them to get the Insurance repairs done to a very high standard and at the same time I decided I should invest some money into making the car the best it can be. I managed to source some replica USDM optional side sills and rear spats from American Ebay, which were fitted to the car, as well as adding a Seibon Carbon fibre bonnet and having a Full windows out respray with House of Kolor Klear flow coated on top, for a perfect Show class shine.

  
  
  

...From there on the Integra has been to many shows and on a few tracks around the UK and has always been well serviced by myself. But that doesn't stop things from going wrong and in 2006 the clutch went on my way home from work. Fortunately the car had stopped at a set of traffic lights just outside a garage with a towtruck suitably low enough to get the teg on with minimal scraping.

  

I saw this, as many of us would, as an opportunity to upgrade and went on the hunt for a stronger clutch and lightweight flywheel, and I happened upon a Ogura single plate clutch and flywheel combo, used but the seller stated it was like new and the clutch plate hardly had any ware. Once it arrive it was fairly clear that the seller had lied about the state of the clutch, the wrong bolt had been forced into one of the fixings, the clutch plate was about halfway through it's life and there were deep marks in both contact surfaces. Basically from there the seller refused a refund although I eventually recovered half the money I paid him.

  

After that experience I knew firstly I didn't want to mess with second hand clutches again and I also needed to get the car back on the road asap. A friend of mine helped me tow it to Avon Custom, who were able to do the work and I managed to quickly source an ACT lightened flywheel and six spring clutch which were proptly fitted and the difference the flywheel made was immediately obvious with the engine revving much more freely.

  

After having the carbon bonnet a couple of years and endlessly having to explain to normal folk why I had a black bonnet on the car, I decided to get it sprayed, and at the same time I had the 16" JDM wheels repainted in Championship White to match the car, and The holes for the front badge were smoothed over. I had also managed to aquire a genuine pair of the US optional side skirts, so had these painted and fitted to complete the fresh new look.

 

With the car now over 140,000 miles and 10 years old things have been starting to look tired and showing rust, although the rust seems mostly to be on the aftermarket parts (why these companies cannot properly protect there products from the elements i don't know, but the Skunk2 Camber adjusters have been the worst, looking very rusty and one of the ball joints got into a very bad way. This was temporarily replaced with the origional item whilst I tracked down an affordable better quality product.

I've been wanting for ages to create a more attractive and unique engine bay and the idae has been to go with a yellow and orange theme, Yellow cam cover and AEM intake pipe, with many of the smaller parts either being black or being painted Orange to match the reservoir covers I had purchased.

This is not a car I ever plan to sell, so I have no concerns with me continuing to plough money into it to keep it running and looking great and will soon find the time to take the car apart piece by piece to tidy it up to be better than ever so I can continue to drive it and enjoy it!

Thanks for reading.