2023 Acura Integra: The Next Generation Of Sport Compact Car

Acura right now unveiled a pre-creation prototype for the revived 2023 Integra ahead of up coming week’s Los Angeles Car Demonstrate. The new warm hatch will when once more share a system with the Honda Civic, a great deal like the legendary Integras of the 1980s and 1990s. Although Acura’s chief branding officer Jon Ikeda did not offer quite a few information through the expose, we do now know a little bit far more about what the new car will seem like.

To imbue the new Integra with the performance necessary of a correct successor to those styles, Acura guarantees a six-velocity guide transmission harnessing electricity from a turbocharged 1.5-liter four-cylinder engine. An automatic with paddle shifters is extensively anticipated to be announced nearer to the car’s official introduction following year, but is not confirmed. As with the originals, the new Integra will be front-wheel push. In contrast to them, they’ll be constructed at Honda’s manufacturing facility in Marysville, Ohio.

Recognised as just one of the ideal-dealing with entrance-wheel-drive autos of all time, the closing-generation Integra for the U.S. went out of manufacturing in 2001. Acura shifted from names to letters in the late 1990s, and the Integra was the last design to make the transition, turning out to be the RSX in 2002. That vehicle was in no way pretty as preferred as its predecessors and, alongside with the third-technology TL sedan, inaugurated the incredibly style and design aesthetic Acura is now leaving at the rear of. Cleaner, extra muscular patterns for the latest MDX, TSX and RDX pointed the way toward the revived Integra. 

Integra Debuts with Acura’s Sleek New Aesthetic  

Latest revamps from both Honda and Acura reveal a apparent intention to reverse system from the too much angularity and more than-the-major styling typified by the tenth-generation Civic Sort R. Honda unveiled the new eleventh-gen Civic Si only final thirty day period, with a toned-down exterior matched by a simplified inside and a 1.5-liter turbocharged 4-cylinder engine with only 200 horsepower and 192 pound-feet of torque. 

The new Integra will function the Civic Si’s engine, even though Acura did not expose how considerably energy it will make, so it may possibly be an enhancement on the Honda. Retaining the outdated-fashioned 6-velocity stick shift harkens back to the driving dynamics that built the unique Integras so effective although also referencing the level of popularity of Honda’s Civic Si and Sort R variants. Other hints at the new car’s functionality mission are its 19-inch wheels and 235-millimeter low-profile tires, oversize Brembo brakes and blackout trim accents.

Acura’s teasers for the new Integra promised swoopier aero traces and a sporty liftback roofline somewhere concerning a coupe and legitimate hatchback. The prototype debuted now with 4 doorways and probably a tiny much more Civic DNA than was anticipated. While some enthusiasts may well lament that there is no two-door design, the relaxation of the Integra’s requirements are solely in retaining with the primary 1986 edition, which also showcased a 5-door hatchback product. Right after 1990 the four-door Integras were adjusted to sedans. 

In eschewing coupes, the automaker is responding to the current market. Honda also dropped the coupe possibility for the 2022 Civic Si immediately after sluggish gross sales of the earlier-era Civic two-doors. Meanwhile, introducing the Integra as a sedan most likely alerts the stop of the line for Acura’s dated entry-degree ILX compact. 

An Icon Reborn for a New Era 

A serious query for the two Honda and Acura continues to be: Can the new Integra live up to its storied name? The unique automobiles ended up little and simple—available as light as 2,436 lbs . in guide two-doorway hatchback type.  

They have given that come to signify a bygone period with a driver-focused analog cockpit and rev-delighted, if not extremely powerful, engines capable of zero-to-60 sprints of 7 seconds. That’s pedestrian currently but it was brief in the DotCom period, and the eager, higher-winding character of the renowned VTEC engines (Honda’s variable valve timing system, 1st launched on the Integra in 1989 and notably ongoing on the 2023 edition) retained ability exactly the place motorists preferred it although checking out the car’s communicative, tack-sharp managing on twisty streets. They ended up also effortlessly tunable for even far more ability.  

The third-gen Integra, specifically in Style R trim, has emerged as a sought-after collectible in the past decade. It was one of the initially 1990s vehicles to see significant expenditure from collectors and a legend amongst a era who grew up on the Fast and Furious films, them selves encouraged by the import tuner scene that the third-gen Integra was a core portion of. No doubt increasing fascination in these older Integras nudged Acura towards a revival. 

But even the compact sporting activities sedans of these days have turn into heavy thanks to present day crash constructions, excessively computerized, and typically overengineered, at times detaching motorists from the highway with electronic-aid steering, lane-alter assist capabilities, and boring automated transmissions.  

Suffice to say, Acura faces a tall undertaking hoping to fulfill fans who want an Integra that won’t weigh a lot a lot more than 3,000 lbs, with additional horsepower than a Honda Civic Si or Variety R and the entertaining issue of a clutch pedal. 

Variety S Incoming 

The 3rd-gen Integra also marked the previous time an Acura in Form R trim hit the American market—by the time of the RSX, Acura had transitioned to the Form S nomenclature that carries on nowadays on the new TLX sedan and NSX supercar. But will the foundation Integra unveiled nowadays compete specifically with Honda’s as-nevertheless-unannounced Civic Variety R? 

We know that as Acura’s most economical 4-door, the Integra will give a additional refined inside and likely far more ability than the Civic Si, but the automaker has a restricted needle to thread on pricing. Acura states the new Integra will begin around $30,000, but the Si starts at $28,315. It’s tricky to pack much more price into this little sliver of pricing, but the brand name hopes to entice lots of new clients with an beautiful deal on a fun vehicle.

The 2023 Integra will be a “gateway to a new era of Acura performance,” according to Acura model officer Jon Ikeda. The initial Integra helped launch the brand name and hooked a lot of prospects for decades, who then moved up the ladder to TLs, MDXs and other styles. But when these 1980s Integras had been well known, for most of the model’s history there have been even more strong versions this sort of as the GS-R and Kind R.

The information that Acura currently trademarked “Integra Kind S” will probably assistance to assuage concerned lovers. This Style S may well also be relatively extra about the long run. The third-technology Integra obtained an all-wheel generate solution in Japan, but that product was never ever bought below. It is possible that the Sort S might completely transform the Integra with an electrical motor (or pair of motors) driving the rear wheels a la the NSX’s four-motor SH-AWD system.