So the seller of this car was looking for a wagon, and hey, I had one of them. We struck a deal and ownerships changed.
It’s a Honda Integra Type R, a pretty damn stunning car normally anyway, but this one had been turbocharged. It was exceptionally tidy inside and out, and the turbo conversion was done using a Greddy kit, which was also tidy and well made. When I got the car it had been modified to have an external wastegate, which vented to atmosphere…. and boy was it loud! I had Pitstop plumb the pipe back into the exhaust to quieten it down, and make it legal.
The car made 300hp at the wheels, and was running an Apexi Power FC ECU. It was stupid fast, proving on closed roads that it could well exceed 200kph without breaking a sweat, and it was quick to get there. The standard gearbox had well matched ratios, although first gear was almost a write off due to the power, and the helical LSD just absolutely planted the power to the ground.
Being a Greddy turbo kit it was well constructed, with a TD05H turbo, tidy piping, a good size hidden intercooler and a Greddy Type R blow off valve. Along with this though, the rest of the car was standard apart from the exhaust, so NVH (Noise Vibration Harshness) was as low as a standard car, and it was still nice to drive.
Here’s a quick video I took (more as a test of the camera)
I liked this car, a lot, but it also stands as the only car I have ever had a speeding ticket in. It was when I realised what would happen if I crashed this car at over 200kph that I decided I wasn’t the right person to own it, and decided to swap it for something a bit more boring.
Last spotted in April 2018 on Facebook in Auckland, for sale and looking worse for wear (now with over 220,000km, 100,000km more than when I sold it). Sounds like the engine had been rebuilt with forged internals, although you’d want proof of that. Shame to see the OZ Cronos gone, and the interior torn. It could be saved, but not at the $9k they ask.
Spotted on FB again, August 2018. It’s not getting any better 🙁
And now, it’s at its final stage. Spotted on Facebook June 2019. Engine blew, being stripped for parts. The dream of buying it back and restoring it to its former glory is gone.
And it keeps doing the rounds of Facebook. Spotted June 2020. Please just send it to the crusher and be done with it. It doesn’t deserve this.
By some miracle, it popped up again. I noticed shortly after the last time it was sold as the rolling shell, that it was back on the road again. I suspected it had been used for its plates and tags to “rebirth” or “ring” another ITR back onto the road, but as it turns out, someone did build the shell up again.
Currently running an NA B18CR, and back on the proper 4×114.3 hubs. Although the photos show it had a respray (likely because there was damage down both sides of the car), you can tell its the same shell because of the flared rear arches (a shame, I would’ve cleaned them up and un-flared them before painting). It still claims to be certed for the turbo, albeit long gone (you can just make out the cert plate still on the RH strut tower – this would mean the car doesn’t match the cert and technically isn’t road legal).
As seen on FB July 2023.
