The Honda Integra (sold in some markets as Acura Integra) is a compact luxury performance coupe made by Honda during the years 1985 to 2006. The sporty front wheel drive car is able to house five passengers with a two door hatch or four door sedan available.
The Integra was on Car and Driver magazine's annual Ten Best list six times, in 1987, 1988, and 1994 through 1997. The GS-R model was called out specifically in 1994 and 1995. It made a return on the Ten Best list as the Acura RSX, for 2002 and 2003. The Integra Type-R (DC2) was named as the 'best front-wheel-drive drivers car ever' by Evo Magazine in 2006 and has a pedigree descended from Honda Formula 1 cars.
This vehicle debuted in Japan in 1985 as the Honda Quint Integra before going on sale a year later in North America as part of the then-new luxury Acura lineup. Three and five-door hatchback and four-door saloon bodies were available, with a 1.6 L DOHC 16-valve four-cylinder engine powering both. The engine was the vehicle's most publicized feature, as DOHC, multi-valve engines were not commonplace in entry-level models at the time. In most European countries, only the 5-door liftback was offered, as a replacement for the unsuccessful Honda Quint. Typically for European Integras, only the 1.5 liter carburetor engine was available. Except for Britain, Honda did not offer the more powerful 1.6 DOHC fuel injection engine (in the UK known as the Integra EX16) in Europe. Compared to the US, the European Integra was aimed downmarket and generally lacked equipment, with no trim levels (LX and EX) offering painted bumpers, central locking, power windows or air conditioning, even though a small number of fully equipped, left-hand drive fuel-injected Integras were sold in the Netherlands. The Integra EX16 did offer a sunroof, painted bumpers, a rear spoiler and Hi-Fi stereo equipment, but neither electric windows, central locking nor air conditioning were available. This was considered as a drawback to its European competitors such as the Peugeot 309 1.6 injection and the Renault 11 Turbo, that all could be equipped with comprehensive, albeit expensive, equipment. The first Integra never became as popular in Europe as it did in the US, but was praised by most motor magazines for its styling and overall road performance. The styling reflected the popularity of Honda's performance coupe, the Honda Prelude, with the Integra offering a hatchback for added cargo accomodation.
The 5-door liftback model was also sold in Australia rebadged as the Rover 416i. Being designed as the successor of the Honda Quint, the Integra is closely related to the Civic, although it featured a small list of key upgrades over its lesser stablemate to help merit a price increase over the CRX Si, which was otherwise the sportiest compact vehicle being offered by Honda/Acura; enlarged 4-wheel disc brakes replaced the small front-disc/rear-drum setup used by the Civic and CRX, suspension calibration was re-worked, better tires were used and a 113 hp DOHC fuel injected 16-valve engine was used in place of the SOHC unit from the CRX Si. Just like the Honda Prelude and the Honda Accord (Honda Accord Aerodeck in Europe) of that period, the Integra featured sleek sporty pop-up headlights. Nearly 228,000 units were sold during the four year run of the first generation model. Most of them in the United States.
The first generation Integras actually came with two different engines. Although they shared the same engine code (D16A1), there were a few differences. The engine differed in the years 1986 to 1987 and 1988 to 1989. The two engines are commonly called the "Browntop" and "Blacktop" due to the color of their valve covers. The "browntop" came in 1986 and 1987 Integras while the "blacktop" came in 1988 and 1989 models. The improvements in the "blacktop" engine included lighter rods, domed pistons for slightly higher compression, and an electric advance distributor (the "browntop" came with a vacuum advance distributor). The overall gain in performance was about 5 hp (3.7 kW) for 118 hp (88.0 kW).
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