It's one thing to know a supermodel exists. It's another thing altogether to have her supple form, in cotton panties and a crisp white button-down, beckon you to dance.
Dressed in white and sporting a Tein Flex suspension and footwear from Enkei, Tein's new DC5 Type R flaunts and taunts. Cruising around Japan in this car is like wearing Jennifer Aniston as a hat. People stare. They point. They raise their octopus jerky in salute.
It only makes sense that Tein would develop suspension kits for what is arguably the best and fastest all-around front-wheel-drive car in the world.
Unlike the owners of Ford Escorts and Geo Storm Type Rs, Honda takes this badge rather seriously. Never just a healthier engine and stiffer springs, any Type R variant is dissimilar from lesser stable mates in enough small ways to warrant being called a completely different car.
Honda purists may whine that with the demise of the Prelude, the DC5 Integra line, including the Type R, was made more luxurious to lure would-be Prelude buyers. But we don't bemoan the slightly plusher interior and amenities. We're not unhappy that Honda had Alpine install a kickin' system. We can fart with more clarity than the old Type R speakers. The red Recaro seats are spectacular and caress average Japanese consumers and skinny white boys like the tender but strong hands of a bathhouse matron.
Honda spent close to $3 billion developing the DC5 Integra, reusing nothing from the old car. Gone is the stellar 12-year-old B-series and the trick four-corner double-wishbone suspension, replaced by the pumped up K20A i-VTEC engine and McPherson struts up front.
Honda engineers placed a premium on chassis stiffness, which has done wonders for both handling and reduced NVH levels. Part of this was necessary to deal with the greater heft of the new car, despite the fact that the K20A weighs 20 lbs less than the B18C5 it replaces.
The 220-hp Type R version of the K20A comes with such fun goodies as a forged chromoly flywheel. In combination with tight gearing and helical limited-slip differential, this engine slingshots the Type R off turns like few vehicles driven with the front wheels. Sitting large behing the standard 17-inch wheels, the front brakes, which were developed in conjunction with Brembo, are 11.8 inches in diameter. They sport four-piston monoblock aluminum calipers, which dissipate heat much better than the cast-iron blocks they replace.
The only modification Tein made to the powertrain was the installation of a Fujitsubo cat-back exhaust. One of the most expensive and well-regarded exhaust manufacturers in Japan, Fujitsubo has yet to make inroads in the American market. Attached to the K20A, the Fujitsubo system is refined and deep-toned, not like the sonic assault weapons we're accustomed to from many Japanese tuners.
For once, an exhausterized Honda four-banger, H22 and F20C excluded, doesn't sound like complete crap. We don't care how much horsepower built, normally aspirated B-series engines make, they all elicit a tone so awful it causes Howler monkeys in the jungles of Borneo to fling dung. Incidentally, this might explain the brown stains on Jacquot's office walls.
Tein fitted the Type R with Type Flex dampers, designed to be the best compromise between high-end handling and streetability. Tein set the ride height about an inch below the factory setting, and made an already racy looking car more aggressive. The Tein EDFC, or Electronic Damping Force Controller, was fitted to provide in-car adjustment of damping force using the DIN-sized controller.
During our visit, Tein set up a 10-mile evaluation course that included a variety of surfaces and road conditions for us to play with the EDFC and become better acquainted with the Flex line. The Type R is quite stiff by itself, and the Flex dampers a bit more so. But the extra refinements in the DC5 Type R keep road harshness well controlled.
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