Price as tested: $52,595

Specs: 2.0 Liter Turbo’d 4 Cylinder

320 HP / 310 TQ

0-60: 5.2

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Guy who did stuff: Yousef Alvi

It’s funny how knee jerk reactions can come back and kick you squarely in the ass. The first reactions to the Integra teaser images ellcited vitroiic reactions from every corner of the automotive world. Most could not get over the similarities to the Civic’s interior and the exterior design was described as ‘drabe’.

That couldn’t be further from the truth…

Because the 2024 Acura Integra Type S is not just a rebadged FL5…it has a personality all its own. So much in fact, it doesn’t just differentiates itself from the Type R…it is so good in fact that:

Let’s start off with the looks, yes the first images made it look a bit mundane and uninspired. BUT then you see it person and especially in the Type S guise, you appreciate the small details that harken back to the Integra lineage. From the JDM Inspired DC5 front end all the way to the rear…you can see echos of the glory days of Acura’s past. In the Type S form, the fender flares, wing, wheels and a host of other body changes transforms that design language something that would make a 2000 version of Tsuchiya and his Best Motoring colleagues drool!

Now, let’s talk about that interior for a second. Yes, it looks like someone went to photoshop and hit CTRL C on a Civic’s interior and then CTRL V to drop it in the Integra. BUT, somehow…someway…the Integra’s interior just FEELS better screwed together. There is a weighty substance to all the controls, the doors close with authority and everything just feels ‘a step up’ from the Civic.

Prime example is the shift knob. In the Civic Type R, it looks like this:

In the Integra Type S, it looks like this:

Those small details like the contrast stitching, the leather perforations and metallic disc on top…all add up to a shifter that feels like what it is…a Type R shifter…just elevated that extra 3 steps.

Oh and the Integra Type S has something the Civic Type R is sorely lacking:

Now, let’s talk about the way the Integra Type S drives! Take everything you know and love about the Civic Type R and refine every facet an extra 2 to 3 degrees. From the turn in, the shifter engagement, clutch, brakes and ride…is just those few degrees better. Bear in mind…we are talking about a few degrees better on a Type R! A vehicle, in and of itself, is reality shatteringly great!

Acura’s engineers just elevated that entire vehicle’s dynamics to something that is sublime. The way the Type S turns into a corner feels so tactilely precise in your hands…that I dream about it at night. The way the shifter doesn’t just slot or glide into a gear, it feels like you are you closing the bolts on a safe…the satisfyingly heavy sounding, mechanically feeling ‘click’, that every gear change utters an audible ‘0o0o0o’. Add that to the sheer grip, torque filled power band and strong brakes…the confidence I got driving this Integra Type S is only shadowed by the McLaren 720s! Both vehicles are engineered to feed it’s drivers such a sheer amount of ingestible information that one cannot help but feel unadulterated conviction behind the wheel.

Oh add ALL of those factors to the way the Type S feels planted and yet composed on even the most rutted of roads and it’s stability on everything from high speed highway passes, to corner carving in the mountains to swinging Into the carpool line at your kid’s school, with the practicality HUGE amount cargo room:

You don’t have a recipe for a sports sedan or even a supercar killer like a GTR…once you add up all of it’s virtues like performance, comfort, packaging, looks, efficiency, build quality, practicality and price: