The legendary Honda coupe’s nameplate is set to be resurrected after a break of more than a 10 years, but will it be a USA-specific, Acura-badged model only?

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CALIFORNIA, USA

A certain corner of the car enthusiast world was abuzz with chatter over the last few days, with the revelation that Acura is reviving the Integra model name. 

Acura is, of course, the luxury brand arm of Honda in America, and the Integra is famed for being THE benchmark front-wheel-drive coupe of the 1990s. At the Monterey Car Week in California which wrapped up on 15th August 2021, Acura put out a teaser image of the new car’s front bumper, complete with an inset Integra logo.

And that’s all we know. 

Plenty of renderings have surfaced online, but they are just fan-made conjectures at this point, created by dedicated enthusiasts. What the actual car will look like, no one outside of Honda really knows yet.

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From what Acura vice president Jon Ikeda revealed, it’s a car that is set to take over as the halo model of Acura’s American lineup, since the NSX hybrid supercar has been retired. It’s a pretty radical idea, replacing a luxury supercar with a reasonably attainable, sporty model to function as the brand’s ‘must-have’ model.

We do not even know if that car will actually be a two-door coupe or will have two and four-door variants, but in another twist, the new Integra is penned in Japan despite being set for an American debut for the 2023 model year.

The previous-generation Honda Integra lasted from 2001 to 2006. While it kept the Integra nameplate in the rest of the world, it was badged as the Acura RSX in America, keeping in line with the trend to use three-letter model designations for the brand there. 

It’s been confirmed that the upcoming Integra will be built upon the same platform as the new Honda Civic, as has all the generations before. Powertrain options have not yet been revealed, along with whether or not it will have hybrid power.

The other big question is, will the car be eventually released under the Honda brand worldwide and in right-hand drive?

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It’s still too early in the product’s development to make any kind of informed guess, but historically, the Honda Integra nameplate has been a very versatile one when it first appeared in 1985 as the Honda Quint Integra, sandwiched between the cheaper Honda Civic and the pricier Honda Prelude coupe. Based upon the contemporary Honda Civic’s chassis but with a sportier state of tune and more premium features, the Quint Integra was available as a three-door fastback coupe, five-door liftback, and four-door sedan.

Export models dropped the ‘Quint’ from the name, and it became just the Honda Integra. In 1986, it also became the very first Acura to be sold in the USA. The rebranding was a way for Honda to sell a more upscale sub-brand the same way that Toyota would start to do with Lexus three years later.

The first-gen Integra was actually widely available in Singapore up to 1989 as well, but only in five-door liftback form and with the lower specification engine that did not have the electronic fuel-injection system.

A very little-known fact is that the second generation Integra was the first series production Honda to be fitted with a VTEC, variable valve-timing engine, launched just a few months before the original NSX supercar in 1989. 

It was the third-generation car that really cemented the Integra’s place in automotive history, with the first and very iconic Integra Type R, a car often said to be the best front-wheel drive coupe ever made from the age before heavy computerisation in cars.

The third-gen design soldiered on for an impressive eight years, which was an eternity when new models were launched on a four-year cycle back in the 1990s. It was also very versatile, and a four-wheel drive Integra sedan was also sold for a short period of time.

It was not without controversy though, as the initial ‘four-eyed’ headlight design proved unpopular in Japan and was replaced by a whole new front end within three years while the rest of the world continued with the ‘four-eyed’ style.

While the fourth-generation model of 2002, named the Acura RSX in America but Honda Integra everywhere else, attempted to recapture the magic of the third-gen car, dwindling interest in two-door coupes, amidst the rise of SUV body styles, eventually led to Honda deciding not to carry on with the next-gen version. 

This is all set to change in 2022 though, when the fifth-generation Integra makes its debut for the 2023 model year in America. As for whether the rest of the world will be getting a release under the Honda banner, we really do have to wait and see. 

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