Please Don’t Go: A Final Drive and Lingering Thoughts on Our Yearlong-Test Acura Integra Type S

But Did We?

Human nature often dictates we become comfortable if not unappreciative to a positive situation when it remains stable day after day, and as our final weeks with the Integra Type R ticked away (speaking for myself as the car’s chaperone and no other MotorTrend editor, anyway), I asked myself if I had fully enjoyed the experience. But as I drove the Acura one day for no reason other than driving it as much as possible before saying goodbye to it, I realized I had indeed done so even if I didn’t always consciously consider the topic.

Like the M2 and despite its primary high-performance mission, the Integra Type S performs routine tasks without protest, so it blends seamlessly into your daily life without cracking you constantly upside the head with its juiced-up personality every time you greet it. In other words, while it can put a big grin on your face and butterflies in your passengers’ stomachs when driven with verve on a fun road or racetrack, it also lets you nearly forget it’s even there when you’re dawdling around in the course of running errands or going shopping.

In fact, the front-drive Integra Type S is even better at taking advantage of this personality duality than the even more aggressive rear-drive M2, the latter claiming a 153-horsepower advantage (plus a $12,000 price premium) and tuning that makes it feel like the more frenetic of the two. Put it this way: The BMW, in my opinion, accepted it when you’re just toodling along but gives a distinct impression of disappointment (should a car could be capable of such a thing) if you don’t drop the hammer, whereas the Acura would like you to do so but doesn’t mind one bit if you don’t.

To digress, this isn’t an M2 versus Integra Type S comparison story; the above thoughts just happened to run laps in my mind as I questioned if I had at any point become numb to the Acura. Those same ideas then caused to me to realize the situation was in fact the opposite—I could do anything within reason and/or cargo capacity with this car, from leaving an imaginary trail of smoke billowing from the asphalt we’d just torched together, to procuring two weeks’ worth of groceries or home-good supplies. It was all the same to this Integra; I never even had to think about it, perhaps one characteristic aside.

The Type S’ ride quality never troubled me, but a few people who rode in it from time to time weren’t always thrilled with it even with the suspension set to its Comfort mode. They more than once voiced displeasure from both the back seat and the front with the vertical ride frequency despite the damping being tuned a bit less aggressively than it is in the closely related Honda Civic Type R. Yes, the Acura is meant to be more comfortable than its sibling, but don’t think for a second this is more of a luxury can than a performance one. Anyone who buys this car on that premise will have made a big mistake.