If you often find yourself browsing Bring A Trailer, every so often you come across a result that almost makes you jump out of your skin. This is one of those times. Our subject today is a 2001 Acura Integra Type R, and when the virtual hammer dropped on Friday, it crossed the digital auction block for $204,204. No, that’s not a typo.
Six figures, starting with a two, all for a quick Acura. That’s starter house money in many parts of North America, or at least the sort of cash to get you into a condo. That’s supercar money, powerboat money, pay off your student loans money, the sort of money that can buy an air-cooled Porsche so impressive that the president of your local PCA chapter will bow in your presence.
The Acura Integra Type R is already an inherently special car. Sure, 195 horsepower isn’t a whole lot by modern standards, but neither is 2,639 pounds. We’re looking at one of the most iconic sport compact coupes of the ’90s on a factory diet of trenbolone and taurine, a muscled-up, sharpened-up spear showing just what Honda—and indeed Japan—was capable of.
At the heart of this machine sits a hand-built B18C inline-four displacing just 1.8 liters, but it got a larger throttle body, a free-flowing exhaust system, polished intake and exhaust ports, lighter intake valves, beefier cams, high-compression pistons with molybdenum-coated skirts, balanced forged connecting rods, and a micro-polished forged crankshaft that work in harmony to 8,500 RPM in U.S.-spec examples. From there, a close-ratio five-speed manual transaxle with a helical limited-slip differential converted that power into forward motion, and the whole assembly sat inside a strengthened chassis adorned with lighter glass and less sound insulation. Heavily revised suspension, five-lug hubs, and beefier brakes completed the package, and the result wasn’t just an Acura with a higher specific output than a Ferrari F355, it was one of the all-time great Japanese cars.
This particular Integra Type R is one of 1,173 examples sold in America for the 2001 model year, but it’s in the desirable hue of Phoenix Yellow, and it’s covered just 4,800 miles under the watch of two registered owners. The second owner? The renowned RealTime Collection Hall, as in RealTime Racing, Peter Cunningham’s pro team that found huge success in SCCA World Challenge Touring Car racing with the Integra Type R, among other Honda models. Given the mileage, it shouldn’t be surprising that the underbody is almost clean enough to be surgical, with everything from the transaxle case to the wheel arch liners to the floors in astonishing condition. These cars weren’t exactly dirt-cheap when they were new, but they were inexpensive enough that few pristine examples survive, so this is a bit of a case of “find another.” Still, $204,000?
I’ve driven an Integra Type R and it’s a brilliant, effervescent little thing with the agility of a mosquito and the fizz of prosecco. It technically can go slow and be an economical three-door runabout but it doesn’t want to. It goads you into cracking VTEC and riding the dopamine hit to redline, relishes a bit of lift-off action, and turns in with proper tenacity. It’s a more memorable experience than loads of more powerful cars, and one that’s proof of why these cars deserve a strong following.
Is it a $204,000 experience, though? As overwhelmingly potent yet well-rounded as a 993 Turbo, as rarified as the nicest of gated 550 Maranellos, as starship warp-drive as a McLaren 720S, as much of a style icon as a split-window 1963 Corvette? To most people, probably not. After all, you can still get a really nice—if not absolutely perfect—Phoenix Yellow Integra Type R for less than $50,000, and a four-time multiple to own one of the nicest examples on the planet seems a tad excessive.
Then again, perhaps it’s only excessive if nobody wants to pay for it. This isn’t just a case of one wild out-of-the-blue bid, as it was a three-horse race well beyond $175,000. There’s actually a six-figure market for pristine ultra-low-mileage Integra Type Rs, and this new record likely means we’ve crossed into a new frontier. Oh, and if you ever knew someone who said that Japanese cars will never be collectable, don’t you just wonder how they feel now?
(Top graphic image: Bring A Trailer)
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Cuyahoga Falls Ohio. Bedroom community of Akron. Nice neighborhood.
https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/2821-13th-St-Cuyahoga-Falls-OH-44223/35313992_zpid/
The best part is the interior ambiance which shares switchgear with my roommate’s old ’04 Civic which she picked up (and later sold) for approximately a tenth of the price. Sure hers was more beat up, but I bet it smells the same.
lol wtf kind of crackheads are paying that much? They didn’t even get it in cocaine white 😛
Some people have too much money and need to be taxed a bit more
If I had $204k I had to spend on a vehicle to keep, it would unquestionably be the conversion van of my dreams, customized and tricked out to a T.
Nice car, but not one that appeals to me for that much, damn.
Sorry I can buy 4 houses in my neighborhood for that and have enough money to buy 4 nice Camry’s in each house. Anyone else think BAT is laundering money?
The rich have easier ways of laundering money than Bring a Trailer lmao
that is a lot of shitty ford econolines
Or a moderate number of serviceable ones.
Not around here. 200k might be a good down payment for a house.
I own half of a 2 bedroom duplex in a neighborhood where “aren’t you afraid you’re going to get shot?” is the usual reaction to telling people where I live, and 200k would be a solid 25% down payment on it today. The only thing stupider than mint Integra prices is SoCal real estate.
If it ain’t a type R then it ain’t a tight car
I remember a good friend of mine back in the day inherited an Integra Type R from her grandad. She was 18 and it was her first car, and she was NOT a car person at all. She had it for years and I suspect in all that time it never got anywhere near the redline. I found it amusing at the time and now my only regret is I never asked to have a drive of it – though to my shame I didn’t know how to drive a manual at the time. She ended up trading it in for a CUV from memory.
Eh, some of us are late bloomers. I didn’t learn to drive stick until 5 years ago.
That’s gotta be one of the rarest granddads ever – purchased an Integra Type R and then willed it to a grandchild who knew nothing about cars. Also one of the saddest stories as said grandchild sold it off not knowing how much their grandfather knew about automobiles that they didn’t. If anything, this just sounds like the premise to an anime…wait is this family Japanese?
My grandfather who was a collegiate automotive repair teacher for 25+ years would’ve left me his ’88 Cutlass Ciera with the dealer discounted factory Trucoat
Did it get stolen yet?
I graduated in ’02, I remember the tuner kid with his EG Civic getting a legit one as a graduation present from his dad.
When I was in college I knew several rich kids getting expensive cars and wrecking them in a year. Only one ended up in a coma and dying. Good odds right?
So cars like these are the hemi cuda’s or charger daytona of the current generation of fuck it money? Crazy
Having driven all of the above, that’s not a fair comparison. The Acura’s just a better car and a metric crap ton more fun. 🙂 Yeah, you don’t have the V8 sound but in exchange you get to brake AND turn in addition to accelerate.
(No way I’d spend my own money on one of these though, but can understand the appeal)
Frankly you can’t really drive them that fast anywhere so I prefer the sound
Oh hells no. If I had $204k to burn on car stuff I’d run a season or 2 of Global MX-5 Cup. Of course, anyone who has $204k to burn on an old ITR can probably afford to do both.
If I had 204k sitting around I would not be burning it on a car
Right on the money.
That’s a big number but I’m not surprised. For people of a certain age (and possibly geographic upbringing), this was pretty close to peak desirable car in high school, so it *is* their ’63 Vette. Growing up in 1990s SoCal I remember how hyped the Type R was: “If it’s not Type R, it’s not a tite car.” Now those same people have nostalgia and nostalgia.
I hate this shit and what BAT has done to ruin cars like this for the rest of us. This was never supposed to be a high end collector item…it’s a zooted up economy car that’s meant to be enjoyed by people like us. Now it’ll get mothballed by some rich asshole who has 15 other cars they never drive.
It bugs me when exotic cars aren’t driven, but at the end of the day I begrudgingly get it. What I don’t get that pisses me off is when these lizard people decide they’re the only ones who deserve cars that were meant for folks of regular means and price folks of regular means out of them. That’s end stage capitalism. Leave the regular cars alone and go lease another Porsche….this is car gentrification.
Couldn’t agree more.
BAT has Porschefied the entire market. Up until the last few decades Porsches didn’t even hold their value that well. They were kinda the first big one to take off and it’s only gotten worse from there.
Shit, I need to find some rich person with F You money to unload my Ice White Mustang on.
I’ve never seen another on the road, so it must be super rare and therefore worth at least as much as this Type R. Even better, it’s actually been driven so you know all the shit works.
/s
I agree with the sentiment, but after lots of experience with the drivetrain disagree with whether this car should be put on a pedestal. I shamefully have ruined one of these cars by getting a good deal on a wrecked one and swapping the drivetrain into a Lemons race car. We were popping a D or B series engine every 750-1000 miles, then learned the trick that if you retard the timing 2 degrees you can double that, and the transmissions generally lasted 1000-1500 miles. Since we put this drivetrain in the car has done roughly 35-40 races or about 30K miles and has only started consuming 1/2 quart of oil per race over the last 3. The real secret sauce to the Type R is the torsen diff and the transmission though. It single handedly transformed my opinion of AWD > RWD > FWD to a question of how twisty and what the surface is like.
If there’s consolation to be had, it’s that most of these will eat it on trying to cash out, if that day comes.
Nostalgia’s a thing, yes, but it’s only a thing if you were there. 1950s American cars don’t do much for me, and even ’60s muscle cars are kind of passe, outside a few genuinely interesting (and rare) vehicles. Untold Chevelles, Corvettes, and Mustangs clog Boomers’ garages, and I’m not sure someone under the age of 40 is going to jump at the chance to buy them for inflated prices their current owners think they’re worth.
I didn’t drop acid in the ’60s at Woodstock, and a ’68 Chevelle with a 350 and a 4bbl is not that exciting of a car. Kinda cool, sure, but not at what people want for them in this moment of time.
If you didn’t live the Fast and Furious / ’90s Japan bubble sports car thing, the Type R Integra isn’t a hugely desirable thing. Sure, we’ll have a period where they’re kind of hot and dinguses with too much money and no brains will make these headlines a thing for awhile, but eventually the next generation will find that a 200-hp front-drive economy car isn’t that exciting, because it really isn’t.
I mean, BaT still sells a not insignificant number of ITRs for extremely fair prices. Looking at past results, there’s a lot in the upper 20’s, 30’s, and 40’s. Even some in the teens if you don’t mind modded RHD examples.
https://bringatrailer.com/acura/integra-type-r/
This car is an absolute exception – it’s arguably the best year, insanely low miles, and was being sold by Peter Cunningham, who had it in the Realtime Collection for many years. It’s the peak of ITR, so this price makes sense. Highly unlikely this has any effect on less-prestigious examples.
Couple points
“what BAT has done to ruin cars like this for the rest of us”
What has Bring a Trailer done any different than any other auction market?
“This was never supposed to be a high end collector item”
Neither were most current collector cars. The original Shelby Mustang GT350 wasn’t either.
“it’s a zooted up economy car that’s meant to be enjoyed by people like us”
This describes every M3, HEMI muscle car, Shelby Mustang, and more.
“Now it’ll get mothballed by some rich asshole who has 15 other cars they never drive.” at 4800 miles since 2001, that doesn’t seem too different than the life its led to this point. There are plenty of drivers’ examples of this car out there.
“lizard people”
Well this one just has roots in antisemitism and i’d encourage everyone to stop using it.
“Leave the regular cars alone and go lease another Porsche….this is car gentrification.”
This isn’t a regular car anymore, and never was. It was always an enthusiast car.
Agree with others that this should’ve been driven. They’re genuinely special.
These are idolized for a reason. They were the last of their kind. I genuinely respect DC5 Integras (RSX), but they had a much different buyer they were targeting. I always wonder what was possible if they had went mental on the DC5.
I wonder how soon an Evolution IX MR crosses $200K? They’re already close.
Or you could just buy one of the two Phoenix Yellow DC2s on cars.com for $45,888 or $27,900.
That is most definitely a great car, but much like the Fiero v. Ferrari article from a few days ago, if I had $200K to drop on a car…
I wouldn’t.
4800 miles in 24 years just seems wrong/unfortunate.
Right? It’s a fucking spicy economy car, not a Pagani….
My next thought was…will this car continue to appreciate? Will someone in the future be willing to pay even more?
Surely, there is a ceiling for bad financial decisions, right?
I also get that this has one of those deified high revving Honda 4s but like….you can go get an Integra Type S in the low 50s right off a lot right now. A dealership will probably even sell it under MSRP.
Is this really 4 times the car?
You summed it up nicely. These are undoubtedly great cars, and I remember vividly staring longingly at a picture of one in a Car & Driver when they hit the market.
But there’s too many cars I’m far more interested in owning for $200k.
Where can I buy a house for $200k these days? Asking for a friend.
Wrong end of Alaska?
Rural Pennsylvania, perhaps.
You could probably buy a whole-ass neighborhood in Gary Indiana for $200k.
Beat me to it. You could probably get something really old and small in the midwest for that price pre-pandemic. Good luck now.
The average home price in Earle, AR is $53k and has been declining since 2020. All you have to give up is everything.
I’d have to go looking, but I wonder if some parts of the Rocky Mountain rain shadow could possibly be cheaper. That place is a genuine desolate wasteland with no opportunity in sight, and the only thing you could do for fun out there is play football with a cactus like Snoopy’s brother Spike.
EDIT: Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Oklahoma, Alabama and Mississippi seem to have actual things in the $25-40K range that aren’t abandoned, not in horrible shape, and aren’t trailers. Whether you want to live in these very specific places in these states is another question entirely.
In parts of Appalachia you can get 2 houses for $200k. Not sure you’d want to live there.
Nowhere with a functioning infrastructure and school system.
Plenty of places as long as you don’t want to live in a suburban area, and what a lot of people don’t realize is that much of what you’re paying for a house is paying for the dirt underneath the house.
I just spent less buying 10 acres an hour away from my house than I’d spend buying the 1/4 acre plot down the street from my house. If I’d gone 2.5 hours away I could have gotten 100 acres for the same price.
If I bought a half acre or so up there instead, I could easily stick a pretty decent house on it for less than $200k.
Actually, I bet you could buy 3-4 houses within Detroit’s city limits.
You didn’t say anything about being habitable. 🙂
Nowhere you’d actually want to live.