01
The Type R That Spiced Up an Honor Student
The Integra Type R was created as part of a model change to revitalize the Integra. Uehara was not the development lead but was in something like a producer's position. The Integra of the time had a four-round-headlight design that was too distinctive to be readily accepted by the market, and it had been reworked with a facelift and other changes. When Uehara took a good long drive in an SiR to know the real thing, the engine revved pleasantly, the ride was comfortable and quiet, and it was a well-balanced honor student. But an honor student rarely strikes a chord with people who truly love cars. At the time there were even critiques to the effect that a front-wheel-drive car could not be a sports car, so they decided to build one anyway and made the Type R. The theme was to keep understeer from appearing by suppressing it with a helical LSD and the suspension settings. Uehara laughs that the first Integra Type R was built by a gathering of enthusiasts.
