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| Championship White 1998 ITR #327 on Angeles Crest with other Icons, Aug 2022 |
Mod List [Updated 6/7/2026]
Engine/Transmission
Spoon Sports Radiator, 2 Core
Spoon Sports Radiator Hoses, Upper/Lower
Spoon Sports Radiator Stays, Aluminum
Spoon Sports Radiator Cap
Spoon Sports Valve Cover
Spoon Sports Oil Filler Cap [Mobil 1 5W30]
Spoon Sports Header, 4-2-1 (-10.3 lbm)
Spoon Sports Shifter Linkage Bushings
Spoon Sports Oil Pan Drain Bolt
Spoon Sports Transmission Drain Bolt [Motul 75w90]
Spoon Sports Thermostat
Spoon Sports Gen 1 Carbon Kevlar Spark Plug Cover
Mugen Intake (-4 lbm)
Mugen Motor Mounts
Burton Racing Low Profile Torque Mount (-2 lbm)
NGK Spark Plug Wires, Iridium IX Spark Plugs
K Tuned Quick Release Hood Hinges
K Tuned Grounding Cables
Antigravity 51R Light Weight Lithium Battery (-15 lbm)
Chasing J's Titanium Header Studs and Nuts
Chasing J's Titanium Valve Cover Acorn Nuts
Chasing J's Titanium VTEC Solenoid Cover
Chasing J's Titanium Dip Stick
Chasing J's Battery Tie Down
Dress Up Bolts Titanium Fasteners
DC5 Titanium Hood Prop
Suspension
Spoon Sports Rigid Collar F/R
Spoon Sports Full Bushing Kit
Nitron R3 Street Spring Rate 3-Way Coilovers (-10 lbm)
OEM ITR Rear Strut Tower Brace (+3 lbm)
Brakes
Spoon Sports Twin Block Front Calipers (-10 lbm)
Spoon Sports Stainless Brake Lines, F/R
Endless MX72+, F/R
Stop Tech Slotted Rotors, F/R
Motul RBF600 Fluid
Wheels & Tires
Mugen MF10, 15"x7" +43 (-21 lbm)
Yokohama A052, 205/50-15
Chasing J's Titanium Lug Nuts
Chasing J's Valve Stem Caps
Removed spare wheel/jack/tools (-30 lbm)
Interior
Mugen Suede with Red Stitching Steering Wheel (-5 lbm)
Spoon Sports Steering Wheel Hub
Honda Gold Horn Button
Chasing J's Titanium Steering Wheel Hub Bolts
UK Type R Floor Mats
JDM Recaro SR3 Type R Seats, Black/Red Stitching (+17.6 lbm)
Exterior
Spoon Sports Carbon Fiber Hood (-17 lbm)
Mugen Generation 2 Wing (+5 lbm)
2467 lbm stock - 93.7 lbm = 2,373 lbm estimated vehicle weight (full tank/fluids)
Measured Weight: 674 FL, 775 FR, 438 LR, 475 RR = 2361 lb + 12 lb (to get to half tank of gas) =
2373 lbm 61% Front / 39% Rear
2373 lbm 61% Front / 39% Rear
2513 lbm with driver,
Estimated power = 195HP + 15HP = 210 HP
+10% weight/power reduction
The Small Things, 1996
Can the spirit of a $23,500 MSRP economical front wheel drive Honda built in 1998 still excite today? What was it about this car that timelessly captured the hearts of auto enthusiasts? Rewind the tapes back to years 1997-1998 (necessary note- tapes were used to record music and videos which needed to be physically rewound to play). I was 14-15 years old and getting ready to attend driver's education in high school to learn how to read stop signs and parallel park. Sundays were special to me because I would spend the day with my dad who would pick me up to take me to Chinese school to maintain whatever paltry language skills I retained from infancy.
What meant more to me though, was getting dinner with my dad and practicing steering the family wagon, a 1990 Subaru wagon on the freeway as we drove home on highway 294 in Illinois. Funny to think that this 4wd wagon was the "driver's car" that I learned on.
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| 1990 4WD Subaru Legacy Wagon - Good in the Winter, Reliable and Immigrant Status Symbol |
Although my old man is credited for teaching me how to drive, it was Peter S. who awakened my passion for cars in the late 90's. A family friend that was 4-5 years older than me would spend youthful summers driving around with the carefree destinations reminiscent of childhood.
Peter's parents had bought him a black 1996 EK Civic Hatchback DX, similar to the one below. In the early days of the internet, he would peruse primitive websites to find inspiration for the latest tuning trends from Japan. Imagine a large HKS Power window banner, 6.5" width 5 Zigen cast wheels, a ridiculous 4.7in diameter fart can exhaust pushing 130HP dripping wet. I remember Peter telling me that Hondas were about light weight even if the power output wasn't impressive.
A lightweight car weighing just over 2,250 lbm might keep up with higher power American cars because of a favorable power/weight ratio (at least that's what I was told). Peter cathartically explained to me that he chose the lower tier DX model because it was the lightest spec due to fewer amenities such as the manual rollup windows and lightweight hatch. In retrospect, the EK hatch still holds relevance as it was indeed a lightweight car- especially when comparing to the porker cars made today that are catered to larger car preferences and ever stringent safety standards- and had good handling characteristics due to double wishbone suspension setup front and rear. While it lacked higher end goodies like a limited slip differential and better motor, those things could be addressed with future engine/transmission swaps. Besides, I had no idea what a LSD was at that age anyway and only knew that it made a car “handle better”.
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| 1996 Civic EK Hatchback DX (because it was the cheapest) |
I used to sit passenger (or shotgun as it was named, after the passenger side weapon of choice in drive by gang shootings) as Peter street raced his car and I came to fall in love with the idea of modifying a car to squeeze out marginal +2HP gains and the overall freedom that cars represented.
One unremarkable late summer day, he took me to the local Acura dealership to check out his dream car. We parked his car up front (we expectedly got no salesman support because they could smell how broke we were), as we explored the outdoor inventory of new Acura's which included 1 Championship White Integra Type R. 195 horse power screamer out of a 1.8L VTEC naturally aspirated motor mated to a short gear LSD transmission coupled to a stiff and light weight 2500lb chassis. Teenage drool.
I read the price tag on the window sticker, and was slapped in the face with realism. I could not possibly imagine a day where this would not be out of reach.
2012
Circa 2012, I even went to meet a young car enthusiast selling his CW ITR for $12k in Los Angeles. He told me that the car was not luxurious, a bit of a harsh ride and that he didn't recommend the car for daily purposes. I don't know what the hell I was thinking but instead of throwing nonexistent cash at the owner, I ran the other way and went to the Lexus dealership to buy a used pearl white Lexus IS250 on loan. My bff Linda also had a similar car she called “Shiao Bai” translated “Small White” or some other chick name I can’t quite remember. Yea…might as well have added some Hello Kitty license plate frames on my car while I was at it.
I can only attribute this momentary lack of judgment to having lost my passion for cars at the time. I didn't really have good friends nearby that I enjoyed the hobby with, and lacked the discretionary income to afford dumping money into the toilet for shiny exhaust manifolds and intakes. Besides, it was time to "grow up" and stop playing with cars.
January-March 2022
Skip past the montage, the world has changed and I'm grown. Actually pretty old now, almost 40 and with less free time and even less sensibility. Maybe not over the hill yet but certainly nearing the top and somehow this car still was still on my mind. I couldn't shake it.
As it turns out, there are some benefits to being older. During my paternity leave from work, I had a lot of time to reflect on what I wanted in life, what made me happy and how to lean into my own self care irrespective of how others would perceive it. The older I got, the less I cared about what others thought about me, and the more I cared about what I thought about me. Through this careful evaluation, I decided to use some of my hard earned financial freedom to bankroll my passion for 90's JDM cars. I finally decided that my dream garage would consist of a 1998 Championship White Integra Type R...alongside a 35k mile 1994 FD Chaste White RX-7, a 25k mile 1991 Formula Red Acura NSX and 2018 Chalk Porsche 991.2 GT3 Touring. All of my personal cars were to be manual transmission, light weight (ish) and engaging to drive.
Finding the right car was going to be hard as only 1000 were delivered to the US in 1998. Only 1997 and 1998 were delivered in the must have flagship Championship White color and the 1998 facelift was also a necessary requirement as well.
The value of these cars had gone up so much in recent years, and clean examples of the cars were few and far between. These cars were generally not pampered as many were driven hard in rain or shine. Adding to this was that the car was extremely prone to body rust. It did not seem like there was much anti-corrosion protection applied at the factory on a mostly steel body, so the tiniest of chinks in the paint left unattended would lead to significant corrosion issues. Also of note was that these cars were some of the highest stolen vehicles in the United States for a long period of time, so many cars had theft titles, non matching VIN numbers and were stripped for their valuable Type R parts.
July 2022
When I saw ITR #327 pop up on Bring a Trailer, I knew that I was going to be the top bidder. It wasn't because it was the lowest mileage car or because it was the cleanest example. It was because I had waited long enough.
The previous owner (second owner) adored this car. It was always special to him as #327 also happened to be his birthday so he always viewed it as a destiny that the keys would one day be his to hold. When speaking over the phone prior to my purchase, the second owner lit up as he shared his story of watching this car and it’s original owner drive around the Florida town, Naples that he grew up in. He would regularly ask the original owner to sell it to him if he ever considered parting ways with it.
After the original owner Frank got too old to drive the car, he eventually reached out to fulfill his promise. For the next five years, ITR 327 sat in the garage with continual maintenance and only a few thousand miles logged to stretch her legs and see the sun. Seemingly overnight, the car’s value had risen so much and had become too precious to drive. So with replacement parts becoming more and more difficult to find, the second owner couldn’t justify driving the car often enough.
Here are some older pics from the previous owner I purchased the car from. You can just feel the love through the pictures and how much this car meant to him.
Here is a picture of the original owner Frank in 2017 that was shared with me. Rest In Peace Frank. I hope that you are OK with me looking after #327 now. I do believe that we are custodians of special cars like this.
So was this car with so much history and use something I’d normally buy? Contrary to my typical car purchases, I actually wanted a higher mileage example because I wanted to drive it. I also wanted the car to be a solid base with minimal body rust but didn't need it to be 100% stock because I wanted to relive the excitement of working on and modifying the car to make it my own. More importantly, I had free time this summer and I wanted wrench on the car in my garage and make some good memories.
In truth I ended up overpaying for the car, especially when tallying up the significant costs of the restoration project. But it matters little to me because in the end I am happy with the car and I got to enjoy all summer driving it, ordering parts and fixing it to make it my own. This was not going to be a budget OEM+ build.
Here she was the day she arrived off the JP Logistics enclosed trailer. $78,500+BaT fees+shipping for an econobox never felt so good. Over the years it had become so incredibly rare to see these cars in the flesh. Most being locked away I can’t even remember a single time I’ve seen a white ITR on public roads in Los Angeles over the last decade.
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| Her new home- my 3+1 garage. |
Initial Driving Impressions
The thing that stood out to me the most was how heavy the steering and weight at the front wheels was. The chassis was on the stiffer side, comfortable and not punishing. There weren't any interior rattles, and the car felt very light in turns. Brakes felt solid although I had not pushed them and the engine felt docile below VTEC crossover but turned manic at higher RPM with a glorious induction noise. Yes, this was VTEC.
The gearing was so short that it felt like I could go wide open throttle everywhere without exceeding the speed limit. It was everything I expected from a 90's Honda, nothing and more nothing less.
The Long Restoration Project
Initial inspections led to many things needing to be replaced. I was pretty surprised at how "rough" the car from Florida was. Certainly no beater by any means, but a mental checklist of things needing freshening was starting to grow beyond the scope than I initially thought.
After the strut bar was completed, it was time to take a closer look at the front bumper upper support bracket. Holy crap it was dirty underneath there. The bracket seemed to have trapped moisture and debris over the years.
I cleaned and polished the area underneath before sanding down the bracket itself and spraying it with SEM black trim paint. In the end I was satisfied with the job, but I might go back to resand the bracket to get the surface a bit smoother as it had some pock marks from rust.
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| As it was right off the car |
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| Sprayed with matte trim paint. Maybe I should go glossy next time? |
I wanted to lean into the rice boy so I ordered some blue Titanium fasteners from Dress-Up Bolts for $416.17. The thing is, I usually go conservative but wanted to live a bit and add some color to the engine bay. If I were to do this again, I would have gotten the bolts from Chasing J's and would have gone with either the gradient color or black on the fasteners. Maybe I'll change that up in the future when I'm ready to throw another $400 out the window.
So a call to Tommy Ha, the owner of GoTuning in Orange helped me understand what Spoon Sports still offered for the DC2R. I took my 3 year old daughter to the store on a Saturday who loved playing with their arcade game in the front of the shop.
Here are some pics of the haul back in my garage.
Feels and looks so much better though.
The hood brackets were also swapped out to K-tuned quick release units. This is another area I wish that I had gotten the black pieces but they were out of stock of black at the time I ordered these. Cleaning up this area was a challenge because I needed to knock out the 24 year old/dried RTV that was installed with the OE bracket. There was also some surface rust on the hood itself which I think could only be really addressed in the future when this car gets repainted. I'll be honest that the OCD in me had some trouble installing a "K" tuned part when my engine is the "B" series, but they do make some high quality hardware.
It comes with new gaskets as well.
Freshened up:
It also felt great to remove this ugly red light from the steering column.
Of course while I was down there I noticed that the rubber pedals were also in need of changing. I thought about getting Mugen metal covers but actually prefer rubber pedals for more grip. New OEM units were still available $36.14 so they were replaced.
The Spoon radiator stays are really nice and was a good opportunity to swap out tired OEM brackets. In retrospect I wish I went with black radiator stays to better match my engine bay but it might look better once I get the polished Aluminum Spoon radiator installed.
The yellow Spoon valve cover is a painted OEM unit. It is a really beautiful part that highlights the legendary B18C5 motor in the ITR. Here is a generous dose of pics showing off the shiny Spoon Honda hardware. Even the packaging is nice as only the Japanese would give so much consideration to.
I go back and forth about my preference between the iconic Red and Spoon yellow. I like both, and certainly is a first world Honda problem. But it's yellow for now.
OK so back to the interior. Another eye sore for me was that a previous owner used black electric tape to support a tearing driver's side seat belt guide. That was simply not going to fly for me so I purchased a lightly used full seat belt assembly from eBay for $54.70. A few springs and bolts later had this part replaced with a legit untorn unit. Feels good man.
I also took the opportunity to address some superficial rust spots in the spot welds of the hood with touch up paint.
Luckily, a new unit was still available from eBay for $65.53 so I was so happy to replace this piece of crap with a fresh bracket.
Upon closer inspection, the hood latch was completely greased and grime filled. The grease used to reduce wear to the hood latch accumulated debris over the last 24 years and it was very hard to remove. I removed the entire assembly and soaked it in degreaser before reinstalling it back on the car. Dirty job but felt good to get this area cleaned up a bit.
Underneath this nice OEM battery was a tray that had been completed rust seized to the chassis. There are two bolts that are deeply recessed that are a bit hard to access but also very rust prone because they accumulate moisture and are in close proximity to the battery.
No amount of anti-seize, bolt removal tips or hammering the head helped, it was completely seized. I even broke the tip off my flat head impact! So down the rabbit hole of desperation I jumped- deciding to completely dremel off the fastener head altogether. Once the two bolt heads were turned to metal shavings, I was finally able to remove the remaining battery bracket off.
At this point, I started to drop more money on Titanium hardware from Chasing J's ($349.79) and got a few more finishing touches like the chassis ground cables from K-tuned. Chasing J's packaging and presentation is top tier!
The valve cover acorn nuts were also replaced with some slick gradient colored hardware. Oddly enough I had to remove the rubber O-ring seal from the OEM washers but it worked out well enough.
To continue along the path of the blue and yellow theme of the engine bay, I decided it was a good opportunity to swap out the spark plug cables to a fresh NGK set and replace the spark plugs with NGK Iridium IX units ($93.50 total).
To my surprise, cylinder #1 spark plug was loose! Super dangerous as this can lead to damaged threads in the head, or even shooting out the spark plug! In the picture below, you can see the soot that is near the crush washer which is evidence of a poorly torqued spark plug. I'm really grateful I went through to replace this hardware when I did.
Might as well take this opportunity to install a Chasing J's VTEC solenoid cap and hardware.
So there's a thing you need to know about me and floor mats. I'm hoping that we can still be friends after you read this.
I have a serious OCD about floor mats so I always have a fresh OEM unit in the garage so that I know in my heart I can always have a fresh set in an emergency. This is true for all of my cars even though OEM floormats are some of the most challenging pieces to find new because of how commonly replaced they are. The first item I bought for this ITR was a brand new set of OEM USDM floor mats from eBay for a ridiculous price of $1986.42. Although there are several aftermarket options, the original designed floormats for the USDM ITR are extremely sought after and hard to find, which ends up driving the price so high.
So the coolant overflow reservoir was nasty, cracked and yellow. Obviously not going to be OK for me so I purchased and installed a new assembly for $99.62 and while I was there installed the Spoon radiator cap. Worth it. I left the red Honda sticker on the coolant reservoir to show people that it's new and OEM. Kind of like leaving the tag on a fresh Starter cap in the 90's.
A few things I learned was to be really careful around old engine stickers and that the masking tape didn't stick at all so it got messy quickly.
But the cleaning process was not without casualty. The fuse box sticker was ruined and it felt real bad! Thankfully the company Resto Tuner offered a sticker replacement for only $15.52. It was a good feeling to replace the sticker and I'm grateful for them for offering this product. Why they even offer this, I have no idea but I am grateful nonetheless.
It was time to start looking at the paint a bit more carefully. About half of the panels had been resprayed so the car is a bit of a mish-mash of paint quality and paint thickness. There were also a couple of dents that I wanted to try removing myself.
Since I had the car on the lift, it was a good opportunity to install the Spoon shifter bushing kit which is installed underneath the car. These are the bushings between the linkage of the shifter and transmission. By installing firmer bushings, it tightens up the slack on the shifter feel...at least that's what the internet told me.
Here is the Spoon hardware compared to the OEM unit. What was surprising was that the original metal bushing pins did not fit well with the new Spoon unit and new hardware wasn't included in the Spoon kit. This was a bit disappointing but a quick measurement and order through McMaster Carr allowed a nicely fitting bushing that I pressed into place.
I struggled with this installation because I couldn't get enough force to slide the firmer Spoon bushing over the flared end of the shifter bar. My buddy Jimmy came over to help me and after struggling with it for a bit I decided to remove the shifter bar altogether only to find that the bolts holding the unit together would not come off since they were free spinning (I suspect a spot weld holding the back of the fastener broke loose).
It was very frustrating and led me to eventually accept defeat and trim the flare down with a dremel tool to get it installed. I painted over the cut edges to make sure it would not rust and finished the install. The shifter bushing really improved the shifter feel so I soon forgot about my failures!
This was the area that we were struggling with. It was a pain to work in there.
Not really related to anything but I noticed a couple of plastic trim pieces being lose in the trunk area so I addressed those areas with new clips because why the hell not. I've gotten to a point where I'm noticing loose clips.
How nasty is this windshield washer hose clip? Nasty enough to me, so it was replaced too for $19.76. I ordered some new hoses too but haven't gotten around to installing those since I need to remove the windshield cowl.
Looking half decent.
The Catalytic Converter Saga
After getting the car cleaned up, I wanted to get the car smogged and legitimately registered.My first attempt at getting this car smogged resulted in a significant failure of key emission metrics of NOx and CO exceedances. NOx emissions are driven by high temperature combustion and CO emissions are driven by incomplete combustion. Because of this, I knew it was an issue with the catalytic converter. I also didn't know this at the time, but there was a relatively new aftermarket catalytic high flow converter from Magnaflow installed on the vehicle from the previous owner which didn't seem to be working effectively.
Wanting to stay OEM, I scoured the bottom of the barrel Facebook pages to find a person who was selling an OEM unit. Instant regret. A fake seller offered to sell me a unit for $250 shipped so I Venmo'd him the money right away. Sadly, he was a shameless scammer and walked away with my money before disappearing and deleting his fake account. Thinking about it stressed me out more than $250 was worth to me and I was disappointed in myself for falling for a deal that was obviously too good to be true. I washed my hands from Facebook marketplace and moved on.
In a time of high stress, I ended up ordering a used catalytic converter from SMSP- a company that was no longer in business. Upon further research it became obvious that it wasn't going to be good enough to pass California standards either. At this point I wasn't thinking straight and just trying to throw money at the problem. Not a great mindset to be in.
Finally, I went online to find a good California CARB legal Walker cat replacement and once it was delivered I took it to Sweeney's muffler shop in Torrance to get his help to install the catalytic converter. The owner told me about the street racing days of the 90's and mentioned that there was a time when he could weld up an exhaust for this car blindfolded. I believed him.
When I picked up the car later that day, he told me they struggled to get the O2 sensor removed and almost resorted to cutting it out. $140 install + $538.58 later I finally had the ITR prepped enough to go back for another emissions test. The relief was real when it finally passed and I got it registered. ITR #327 was finally legal on California roads!
After doing some research on rust prevention coatings, I finally landed on this amazing product CRC made for marine applications.
The stuff is a little smelly, but I sprayed it liberally underneath the car and in the wheel wells where it seems that there might be future corrosion issues. It felt good to have the rust off the car and have an adequate amount of protection for the future.
ITR sitting on the Bendpak 4 post lift looking good, especially in that custom white lift color.
So ITR #327 was finally ready for its first Angeles Crest canyon shakedown run. It performed really well in the canyons, handled well and the motor stayed above 5000RPM for the vast majority of the drive. The rear bumper was almost completely covered in black soot from the hard drive but the car was happy. The thing we all noted was that it really needed a fresh set of sticky tires but otherwise performed admirably well keeping up with the other Honda bois, until the drive back down.
Driving around the '626 San Gabriel area in search of boba and Asian food with the added weight of my buddies Bo and Jimmy in tow, the steering wheel started to develop a shake and something felt wrong with the car. The other thing that occurred was that the brake sensor pad used to engage and disengage the brake light disintegrated from the heat so my brake lights were stuck on all the way home. I ordered a couple of these guys from Amazon for an easy $8.65 fix.
I Initially thought it was an alignment issue so I took it to Evasive Motorsports in Costa Mesa to get some help. While there, the owner Mike showed me him and his business partner's ITR's (white and black ones on the top of two separate lifts) and showed me his beautiful S2000 Type R project. It turns out we were of a similar age and the ITR meant a lot to them as well.
Mike, called me later that day to tell me that the car had some serious issues. The wheel studs were stripped, the tie rod ends needed replacing, CV joints were busted, the tires were old and damaged, and the front struts were blown! But Doctor, I don't have health insurance...
A week later I swiped my credit card for $3974.63 to address the following (including the Spoon rigid collar installation):
HON-90113-S84-901 Wheel Stud - Honda 12x1.5 - Front DC2R 10 2.10 21.00T
TRW-JSL4046S TRW Strut Bearing For: Integra Type R 1 19.47 19.47T
SNK-53010-SR3-010 SNK Tie Rod For: 1998 Acura Integra 2 40.00 80.00T
NSK-44300-S6D-E01 NSK Wheel Bearing For: 1998 Acura Integra 2 55.00 110.00T
SNK-53560-S04-013 SNK Tie Rod End For: 1998 Acura Integra (Left) 1 45.00 45.00T
SNK-53540-S04-013 SNK Tie Rod End For: 1998 Acura Integra (Right) 1 45.00 45.00T
SNK-51220-S04-003 Sankai555 OES Ball Joint 2 40.00 80.00T
API-2702-700360 API Shock Mount For: 1998 Acura Integra 2 29.00 58.00T
ISG-52675-SR0-003 ISG Shock Mount Plate For: 1998 Acura Integra 2 30.00 60.00T
API-2702-32789 API Strut Mounting Kit For: 1998 Acura Integra 2 29.00 58.00T
TRW-JSL4046S TRW Strut Bearing For: Integra Type R 1 19.47 19.47T
Bilstein B6 1997 Acura Integra Type R Front 46mm
Monotube Shock Absorber BIL-24-023405 2 155.00 310.00T
Bilstein B6 1988 Honda Civic Base Hatchback Rear
46mm Monotube Shock Absorber
BIL-24-023412 2 155.00 310.00T
TOYO-109820 TOYO 195/55R15 89V XL Proxes R888R 4 168.98 675.92T
ERP-LR Rigid Collar Installation 3 150.00 450.00T
ERP-LR Bilstein Shock Installation 2 150.00 300.00T
ERP-LR Stud / Tie Rod / Bearings / Axle Replacement 4 150.00 600.00T
ERP-LR Mount and Balance / Tire Disposal @ 2/ea 4 32.00 128.00T
ERP-LR 4 Wheel Alignment 1 135.00 135.00T
ERP-LR Front Axles Rebuilt
I would normally have done this work myself, but I was glad to get the help given how much needed to be replaced. After getting the car back, it was noticeable how different the car felt. Even more rigid and stable than before. It's hard to tell what exactly drove the difference, but the car was driving tip-top. I do wish I had a chance to get a better back to back feel with just installing Spoon rigid collars but regardless I was excited for how the car was driving. Regarding the suspension setup, it's hard to compare in a positive light relative to say a Porsche GT3 but it's still solid.
Around this time, I finally got the Gruppe M carbon intake delivered from Japan ($563.30) which took a couple of months to arrive. The install required me to trim the bottom of the intake to fit over the AC lines but it was a relatively straight forward install. I was happy to also install the stock intake elbow as well ($85.62) as I really didn't like the way the chrome DC Sports pipe looked. As I was getting more comfortable with Ceramic coating, I decided to also give the carbon cover a nice application after an IPA wipe down. Overall, I'm very happy with the unit although I'm not convinced it makes any power over the short intake I had on there previously.
More Spoon parts came in January 2023. It was so satisfying to get the rusty header off and swap it out for some polished hardware with the gorgeous Chasing J’s titanium studs.
The new header took some convincing to get in place as I finally found a use for working out those pectoral mustles my whole life. After the install I gave the headers a final IPA wipe down to make sure it heat stains uniformly.
The old unit was looking a bit sad.
Chasing J’s hardware is automotive pwnography.
Year 2, Summer 2023
I've spent the better part of the year enjoying driving the Teggy, logging about 1,500 miles on the car and a basic oil change with synthetic 5W-30 Mobil1.
Heading into the second year of ownership, I decided to continue putting a few finishing touches on the car. The most recent object of my ire was the rear seat belt buckles that had significant sun fading.
Getting a used set was near impossible, but I did find a set on Ebay for $32.84 that I thought I could get to work. They were rusty and filthy, but importantly the plastic buckle area was somehow in pretty good shape. After a deep cleaning of the seat buckles, I taped them off, wire brushed the metal attachment and painted it.
Cleaner unit on top and original on bottom.
Ebay units on left, original on right.
Of course I'd be remiss if I didn't take this opportunity to ceramic coat the beautiful calipers with high temp GYEON rim coating.
I had been putting off the hard labor of doing a brake job. Something about dealing with dirty brake fluid makes me shudder but it was a necessary part of getting the ITR ready for its first track day in mid September 2023. I had been slowly acquiring all of the hardware necessary for a complete job, including brand new OEM rear brake calipers that were still available from Ebay for the low low price of $641.41 delivered from Japan to my door. It was a clean way to deal with the tired and painted red calipers that were currently on the car.
Rounding out the rest of the hardware includes Stoptech slotted brake rotors, Spoon twin block front calipers, Spoon brake lines front and rear, Spoon brake pads front and rear, and finally Motul 600 brake fluid. Look at these sexy parts.
This is what I was dealing with on the front brakes. Rusty and lipped iron rotors were gross.
The rears were surprisingly more complicated because of the Emergency brake. Rusty rotors need to go.
The rear 14mm bolt holding the caliper onto the hub was painfully seized. A night of Silikroil soak, a breaker bar and Dad bod muscles finally broke it loose.
Even with these busted ass brakes, the ITR never fails to look gorgeous.
Here you can see the old and new rear hardware side by side. The new calipers came with a surprising amount of new hardware that looked beautiful. Even though the assembly is relatively small because they are made of iron, they are shockingly heavy.
The brake install went on smoothly. The brakes match the dampers that Evasive motorsports helped me install. The bleeding procedure was a total pain though. It took me 3 full bleed rotations to finally get the pedal feeling firm.
Once the job was completed, I finished the day with a wash of both JDM machines.
Unfortunately, I had been noticing the passenger side mirror getting a little loose and it finally let go from the pressure washer. I sourced the cleanest side mirror I could find on Ebay for $98.73 and went to work swapping the mechanical assembly. Removing the mirror is a piece of cake once the interior door panel is removed.
Here are some pics of my first track day at Buttonwillow. Also a video review of it as well.
Overall, the car performed admirably. There were no mechanical issues and the car was comfortable on the drive up and down from Los Angeles with no hiccups. Even good gas mileage and enough storage for all of the gear.
Regarding the performance of the car, it was definitely slower than most modern cars but was a lot of fun to drive. Very predictable, low grip levels with 195 width tires and power was not great in the desert heat. But the car was very communicative, fun to toss around and brakes were confidence inspiring.
Heading out the night before.
2024 January
Another thing that started to bother me was how yellow the headlights had become from UV fading. They briefly looked better after I polished them a couple years ago during a full car detail, but they were really starting to look their age and was bringing the freshness of the overall car's aesthetic down a couple of pegs. With a can of Eastwood clearcoat on the way and an elbow full of grease I was ready to tackle the project.
Removing the front bumper was shockingly simple. 10mm socket wrench and a Phillips screwdriver was all that was needed.
Here's a close look at the headlights. Disgusting right?
Here's my "clean room".
This is what the headlights looked like after the fourth refinish before polishing. Some surface roughness existed which I wet sanded with 1500 grit sand paper before polishing.
Here's what the lights looked like after polishing and a coat of ceramic. The driver's side assembly didn't come out as optically clear as the passenger side but only have the slightest hint of yellowing.
Here they are reinstalled on the car. I am really happy with how much fresher they look!
Late last year is when I noticed an oil leak on my garage floor which sadly left a nasty stain. After some investigation, I found that the power steering fluid line was leaking badly. I thought about repairing this myself but was really not looking forward to the messy job.
It was somewhat convenient as I also had the Spoon radiator, hoses, suspension bushings that I had not gotten around to installing. I made an appointment to Evasive Motorsports and they were able to help me clean up all of the power steering lines and install the beautiful Aluminum radiator. The engine bay is so clean now. I also asked to install the Spoon clutch line but they found that the fitting was not the same between the JDM and USDM transmission so they reinstalled the stock line and bled the system.
The Spoon suspension bushings shown above also tightened the car up further and the car now feels incredibly fresh. Steering feel was also improved from the modification. The grand total from Evasive was $2848.27 which $2000 of it was from the significant manual labor needed to install all of the bushings.
Air Conditioning Tensioner Failure
After everything was freshened up, I was stoked to get the car back into the mountains. On the first winter morning out the car was performing flawlessly. It was quick too, confidence inspiring and pressuring more modern cars out there. After stopping by a morning breakfast at Ho Kee cafe with friends, with the sun at full force I had started the A/C on the freeway. On the junction between the 10 East and 710 South is when something went awry.
I heard clanking and rattling in the engine bay and the A/C started to not blow cold. I took the nearest exit and ended up in the deep hood with a car broken down. Upon opening the engine bay it became apparent that the A/C belt and pulley assembly had completely fallen off leaving the belt and pulley loose.
I was running through the options of getting the car towed when a couple of tatted out guys came out of their house asking what was going on. "How much is that car worth?" the man I found later to be Robert asked. I fibbed and said "About $30k" guessing that he couldn't tell how dumb I was to put over $110k into a Honda econo box.
I asked if he had any tools, and the man known around the streets as "Toughie" brought out his toolbox and a razor blade for me to cut my seized belt in half. Self conscious about my soft leather driving gloves and bright white shoes I cut the belt in half and reached deep into the side of the engine bay to pull the derelict pulley out. I started the car back up and everything seemed to be working OK.
Toughie and Robert asked me what I did for a living and if I knew of any leads to work. Toughie mentioned that work was hard to come by and he was on probation for commercial burglary. I took their numbers and was eager to get back home. Later that night, I traced my path back to their house on Google maps to find their address and ordered them a bunch of tacos, burritos and orchata for their help. It was the least I could do.
The picture below shows the missing pulley.
It turned out that this was a fairly common failure mode. My best guess is that the bolt fails from a combination of thread preload in addition to shear load imparted from the belt tension and finally high cycle fatigue from the belt rotation. Luckily the parts were still available new (38950-P3F-305, 90086-PR3-000 for $97.77) and the belt for $44.66. The install was straight forward, except needing to remove the lower rubber engine mount in order to slot the belt in.
Back home, it was time to finally change out the wheels. Although I've always appreciated the white on white stock look, the stock wheels are really heavy at 15.6lb each and didn't offer much grip with the 6" width fitting 195 section tires.
Thankfully, Jimmy had been holding onto new old stock of the legendary Mugen MF-10 wheels in 15"x7"+43 that he purchased a while ago when he saw them come up for sale. As the bronze wheels wouldn't look as good on the black ITR, he reluctantly sold them to me and I promptly ordered a set of Chasing J's closed M12x1.5 titanium lug nuts. Note that the 15" Mugen wheels are much rarer than the more common 16" diameter, saving 1lb per wheel relative to the 16" equivalent and a mega 5.5lb savings per wheel relative to the stock wheel!
I went with Advan A052 tires 205/50-15 because of the better rain performance and lower noise relative to the Toyo R888R's. Here they are ready to be installed onto the car.
The car dynamics feel noticeably better after losing 21lb of rotational mass. The car turns in better and is more comfortable over bumps. The wider tires also feel more grippy as well.
I know that white on bronze is overplayed but it looks so good.
I then made an impromptu visit to HmotorsOnline (HMO) in North Los Angeles to pick up a clean set of black Recaro SR3 seats and oddly enough a 98 spec under tray/splashguard (since mine was melted from the Spoon header) and a chrome shifter bezel ring. The seats were $2523.36, the undertray was $111 and the shifter bezel $40.
The Mugen intake turned out to be an incredibly difficult installation process, especially because I wanted to retain AC functionality. The giant snorkel was a complete disaster to fit into the engine bay as the AC lines were in the way, as was the passenger side torque mount and ABS unit. After nearly a week messing around the clearances without avail I realized that I needed to order a low profile torque mount from Burton Racing ($75.24 mfg PLM) in order to have enough clearance to fit the bolts back on. The 14mm motor mount bolts had some odd friction and after inspecting the threads for cross threading and not seeing any, I greased the bolt and torqued the bolt back into the frame. It tightened up OK, but I would be worried about needing to fix it with an insert if I ever went back into there again.
The front splash guard that I obtained from HMO ($111) was finally installed and I zip tied a metal clip near the header to make sure it wouldn't melt the splash guard/undertray again like my original unit. The splashguard was in such good shape that it still retained the factory Honda sticker on it.
The Antigravity battery was noticeably lighter as well. I'm a big fan of these batteries after using one in my GT3's, especially the restart lockout feature which protects the battery from draining too low.
The Mugen intake was polished and ceramic coated with Gyeon Mohs Evo2, and it looked incredible once it was finally jammed into the engine bay. The difficulty of this install was a 9/10.
Here are also some images of the new Mugen motor mounts ($495) next to the OEM units. The OEM units weren't in too bad of shape but it was a convenient time to replace them since I was in there for the intake install and King Motorsports was offering a 10% deal on Mugen parts for July 4th. Since my stock motor mounts were fine, I did not embark on the pain of replacing the rear lower motor mount and left that stock. I figured I'd swap that out one day when I had to do a clutch job or something.
Here was the Mugen intake after cleaning it up a bit. I took the opportunity to blow out the air filter with compressed air before reinstallation. Apparently, this intake was originally owned by a mechanic in Torrance who bought it from King Motorsports directly 20 years ago when it was discontinued.
And finally as a last touch is a part that I had spent a couple years looking for - a genuine new in box Spoon Sports Gen 1 carbon kevlar spark plug cover! After searching on instagram, Facebook forums and eBay I finally found someone selling one. Someone on the "Rare Integra Parts" Facebook forums replied to a random comment about this part wondering how much it was worth since they had a new one in box 20 years after it was discontinued. After I reached out, the owner from the Netherlands was willing to let it go for the low low price of $1660 shipped to California. Despite the painfully high price I committed to it, these two grail items (Mugen intake and Spook spark cover) finally completed my "Spugen" engine bay.
Oh and why not add the Mugen license plate bolts ($31) while I was going full retard.
Update 4/19/2026 - It's been a couple of years since really diving into the ITR, but I decided to finish the build with a set of Nitron R3 3-way adjustable coilovers. This would allow me to slightly drop the car and stiffen the car up during high G track driving which led to quite a bit of body roll.
Since we are on the Mugen theme, decided to get the suede steering wheel as well.
Their warehouse was insane. Never seen so many parts dismantled before.
I got very lucky with this undertray as it was in perfect condition and still had the OEM sticker on it. How they had this I have no idea.
Look at the gunk!
The seats cleaned up nicely aside from the common bolster wear. The install was straightforward as well except for needing to swap the USDM seat belt buckle on the driver's side seat due to the buckle sensor. The seats are a lot larger, huggier and felt a bit heavier. Definitely will be better for spirited driving though as the stock seats had little side bolstering. I'm still debating whether I like them in the car.
Given the seat install, I thought it was time to install the new old stock ITR center armrest (sourced for $814 on facebook marketplace). Removing the original badge was annoying as the small tabs broke off a bit, however a light dab of superglue and the new armrest was good to go. It was great to get rid of the old sun faded fabric.
Also took the chance to replace the driver and passenger side window trims. Of course a quick coat of ceramic before install will make sure they stay nice and protected from sun fade over time.
Back in my garage, I deep cleaned the seats and was able to extract a lot of dirt.
Something that I've been wanting to do is replace the Spoon Sports horn button on the car because the blue/yellow theme kind of clashes with the simplicity of the stock interior. After some deliberation, I decided to go with a gold/red Honda button even though the outside badging is Acura. For me, it's the most aesthetically appealing button to see when I'm driving the car and I'm really happy with how it now looks. Also took the opportunity to install some more Chasing J's titanium to the steering hub bolts. The yellow gradient color matches the gold horn background.
With summer 2024 in full swing, I reached out to the one person on Instagram that I knew owned the heralded Mugen intake. To my surprise, he accepted my strong offer of $4,000 and after a short drive to Monterey Park I returned with the intake in my trunk and a wallet a whole lot lighter. My OEM battery also took the opportunity to fail so I decided to go and order the Antigravity 51R Lithium Ion Battery ($1065.06) to save 15 lbm as well. Unfortunately the K tuned battery stay no longer fit so I ordered the Titanium battery stay from Chasing J's ($98.42).
The torque mount bracket was nicely powder coated and the clunky and heavy OEM unit made me question why Honda designed it this way as the loads going through this bracket would be a minimized from the soft motor mount. After wrestling with the clearance and intake for a week, it felt great to finally bolt everything back together. The Mugen intake itself was very high quality and good fit, albeit very aggressively clearanced, requiring soft padding in several locations to make sure things would not wear out due to rubbing.
Here was the Mugen intake after cleaning it up a bit. I took the opportunity to blow out the air filter with compressed air before reinstallation. Apparently, this intake was originally owned by a mechanic in Torrance who bought it from King Motorsports directly 20 years ago when it was discontinued.
In December of 2024, my friends and I took an epic road trip up to Monterey Peninsula. We stayed over the weekend and hiked Big Sur before driving Laguna Seca. The Integra was for sure the slowest car out there but it was incredibly fun to drive. Very communicative and connected to the road.
Sadly, my friend damaged the right rear ABS wheel speed sensor so I needed to find an aftermarket replacement since the OEM part was no longer available.
In May 2026, I had noticed that Spoon Sports finally released a USDM carbon hood. Compared to the stock steel hood, it reduced the mass on the front by a meaningful 17lbm! I do prefer a clean white hood look but this weight reduction was too hard to pass up given how much this car responds to weight reduction.
It also coincided with me coming across Padoneparts on Instagram who I was able to convince to sell me his personal Mugen Gen 2 wing already painted in championship white. This was a wing I had been looking for the better part of the last three years as these have become very difficult to find in decent condition. This one seemed to be relatively clean (not perfect) so I jumped on the opportunity and picked up this piece in Pasadena.
It also coincided with me coming across Padoneparts on Instagram who I was able to convince to sell me his personal Mugen Gen 2 wing already painted in championship white. This was a wing I had been looking for the better part of the last three years as these have become very difficult to find in decent condition. This one seemed to be relatively clean (not perfect) so I jumped on the opportunity and picked up this piece in Pasadena.
Cleaning up the old spoiler mounting area is always painful because of the adhesive used. Also the Mugen wing required a good amount of clean up and polishing as well. The aluminum air foil needed clean up, especially after readjusting the wing to maximum attack angle. I was able to find new fasteners which really cleaned up the area as well.
Ceramic coating topped it off and the car's exterior is now fully tuner mode. Surprisingly, the wing seemed to make quite a difference in car stability even at canyon speeds. I was surprised to that the difference was noticeable!
I'm proud of the clean install as I also cut a small rubber mat to help seal out the fastener area. Clean!
Since we are on the Mugen theme, decided to get the suede steering wheel as well.
Also finally addressing something that had been bothering me for a while was the old crusty, overly dark tint on the car. A trip to Advanced PPF and a panicked last minute door panel disassembly allowed enough access to install much lighter ceramic tint Llumar Air 80. I am so happy with the results, although my window channel seal was slightly ripped in the process. I'll have to replace that in the future when there's a convenient opportunity.
And perhaps one of the toughest parts to find is the OEM rear strut tower brace! I had originally purchased the Spoon Sports rear strut brace because it's still available but found that a small cut and modification of the trunk plastics were necessary. After scrapping that idea, I asked my fellow Honda Boi Jimmy to sell me his rear strut bar that he had been holding onto for years. It needed some light refinishing but was simple enough to do.
To my surprise, the impact of the rear strut bar was immediately noticeable, which finally completes the chassis stiffness of the ITR. So exciting!
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