Acura's Integra Type S HRC Prototype Shows How Hardcore the Hot Hatch Can Go

We love the 2024 Acura Integra Type S. It takes all the good things about the Honda Type R and civilizes them just enough for even friendlier everyday use—with no impact on ultimate performance. We’d thought that was enough, until Acura’s Monterey Car Week reveal of a new prototype Integra Type S HRC Concept. Now we're wondering whether the Type R moniker (which once adorned an Integra here in America...) is off-limits for Acura, or whether parent company Honda would be willing to loan it out for a hardcore Integra like this.

While Honda Racing Corporation (HRC) nor Acura have explicitly stated an Integra Type R—or even something similar to this prototype—is headed to dealerships, you can’t help but look at the Integra Type S HRC Prototype and think about it. For one, the prototypes and concept cars Honda and Acura show off tend to be thinly veiled, production-ready vehicles; and show vehicles in general often hint at future products or design cues, even new paint colors, trim packages, or other upgrades. Let’s take a closer look at this prototype and what sets it apart from the already great Acura Integra Type S you can go out and buy today.

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See the HRC's Exterior!

If you’re going to make a car based on a racecar—and the Integra Type S HRC is based on the Integra Type S DE5 that races in SRO’s TC America series in the TCX class—it’s going to need proper aero treatment. The HRC's got it, starting with a new front bumper cover that includes a larger splitter and bigger cooling ducts. There are also larger vents on the carbon fiber hood for additional cooling and venting underhood pressure, lessons learned from the Integra Type S DE5.

Along the sides of the Integra HRC are a set of side splitters helping downforce by preventing any additional air from the body sides from flowing under the body, causing lift and additional drag. Finally, an adjustable rear wing sits atop a pair of aluminum uprights bolted onto the hatch decklid rather than the chassis itself, and the body is then shot in the NSX’s Indy Yellow Pearl, marking the first time the paint has been used on something other than Acura’s supercar. To make sure you know this is an HRC-built vehicle, machined aluminum badges are found on the grille, front fenders, and decklid that feature the “HRC” logo.

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No Back Seat Drivers Allowed

Perhaps what is most striking is the interior of the Integra Type S HRC Prototype. Up front, you’ll find a pair of one-piece, carbon fiber Recaro bucket seats and both driver and passenger are held in by a pair of Indy Yellow seatbelts. The rear seats, however, don’t exist. That’s right, much like the Porsche Taycan Weissach package, the HRC prototype ditches the Type S's rear seats. In place will be a carbon fiber shelf that allows four fully mounted 19x9.5-inch wheels and Pirelli P Zero Trofeo R ultra high-performance tires (in 265/30R19) to be held behind the front seats with a strap in Indy Yellow Pearl. This includes a rear bulkhead cross chassis brace painted in the same Indy Yellow Pearl of the body. The front door panels remain the stock set found in the Integra Type S road car, but the rear door panels are replaced by a pair of carbon fiber door cards for decreased weight. With the air conditioning deleted, the total weight reduction of the Integra Type S HRC is nearly 200 pounds from the Integra Type S road car.

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Sure-Footed Teggy

All the weight reduction and aerodynamics are nothing if the Integra Type S can’t handle it, and the HRC team thought of that. The adjustable suspension system from the DE5 racecar was adapted to work on the Integra HRC with just short of a 5/8-inch drop from the stock Type S. This is thanks to a set of tuned coilovers with adjustable front and rear camber plates. The rear anti-roll bar is also adjustable to fine tune the rear body roll and keep the massive tires planted to the road.

Those tires and forged lightweight wheels add 1 and 3/16 inches to the track width for further improved handling and an aggressive stance. Finally, to really get this Integra to come to a stop in a hurry, a set of Brembo six-piston calipers are joined by 15-inch two-piece front rotors, which are over 1 and 5/16-inch larger than the stock Type S rotors. Being a two-piece rotor means that the rotor hat is made from lighter aluminum while the rotor itself remains cast iron and reduces the weight of these larger rotors versus single-piece units. Out back, the rear rotors have been replaced by two-piece units, further reducing the overall weight and, most critically, unsprung weight.

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Keeping It Simple

Acura's Integra Type S HRC keeps the Type S model's turbocharged 2.0-liter I-4 with its VTEC valvetrain control. Only external changes are made, with a larger intercooler, a pair of oil coolers, and a lightweight cat-back exhaust system that was developed for the DE5 racecar. While the larger intercooler and improved exhaust would help improve power output—along with a tune change for both items—Acura didn’t state how much of a change this made, if any.

In previous stories here on MotorTrend and Super Street, this can show between 10 to 25 hp on 91 octane fuel with only slight tuning of the PCM and more when using race fuel. When we reached out to Acura about this, it responded, “The output, response and cooling performance of the high-revving turbocharged 2.0-liter VTEC engine are improved with the larger intercooler, twin oil coolers and the tuned, lightweight cat-back exhaust system, all developed for the Acura Integra Type S HRC TCX race car. Since this is a design concept, and not a production model, we’re not releasing specs or details on other potential tuning.”

Does the 2024 Integra Type S HRC Point to a Future Type R?

Acura is denying that the Integra HRC Prototype will evolve into anything let alone a would-be Type R by saying, “The Integra Type S HRC Prototype is an expression of what HRC could do to improve the Integra Type S for both the track and the street. If HRC applied their skills to a Civic Type R, then you would see an even more track-focused execution.” When asked for clarification on just the potential of an Integra Type R, Acura responded, "As for an Integra Type R—We are focused solely on strengthening the Type S brand in North America. There are no plans for an Integra Type R."

What Acura didn’t rule out were these parts potentially finding their way down for current owners to apply to their own cars, “We are still in the early stages of exploring the market opportunities for HRC performance parts. Stay tuned for more information in the months ahead.” Reading between the lines, we’d expect something on performance parts for the Integra Type S to debut around the 2024 SEMA Show in November or the 2024 Performance Racing Industry (PRI) Show in December. For now, all we can do is dream of a proper Acura Integra Type R while it teases us with the HRC prototype.