Wishing for More Time and HRC’s New Performance Parts For Our Yearlong Review Acura Integra Type S

We’re over halfway through our yearlong test of the 2025 Acura Integra Type S, and please bear with me because you’re likely going to wonder at first what I’m going on about here as I begin talking about racing. While we haven’t modified or taken our Apex Blue Pearl Integra Type S to any track days—let alone put it into any form of organized, competitive motorsport–we do have plenty of on-track experience with this car during our official testing regimen, and we’ve previously driven other examples on racetracks, so we know how sharp, hugely fun, and rewarding it is to drive. Based on our prior experiences with the Type S before we ever took delivery of this one, none of this has been a surprise.

What has surprised me as this Acura’s overseer during its time in our fleet is how much the Honda/Acura culture thing has hit me when I think about and view the car with the heart and eyes of an everyday owner. For starters, there’s the semi-regular experience of encountering other Integra Type S (and Civic Type R) owners, from passing nods and waves on the Los Angeles streets to smiles and conversations about the car sparked by strangers at gas stations and parking lots. It’s starkly similar to my personal-life experience as a longtime first-gen Porsche Cayman S owner, and it brings an emotional component to the whole thing that can’t be appreciated by simply poring over spec sheets and test results. You can’t place a dollar value on this sort of thing, but it’s real and an important distinction for car enthusiasts who purchase certain vehicles or aspire to own them for reasons beyond having access to mere transportation.

But What Was That About Racing?

Honda and Acura’s long history in motorsports adds to the emotional bit, too. Ahead of the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship’s opening race of 2026, the Rolex 24 at Daytona International Speedway, I hopped into the passenger seat of an Integra Type S for a fast lap around the Daytona road course with racer/full-time Honda production chassis engineer Chad Gilsinger driving. (Not for nothing, he was part of the Civic Type R TCR driver lineup that finished second at Daytona in the IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge event.) Not having driven the car on a track in a while, I was reminded immediately how impressively capable it is, pulling big cornering speeds while exhibiting excellent balance—doubly exquisite for a front-drive car—and allowing for notable chassis-rotation control via the brakes and throttle.

Even with the Gilsinger leaving some performance on the table in the name of safety, the pace was fast enough and so devoid of screaming tires to leave me questioning what modifications the hot-lap car boasted. The answer is hardly any, save for HRC (Honda Racing Corporation) front-brake pads and floating front-brake rotors, the same items used on the Type S race car that competes in the SRO TC America series’ TCX class.

That single flying lap had me thinking about our long-term Integra Type S; the prospect of getting home and steering the Integra on a fun road couldn’t come soon enough as I remembered just how precise an instrument I had access to, and how it represents part of a bigger picture within a company that places premium value on its racing programs.

“To pull out of motorsports or to not put the effort in motorsports is a very dangerous thing, especially from our perspective, because that’s where [Honda] started from,” former Acura vice president and brand boss Jon Ikeda, who is now vice president of HRC U.S., told me later. When I asked him if it’s possible to measure racing’s value to the company beyond concepts such as sharpening engineers like Gilsinger and sparking emotions and loyalty in fans and customers by winning races like the Indianapolis 500, Rolex 24, and others, he replied, “It’s difficult. [TV] viewership—you get the Nielsen ratings—and they have some funky algorithm that if a Honda [or Acura] logo shows up on a race car on TV for 20 seconds, it’s worth X [dollars].

“It’s difficult because it’s not tangible per se. But the business we’re [in the process of] getting into, where we’re going to lean into the equity of the [HRC] racing brand, will be tangible.”

Can We Extend Our Long-Term Test?

That last reference is to the burgeoning HRC Performance Parts operation, Honda’s first true foray into a planned factory-backed catalog of upgrades and potentially HRC-branded cars. Neither Ikeda nor Rob Ray, HRC Performance Parts general manager, would go into detail about how deep the catalog will be, but the first product within the coming months is dubbed Formula R motor oil. It’s intended to be suitable for cars like the Integra Type S and Civic Type R, for both road and racetrack use. That’s potentially a simple and welcome convenience for owners who push their cars hard and don’t want to spend time figuring out the best oil to run. But it was a set of 19-inch forged aluminum wheels mounted on a production-based car the company calls the Integra Type S HRC Prototype (MotorTrend’s Christian Seabaugh took a ride in it last year) that really caught my eye.

The rim design follows that of Acura’s top-class ARX-06 GTP race car, and indeed the wheels are made by Italian HRC supplier 2Elle Engineering, the same company that provides them for Acura’s winning ARX-06 GTP race car. “People want to associate themselves with a winning brand, and the racing has to be just that, or you won’t have a business,” Ikeda said. “Why would I pay for something that doesn’t stand for winning?”

The bad news when it comes to our Integra test car is that those wheels likely won’t be available for purchase until late this year at the earliest, and our time with it will have concluded before they or any of the HRC products, perhaps barring the oil, will be available. We’ll do our best to get Acura to extend our loan with an eye toward upgrading the Type S and evaluating as many HRC pieces as possible, but confidence is low. My direct attempt to convince Ikeda to float me a set of the prototype wheels right now was met with a “keep dreaming” chuckle. Hey, at least I tried.

Speaking selfishly, it’s a damn shame about the timing, even more so when once again casting my eyes on all the other upgrades including but not limited to various aero pieces like a three-way adjustable carbon rear wing, adjustable coilover suspension and rear anti-roll bar, Brembo slotted front brakes, Borla-made catback exhaust, new grille, larger radiator, the carbon hood lifted from the race car, loads of carbon interior panels, Recaro carbon bucket seats, and a full rear-seat delete and rear cross-bracing that Acura has shown off. How much of this stuff will or won’t ever be made available to customers is TBD, but the HRC Performance Parts proposition is tantalizing. It’s also sure to deepen the already well-rooted Honda/Acura culture scene I mentioned earlier. Straight up: If I were in the market for a new car today, I’d be flipping a coin between going with the Acura or the Civic Type R and crossing my fingers for the HRC catalog to come out.

More on Our Long-Term 2025 Acura Integra Type S:

• 2025 Acura Integra Type S Yearlong Arrival: A “Better” Civic Type R? Does It Even Matter?
• Some Early Issues with Our Integra Type S, But Still Plenty of Grins
• Our Integra Type S Isn’t a Good Road Trip Car—It’s Something Better