1997 acura integra type r for sale

Nostalgia can be an extremely powerful force, one so strong that it pushes people to spend exorbitant sums of money on the relics of their youth. Take, for example, the Acura Integra Type R. What may at first just look like a sportier and more luxurious version of the 1990s Honda Civic has become an absolute must-have for car collectors who came of age during the decade.

Type Rs have been selling for increasingly higher prices for a few years now—one with just 1,200 miles on sold for $63,800 last year—but a just-sold 1997 model has pushed this phenomenon to a new level. As Jalopnik points out, a white Type R with one previous owner and 6,000 miles on the odometer just sold for a stunning $82,000, well over three times its original $24,000 sticker price.

1997 Acura Integra Type R  Photo: Courtesy of Bringatrailer.com

The sky-high market for the car shows just how deceiving looks can be. While the Type R might look just like one of the most ubiquitous cars of its era, it’s actually a vehicle that car nuts lust over. Why? Because the Type R is maybe “the most legendary front-wheel drive car ever sold in the US,” according to the website. Hyperbole aside, the point is a fair one.

Originally brought to the US in 1997, the Type R featured a peppy 1.8-liter VTEC DHOC inline-four engine that brought 195 horses and 130 lb-ft of torque and was outfitted with a five-speed manual transmission. While the horsepower figure is nothing to write home about, that torque number is, especially since the car had a curb weight of just 2,600 lbs. Because of this, the Type R was capable of 8,400 RPM, an eye brow-raising figure that allowed it to compete with, and frequently beat, more brawny all-wheel drive competition like the Subaru WRX STI or the Skyline GT-R.

1997 Acura Integra Type R’s pristine engine  Photo: Courtesy of Bringatrailer.com

Despite all this, $82,000 is still a remarkable sum to pay for a Type R. It helps that the car had only one previous owner and so few miles on the odometer that the 22-year-old Integra is in basically mint condition. The 1997 Type R is also rare, as only 320 were brought to America that year.

Of course, this sale is no outlier. The Acura is far from the only Japanese import to make collectors go gaga of late. Amid changes in import laws, previously unavailable Japanese cars from the ‘80s and ‘90s have proven to be a huge hit on the auction market. Just ask the owner of the 1994 Toyota Supra that sold for a stupefying $173,600 last march. Father Time may be undefeated, but in the collector market, his cousin Nostalgia is running up a pretty impressive record, too.

I don’t have all the answers. Never pretended to. But I thought I mostly had things figured out, you know? Like I had a pretty good grip on things, knew how to handle myself and get around. But I don’t recognize reality anymore. Not when a late 1990s Honda Civic Si can sell for as much as a new one, or an Acura Integra Type R can command a sale price of almost $45,000.

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Don’t believe me? Check out this sale listing at Washington’s Boyko Motors, which has the no. 35 of 320 ITRs for sale at $44,990. Let me be clear that this is a great example of Honda’s late 1990s/early 2000s performance legend. It’s a 1997 model with just one owner and only 14,423 miles on the odometer. It’s clean as hell, inside and out.

And I’m also not downplaying the significance or the awesomeness of the Integra Type R. Long the only Type R sold in America, this Integra was known for its screaming 8,000 RPM redline, VTEC shenanigans, and handling that put it on par with even newer exotics and high-end performers like the C6 Corvette ZR1. It’s a special machine, and rare to boot.

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But damn, I had no idea they had gotten so expensive on the used market. Blame millennials getting money, blame Radwood, blame climate change, blame whatever you want, but the demand for stuff like this is clearly skyrocketing. (In 1997 an Integra Type R sold for new around $24,000, which would be around $36,000 in today’s money.)

In case you’re curious, this is a decent amount more expensive than most Integra Type Rs (Integras Type R?) we’ve seen sold lately. A cursory search over at Bring a Trailer reveals most of the best ones go for around $30,000, max. Many others have sold for quite a bit less than that, though one recent outlier sold for $40,000 in November. Maybe it was a preview of what’s to come.

Anyway, this is a very nice and good Integra Type R. If you have almost $50,000 you should buy it, but please drive it as it is meant to be driven and stop telling me how expensive the cars I grew up loving are now, because it makes me feel old.

Hat tip to Serge!

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