Alright, found some free time to write more about my new rice-rocket, so here we go.
I loved my Miata. A lot. It was an absolutely incredible car, and for the nine months or so that I owned it(I still do, it’s now just sitting at the bottom of my driveway awaiting a new home, shameless plug to my post in the For Sale/Trade, WTB section, go check out “FS: 1992 Mazda Miata) it was a great car. But a few months ago the realization that I was ready to move on hit me, and I began hearing the thoughts in my head out. There were a lot of reasons to move on from the Miata, but the big, car enthusiast centered one was that I had no real aspirations for it. I wanted a car that I could sculpt into my liking, to shape into my identity, and this just wasn’t it. The closest I had ever gotten to a real modification(other than buying a rollbar) was a few carbon fiber pieces that I thought looked nice, but after thinking about it I decided I just didn’t have any drive to change the car. Ultimately I became aware that I was just ready for something else. So, what did I want?
Well, originally I was pretty hooked on the idea of buying something from the eighties like an AW11 MR2 or an ae86(I found the CLEANEST ae86 sitting in some random neighborhood in Staunton, but the owner wouldn’t sell), but after realizing that was a terrible idea, I settled on something that my heart has been dying for since I got into cars.
Everyone has those few cars that stand out the most, their hero cars, like the FD RX-7 or the Toyota Supra or the R34. None of those ever stood out to me. My heroes were more along the lines of the Civic and Integra Type R, the S2000, and the City Turbo II. Honda’s philosophy of building cars that could deliver cheap, reliable, capable fun inside simple looks had always captivated me. I yearned for a Honda for the longest time, but two things always held me back. The first was the fact that around here, the only Hondas I could find were Civics with rather unappealing paint jobs and questionable modifications, or built GSRs with an asking price way out of my budget. The second, deeper reason was that I was kind of scared. I’m not a fan of the cheaply built, stanced out honda scene that I feel most people think of when they hear the words “modified” and “Honda” in the same sentence, and I was worried I would face a lot of fire if I owned one. Which was weird, now that I think about it, because I usually don’t give a shit about what other people think about me(within moderation). I’m still pretty shy around people I don’t know very well, but for the most part, I don’t find myself trying to conform to society. If that was the truth, though, why care what people think about the thing I’m most passionate about? I don’t know, but at some point I stopped caring about that, too, and decided that no matter what everyone else said about it, it was time for me to delve into the Honda world.
Alright, with that out of the way, let’s talk about my new project! I’m really excited about this one. I found my new(to me) 1996 Cypress Green Acura Integra RS on craigslist last Friday(it’s now Monday October 1st). The ad mentioned working heat, ac, and the original radio, no mechanical problems, and most importantly, a five speed manual transmission. I contacted the owner via the email address they left and set up to meet the next day. At that point on, Friday couldn’t end soon enough. When Saturday finally came, I met my dad in Grottoes and he, his girlfriend and I made the two hour trip to Roanoke to meet the owner. The drive down was weird. I had already purchased a pass to drive the car back and had the cash to buy in my wallet, but I didn’t really feel like I was actually going to buy a new car.
We met the owner, an energetic fifty-five year old woman with her husband in the parking lot of a presbyterian church in a small, quiet neighborhood. She said she owned the car for a good ten years and was only selling because she was ready to move on to a more “adult” car, like a BMW. She showed me a rather long list of all the maintenance she’d done on the car, and I took it for a test drive. I’d only ever driven one other manual Honda before an EK Civic hatch some guy in Staunton was selling for cheap a while back. That one sucked. I’d heard great things about the shifter feel and handling in Hondas from the nineties, and that one had no feel in the steering, an awful clutch and a shifter that felt like moving a plastic spork through the air an hoping you caught a gear. This one, though, was totally different. The clutch felt solid, the shifter was smooth and tight, and on the small suburban roads I drove it on, it went exactly where I wanted it to go.
When we returned to the church parking lot I looked over the exterior of the car, and while there were a fair amount of scrapes and bruises to be found, I couldn’t find any rust whatsoever. I was sold. She signed the title and handed me an already signed bill of sale and the four keys she had and we talked for a little while. She said she was sad to see the car go, but was excited that it was going to a new owner who was going to give it a good home. She told a few stories about younger kids trying to race her in their Integras or trying to trade their Hondas for it. She also was very curious to know what I had planned for it in terms of modifications, and asked if I was going to paint flames and put a big shiny muffler on it(she and her husband had the idea that the car scene was still very much in its “Fast and Furious” phase). I assured her I would keep it tasteful. We said goodbye and thanked them and headed to lunch before driving the two hours back home. The entire time I still hadn’t come to terms with the fact that I had just bought a new car. Two hours passed and I called Brandon, who was aware I’d gotten a new ride and asked to see it. I met him in town and took him for a quick spin, and he seemed pretty impressed.
Brandon had been hanging out with a few other guys installing some new parts on a WRX hatch(I didn’t catch your names, if you all read this, sorry) and they seemed pretty impressed with my purchase, so I was feeling good. I headed home and pulled into the massive parking lot that makes up my driveway(don’t ask) and walked into my house. No one was home, and almost instinctively hopped right back into the Integra. I went to the car wash(I know, I know, sorry) and gave it a good cleaning. I snapped a few pictures and texted them to my car enthusiast uncle, who was quite surprised to learn I had a new car(I hadn’t told anyone in my family except my mom and my dad) and I headed to his house to show it off. He was pretty excited for me and my cousins insisted I needed a taller wing. Eventually I intercepted my grandmother as she was heading home and showed it her and my granddad, who I could tell thought I was being young and stupid for going through cars so fast, but I didn’t care. All in all, I was pretty proud of my new purchase.
So yeah, I guess I’ll put a pause on story time and give more actual detail about the car. Like I mentioned, it’s a 1996 Acura Integra RS. The RS, for those who don’t know, was the base model Integra that came with steelies, no sunroof, no cruise, and air conditioning and a radio as options only( I think. I’m not entirely sure). This one is painted Cypress Green, and for the most part, everything works. There are a few little quirks, like the light that lets you know the hatch is open flickers on and off regardless of the state of the hatch and the temp gauge is kind of sluggish, but other than that, it’s got cold AC, hot heat, a pretty nice radio(which I’ve decided I’m not changing. I don’t know why, but I find the stock radio really cool), and it’s entirely stock except for the wheels, which I did some digging on and I’m pretty sure are wheels from the original DA9 GSR, so that’s pretty cool. The interior is super clean, and very comfortable, but the exterior needs some love. The clear is peeling in a few spots and there’s a decent amount of dents and dings that needed to be taken care of. I guess that’s to be expected of a car with 191,000 miles, though, huh?
The engine in this teg is the stock b18b2(correct me if I’m wrong but this is the b2, not the b1, right? Right? Ah, whatever), so no VTEC unicorns to be unleashed under here. It burns oil, like any Honda, but at some point down the road(waaay down the road) I want to swap in either a GSR engine or a K20. I guess I’ve got time to figure that out, though. Mod wise, I know pretty well what I want to do, but first up, it needs coilovers. This is the most pedestrian car I’ve ever owned, and the ride is great, but call me crazy, it’s TOO nice. It’s floaty to the point where it’s liable to make you seasick. My girlfriend’s stock 2007 Honda Accord is stiffer. I’m planning to save up for some Tein Street Advance Zs, as I’ve heard they’re pretty solid, especially for the price, but if anyone has other suggestions, I’m open. From there, I want to build this into a solid street car that can handle like it’s on rails. I also want to make sure that I only build this once; it’s going to take a while, but I’m staying away from replica parts or cheapo stuff. I have a vision in my head of exactly how I want it to look, though, and it’s going to take a long time, but for the first time in my car owning experience, I’m really excited to build this.
![[Image: 5a9eb045410bee127f7312a656094410.jpg]](https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20181001/5a9eb045410bee127f7312a656094410.jpg)
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Also, I'll post more pics tonight. These make the exterior look a lot better than it is.
Sent from my SM-G930V using Tapatalk
I loved my Miata. A lot. It was an absolutely incredible car, and for the nine months or so that I owned it(I still do, it’s now just sitting at the bottom of my driveway awaiting a new home, shameless plug to my post in the For Sale/Trade, WTB section, go check out “FS: 1992 Mazda Miata) it was a great car. But a few months ago the realization that I was ready to move on hit me, and I began hearing the thoughts in my head out. There were a lot of reasons to move on from the Miata, but the big, car enthusiast centered one was that I had no real aspirations for it. I wanted a car that I could sculpt into my liking, to shape into my identity, and this just wasn’t it. The closest I had ever gotten to a real modification(other than buying a rollbar) was a few carbon fiber pieces that I thought looked nice, but after thinking about it I decided I just didn’t have any drive to change the car. Ultimately I became aware that I was just ready for something else. So, what did I want?
Well, originally I was pretty hooked on the idea of buying something from the eighties like an AW11 MR2 or an ae86(I found the CLEANEST ae86 sitting in some random neighborhood in Staunton, but the owner wouldn’t sell), but after realizing that was a terrible idea, I settled on something that my heart has been dying for since I got into cars.
Everyone has those few cars that stand out the most, their hero cars, like the FD RX-7 or the Toyota Supra or the R34. None of those ever stood out to me. My heroes were more along the lines of the Civic and Integra Type R, the S2000, and the City Turbo II. Honda’s philosophy of building cars that could deliver cheap, reliable, capable fun inside simple looks had always captivated me. I yearned for a Honda for the longest time, but two things always held me back. The first was the fact that around here, the only Hondas I could find were Civics with rather unappealing paint jobs and questionable modifications, or built GSRs with an asking price way out of my budget. The second, deeper reason was that I was kind of scared. I’m not a fan of the cheaply built, stanced out honda scene that I feel most people think of when they hear the words “modified” and “Honda” in the same sentence, and I was worried I would face a lot of fire if I owned one. Which was weird, now that I think about it, because I usually don’t give a shit about what other people think about me(within moderation). I’m still pretty shy around people I don’t know very well, but for the most part, I don’t find myself trying to conform to society. If that was the truth, though, why care what people think about the thing I’m most passionate about? I don’t know, but at some point I stopped caring about that, too, and decided that no matter what everyone else said about it, it was time for me to delve into the Honda world.
Alright, with that out of the way, let’s talk about my new project! I’m really excited about this one. I found my new(to me) 1996 Cypress Green Acura Integra RS on craigslist last Friday(it’s now Monday October 1st). The ad mentioned working heat, ac, and the original radio, no mechanical problems, and most importantly, a five speed manual transmission. I contacted the owner via the email address they left and set up to meet the next day. At that point on, Friday couldn’t end soon enough. When Saturday finally came, I met my dad in Grottoes and he, his girlfriend and I made the two hour trip to Roanoke to meet the owner. The drive down was weird. I had already purchased a pass to drive the car back and had the cash to buy in my wallet, but I didn’t really feel like I was actually going to buy a new car.
We met the owner, an energetic fifty-five year old woman with her husband in the parking lot of a presbyterian church in a small, quiet neighborhood. She said she owned the car for a good ten years and was only selling because she was ready to move on to a more “adult” car, like a BMW. She showed me a rather long list of all the maintenance she’d done on the car, and I took it for a test drive. I’d only ever driven one other manual Honda before an EK Civic hatch some guy in Staunton was selling for cheap a while back. That one sucked. I’d heard great things about the shifter feel and handling in Hondas from the nineties, and that one had no feel in the steering, an awful clutch and a shifter that felt like moving a plastic spork through the air an hoping you caught a gear. This one, though, was totally different. The clutch felt solid, the shifter was smooth and tight, and on the small suburban roads I drove it on, it went exactly where I wanted it to go.
When we returned to the church parking lot I looked over the exterior of the car, and while there were a fair amount of scrapes and bruises to be found, I couldn’t find any rust whatsoever. I was sold. She signed the title and handed me an already signed bill of sale and the four keys she had and we talked for a little while. She said she was sad to see the car go, but was excited that it was going to a new owner who was going to give it a good home. She told a few stories about younger kids trying to race her in their Integras or trying to trade their Hondas for it. She also was very curious to know what I had planned for it in terms of modifications, and asked if I was going to paint flames and put a big shiny muffler on it(she and her husband had the idea that the car scene was still very much in its “Fast and Furious” phase). I assured her I would keep it tasteful. We said goodbye and thanked them and headed to lunch before driving the two hours back home. The entire time I still hadn’t come to terms with the fact that I had just bought a new car. Two hours passed and I called Brandon, who was aware I’d gotten a new ride and asked to see it. I met him in town and took him for a quick spin, and he seemed pretty impressed.
Brandon had been hanging out with a few other guys installing some new parts on a WRX hatch(I didn’t catch your names, if you all read this, sorry) and they seemed pretty impressed with my purchase, so I was feeling good. I headed home and pulled into the massive parking lot that makes up my driveway(don’t ask) and walked into my house. No one was home, and almost instinctively hopped right back into the Integra. I went to the car wash(I know, I know, sorry) and gave it a good cleaning. I snapped a few pictures and texted them to my car enthusiast uncle, who was quite surprised to learn I had a new car(I hadn’t told anyone in my family except my mom and my dad) and I headed to his house to show it off. He was pretty excited for me and my cousins insisted I needed a taller wing. Eventually I intercepted my grandmother as she was heading home and showed it her and my granddad, who I could tell thought I was being young and stupid for going through cars so fast, but I didn’t care. All in all, I was pretty proud of my new purchase.
So yeah, I guess I’ll put a pause on story time and give more actual detail about the car. Like I mentioned, it’s a 1996 Acura Integra RS. The RS, for those who don’t know, was the base model Integra that came with steelies, no sunroof, no cruise, and air conditioning and a radio as options only( I think. I’m not entirely sure). This one is painted Cypress Green, and for the most part, everything works. There are a few little quirks, like the light that lets you know the hatch is open flickers on and off regardless of the state of the hatch and the temp gauge is kind of sluggish, but other than that, it’s got cold AC, hot heat, a pretty nice radio(which I’ve decided I’m not changing. I don’t know why, but I find the stock radio really cool), and it’s entirely stock except for the wheels, which I did some digging on and I’m pretty sure are wheels from the original DA9 GSR, so that’s pretty cool. The interior is super clean, and very comfortable, but the exterior needs some love. The clear is peeling in a few spots and there’s a decent amount of dents and dings that needed to be taken care of. I guess that’s to be expected of a car with 191,000 miles, though, huh?
The engine in this teg is the stock b18b2(correct me if I’m wrong but this is the b2, not the b1, right? Right? Ah, whatever), so no VTEC unicorns to be unleashed under here. It burns oil, like any Honda, but at some point down the road(waaay down the road) I want to swap in either a GSR engine or a K20. I guess I’ve got time to figure that out, though. Mod wise, I know pretty well what I want to do, but first up, it needs coilovers. This is the most pedestrian car I’ve ever owned, and the ride is great, but call me crazy, it’s TOO nice. It’s floaty to the point where it’s liable to make you seasick. My girlfriend’s stock 2007 Honda Accord is stiffer. I’m planning to save up for some Tein Street Advance Zs, as I’ve heard they’re pretty solid, especially for the price, but if anyone has other suggestions, I’m open. From there, I want to build this into a solid street car that can handle like it’s on rails. I also want to make sure that I only build this once; it’s going to take a while, but I’m staying away from replica parts or cheapo stuff. I have a vision in my head of exactly how I want it to look, though, and it’s going to take a long time, but for the first time in my car owning experience, I’m really excited to build this.
Sent from my SM-G930V using Tapatalk
Also, I'll post more pics tonight. These make the exterior look a lot better than it is.
Sent from my SM-G930V using Tapatalk