Ever since middle school, I’ve always admired Integra Type R’s. Catching the bus home from school, I used to look forward to passing by the Pflueger dealership during Fall season to see what color R’s they had in their showroom, always hoping to see a red or black one since those were the rarer colors. A couple years later, my first car ended up being an Integra so my fascination for the car just grew from there. Since DR began in ’99, I’ve never been able to feature an authentic ITR, none of the ones built up in Hawaii really caught my eye compared to the cars being built in the mainland. The closest feature was the 4motion shoot I did with a few friends back in ’04.

However, there were two ITR’s that always caught my eye, Finley and Lucky’s R’s. They were a huge hit on the Honda-Tech forums back in the day, so subtle and clean. They’re the only two R’s on the island that could pull off a US front end and still look clean.  This was back in ’07 at Streetcar Showoff, Finley’s Championship White ITR was just immaculate (note Lucky’s Phoenix Yellow ITR in the background).

Well it’s been over 5-years since I’ve last seen these cars and while shooting Chris’ VPR LS430 I found out that Finley’s car was still around and still fresh as ever.  Lucky still has his R, but it has taken on a more stock form now.

I’ve heard alot of crazy things R-owners do for their cars; it comes with the passion of owning and building one. I wasn’t surprised when I found out that Finley’s R was sitting comfortably in its own private lot waiting to be taken out to breathe some fresh air.

The car’s gone under some changes, everything still cleanly thought out including the JDM ITR front-end, SprintHart CPR wheels, Vision Kevlar buck seat, and Miracle-X crossbrace just to name a few things.

Seeing all the subtle things done to this car just makes me appreciate how well Finley built it. He’s a true perfectionist; the entire body is OEM, despite his well-fitted stance, he opted to not roll the fenders as he didn’t want to mess with the body of the car and risk damaging the fenders in the process. The sideskirts and rear valences (as most integra owners already know) are all OEM optional parts that are a pain to source and basically extinct aside from the fake fiberglass copies.  Another subtle thing that most people wouldn’t notice is the UK-spec taillights on this car; known for it’s clear/pinkish turn signals, these taillights are super hard to come by, a lot more difficult and significantly more expensive than a pair of 98-spec ITR taillights from Japan which are also a rare find. Although its plates are marked as “SPNFED”, his car does have a nice selection of aftermarket parts from all of Honda’s main tuner counterparts.  The Mugen wing, ENDLESS front brake setup and ARP extended wheelstuds really add a nice touch to the exterior of the car. I was a bit disappointed when I heard that he actually had a Backyard Special front bumper on the way which he debuted at WEKFEST a week ago; it would’ve really added to this feature as his car looks even more amazing with it on.

The entire interior is a combination of US and Japan-spec ITR parts, most noted the radio and clock delete covers, airbag blockoff tray, and center console delete from Japan.  The Spoon gauge cluster and shiftknob, Momo wheel and AutoPower full cage also add to the already immaculate interior.  The motor is controlled by a Hondata S300 nicely displaced in the passenger footwell with a see-through plexiglass cover to show the guts of the ecu.

The engine bay houses a 2000 JDM ITR b18c motor with SSR-DTR Tri-Y headers, Toda clutch and flywheel, Mugen thermostat and switch, Moroso oil pan, and Hasport race motor mounts (the Mugen cold air intake system was being cleaned so it’s missing in the shot).  The bay is pretty clean and spacious due to the removal of all the luxury items; the ABS, power steering and A/C components have all been removed. You might have also been wondering why the exhaust was missing from the rear bumper cutout… it’s because he’s running a Comptech race exhaust that has a dumptube underneath the car before the rear subframe.

There’s really nothing more that can be said about how well this car is built, I’ll let the rest of the pictures speak for themselves. I also want to mention that Finley took home 1st Place Best Acura at the WEKFEST Hawaii car show last weekend.  Seeing the pictures of his car sitting next to Gil’s Ultraspeed Civic made me smile; two of Hawaii’s best Honda builds sitting next to each other under one roof, just a beautiful sight. Enjoy the rest of the shots from this shoot.