it's time for show-off Sunday, where everyone has a chance to show off their
own car and here's this week's winner, it has a dual overhead camshaft designed
four valves per cylinder and a responsive double wishbone suspension, the acura
integra, an idea that began with a Formula One race car, and has been
evolving ever since, okay fine it's not an f1 car, but it's
still a pretty sweet-looking ride, let me just start by saying thank you to
Scotty Kilmer for featuring me on his channel again, it was his viewer feedback
that inspired me to start my own channel which I've wanted to do for some time
now, now on to the newest addition to my old school family, a 1993 Acura Integra
LS, I didn't want to buy this car but once I saw it parked next to my legend, I
realized I had no choice, it just fits right in, both the Integra and the legend
we're the first cars sold under Honda's luxury brand Acura when they came to the
states in the eighties, this is the second generation which did away with
the pop-up headlights and added a bit more of a contour to the exterior design
than the first generation, the interior of this car is noticeably hollow compared
to the legend and rightfully so, it's their light sports car, it also brings
along some interesting design choices the most notable and most annoying are
the window switches here, they're not exactly accessible from any angle when
you're driving, making it a little bit difficult to reach, also I've never
really seen a car that features electric windows but manual locks, it also has
this little thing where you roll down the window about an inch and a
remarkable amount of air seems to travel through the door handle, being a 90s car
it came with one of my most favorite 90s car features, the automatic seat belt, it's
a great way to forget to put on the rest
of your seat belt, because you think you're already wearing one, especially in
a car with no airbags, when I first purchased this car the
front right speaker kept going in and out, I contacted the previous owner who
said, apply a little bit of pressure on the top right of the head unit, doing so
made it kind of fall into the dashboard a little bit, so I attempted to pull it
back out and pull it back out I did, not a big problem but you know unexpected
this Integra blends in with the legends like a champ
it has such similar styling but still clearly wins the role of the little
racer that the other two can never be, this one is in great shape even with a
hundred and sixty six thousand miles on the clock, it runs like a top, although it
does have some dings and other minor blemishes throughout the body, but they
aren't very noticeable and easy to live with since the arrest me
red paint is just so on point, the interior is almost brand new with all
the controls having their factory feels still intact, but in true Acura form
there isn't a cup holder in sight, as much as I love the styling of this car I
must say that the steering wheel is extremely unattractive, looking like a
sad octopus with four missing limbs, the design actually forces your hands into
the wrong driving position, when I purchased this car my main goal was to
save it from its inevitable demise of being extensively modified and to revert
it back to stock the best I could, within a week I swapped out the shift knob that
consistently made me miss fifth gear, although it did look pretty nice, its
function did not match its form, I removed the embarrassing yonaka
exhaust that was drawing more attention than a bright red 90s Integra needed and
reverted that back to stock, this absolutely gigantic rear view mirror
that only helped me get blinded by every car behind me, was removed promptly which
wasn't difficult, the one thing I didn't change but did adjust were the tain
flex Z coilovers, raising the front two inches and the rear an inch and a half
it makes the ride quality suffer so in due time the stock suspension will be
put back on, I was still on the fence about the HID headlights since they look
so good, but it seems the power draws a bit much since the car idles rough when
I turn them on so they got to go too, now let's use the next few seconds to take
in how great this car silhouette looks against some fall foliage
during a sunset, now despite how prepared I am for the seat belt every time I turn
this key it's always a little bit alarming
I was ready for it now so it wasn't that alarming, is that was that is, now this car only
has 140 horsepower and a hundred twenty-seven pound-feet of torque
it's not fast, it's not fast at all, but it is only twenty six hundred pounds so
the limited amount of horsepower it has it's used efficiently throughout the
entire rev band, which is pretty nice it doesn't climb quickly but it does
climb consistently, since I'm so low to the ground due to this suspension it
feels like I'm flying all the time, the transmission is not as smooth at all as
the legend and the only thing about it is the gearing, this thing is begging for
a sixth gear, because when you're at highway speeds you're pretty much
consistently at around 3500 4000 rpms but I mean what Honda 4-cylinder engine
doesn't like to scream at the top end of the revs, you can pretty much put this
car in fifth gear going about 30 miles an hour that's how close to gearing is,
it feels like it has a lot of first gears, it's roads like this that make the
car worth it, the second you see a couple of bends because a straight-line ride on
the highway is not exactly exciting, but the second you see some bends like this
the car just takes it, I mean you can speed because it's so slow but you don't
have to speed to make it enjoyable there's really no screwing up unless
you're a horrible driver, front wheel drive car like this with minimal
horsepower it's very easy to keep in line, this comes around the corners with
ease the right is pretty predictable which is
nice last thing you want is an unpredictable
ride, but then that happens, the interior sounds are a bit loud compared to the
legend when I get out of this, the legend makes me feel like I bought a Rolls
Royce, it is such a comfortable and poised ride, where this is kind of brutal
loud it's not comfortable over long periods of time, the two way adjustable
seat makes you wish you had four additional ways to adjust your seat,
after about an hour of driving my lower back is on fire, I do get a lot of looks
because you don't see this car often the flashy red color it really just draws
people's attention I don't know if that's a good thing, because according to
my neighbor who's a cop, said I'm surprised you still have that car it's
gonna get stolen
so because of it potentially being stolen, I fitted it with some anti-theft
devices, one of which hopefully I can track down the car if it gets stolen
they're all just really deterrence to prevent people from wanting to steal my
car, realistically they'll get it if they want it, just let me know when you're
gonna take it I'll unlock it, don't destroy the car, everything about it is
pretty enjoyable for an hour until your back hurts and you want to get out and
go somewhere else, despite the limited power uncomfortable
seat and harsh ride from the coilovers, I'm always excited to take this little
toy car out, even when I'm close to my destination I always find myself taking
a detour just to keep the fun going, each of my Acuras has its own purpose and
unique qualities, even though two are nearly identical, the ride couldn't be
more different between the three of them, the legend LS offers me a near new
luxury feel that's calm relaxing and quiet, the other beat-up legend is great
for a daily driver when you expect to sit in traffic and the Integra makes
every 15 mile an hour curve ahead sign a challenge I love accepting, much like my
legend LS I showed off the last time, I think Scotty will approve since this
Integra was not expensive and can easily last me another decade in the condition
it's in, if you want to see my progress on its restoration or other auto related
debauchery, check out my youtube channel Altek1, thanks again Scotty and a
big thank you to your audience for being as cool as you are,
well that was this week's video and remember to have your car video
highlighted here on my channel, check this out,
so if you never want to miss another one of my new car repair videos, remember to
ring that Bell!