This week is Monterey Car Week. And we got a surprise announcement from Acura. The Integra — the brand’s iconic front-wheel-drive sports coupe — will return next year. It was last sold as the Acura RSX in America and went out of production in 2006. The sporty Type R version — regarded by many as one of the best handling front-wheel-drive ever — made our 50 most influential cars list and fetches bonkers prices on Bring a Trailer.
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What do we know about the new Integra? Acura did not tell us a whole lot. The brand says it will be a premium compact, arrive in Spring 2022 and possess “the same fun to drive spirit and DNA of the original.” The silhouette — unveiled to media members via skywriting drone — looks far more like a fun-to-drive sports coupe and nothing like a crossover. Judging from the preview shot, the new Integra will have a more modern and meaner mug than the mid-2000s Acura RSX did.
Acura has been rebranding itself as a performance brand while launching the new TLX sedan and MDX three-row crossover. So having a legitimate sports car in the lineup to underpin that rhetoric would make sense. The pricey Acura NSX has been a hit with reviewers but has been a car almost literally no one buys. Acura re-rolling in 2022 with a cheaper, more accessible and simpler sports car may pay more dividends.
Since Acura left the meagerest of crumbs for us to work with, we have ample room to speculate on the fifth-generation Integra details. Here’s hoping for an Acura-branded take on the Civic Type R with the same engine and available 6-speed manual transmission but an elevated style and more creature comforts.