Integra DC2 UK back from the brink
Discussion
Hi all,
Completely disillusioned by the current breed of new hot hatches and super cars I have really enjoyed reading people’s stories in readers cars so thought it was time to do one on my old shed! So below is the story to my DC2, a 1998 UK car that I have owned twice! It’s certainly lived (7 track days and 4 Nurburgring trips plus nearly 60,000 miles in my ownership alone taking it to 208000 miles currently..) and like all these cars had some rust issues which this year caused it to fail it’s mot. Despite knowing it was going to get expensive I never want to sell this car, so took the plunge and decided to save it, so here is the story so far and hopefully many more stories to come!
I always wanted an Integra, and after a good friend beat me too it I had to have one. The next few months were spent looking for one in my small budget that wasn’t complete rubbish, and after a long hunt I found this one at the end of 2014. Long story but it had been advertised poorly and for far too much money on the Integra DC2 forum, however a link at the bottom to the owners Facebook revealed he had been lowering the price for some time on social media but not updating the actual advert, so I ended up paying under half the original advertised price! The only photo I saved from the advert below:
I completely fell in love straight away. Showing it’s age, but extremely well looked after with
full Honda service history, after a major service/cambelt and a new clutch (the original item at 152,000 miles which as it turned out didn’t need changing!) I booked my first ever trackday at Oulton Park. The car was brilliant, totally reliable and very enjoyable to learn how to drive on track.
Soon after I realised a dream and booked my first trip to the Nurburgring, and of course the car was utterly amazing. This would turn into a bit of an obsession with the place, even though I am some way off lap record pace...
For a large percentage of my ownership it’s been my daily which it handled perfectly well, you just would not believe how big the boots are with the rear seats down - ample space for my pushbike that’s I struggled to fit into my old A4 Avant. It certainly gets a lot of attention at mountain bike races in a sea of modified vans! My now Fiancé also had to use the car for a few weeks whilst she was between vehicles and even she loved bombing around in it.
When I bought the car it had signs of rust on both rear arches which is extremely common for these cars. I decided to have this fixed, and after asking and paying for a “proper job” I received the exact opposite. The sad thing is the body shop I chose had classic Astons and E-Types in for full restorations, but despite going back there another 2 times for the rust re-appearing they finally declared the car unfixable and refused to do any more. I was naive and actually felt bad kicking up a fuss, but the level of their piss-poorness became apparent recently. Mechanically the car was still spot on, with more Nurburgring trips and track days completed.
Fast forward a couple more years I made a list of what the car would need to get it up to a standard I was happy with, and I made the tough decision I couldn’t justify spending the money at the time. The owner of my local mot station had always said if I ever wanted to sell it he’d be interested and after mulling it over I drove the car down expecting him to have no real interest. 30 minutes later a deal was done at what I considered a very good price, and after he dropped me home for the first time ever I regretted selling a car. I’ve had loads of cars, some nice some not so nice but this is the only car I instantly thought I have really f
ked up when I sold it!
Whilst I did miss it I never tried to buy it back, even when incredibly a friend sent me the below picture taken from his go pro at the Nurburgring that year (I hadn’t gone this time) of him overtaking my old car! What are the chances!
6 months later an email pops up from eBay suggesting I may be interested in the following item. That looks just like my old one I thought, so naturally clicked on it and there it was, unused since it’s last ring trip, with 1 day to go on the auction! So obviously I broke rule number one and walked straight down to the mot station. When I got there the current owner said he had actually made the decision the night before to cancel the advert as he didnt want to sell and had been messed around twice already, but I think felt sorry for me and we agreed a deal there and then. And yes, it was for more than I sold it to him. I later found it a fair bit of mechanical work had been done so not a complete disaster! It felt so good to be behind the wheel again, aside from all the motoring memories this car has been through a lot with me and it really was like having an old friend back.
Naturally I celebrated by taking the car to Bedford Autodrome, and a couple of months later back to the Nurburgring for easily my best trip. The weather was supposed to be pants but as is often the case the forecast was totally wrong meaning a very quiet track and perfect conditions!
Now the problem is the most of the reasons I sold the car were still present, and thanks to finally buying my first house earlier this year funds were limited to really get stuck in to sorting her out. To sharpen my mind as mentioned the car actually failed it’s mot this year on a hole in the boot floor, and after a brief few weeks of being unsure what to do I made the decision to bite the bullet and sort the rust once and for all. Below are a few pictures that show the extent of the rot and some restoration pics too.
The car returned to me a while later, bodywork sorted on freshly refurbished wheels looking the best it’s ever looked in my ownership. I clearly got a bit giddy, deciding it would be ok to order new genuine front and rear badges and Integra Type R decals to complete the exterior refresh too. Small things but they make a huge difference!
After deciding I hadn’t run myself quite close enough to bankruptcy/death by furious partner I then shipped it off for a fairly serious engine service including:
All fluids
All filters
Cambelt
Waterpump
Oil pump
Valve clearances
Baffled sump (the original was looking tired)
New bottom end bearings (well, the sump was off...)
The car is now back with me and looks brilliant. It’s a little frustrating that after spending some serious money (in my world) on the car it now drives exactly as it did before, but I can’t ever think of a reason to sell it so would rather put the money into it and know the important stuff is sorted before I start to buy upgrades etc. No point spending £1000s for the cambelt to snap next year for example..
If you’ve read this far, fair play to you and I hope you enjoyed the rambling story. It’s never going to set the world on fire, and it’ll never be worth millions of pounds but I don’t ever want to sell it and with its relatively low running costs hopefully I won’t need too.
More to follow!
Completely disillusioned by the current breed of new hot hatches and super cars I have really enjoyed reading people’s stories in readers cars so thought it was time to do one on my old shed! So below is the story to my DC2, a 1998 UK car that I have owned twice! It’s certainly lived (7 track days and 4 Nurburgring trips plus nearly 60,000 miles in my ownership alone taking it to 208000 miles currently..) and like all these cars had some rust issues which this year caused it to fail it’s mot. Despite knowing it was going to get expensive I never want to sell this car, so took the plunge and decided to save it, so here is the story so far and hopefully many more stories to come!
I always wanted an Integra, and after a good friend beat me too it I had to have one. The next few months were spent looking for one in my small budget that wasn’t complete rubbish, and after a long hunt I found this one at the end of 2014. Long story but it had been advertised poorly and for far too much money on the Integra DC2 forum, however a link at the bottom to the owners Facebook revealed he had been lowering the price for some time on social media but not updating the actual advert, so I ended up paying under half the original advertised price! The only photo I saved from the advert below:
I completely fell in love straight away. Showing it’s age, but extremely well looked after with
full Honda service history, after a major service/cambelt and a new clutch (the original item at 152,000 miles which as it turned out didn’t need changing!) I booked my first ever trackday at Oulton Park. The car was brilliant, totally reliable and very enjoyable to learn how to drive on track.
Soon after I realised a dream and booked my first trip to the Nurburgring, and of course the car was utterly amazing. This would turn into a bit of an obsession with the place, even though I am some way off lap record pace...
For a large percentage of my ownership it’s been my daily which it handled perfectly well, you just would not believe how big the boots are with the rear seats down - ample space for my pushbike that’s I struggled to fit into my old A4 Avant. It certainly gets a lot of attention at mountain bike races in a sea of modified vans! My now Fiancé also had to use the car for a few weeks whilst she was between vehicles and even she loved bombing around in it.
When I bought the car it had signs of rust on both rear arches which is extremely common for these cars. I decided to have this fixed, and after asking and paying for a “proper job” I received the exact opposite. The sad thing is the body shop I chose had classic Astons and E-Types in for full restorations, but despite going back there another 2 times for the rust re-appearing they finally declared the car unfixable and refused to do any more. I was naive and actually felt bad kicking up a fuss, but the level of their piss-poorness became apparent recently. Mechanically the car was still spot on, with more Nurburgring trips and track days completed.
Fast forward a couple more years I made a list of what the car would need to get it up to a standard I was happy with, and I made the tough decision I couldn’t justify spending the money at the time. The owner of my local mot station had always said if I ever wanted to sell it he’d be interested and after mulling it over I drove the car down expecting him to have no real interest. 30 minutes later a deal was done at what I considered a very good price, and after he dropped me home for the first time ever I regretted selling a car. I’ve had loads of cars, some nice some not so nice but this is the only car I instantly thought I have really f
ked up when I sold it!Whilst I did miss it I never tried to buy it back, even when incredibly a friend sent me the below picture taken from his go pro at the Nurburgring that year (I hadn’t gone this time) of him overtaking my old car! What are the chances!
6 months later an email pops up from eBay suggesting I may be interested in the following item. That looks just like my old one I thought, so naturally clicked on it and there it was, unused since it’s last ring trip, with 1 day to go on the auction! So obviously I broke rule number one and walked straight down to the mot station. When I got there the current owner said he had actually made the decision the night before to cancel the advert as he didnt want to sell and had been messed around twice already, but I think felt sorry for me and we agreed a deal there and then. And yes, it was for more than I sold it to him. I later found it a fair bit of mechanical work had been done so not a complete disaster! It felt so good to be behind the wheel again, aside from all the motoring memories this car has been through a lot with me and it really was like having an old friend back.
Naturally I celebrated by taking the car to Bedford Autodrome, and a couple of months later back to the Nurburgring for easily my best trip. The weather was supposed to be pants but as is often the case the forecast was totally wrong meaning a very quiet track and perfect conditions!
Now the problem is the most of the reasons I sold the car were still present, and thanks to finally buying my first house earlier this year funds were limited to really get stuck in to sorting her out. To sharpen my mind as mentioned the car actually failed it’s mot this year on a hole in the boot floor, and after a brief few weeks of being unsure what to do I made the decision to bite the bullet and sort the rust once and for all. Below are a few pictures that show the extent of the rot and some restoration pics too.
The car returned to me a while later, bodywork sorted on freshly refurbished wheels looking the best it’s ever looked in my ownership. I clearly got a bit giddy, deciding it would be ok to order new genuine front and rear badges and Integra Type R decals to complete the exterior refresh too. Small things but they make a huge difference!
After deciding I hadn’t run myself quite close enough to bankruptcy/death by furious partner I then shipped it off for a fairly serious engine service including:
All fluids
All filters
Cambelt
Waterpump
Oil pump
Valve clearances
Baffled sump (the original was looking tired)
New bottom end bearings (well, the sump was off...)
The car is now back with me and looks brilliant. It’s a little frustrating that after spending some serious money (in my world) on the car it now drives exactly as it did before, but I can’t ever think of a reason to sell it so would rather put the money into it and know the important stuff is sorted before I start to buy upgrades etc. No point spending £1000s for the cambelt to snap next year for example..
If you’ve read this far, fair play to you and I hope you enjoyed the rambling story. It’s never going to set the world on fire, and it’ll never be worth millions of pounds but I don’t ever want to sell it and with its relatively low running costs hopefully I won’t need too.
More to follow!
Enjoyed the read looking forward to more.
I am massively regretting selling my dc5 at the minute. I could have hung on to it and should have. My m3 was ok, don't miss it. Megane rs the same. The dc5 is probably the only car I'd buy back.
Mulling track cars for next year and a k20 dc2 is top of the list if I can find one among dc5, ep3 etc. I fancy a clio but I'd never stop wishing I'd got a k20 again.
I am massively regretting selling my dc5 at the minute. I could have hung on to it and should have. My m3 was ok, don't miss it. Megane rs the same. The dc5 is probably the only car I'd buy back.
Mulling track cars for next year and a k20 dc2 is top of the list if I can find one among dc5, ep3 etc. I fancy a clio but I'd never stop wishing I'd got a k20 again.
Great read, love stories like this of special cars that just grab our heart strings and wont let go.
I now one my Clio 182 for the 2nd time in a similar story to yours, a car i sold and instantly regretted, took me 4.5 years to get it back, but i too am now going through the car to get it mechanically basically back to new.
I love these old Integras, although never owned or driven one, i know their cult following and how people rave over them. They cannot all be wrong, one day i'll have a go.
Watching with interest, best of luck
I now one my Clio 182 for the 2nd time in a similar story to yours, a car i sold and instantly regretted, took me 4.5 years to get it back, but i too am now going through the car to get it mechanically basically back to new.
I love these old Integras, although never owned or driven one, i know their cult following and how people rave over them. They cannot all be wrong, one day i'll have a go.
Watching with interest, best of luck
Nice work!Thanks to everyone for the kind comments! The general consensus seems to be these cars are still brilliant even though they are over 20 years old!
a11y_m said:
Excellent read and looking forward to more updates. 60k including what must be fairly hard use on track can’t be sniffed at. Love it.
Not bad at all! Touch wood in that time it has been totally reliable too, just regular servicing!MikeGoodwin said:
Enjoyed the read looking forward to more.
I am massively regretting selling my dc5 at the minute. I could have hung on to it and should have. My m3 was ok, don't miss it. Megane rs the same. The dc5 is probably the only car I'd buy back.
Mulling track cars for next year and a k20 dc2 is top of the list if I can find one among dc5, ep3 etc. I fancy a clio but I'd never stop wishing I'd got a k20 again.
I had an M3 and as epic as it was you have to sink big money into them to get them fun on track, plus I can’t afford the brakes/tyres! A properly set up 46/92 M3 is incredible though..I am massively regretting selling my dc5 at the minute. I could have hung on to it and should have. My m3 was ok, don't miss it. Megane rs the same. The dc5 is probably the only car I'd buy back.
Mulling track cars for next year and a k20 dc2 is top of the list if I can find one among dc5, ep3 etc. I fancy a clio but I'd never stop wishing I'd got a k20 again.
frayz said:
Great read, love stories like this of special cars that just grab our heart strings and wont let go.
I now one my Clio 182 for the 2nd time in a similar story to yours, a car i sold and instantly regretted, took me 4.5 years to get it back, but i too am now going through the car to get it mechanically basically back to new.
I love these old Integras, although never owned or driven one, i know their cult following and how people rave over them. They cannot all be wrong, one day i'll have a go.
Watching with interest, best of luck
Hi Frayz, really enjoyed reading your thread - top work! Love the colour on the Clio, and as you say it’s funny how cars like this become so important. Thankyou for your comments! I now one my Clio 182 for the 2nd time in a similar story to yours, a car i sold and instantly regretted, took me 4.5 years to get it back, but i too am now going through the car to get it mechanically basically back to new.
I love these old Integras, although never owned or driven one, i know their cult following and how people rave over them. They cannot all be wrong, one day i'll have a go.
Watching with interest, best of luck
Turn7 said:
They really are a fantastic steer, even in todays world.
I aslo prefer the UK headlamps over the JDM ONES.
Mine remains one of my favourite cars Ive ever owned, only eclipsed by my 7 today.
I’ll have to ask you to leave this thread if that’s an RX7, definitely the one car I regret not buying a few years ago! I aslo prefer the UK headlamps over the JDM ONES.
Mine remains one of my favourite cars Ive ever owned, only eclipsed by my 7 today.
Turn7 said:
205pat said:
I’ll have to ask you to leave this thread if that’s an RX7, definitely the one car I regret not buying a few years ago!
Nope, not a REX, altho thats another car I wish I also had bought in the past....This is what I was talking about....
205pat said:
Turn7 said:
Ah I see! Apologies. I’m very lucky to have driven a lot of cars, yet one thing I have never driven is a Caterham. I like cars that are lightweight and raw so can only imagine how much fun they must be! Great little story - looking forward to future updates.
The DC2 Integra Type R is one car I need to own at some point in my life - there is something about them that draws me to them like a moth to a flame - much as I try, I just can't help myself.
Interesting that Caterhams have been brought up - I'm fortunate enough to own a 2000 Superlight R and to anyone considering ownership of any 7 - just do it as you won't be disappointed - I'm still amazed it's allowed to be road legal!
Evening all - hope everyone has had a great Christmas break! So what does Christmas mean to you? Well I may not be a child but at 28 I still look like one (as I am regularly reminded by family/friends) and any child's true answer is surely... Presents!
So happy Christmas to me! Thanks to being “athletically built” (ie a racing snake) I fit well in narrower seats, and unfortunately for my wallet by far the comfiest seat I’ve ever sat in is a Recaro SPG. As many of you will know the white Integras have red Recaro’s as standard which are lovely on the road but on track nothing matches a proper fixed back seat.
This popped up in beautiful condition for a sensible price, and whilst a new seat isn’t on the desperate list being held properly makes a huge difference for me. The seller also turned out to be a top bloke which is always nice, even if I was late after putting the wrong postcode in my satnav, and subsequently driving to an area with no signal to re-enter/find the correct one... I’ve got a set of Recaro side mounts and have bought a rail too. Nice to buy something shiny for once rather than a service item!
So happy Christmas to me! Thanks to being “athletically built” (ie a racing snake) I fit well in narrower seats, and unfortunately for my wallet by far the comfiest seat I’ve ever sat in is a Recaro SPG. As many of you will know the white Integras have red Recaro’s as standard which are lovely on the road but on track nothing matches a proper fixed back seat.
This popped up in beautiful condition for a sensible price, and whilst a new seat isn’t on the desperate list being held properly makes a huge difference for me. The seller also turned out to be a top bloke which is always nice, even if I was late after putting the wrong postcode in my satnav, and subsequently driving to an area with no signal to re-enter/find the correct one... I’ve got a set of Recaro side mounts and have bought a rail too. Nice to buy something shiny for once rather than a service item!
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