That's it. The final click. With the power of all that is just and well, a policy change.
Removal of your 1990 Acura Integra LS.
Addition of the 1988 Honda Civic LX.
Policy change effective 4/27/12 at 12:01AM.
Thanks, GEICO.
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I must continue on, through life, living, driving, doing. I feel like I have a few things to say.
Integra, you weren't that great. In fact, you've been pretty shitty. But it's not your fault that you were molested by a retard. You cost me a lot of money, a lot of time, and caused some grief.. and I loved you anyways. You taught me a few things about motors in general and Honda motors specifically. And a bit about the chassis, suspension, steering, cooling, and pretty much any other system you can imagine. Because you were all fucked up. Being slightly less fucked now, I hope to sell you to fund the Civic project now. Your legacy will live on forever. I owned you for 5+ months. I drove you for less than that, considering you were broken a lot.
Thank you, and I'm sure I'll see you again someday.. Probably wrecked, on Craigslist.
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Now that the sentiments are over, I'd like to do a review of the 1990 Acura Integra LS.
Let's face it. I bought it because I was looking for Honda reliability, but with a bit more class. Well, I actually traded for it. Because I was desperate to get rid of my EG hatchback. Cool car, bad decisions, old news, no regrets. What a ride it's been.
Appearance
The car looks killer. Murdered out, black on black (on black). Minor body damage isn't a big deal, and once I reassembled the front end, it looked well enough. A profile view of the car was best, with the low hoodline sloping into a windshield, with a roof, and a hatch in the back for carrying things. The rear deck made it look like it could have a trunk (which it did on the sedan models). The black interior was pleasant on the eyes, and didn't feel like cheap plastic (even though that's exactly what it was). The fabric pattern on the seats was definitely from the 80's, but it grew on me. The carpet on the other hand, didn't stand the test of time. It was worn, and missing completely on the passenger side (which walmart helped me fix). The red LED gauge cluster I installed was pretty neat. I was always a bit annoyed, however, that I had a single din deck in a double din opening. Like part of the car was missing.
Handling
With stock suspension, the car handled pretty well. A 45 degree turn at 35MPH induced understeer (I did this every day on the way to school), but it snapped out of it quickly, and I have a feeling that with better tread and a dry road, it could have done better. The lack of power steering was a mixed blessing. Going around corners, the car felt really solid, like you had complete control. Lots of feedback in the steering wheel, every bump and groove in the road was communicated this way. You could take it to the point of breaking loose, and back off just enough to rip the corner apart. It felt very much like a driver's car. On the other hand, maneuvering in low speed situations could sometimes be annoying. Dry steering was not really possible, which made getting out of tight parking spots interesting. In the mornings, Joe Armstrong had no problem guiding the car, but at night after a long day's work, I found myself turning more slowly, and therefore taking more time to do everything. Another thing worth noting is that I wasn't strong enough to make sharp turns with one hand, so eating, shifting, and steering was always difficult.
Noise
The flowmaster exhaust with a giant dent in it and holes in my piping sounded lovely from 700-2400 RPMS. Loud, deep. From 2400-3200, you had to go through that nasty raspy sounding noise (words like fart can come to mind) that pretty much all Hondas make at some point in their powerband. From 3200 onwards, it was bliss. At WOT, I felt like a freakin' race car driver. But seriously, I think the B18 is one of Honda's best-sounding motors. At 5k, those four cylinders were singing in harmony, dancing on a tapestry of regular unleaded, injected at the precise point for maximum combustion efficiency. It was delicious.
Motor
Remember that whole dancing jazz I was talking about earlier? Yeah, this motor is incredible. Even with a worn out bottom end, this thing moved. Torque, one word you don't hear a lot in these cars. And plenty of it. It revved eagerly, like an excited puppy, begging you to play. I only did a few clutch drops, but plenty of pulls. It would burn too much oil at 6k to rev anymore, so I never did find out what happened at redline, but I imagine it was only okay, since these LS motors have a shitty rod / stroke ratio. It misfired at idle, something I never worked out, although it must have been something to do with fuel delivery. The motor in this car is the biggest thing I'll miss. It's just quick. I have a feeling that with proper maintenance, this motor wouldn't have been burning oil with only 160k on it. I would like to swap this motor into the Civic someday, and play more with that thick, meaty torque. The only downfall i'd like to mention is fuel economy. I saw an average of 20 MPG city with my ownership, although I think it would have been better if the fuel delivery issue was resolved, and if I weren't a teenager. Had a very tough time granny shifting when going fast was so easy.
There's more that can be said, and maybe I'll add it to this post later, but for now, I'm going to do some sleep, and figure out what direction I want to go with the civic.
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