ACURA INTEGRA TYPE S
Surprising Power Packed into a Gorgeous Shell
Take one look at the 2024 Acura Integra Type S in the eye-popping Blue Pearl hue and you’ll probably fall in love, especially if a sports coupe is your idea of a fun car to zip around town in. For the color is swooningly beautiful, as are the clean lines and streamlined shape. But before you get too excited about this award-winning vehicle ranked Number One as the best subcompact luxury car of 2024 by Car and Driver magazine, there’s an important thing to know.
This zippy turbocharged 2.0 liter, four-cylinder sports car has only one way to get it going, and that’s with a manual transmission. So, if driving a stick—pushing in the clutch with your left foot and shifting gears—isn’t something you’ve learned to do, this one’s not for you. (Unless you’re ready to learn, of course.)
That said, there’s a lot of fun to be had behind the wheel of this new high-performance, six-speed Integra Type S model, for there’s power to spare in its 320hp engine. More than enough, too, to give off a growl as you sit at a stop light and plenty of get-up-and-go to perhaps draw the attention of law enforcement who just might want a closer look as you whizz past.
What they’ll see is a roomy interior, but not a lot of trunk space. The Integra Type S has four doors and ostensibly seats four, but those four people are not members of my tall family. Assume only two to three adults can ride comfortably and two children can ride comfortably in the backseat: face it, this is not a family coupe but a fun sports car that’s really made for two, despite having the second row of seats. Two pieces of luggage fit comfortably in the trunk, but four would not.
ZIPPY ON STREETS & HIGHWAYS
The Integra Type S is designed to move, making city driving a breeze, even when the streets are packed. Its size makes it quick, enabling you to slide in and out of traffic jams like a darting hawk, and fast at taking advantage of gaps in the gridlock. It’s almost fun to drive on crowded streets in this Acura.
And it really is a blast to get it out on the highway when traffic is moving. Pop it into Sport+ drive mode and it’s a road-hugging animal, up to the challenge of high-speed driving. You can even make it sound like a true beast by activating its Active Exhaust Valve, which literally turns it into a vroom-vroom car that sounds like it just drove off a racetrack. With a navigation map that makes it easy to see a wide swath of the route and AM/FM and Sirius XM radio stations belting out sound from the 14-speaker AKG sound system (upgrade to Bose technology for a top-of-the-line listening experience), it’s an inside experience that satisfies.
To really get the full enjoyment of driving this sportster, head up to your favorite mountain range or just hit the Taconic Parkway, for zooming around curves in this low-lying automobile is a gas. We particularly like it on curvy country roads, where it stays tight in the curves and easily passes slower vehicles on the straightaways. Turn off that noisy Active Exhaust while touring up in the hills, as there’s no need to antagonize the residents!
THE BEST FEATURES
Regardless of which kind of driving you do in the Acura Integra Type S, it’s designed to keep you safe, with some standard driver-assistance features included. The Collision Mitigation Braking System alerts and even applies the brakes to avoid front impact; Road Departure Mitigation alerts to driving out of a lane or off a roadway; and Pedestrian Detection (a very useful one in NYC) sends audio and visual warnings and even applies the brakes if a pedestrian steps in front of the car.
This peppy ride gets a 21-mpg city gas rating, with 28 mpg averaged on the highway and 24 mpg combined, so its main appeal isn’t that of a hybrid or electric vehicle which gets much better gas mileage. But when the exhaust growls and the Integra Type S jumps to do whatever you ask of it on the road, those of us that love driving a speedy little sport car are not so concerned about that gas mileage. For this is a car that’s a ton of fun to drive.
For more information about the 2024 Acura Integra S go to www.acura.com/cars/integra