Import Cars featured

America, the land of the free and the home of the brave. We have everything you could imagine over here, from Saks Fifth Avenue and the Hollywood sign to Waffle House and Mexican restaurants that sell Chinese food. But when it comes to the automotive world, we always seem to get short-changed—we get watered-down versions of just about every car that’s imported.

For example, the Lancer, the WRX…we could go on, but we don’t want to depress ourselves. So when it comes to upping the performance ante, most tuners turn to the Far East to satiate their hunger for speed and handling.

The creature you see before you looks harmless enough in its American skin, much like any other Integra Type R you’ve ever seen. The yellow paint alludes to a Pikachu-like innocence that provides no warning of the monster hiding underneath. While the external clues are few, once you do get under the skin, you realize that what’s there is unlike what’s in any other plain-bread Integra. Even the cars in Japan don’t have this much done to them. The stock Type R, though detuned for the American market, is still a very potent customer. It shreds through turns like a Ginsu knife and accelerates like pungent shrimp through Moe’s colon.

However, that wasn’t nearly enough for Allen Hsu, who heads up AKH Trading, the official importer of Toda Racing. Little has been left untouched by the masters at Toda Racing, and the car received the complete JDM treatment from the wheels to the side mirrors to become a rolling showcase for the company’s products. Hidden underneath a TC Spoilers carbon-fiber hood, the motor has been turned into a who’s who of Japanese tuning. All the major components were swapped out. The pulleys, valvesprings, cams, and more were all tossed in favor of Toda parts with a bit of Mugen and Comptech thrown in for flavor. And anything that wasn’t replaced was sent over to Port Flow Designs in Torrance, California, to be smoothed out and matched.

From the first turn of the key, you know that this is no ordinary Integra. The sound from the Mugen twin-loop exhaust plays like a fine brass instrument. The gasses escaping from the ported, polished, and massaged 1.8L engine play their own symphony as they pass through the Toda Racing header. This all-motor monster started out life as a mere stripling putting out a meager 167 hp. After working out and drinking milk, the engine now has horsepower that’s been upped to 205 at the wheels, resulting in a 13.3-second timeslip at 101 mph. Daily driveability is still maintained on 92-octane gas. Power is translated to the ground through the silky-smooth stock tranny mated to a Toda Racing lightweight flywheel and a full-face clutch.

A conversion of this magnitude doesn’t just stop at the engine bay. That would be like eating sushi without the soy sauce and wasabi. “We designed this car to be an all-around vehicle capable of exceptional performance on the street, on a road, on a racetrack, and at the dragstrip while still being able to stand out at the local car show,” says Allen. Anything in the interior that was designated for the American-market car was scrapped in favor of original and custom parts only found on the Japanese models. The black and red factory seats were dumped in favor of sensuous, red Recaros just like the ones that come inside its righthand-drive brethren. The heavy factory airbag steering wheel, pedals, and shift knob were also junked in favor of sexier Mugen units. Anything Allen could put his butt in, step on, or wrap his hands around has been given “the treatment.”

Now, none of this will do you any good if you stuff the car into a wall at 140 mph. In order to prevent this from happening, the factory brake calipers were swapped out for a pair of Brembo units matched up to a pair of 13-inch rotors for some super stopping power. The bright-red calipers are plainly visible through the titanium-colored 17-inch Volk Racing GTN wheels. Volk wheels, renowned in Japanese racing circles for their light weight and flawless construction, are coveted by many. They’re matched up to a set of Pirelli P-Zeros, giving this car better footwear than a pair of Air Jordans (and that’s saying a lot). The car hovers above the ground with the help of Toda Racing springs and shocks, while roll resistance is aided in the front and rear by Mugen pieces.

Sitting down with Allen and the crew, we sensed a certain fondness for the little yellow car, the kind of fondness you see between a martial arts teacher and his students. You can almost hear them saying, “You have done well, my son. Go forth upon the world and seek knowledge.” A year in the making, this little samurai traveled across the seas to make its home on American soil and grow up to be the envy of its big brothers back home. Although made for America, the heart of this little car is all Japan.