2024 Acura Integra Type S First Drive Review: Multiple Personalities, Perfect Execution

The 2024 Acura Integra Type S has qualities far more impressive than a ludicrous 0-60 time or a huge-diameter touchscreen—it has balance, harmony, and soul. Few cars appeal to both pragmatism and playfulness so well; none look this good doing it. This is a car we’ll be celebrating until gasoline goes extinct.

I have to disclose that I’m pretty much seventh-row center of this car’s target audience. Big sport compact fan, Japanese car enthusiast, and near-past nostalgist here. My first car ever was a base-model salvage-title Integra from 1996.

But despite the callback name, the new Integra Type S formula is really not “classic Integra plus power and technology.” It’s a new car with its own identity and character. It just happens to have brought along some excellent elements from the golden era of Acura’s initial rise to relevance.

2024 Acura Integra Type S Specs

• Base price (as tested) $50,800 ($53,785)

• Powertrain: 2.0-liter four-cylinder turbo | 6-speed manual | front-wheel drive

• Horsepower: 320 @ 6,500 rpm

• Torque: 310 lb-ft @ 2,600 to 4,000 rpm

• Seating capacity: 4

• Curb weight: 3,219 pounds

• Cargo volume: 24.3 cubic feet

• Top speed: 167 mph

• EPA fuel economy: 21 mpg city | 28 highway | 24 combined

• Quick take: A well-made driver’s car that doesn’t just have personality, it has several.

• Score: 9/10

The Basics

The Integra Type S is a premium performance sport compact car, brand new for 2024. It shares a platform and key components with the FL5 Civic Type R that also just came out. But while the Honda is tuned for time attack (read: stiff, sharp, and aggressive) this Acura is set up to be a little more comfortable and daily driving friendly—a few clicks more compliant in ride and responsiveness with a more upscale interior.

The Integra A-Spec is a nice-driving sport compact car too, and it lets you squeeze a lot of joy out of its 200-horsepower engine. But the Type S is more than a few tweaks up. Between its 320-hp turbo K-series and hunkered stance, this car does an exceptional job of asserting itself as a serious performance car without compromising refinement or looking like a Hollywood prop car.

If you grew up with earlier iterations of the Integra, it makes sense to assume this picks up where the old car left off when it was discontinued circa 2001. In some important ways, it is—the core spirit of old and new both being “a great driver’s car that’s also practical.”

Two decades ago, the Integra Type R was the top-tier offering. It was light, lean, and compared to today’s cars, pretty raw. The new Type S is not that car. Today’s range-topping Integra is faster, more comfortable, and markedly safer. But what really makes it better to live with is its versatility. When you’ve got a stretch of open road or race track in front of you, the Sport and Sport+ modes make the ITS eager to slice and dice and blow the doors off an old Type R. When you want to chill, Comfort mode is just a couple of quick clicks away and the car suddenly softens up for daily duty. That is the real magic of a modern Type S.

Exterior and Interior Design

Acura has really committed to corporate homogenization and if you’re not into cars, it’s a little tough to tell the models apart. But the ITS has some great design flourishes that make it fun to look at.

Body and Wheels

The wide stance and fender flares are doing the most work to make this car stand out. They’re stamped metal, by the way, not some tacked-on plastic nonsense. An optional carbon fiber tail spoiler goes a long way in accentuating the Type S bristliness, and that center triple-exit exhaust really brings the car’s look home. I even like the badge treatment—the little “Type S” emblem in the corner of the trunk and on the fenders is just the right amount of advertising.

I find it a little odd that you can only have the wheels in this dark grey color, or copper for an extra $2,000. But the design is nice and Acura claims they’re lighter than the A-Spec wheels despite being bigger.

Cockpit

The Integra’s interior is clean and comfortable, not ornate or particularly elegant. Materials at the touchpoints are nice and I really like the button layout, but the cockpit doesn’t have the designy artfulness you get in the similarly-priced Euro rivals. Whether or not that’s a pro or con depends entirely on your personal aesthetic, though.

Acura makes good use of the digital dashboard and infotainment without overwhelming you with screens. Drivers have a lot of choice for what’s displayed on the dash and HUD, and the drive mode selector is done just right. It’s one click of a switch up or down for Comfort or Sport (the digital squink sound as this happens is great too), and best of all, a user-configurable Individual mode is hard-keyed so you can hit it instantly without thinking.

The only aspect I was lukewarm on was the seat. Several of Acura’s people mentioned how proud they were of the seat design; it’s supposed to be comfy yet supportive to fit every drive mode. But my butt couldn’t quite settle in it—it’s possible I just need to find a better recline setting.

Cargo Hatch and Engine Bay