Meet the four-door Honda Integra Type-R you didn’t know exists

Most people think the Type-R badge didn’t appear on a four-door Honda until the late 2000s, when the third-gen Civic Type-R came along. Most people are wrong.

Yep, there was a Honda Integra Type-R four-door, closely related to the DC2, but given the designation ‘DB8’.

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Mechanically, the four-door was the same as the coupe, though since it was a JDM-only model it was more powerful than the DC2 Australians were given access to… by 6kW.

It being Japan-only also dictated its front end, the major difference between our own DC 2, with its quad-light setup, and the Japanese model with a far more conventional (or conservative) style.

So, an atmo four-pot coming in at 1.8-litres and peaking for 147kW at 8000rpm. VTEC, yo. It obviously weighed more than the coupe, 1120kg to the coupe’s 1080kg in Japan, so we reckon it’d struggle to top 100km/h in any less than 7 seconds on a normal day.

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However, given its similarities with the two-door, it should by all means be an excellent steer – its brother is often regarded the best front-driver of all time.

The only account of any production numbers we could find was a Japanese importer blog that claimed just more than 5000 were built, though Honda’ s own archive actually reveal plenty of info about the car and its place within the Honda range when it was released.

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For between 2,200,000 and 2,300,000 yen back in the latter half on the 1990s, depending on your province, you could pick up a three-door ITR. Or, for 40,000 more, you could opt for the four-door DB8.

Of course, with DC2 prices well on their way upward, any DB8 Type-R you stumble across for sale (good luck) for less than its showroom price would be well worth the investment.