Less than a year after Thuy Ngo bought her Acura Integra sedan, somebody hit it hard enough that she had to decide whether the car was even worth repairing. She and her boyfriend, Jimmy Nguyen, talked it over and came up with another option: fix it, but don’t put it back to stock. That choice eventually landed the car in the July 2007 issue of HCI, short for Hot Compact & Imports, with Gene Tjin behind the camera. Tjin also shot Tunerzine’s Integra Sedan, making Ngo’s four-door another Integra sedan from his archive to find a permanent home here.
The first thing Ngo and Nguyen bought was a JDM Honda Integra Type R front end, replacing the USDM round headlights with the one-piece Japanese units. According to the original HCI feature, that purchase pretty much set the direction for the rest of the build. Nguyen handled much of the parts hunting along the way, with the two of them focusing on getting the parts they actually wanted rather than settling for whatever was easiest to find. At shows, Ngo apparently heard the same question over and over: how much had she spent on the car? She had two answers. Either a million dollars, or she had stopped counting and simply bought what she liked.
For everything that went into it, the exterior is fairly understated. A Mugen front bumper and VIS carbon fiber hood are the most obvious changes, while many of the smaller details came from the Japanese-market DB8. Those included a rear fog light, power folding mirrors, a third brake light blocker, and Japanese parking stickers. HCI also made a point of noting that the parts on the car were genuine, something that carried a little more weight in 2007 when replica Honda and Mugen parts were everywhere.
The Mugen theme carries into the engine bay, where HCI listed a Mugen radiator cap, thermostat, oil cap, fan switch, and reservoir covers. The motor under the hood got an ARC intake, NGK spark plug wires, and a ground wire kit. Out back was a Mugen Twin Loop exhaust. Since Ngo actually drove the Integra instead of moving it from show to show on a trailer, the suspension wasn’t ignored either. Ground Control adjustable coilovers handled the ride height, which HCI noted she would change whenever she felt like it, while Carbing three-point front and four-point rear strut bars were joined by a Skunk2 lower tie bar.
The wheels required a little more commitment. Ngo had wanted a set of red GABs for a long time, but most of the ones she found were 4×100, matching the Integra’s stock hub pattern. Instead of limiting herself to those, she converted the car to JDM DB8 4×114.3 hubs and installed JDM DB8 brakes at the same time. Skunk2 extended wheel studs were also added, and the car ended up wearing 16×6.5-inch 4×114.3 GAB wheels wrapped in 205/45R16 Nitto Neo Gen tires. It was a lot more work than simply finding another set of wheels, but it meant Ngo could run the ones she actually wanted.
Inside, the same approach continued. Red JDM Integra Type R Recaros went up front, with Type R rear seats replacing the factory bench so the interior matched from front to back. The rest of the cabin was filled with smaller Japanese-market pieces, including a Honda airbag block-off tray, clock blocker, armrest eliminator, interior road flare and bracket, SiR-G rear fog light switch, personal access ashtray, gather deck, and fold-in mirror switch. A Mugen FG360 steering wheel with its built-in pad finished things off.
HCI closed the original feature by emphasizing that Ngo built the Integra for herself and wasn’t particularly interested in keeping track of what it cost. More than anything, that comes through in the parts she chose and the lengths she was willing to go to use them. Converting the hubs just to run the GAB wheels she had always wanted probably says more about the build than any parts list could.
GalleryPhotos by Gene Tjin
