Story By James Heine • Photos As Credited
On any given weekend at a top-tier vintage race, you’d expect to see the familiar gaggles of historic machines: single-seaters plus production racers from the SCCA’s alphabet soup of sports car and tin-top classes. But an Acura Integra Type R?
And not just any Type R, but one of the iconic orange-and-white cars from the RealTime Racing stable?
Yes, it’s back, and with team founder Peter Cunningham behind the wheel. Cunningham unveiled the freshly restored sport compact at the WeatherTech International Challenge with Brian Redman Presented by Hawk, a major vintage race held each July at Road America.
Between 1997 and 2002, in the hands of drivers Pierre Kleinubing, Michael Galati, Hugh Plumb, Kevin Schrantz, Fred Meyer and Cunningham himself, RealTime Racing’s Acura Integra Type Rs dominated the Speed Touring Car Championship, winning five of the series’ six driver championships plus four manufacturer titles against marques such as BMW, Mazda, Ford, Toyota, Saturn and Nissan.
R Is for Refined
Out of the box, Cunningham notes, the Acura Integra R was a strong car, well made and with excellent handling capabilities and a durable engine. Transformed into a racer within World Challenge Touring Car rules, it became a formidable contender.
“It’s just a really good chassis, and to this day, people still give it a lot of credit as the best-handling front-drive car ever,” he says. “Certainly of its era, that could be said.”
This particular car, Cunningham adds, is the team’s second-winningest Type R. It was driven by Michael Galati in 1997 and 1998 before becoming Hugh Plumb’s car for the 1999 and 2000 seasons. It wore 43 with both drivers. The team’s top car now resides at American Honda’s museum in…
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