Acura just revealed the new 2023 Integra, marking the name’s return to the market in nearly two decades (2006, to be specific), but what happens next? Well, if Acura has its way, it’ll be putting the Integra back on the racetrack yet again, but it’s not entirely up to Acura, and we’re talking about cross-company politics here.

2020 Acura Integra – To Race or Not to Race

In an interview with Road & Track, Acura VP, Jon Ikeda, straight up said the company wants to return to racing, but it’s not up to him, and it’s not up to Acura. “We want to race this thing but maybe the Honda PR and marketing guys might have different ideas.” This comes as part of his push, as a motorsports enthusiast, to once again turn Acura into a true-to-life performance brand once again. And the Integra wouldn’t be alone – Acura joined IMSA’s Dpi class in 2018 and the brand is currently committed to building an LMDh car for the new class that kicks off in 2023.

The way we see it, an Integra racer would be some form of touring car put together by Honda Performance Development (HPD) – the same people behind previous-gen Civics for TC, TCR, and TCA race classes. The new Civic Si will also be brought up to TCA status, but for now, that’s where HPD’s plans stop. The old Civic Type R played its part in TC and TCR classes, though, so it boils down to whether there’s room for Civic and Integra racers.

As Honda’s performance arm, the Acura brand should be more fun and it is getting there, but there has also been a lot of focus on luxury in the past. With the reintroduction of the TLX Type S, Acura’s fun quotient has started to increase, and the Integra will double down on that. Ikeda has been clear that he wants to offer every Acura model in Type S trim, which goes along with rumors that an Acura Integra Type S is under way.

The standard integra is powered by the same 1.5-liter, turbocharged, four-banger found in the Civic Si. In that car, it makes 200 horsepower and 192 pound-feet of torque, a figure that Acura will probably build on a bit to make it more fun and to differentiate it from the Civic Si outside of appearance and chassis. The rumored Integra Type S would likely get juice from the Civic Type R’s turbocharged 2.0-liter. Power figures for the next-gen Type R have yet to be revealed, but it has been spotted on the Nürburgring, seen out on public roads, and Honda has even teased it with official spy shots, so it’s definitely coming. It will have more power than the last-gen Type R’s 306 ponies and 295 pound-feet, so the Integra Type S could have more than that too.

The 2023 Integra should go on sale sometime in mid-2022 and will start around $30,00. A Type S model could see a sizable increase in price, but we’re willing to bet it’ll be worth it.