HONDA

Tolman Honda Integra Type R restomod

The small British company Tolman has chosen the legendary Honda Integra Type R for the restomod project, and buyers of all four planned copies will ultimately receive technically improved cars that are indistinguishable from the originals inside and out.

An example of a conservative approach to the increasingly popular restoration and modification process comes from the small British company Tolman, which has chosen the legendary Integra Type R for one of its latest projects – a lightweight Coupé that once had the best lap time on the Nürburgring Nordschleife track in the front-wheel drive production car category.

Tolman's Integra Type R restomod still uses the famous Honda B18 engine. However, the company rebuilds the powerplant to factory specifications, so buyers get one as good as a new one from a dealer. The restoration also included replacing all brake and fluid lines, installing new suspension bushings, and installing fresh springs and dampers. The refinished original wheels wear a set of Michelin Pilot Exalto 2 tires.

Tolman does each build as a one-off. The Integra is one of four cars it's assembling this year. The company previously built a Peugeot 205 GTI restomod and also restores vehicles.

Tolman uses what it calls a "non-invasive restomod approach." This means the vehicle appears stock, but there are hundreds of hours of work in the restoration. The revisions include new, hand-formed pieces for the rear quarter panels and wheel arches because the company couldn't source replacement parts of a high enough quality. The process took 180 hours of fabrication and fitment. Underneath the skin, Tolman used seam sealer and cavity spray to protect the chassis from any future corrosion.

"When the panels are not available, you either compromise or make them yourself. We’ll never compromise, so the answer was clear. The result is a build that stays true to the Integra, is sharp to drive and can be used with confidence."- Chris Tolman, company founder

The Honda Integra Type R is widely considered to be one of the finest front-wheel drive performance cars ever built. Which makes this particular example one of the finest of the finest, because it’s been rebigulated by noted rebigulators Tolman.

That’s the same Tolman that worked a bit of magic on the Peugeot 205 GTI a while back, and has here subjected an owner’s Integra Type R to a “sympathetic restomod”. Unsurprisingly, this owner also has a Tolman 205 GTI in the garage.

Interior work didn’t require as much attention as the rear seat had hardly been used. However, the front seats had faded but Tolman found NOS material – in Australia.

The treatment then, is less ‘shove a V6 inside a bespoke racing shell and clothe it in expensive carbon fibre panels’, and more along the lines of something you’d basically want to do to your own modern classic.

Tolman stripped the whole thing down to discover a fair bit of rust lurking underneath, so repaired and remade structural bits and stuck them on, and then future-proofed it using tonnes (not literally) of underseal. That alone took 180 hours of labour.

The first step involves restoring the Integra to its bare body, where any corrosion and previous damage are repaired, and all body panels that cannot be adequately repaired are replaced with new and identical hand-made panels, which fully corresponds to the philosophy of preserving the original appearance.

After 180 working hours, the thoroughly restored body goes into the anti-corrosion protection process, followed by painting according to today's standards. In this particular case, the owner of the old/new Integra opted for a dark green shade (Sorrento Green).

On the mechanical front the engine was fully re-built, brake and fluid lines replaced. Suspension-wise new bushings, springs and Nitron dampers were fitted while the Enkei 15-inch alloys were re-furbished and fitted with Michelin Pilot Exalto 2 treads.

Refreshed with original parts, under the front hood remains the 1.8-liter four-cylinder naturally aspirated VTEC engine B18C, which develops a standard 190 hp at 8,000 rpm and 178 Nm of maximum torque at 7,300 rpm, which provides the factory 234 km/h and acceleration from 0 to 100 km/h in 6.7 seconds.

The invisible change in the cabin with renewed materials that are indistinguishable from the original refers to the installation of slightly more sound insulation, which makes the Integra more pleasant in everyday use, and the part of the story related to the modifications falls on Michelin tires measuring 195/55 on the original white 15-inch rims, more capacious brakes and new shock absorbers that will help the Integra demonstrate its handling even better.

Then came the colour. The Integra was originally Championship White, but because said owner already owned said Tolman 205, the Honda was paint matched to that car’s ‘Sorrento Green’.

The hand-built 1.8-litre VTEC four-cylinder was rebuilt and subtly enhanced to match what it delivered the day it was made – 190bhp. Elsewhere, brake and fluid lines were replaced, the suspension was refurbished (new springs, bushes and Nitron dampers), and the wheels were refinished and shod in modern rubber.

While the rear seats were in “excellent” condition, the fronts… were not. So Tolman sourced new-old seat material from Australia to retrim them. All in, Tolman expended 740 hours (and a no doubt thoroughly enjoyable 100-mile validation run) restoring the old Japanese hero to something that’s dailyable.

“The brief started with a colour change to sit alongside the owner’s Tolman Edition 205 GTI, but once we stripped the car we could see it deserved the full job done properly,” said Chris Tolman.

“When the panels are not available you either compromise or make them yourself. We’ll never compromise, so the answer was clear. The result is a build that stays true to the Integra, is sharp to drive and can be used with confidence.”

It’s the first of four one-off customer commissions Tolman will do this year, alongside building that 205, too.

From the first sanding of the bare bodywork to the end of the job, Tolman spends about 740 working hours, and the restored and discreetly modified Integra Type R travels just over 160 test kilometers before being delivered to the customer. The company, which has insisted on restomod projects without disturbing the original appearance since 2007, will provide a new beginning for three more Integras this year.

Autonews