I wrote this email to a few friends of mine back in 1999 after spending a day with a JDM integra test car with over 10k on the odometer. The ITR was brand new on the market then.
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The Williams clio is coming up to 3 years old now and I figure I should be slowly looking around for a replacement car (it usually takes me 1 year to settle on something anyway). The Honda Integra Type-R was one of the likely candidates, so I arranged for a test drive. Below is the comparison I have made after the test drive:
Engine: The Integra surprised me by having reasonable torque from 2k to 3.5k rpm and performance comparable to the Williams engine between 3.5k to 5.5k. Did not bring it past that but would expect the VTEC engine to beat the Williams engine at higher revs. (anyway, Williams red-line 6.5k and Type-R red-line 8k).
I was personally surprised by the performance outside VTEC - very driveable imo and still pulls well. When you do go into VTEC (over 6k RPM) there is a real kick and the engine is absolutely fantastic. IMO that is where the engine is at its best and the real selling point of the engine. Red-line on the integra is about 9k, not sure exactly what it is but certainly over 8k and close to 9. The engine loves to be revved and I always end up driving the car at higher RPMs that I might with a normal car just pottering about as it doesn't feel as though it's straining the engine at all.
Transmission: Both cars has super-short gearing but the Type-R 1st and 2nd gears is ultra-short and very annoying at slow traffice crawl as you needs to be gentle or the car becomes very jerky. I feel the the Williams has a more positive gear change but this is highly subjective.
Would be interesting to drive them both new to compare, but I would say the ITR has held up much better over time in this sense (obv depends on cars condition) but the gear change on mine is much much more "precise/positive" in the integra than any Mk1 Clio I have driven (though with a short shifter the Clio is massively improved)
Ride comfort: Both cars has similar ride comfort with small bumps but the Williams soaks up large bumps a little better.
Handling: The Integra was a real let-down. I had expected a lot more. It was neither chuckable nor possess a tight turn-in. It simply felt like a tightly-sprung Japanese car without much driver feedback at the steering wheel. To make matters worse, it is easily unsettled by mid-corner bumps, whereas the Williams needs only a millisecond or two to regain its composure. And its got a touch higher torque-steer than the Williams. The Type-R probably needs a super-smooth racetrack to fully exploit its handling. I will take my Williams any day.
Again, I can't compare to a williams but imo the ITR copes brilliantly with mid-corner bumps/corrections. Certainly in comparrison to any other car I have driven personally, though I appreciate you'll have a much better basis for comparrison.
Others: The Recaros are damn hard and uncomfortable. The noise-level below 60 kph is OK but above that is ridiculous. I had to shout a little while cruising 100 kph. Moreover, the noise was not sporty at all, sounded like a high-revving aircon compressor. Very little noise isolation.
Conclusion: I had wanted to like the Type-R. But, it is just too uncomfortable (my wife will divorce me if she has to ride in such a noisy car) to be my daily car as well as having performance that is no better than the Williams. It also cost quite a bit more than a new WRX. Well, my search continues...
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Fast forward 10 years later: Still have the Williams. Still married to same woman