Developed by a team making world-beating supercars at the time, Honda's Type R recipe was simple: reduce weight

During the 1980s, Honda moved upmarket.

With the help of Ayrton Senna – in his casual and now-iconic Brown loafers – it developed the Honda NSX. Arguably Japan’s first ‘supercar’, this mid-engine exotic also debuted the brand’s new performance line-up: Type R.

Honda engineer Ryoji Tsukamoto recounts there was a rising ‘red faction’ within Honda’s best development team at the time that wanted to take things further with its road cars. A handful of staff were keen to compromise road-going manners in the pursuit of ultimate performance.

To do so, the red faction debuted the Type R brand around the philosophy of lightweight sports. This concept was driven from necessity because the time, every Japanese car brand was restricted to building performance cars with a maximum of 276 brake horsepower (280ps).

Win via power-to-weight was the plan, and that’s exactly what happened. The Honda DC2 Integra debuted in 1995 and introduced the first accessible Type R product to the masses with a reasonable price tag and without compromise.

Its chassis is firm, engine free-revving to over 8000rpm, and transmission equipped with short-gearing and a limited-slip differential. It results in a car that still feels weapons-grade today. It’s real-world performance is accessible and it excites the senses like the best 1990s should.

There’s not much that compares from Europe, America, or the rest of the world for that matter.