I thought it was about time....

...to start capturing my thoughts, useful facts and experiences to do with my Honda Integra DC5 Type R.
There's A LOT of catch up work to bring this blog up to date so I guess I'll get cracking and start from the very beginning. I'll pre-date these posts to when these events actually happened (or as close as possible!) to give a realistic-ish timeline.

Many moons ago my brother bought a brand new facelift EP3 Civic Type R in early 2004. What a lot of people don't know is that he was seriously considering getting a DC5. The unknown quantity that was importing at that time, plus an extra £4-5k on top of a brand new EP3 list price was too risky and so put an end to that idea.

Anyway the reason I bring my brother into the equation is that he effectively introduced me to the DC5 and the rest they say is history.

Jump forward to early 2007. I'm in Toronto visiting my bro and I'm in a cafe sipping on my Mocha and surfing the net. For the past 3 years I have thought on and off about getting a DC5. Not giving it too much thought, but enough to join the itr-dc5.com forum and absorb and learn about the car as much as possible. A silent reader.
Anyway, to give some background on the direction I've taken, there are two versions (excluding colour and options etc) commonly referred to as the pre-facelift and facelift.

Pre-facelift

Facelift

Mechanically, there were suspension tweeks and the like, but let's face it. The real reason you choose between a facelift and pre is down to the looks (removing price out of the equation).
I had always been a fan of the pre-facelift as it has a more aggressive look and for me, there was a major eyesore on the facelift, the rear bumper with the black strip.

Facelift

Pre-facelift

Anyway, given that the Teg had now been out in Japan for 6 years already, the pre-facelift visually was not all that perfect either. The whole of the front was just not as slick as the facelift and the lights, predominantly the rears in my opinion had started to look outdated. If I could somehow change the rear bumper of a facelift, I think I would of had my perfect OEM DC5.
Cue looking at different bodykits on bulletproofautomotive in search of this goal. Alas I became distracted as one kit in particular caught my eye - J's Racing

I absolutely loved this kit the moment I layed eyes on it. Granted, the rear has taken some time to love, but it's all about colour coding correctly which I shall explain more in a later post. It was there and then back in 2007 that I decided, If I keep the car standard, I will get a pre-facelift. If I mod like crazy, it's got to be the J's kit and it's got to be a facelift.