In the 1970s and the 1980s, Japanese cars had gotten a reputation as being puny, under-powered cars. They sold well because of their economy price tags and their vastly superior fuel efficiency. With the introduction of the Acura Integra, known as the Honda Integra outside of the United States, those perceptions started to change.

By the 1990s, those old attitudes were dying fast as Honda and other manufacturers started to pull respectable power from their tiny engines. Their lightweight made those power gains much more noticeable as well. Honda was achieving things with engines under two liters that American manufacturers were taking nearly four and five liters to achieve.

Though the Acura Integra was developed off of the Honda Civic chassis, its stock performance characteristics were always much better than the entry-level Civic's. Ever since the mid-1990s, the Integra has been a regular in the import tuner culture. One reason for this is the wealth of compatible, aftermarket, performance parts.

The Acura Integra Helped Change Honda's US Image
In case you were not aware, Acura is the upscale brand that Honda uses in the United States. This was adopted to distance themselves from Honda's economy car reputation, though Honda's reliability has also done this. Many parts between Honda and Acura models are compatible, but not all as the Acuras are generally quite a bit more complex.