Terrorizing Time: Integra Type R
Titles are easy to write and often the hyperbole is so extreme that they are to be ignored. Before you dismiss this article's title, consider these statistics. In 2016 James Houghton won every event entered apart from one. He bettered his time in every event running, creating new Unlimited FWD records in the process. He placed second, with less time between second and first place than it takes to blink, in his final event at the SuperLap Battle. And in doing so shattered Rado's time that was until 2015 considered unbreakable. He left Dai's 2015 record in the Spoon Civic over 2 seconds behind. Terrorizing Time – that is an apt description for this show car quality Time Attack car, which has records at multiple tracks in both Canada and the United States.
The custom front nose was new for 2016 and, combined with the new wrap and the aero, this Type R looks incredible. Pic by skootermedia.
James has been to Buttonwillow three times over the last four years. You are forgiven if you assumed he's been there every weekend practicing, because his 2016 time was almost six seconds faster than his 2015 time! He knows the track, but as he is from Canada, it is far from his home track. He took almost 6 seconds off of his 2015 lap time and yet his horsepower levels are almost the same as 2015. There are many other aspects of the car that have been tweaked between then and now and in this article we will look at some aspects of this fine tuning. It is not an understatement to say that James eats, sleeps, and thinks racing. He is constantly looking at ways to expand his capabilities as a driver. Over the years he has been carefully honing his Integra Type R into the incredible machine that it is now- a car that terrorizes in all the Time Attack events that it enters. Forget the fact that it is running in the Unlimited Front Wheel Drive class, as he is right on the heels of or beating the RWD and AWD competition! That this Type R has evolved from an incredibly solid street car into this record breaking beast is a testament to the hard work that James and R-Division's Eric Lavigne have put into this project. Driver, Car, and Mechanic combine to create a team that is, well, almost unbeatable.
At the Driver Development Track at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park, James captured his first track record of 2016 with CSCS. Pic by skootermedia.
November 2015 – 2nd Place 1:49.245 GTA SuperLap Battle Unlimited Front Wheel Drive, Buttonwillow, CA (Yes, this is last year's time but it's needed to highlight the progress made in just 12 months.)
May 2016 – 1st Place 1:27.292 GTA Unlimited FWD, Road Atlanta, GA
May 2016 – 1st Place 1:29.475 'RECORD' CSCS Unlimited FWD, Canadian Tire Motorsport Park DDT, ON, Canada
June 2016 – 1st Place 1:31.674 'RECORD' GridLife Festival Midwest Unlimited FWD, Gingerman, MI
June 2016 – 1st Place 1:12.261 'RECORD' CSCS Unlimited FWD, Toronto Motorsports Park, ON, Canada
August 2016 – 1st Place 1:04.439 'RECORD' CSCS Unlimited FWD, Grand Bend Technical, ON, Canada
September 2016 – 1st Place 1:11.526 'RECORD' CSCS Unlimited FWD,
October 2016 – 1st Place 1:30.151 'RECORD' GridLife Festival Midwest Unlimited FWD, Gingerman, MI
November 2016 – 2nd Place 1:43.559 GTA SuperLap Battle Unlimited FWD, Buttonwillow, CA
Racing is extreme and so is the weather. During a Canadian spring race, James and fellow competitors had to deal with a bit of snow! Fortunately, it didn't last long, but it was still an intriguing challenge for everyone! Pic by skootermedia.
