Whenever you see a barn that’s got a sealed off room made of plywood, you can’t help but wonder what is inside it. There are endless possibilities of what could be stashed away in it. Well, in the case of this odd particle board room, it’s an Acura Integra Type-R. For those of you that don’t follow tuner culture, this is one of the most sought after Acuras (aka Hondas) ever built. The R designation meant that this was a race car for the street, with more power, less weight and improved handling. These cars have a dedicated following and are highly sought after still. This one has been extracted from it’s sealed off room and is now listed here on eBay in Châteauguay, Quebec, Canada with a $29,900 asking price.
$30k sure is a lot to spend on an early 2000s Honda, but then again this is far more than a rebadged Honda. The Type-R was a special car with serious performance chops. It’s 1.8 liter 4 cylinder was reworked to produce 195 horsepower at 8k rpm! All that power was routed to the front wheels via a close-ratio 5-speed and a Helical LSD. The car was also lightened, stiffened and lacked most of the creature comforts you’d want in a street car. These weren’t built for the regular commuters, but for those looking for an all-out racer.
Given the cars impressive handling, all Type-Rs were fitted with grippy Recaro seats and MOMO steering wheels. Since speed was priority number one, they stripped out the AC, sound deadening, heat panels and stereo system. If it didn’t help the car go faster or handle better, they did away with it. As a result, these cars aren’t exactly comfortable to travel long distances in, but that wasn’t the point of building them anyways.
I had the chance to buy a rough Integra Type-R back in 2009 for under $5k and boy am I kicking myself for not buying it now! Their values have gone up significantly in the past few years and will likely continue to do so. With just about 10k built for the US market, it isn’t surprising that they are desirable, but seeing ones selling for $30k+ still seems incredible. So, what do you think of this barn find? Would you put it back on the road or would you stash it away as an investment?
For that money I’d probably be looking for a couple of mint S2000 convertibles. Fantastic little cars and near the bottom of their depreciation curve. Granted, at 6′ and all torso, I still barely fit in either car :(
Is the guy taking the plywood down or putting it up?
The whole ‘sealed away’ idea is purely speculation. Nothing in the ad or the attached video states that. It looks to me like the guy acquired the vehicle (shown on trailer in the ad) and didn’t want to park it in his barn, so he built a garage in the barn for the car. And for some reason he included pics of the garage building process. Hence the last photos of the car in the new garage with a car cover on it.
Neither, it’s oriented strand board (OSB).
“Uh, we probably didn’t need to make the crate that big, eh?”
There’s nothing in this goofball ad to indicate that the car was found in a “sealed-off” room in a barn. Instead, it looks like a couple of hosers ARE sealing it up. I guess if they forget to cut a door in the plywood, they at least have beer in there until someone rescues them.
Good story though.
Sounds like this story comes from the “New in Fiction” aisle.
Brings back memories of my sundance gold 2001 Acura cl stype.
Totally loaded, navi, etc. Drove great, no torque steer, quick enough. I always wanted to tune it to 300hp with Acura hp dealer parts…never got around to it.
Wish I had kept it.
The CL Stype was pretty cool. I thought it looked a little bit too 90s jelly bean but it was a good performance/ luxury car. I think it was even available with a 6-speed.
And Michael Stipe and REM were putting out some pretty good tunes around that time as well!
Why would anyone add dealer installed A/C to a car like this, especially in Canada?!?!
Because it gets hot in Canada in the summer
lol don’t be silly. Then all our igloos would melt!
Josh, that is oriented strand board, or OSB, not particle board… Great car!
Also known as chip board.. $30,000 for a glorified Honda. I presume someone will pay it. I like these but even if I had the money NO WAY
Well, I guess that’s one way to make sure it doesn’t get stolen.
Sorry; for the money, plus 240HP vs. this 195, I’ll take an S2000 roadster. Having driven one, the only other car as much fun in that class is a Miata. If I lived in CA. and bought this Type R, it would be stolen probably the same night I got it. Anyone seeing this car drive on the streets would follow it home, where I would have to stand guard with my 9mm automatic all night. No thanks.
I hope they turned the lights off before they finished “sealing” it up!
I was like 3 minutes behind you with the same comment.
I sure hope they left a light switch on the outside because it appears they are boarding it up with the lights on.
How can you sell it without proof of ownership?
? Says clean ownership in hand.
They only made around 3,500 for the US market.
This line:”For those of you that don’t follow tuner culter” should end with “culture”.
Also, there is an old saying about Type R Acuras, it’s:
“Not IF they are going to steal it, but WHEN”. Always thought that was one of the funniest sayings I have heard in car circles.
Thanks for catching the typo. All fixed.
For over $30k you can just get a new Civic Type R. Wouldn’t get the Acura at that price.
82,000 miles…. who knows how that car was driven. I would expect this pricing at 1/3 of this pricing…
Maybe next time I sell a car, I’ll put it in a box and ask for 3 times the value.
I believe I would just seal it back up. Sorry import guys……
What is the difference between plywood and OSB (oriented strand board)? Guy credibility fail.
Plywood is thin layers of wood glued and pressed together to create 1 single piece of plywood. OSB is basically ground up wood or wood chips mixed with glue and then pressed to create what is similar in size to plywood. OSB is usually cheaper than plywood. Like cars, you get what you pay for.
Hahaha. I’m fully aware of the differences. And in some cases it’s preferred over plywood. And it’s used extensively as structural I-joists, and also as dimensional lumber. Some may not be aware of the latter though. I was just poking Mortenson with the “guy factor”.
BR, the difference between them is the cost, OSB is the crap sweepings off the floor glued together, after making the quality plywood!
Glulam, Hyspan, LVL, and Parallam PSL, are types/brands of OSB. They are hardly sweepings.
Back to the topic.
There’s quality plywood?? /joking/ /barely/
These also came with the bigger brakes & 5 lug hubs from a bigger, heavier Acura/ Honda. The sway bars were also MUCH bigger!! The local Honda dealer’s daughter got one to learn to drive a stick shift! It survived and held up well. These were and are little screamers. Were more track ready than the current Type R Civic , IMO.
Ahh the “R” model. Taking from the book of Porsche meaning charging more for less!
Tastes change with each new generation and this is probably rice porn for milenials. May sell at this price to a dotcomer to park in his overpriced silicon valley appartment public parking lot. At least until its stolen..
He is building a tomb for a 1971 Hemicuda convertible. Nope its a 2001 Acura,non NSX !!!
I think $3,995.00 is all the money, wholesale is less :)
A friend of mine who has been in the old car hobby for 50 years really did find a gem behind a hidden wall once. He was traveling thru a old town that he never was in before and saw a old ford sign on the side of a very large old garage/warehouse type building. The building had a few tenants and some other sections were vacant.It had a lot of additions connected to it also. He stopped to talk to a guy who was there and asked about the building, he said it was some type of ford garage back in the day and there were still some old parts stored in one section. And that he hadn’t owned the building for very long. My friend asked if he could look at the parts and the gentleman said sure, turns out they were nos ford parts in boxes from the late 30’s early 40’s, my friend made him an offer and bought the whole pile. Next he started looking around at the building it’s self and determined that there was a section that was not accessable. it was bricked off. My friend asked the owner that if he paid him could he knock out a few bricks to see what was behind that wall, the owner who never realized that there was a false wall there thought about it and said ok. Using the owners tools and a flashlight they took out several bricks and sure enough there was a 40 Ford convertible behind that wall! Well needless to say one thing led to another and my friend made the guy an offer that he couldn’t refuse and came back several days later with some help and a trailer and took that whole wall down and pulled the car out of there. It was in fair/good original condition with the title in the glove box! Somebody apparently put that car in there with the hopes of getting back to it “someday” but that day never came for them. Just had to share this story since this BF involved a false wall.
The whole sealed in a room…with lights and stuff…bogus !
This really brings back memories about how little I cared about these back then….thanks for bringing those back.
Face it guys, irregardless of the stupid story and photos attached these cars are bringing stupid, and I mean stupid, money now. All it took was the one on BaT not that long ago that I believe went for 40 something K (correct me if I’m wrong team) and that has lead to Type R envy. It’s almost like people want to spend long green on something so they can brag about what it set them back, like it’s some badge of honour. If you’re the guy at the car show and you’ve spent the second most money on a certain car model no one notices you, If you spent the most ridiculous amount paid for that same model, have the receipts, and the crying doll leaning on your bumper, then you’re the kid everyone wants to talk to.
Cool cars with a beautiful engine but not worth spending an inheritance on.
Bringing stupid money? The only thing stupid is ones self for not buying 10 years ago when the market was low.
The future of car collecting is here now. For the many who fail to embrace it understand everyone on the planet in the future isn’t going to love your antique 55 Chevy, Camaro , Chevelle what ever. There are younger collectors now with money who like their cars. Their generation.
A new SUV costs $30K. One can get payments at $400 or less. A Type R for the same money makes sense because in five years your SUV will be worth $5000. Who knows where the Type R will go from here. The smart kid with the money does and I am with him.
It looks to me though as if set up. they just built the wood around it to make it a more interesting find. Why would the lights be on inside as they’re taking the wood down. Nice car but I don’t go with the story of sealed up For a while.
Wow left the lights on all this time and not a burnt out bulb…now that’s amazing.
Should of let Geraldo unseal it. Cheer him up.
All but 30 grand and not a single picture of the engine! Plenty of shots of red seats, though.