Vince's Stuff: Integra Type R Expo

A couple of months before I started this blog in 2007, My friend Carl and I had driven my Civic all the way to Virginia to attend the Integra Type R Expo. I figured that it was not too late to write up a summary of what, for me, was an epic road trip.

I don't know whose idea it was, but Carl and I figured it would be a cool to drive the race Civic almost 1400 km down to Virginia International Raceway so we could instruct and get some track time at this fabulous track.

For those who are not familiar with the Civic in question, the car had no interior, except for two seats, no radio, no air conditioning and no cruise control. Add to that a pretty loud exhaust and a close-ratio transmission, and you end up with possibly the dumbest possible choice of a car for a road trip. At least we had a roof.

We loaded up the car with our gear and some old race tires and began the long trip south. Our plan was to arrive a day before the Expo so we could relax and hang around the track. We had arranged to stay at a condo at the track itself and looked forward to being at the heart of the action. Once we got to the Shenandoah Valley, we chose the more scenic roads through the mountains and stopped to take in the sights and snap a few pictures. We also did part of the Skyline drive.

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When we finally arrived at the track, there was a huge vintage racing event in progress, the Gold Cup historic races. This turned out to be a happy surprise for us, as the cars on hand were of the highest caliber, including Jaguar D-Types, Ford GT40's, a Maserati Birdcage and many other cool entries. We were drooling as we walked around the paddocks.

We were also very impressed by the facility in general. The track almost seemed like a country club, and the same farm-building architecture was repeated throughout the facility. One barn-like building housed some beautiful vintage race cars, including a couple of Brumos Porsches, but these were overshadowed by the amazing array of cars out on the track.

We have arrived!

The Civic would remain on the sidelines on this day

Three Ford GT's together!

A view of the paddock condos and track

Shelby GT500 among the spectator cars

A beautiful 50's SL

A big Pontiac racer

A bunch of small-bore racers

And here they are all on track

What variety!

Lovely 240Z

People park under the oak trees when they can

Lotus Seven on track

Carl, the track, and some vintage karts

Beautiful sports racer. Fat tires!

Porsche 912 and Datsun 510

And a mean-looking E-Type

So many Shelbys!

Another cool car in the paddocks

More Ford powered racers

A super-clean Mustang

Two Mustangs and one of several real Ford GT40's

The MGB-GT looked like it had seen some action in its day

A nice Volvo P1800

An unexpected racer: Pagoda Mercedes SL. I love the steelies

Another cool, low sports car (also on steelies!)

A very small sports racer, ready to go

Words cannot describe how wide and mean-looking this car was

Loud paint on this 911 (or 934?)

You don't see these Volvos racing every day...

Beautiful Lancia

These Shelby's were almost commonplace

Lovely Lotus Seven

Racing Falcon

Vintage formula cars on track

Another rare sight at the track: vintage Saab

British roadsters heading out on track

More small-bore racers

In VIR's museum. D-Type!

Carl poses beside another GT40

Is that what I think it is?

I had never seen such valuable cars on a track.

Yes, it was a Maserati Birdcage!

Brumos racing Porsches

C-Type and XK120

Big bad Maserati

... and another beautiful sports racer

Another minimalist sports racer

... and another

This was the first time in my life I had seen a D-Type, one of my all-time favourite cars, up close

Another GT40 lurking in this plain-looking trailer

Clean Shelby

Up close with the Kremer Porsche

British, Italian, German and Japanese cars fight it out

More cool British hardware

Carl with the crazy Dodge

Yet another Shelby

Front view of the Dodge Challenger

These racers were a bit more powerful

Rare in North America: a Euro-Ford

Cool British sports cars in the paddocks

Minimalist design for this formula car

Pristine Datsun Roadster

Some serious muscle

There were many, many Fords at the event

A not-so vintage Civic... we could not wait to hit the track for ourselves!

As the day progressed, more and more ITR Expo people began to arrive. Not all of the attendees had Type R's, but most did. Among non Type-R owners, there was still a large percentage of Honda ownership. Many, like my Civic, had Type-R engines in them. One guy had actually converted his Integra to a mid-engine layout, with a 2.2 liter Prelude motor.

We took possession of our condo, and it was brilliant. Our balcony was literally overlooking the track.

There was a banquet dinner for the ITR Expo and it was the first time I ever tasted pulled pork. I loved it. I even won a titanium shift knob at the banquet.

The track day itself was a blast. I had watched a lot of video online, so I knew what type of corner would be coming up next, but I was glad to have a bunch of laps in the passenger seat to bring me up to speed. The track is fun and feels pretty safe, despite the high speeds. We had brought some pretty well-worn tires, but we were still far from the slowest car out there. I checked my lap times at one point and we were in the 2:24 range. There were some quick cars out there, including several Ariel Atoms. It turned out that the company that imported and sold them in the USA was based at this very track. We got a close up look of them in the paddocks. I took some video of a couple of fun laps in the instructor group, following a couple of CRX's around the track:

There was also a parade of the hundreds of Integra Type R's at the event, and they were grouped by colour (white, black and yellow, the only colours available). It was an impressive sight to see all these cars together.

At one point late in the day, our alternator died. I went to ask the organizers to announce on the P.A. that we were looking to buy a replacement on-site (we needed the model from an Integra, of course). By the time I walked back to the car, there were two people who had brought us alternators, and we purchased and installed one of them on the still-hot car.

We had another issue as well: our power steering was leaking, a lot, and it was leaking right near the pedals. We had to put shop towels on the floor to absorb the fluid, and steering on the way home took a bit more effort than usual. Also, we had somehow chosen a route that involved a lot of twisting roads at the beginning.

In the end, the drive home was mostly uneventful. This was the furthest I had ever driven the Civic and the furthest I had ever been from home to attend a track event (not so for Carl, who has been everywhere). It was a memorable road trip for me and an unforgettable experience over all.