Time moves on; so has these two Hondas that were once around.
Once upon a time, I peeked away from an iPad (I am that young, sorry) and looked through the window to gaze on cars outside, long before I had this archival mind formed.
What always caught my eye at a well-used roundabout in Penang was a parked yellow Honda. I never quite saw anything like it – not in Singapore and not anywhere in Malaysia.
I eventually caught on that it was a Honda Integra – probably not a Type R as the stickers suggested. As the typical JDM fanboy at a time, I was sure disappointed that it wasn’t a coupe, until I grew my love with saloons (a love as strong as the hot hatchback) and appreciation for the DB8-chassis Integra Type R saloon.
There it was for many, many years. Always parked around that place, always in the same parking area. I documented it in 2024, trying to dig for whatever information I could of the car. It had by that time been parked for ten years since 2014 according to Google Maps.
It was in rougher shape as the years went by. Evidently in 2024, it had culminated into a very worn-down condition with a dirty and sun-damaged exterior and was effectively pretty neglected.
Perhaps this was where, apart from restoration videos, that spurred my interest in getting a cheap car to restore up to spec. My montra now is always to restore a car back into working glory – maybe this car had done such an influence.
I recall thinking about putting a note on the windshield to ask to buy it for money I didn’t have. I did get the money in the end – it went to a different B-powered Honda.
I haven’t fully regretted buying my Civic Ferio SiR. I hate it when it breaks, yes, but with the thrills to price ratio, no regrets being my formal introduction to VTEC.
I bought the Civic in January 2025, and afterwards in July of the same year, finally took Feriko to this Integra. It wasn’t a date between both (nor was it a match, really).
On my YouTube is a more “consolidated” cinematic of my Civic, which invariably included this Integra inside.
But, this would be the last time I interacted with this Integra. Several months went by and it was still present at the same select parking spots. But come around October and beyond, I started noticing it less…
Slowly but surely, the norm was the Integra no longer being in those few parking lots I had associated it so much with being at. Almost half a year has since passed. It hasn’t come back.
Image Credit: Google Maps
Neither has the other Honda Civic that was in my estate before I bought Feriko.
It was probably a local market car if not a EG8 instead of the full-fletched EG9 SiR that Feriko was. But having taken several glances and close looks at it, buying my own didn’t feel so far-fetched.
Sadly, I never really saw this car move at all the whole time it was in the estate. Sometime in June did I take these photos, and not long after, it disappeared for good.
For both cases, there obviously is a lot of potential circumstances that cannot be helped. Even so, it seems poetic in a way that once I sorted my car to a point where I was getting happy with it, both faded from my focus and ultimately from my spaces completely. Some of my friends would know I like joking about fate and stars aligning, but perhaps I’m trying to make too much sense of the world – although it does seem like something keeps aligning.
~Efini
Gallery:
Read more: Penang 2024: D6; Is this Integra worth saving?
