When I picked up my Super Sonic Blue 1999 Acura Integra in late 2019, I already knew it was something special. The innovation and engineering that went into Acura’s “pocket rocket” compact model in the mid-1990s made it an instant favorite among performance car enthusiasts. Then the Fast and the Furious franchise was born in 2001, and every tuner in North America started modifying Integras to the point of no return.
Twenty years later, there just aren’t many left. And people who are nostalgic about Integras are hard-pressed to find them in the collector marketplace.
When Ramsin owned his Integra in 2000, he treated it like every other 19-year-old would: He raced the hell out of it. An accident took the car off the road permanently, and he was forced to move on with life. It wasn’t until December 2020 that his friend sent him a link to my AutoHunter no-reserve listing. My Integra had just hit the auction block, and it was a near copy of the one Ramsin used to own.
A few clicks later, and Ramsin had placed the high bid on my Integra. The auction concluded on December 22, with over 5,000 viewers – surely a high volume of whom were folks like him, toying with the idea of re-living their youth.
Ramsin and I connected over the phone within a few minutes of the auction’s close on AutoHunter, and I could tell right off the bat he was the right person for the car. “The excitement is real,” he said. Four days later, he flew into Phoenix from Sacramento and we sealed the deal at my house.
The transaction itself was an emotional one for Ramsin; sitting in the car again seemed to bring back a flood of memories from his youth. His only luggage for the trip was a small 4×6 photograph of his previous 1998 Integra GS-R. I walked him through my maintenance binder of receipts dating throughout my ownership. After a test-drive, he was on his way to California, grinning from ear to ear.
Something I’ve learned about the collector car marketplace is that sometimes you find the perfect car, and sometimes that car finds you. In this case, it’s safe to say that Ramsin’s new high-revving ride ended up in the right hands.
To find a nostalgic car of your own, you might want to head to AutoHunter.