2005 Honda Integra BTCC

A genuine car Honda Integra Type R from the 2005 BTCC Championship-winning Team Halfords, this is chassis TD-02 car making it number is #2 of four cars produced for the team. It is now the only one remaining in the UK too, a fact confirmed by none other than Matt Neal, the team principal of Team Dynamics.

Team Halfords driver Dan Eaves became the first BTCC driver to win all three races at Thruxton in it, an epic that saw the 29-year-old win from the rear of the pack following race three’s reverse grid start – and he took the fastest lap of the day at what is well known to be the fastest circuit in the Touring Car calendar as well. In this very car.

With Dan at the wheel again, the car won a further five races that same season, plus five of the fastest laps of the season. He eventually finished third in the championship, behind Matt Neal and Yvan Muller.

A summary of the car’s racing history is:

2005-2006 – BTCC with Team Halfords

2006-2007 – BTCC with David Pinkney (painted pink and black and being run by Motorbase Performance)

2007-2008 – Unused

2009 – John George

2010-2011 – James Kaye

2012-2015 – Unused

2015-present – Bernard Hogarth

It gained another podium place in 2006 with David Pinkney behind the wheel.

It was purchased by the vendor in late 2016 with a view to competing in HSCC Super Touring Cars in the 2017 season and the subsequently expanded Super Touring Car Challenge in 2018.

Now re-liveried in its original Dan Eaves/Team Halfords Orange colours with the appropriate graphics, the car has had a full tip-to-toe refurbishment in the hands of race-preparer In2Racing. The work was comprehensive and included a new fuel tank, fuel system, hubs and struts (£3,100 for the struts alone), brakes and suspension plus a full recent engine rebuild (at a cost of £29,000) in 2018 and an X-Trac gearbox rebuild (circa. £10,000) in 2019.

Having had two enjoyable seasons racing as a father-and-son team, the vendor no longer has the time to compete. Previously they raced a BTCC Mondeo.

Thus fettled, it is fully prepared and ready to start winning races again for its new owner – and because 2005 is the most recent year that cars are eligible for the Dunlop Saloon Car Cup Series and the Super Touring Car Register Series, it should be very competitive in the right hands.

The front end has been stripped down, inspected and rebuilt following a small engine fire while running in the Silverstone Classic in July 2018. The work was, as you’d expect given the guys who did it, done to a very high standard.

The car now wears it’s historic Team Halfords livery and graphics and is looking stunning although it does, like every single competitive car out there, have some minor blemishes and stone chips. Or battle scars, as we prefer to call them.

The wheels were refurbished in 2018 by In2Racing in October 2018 at a cost of £2,800. Obviously not your average kerbside refurb out of the back of a Transit van, was it?

They’re fitted with new slick tyres, and the car also comes with two sets of used slick tyres, plus a set of new wet-weather tyres. Twelve spare used wheels are also included.

A spare pair of front wings are also supplied with the Integra.

The gearchange mechanism is proof-positive that if a piece of engineering looks right, then it probably is so. In a similar vein, the three-spoke Momo steering wheel is as simple as it is effective, and the gorgeous pedal box is newly rebuilt as with most of the rest of the car (new bearings, bushes etc.)

Everything is on the button and works as it should.

A new fuel tank sits in the rear of the car and we have been told that it, like the rest of the car’s safety systems including the Corbeau seat, safety harness, and the fire suppression system, is in date.

The engine was rebuilt in 2018 to full race-spec by Neil Brown Engineering Limited at a cost of £29,000. It hasn’t been used to race since then and does require a race team to prepare and start it; it has, for example, a dry-sump engine with just 1.5-litres of oil, so you couldn’t just jump in and pop to the shops…

It produces around 275bhp and the engine bay in which it sits is as neat and professionally presented as you would expect of a car with this one’s pedigree and potential.

The X-Trac 406 gearbox was rebuilt in 2019 too, and it comes with a large number of spare gear ratios. The rebuild alone cost around £12,000, but then that’s the price of doing business if you want to win races.

In2Racing subsequently stripped the interior from the bulkhead to the B-pillar following the minor engine bay fire before making good the area, rebuilding the pedal box, and replacing the wiring (using the original drawings & supplier) in January 2019.

The front body panels were also stripped off, along with the front suspension and steering components, at the same time. The car was then inspected and repainted before being built back up.

The engine bay was similarly stripped and fettled, and In2Racing took the opportunity to refit some key components on the advice of Neil Brown Engineering, who wasn’t happy with how some of them had been previously routed and installed.

Such work is part-and-parcel of the life of a proper racing car, and In2Racing are a well-respected outfit so the need for this, and the subsequent restorative work, shouldn’t be cause for concern. A full report on the work that was undertaken is attached. In many ways a summary of the vendor’s experience is that he bought a reasonable race car that use proved was a little tired. He has then completed all of the hard lifting in repairing and investing in the car to a point that it is now on-the-button and ready to race, has a fresh engine and gearbox and with the potential for a very successful ‘second’ career.

The Honda also comes with a vast collection of spares, including two front wings, two sets of used wheels and slick tyres and a set of wheels and new wet-weather tyres. Please see the typewritten list for the full details of what is included.

Other essential parts for a genuine competition touring car include a pre-water heater, integral air jacks, and a wheel gun ‘socket’.

What is it like as a racecar? The vendor and preparer both confirm that it is comparatively easy is to drive. While we know this is relative, the guys say that it should be fairly straightforward for a competent driver to be competitive. They used expressions such as “it’s a precision item”, “easy and forgiving to drive” and “on the button”, as well as summarizing the experience by saying that it is “very sweet to drive, simple and sharp, almost like a single-seater. Lots of fun!”

One further comment from the chaps at In2Racing struck us; they said that it should be relatively easy to maintain now that so much time and money has been poured into getting everything right. The ongoing maintenance and support costs of a genuine BTCC car can mount up very quickly, so it’s reassuring to know that someone else has already done the heavy lifting…

Given the car’s unique status and condition, Nick Dudfield, the chap who is looking after it for the vendor, is happy to chat to potential bidders about the car and event support. He can be reached via his website.

The Honda comes with a number of invoices and bills to confirm the work that has been done to it over the years.

It also comes with an FIA/HSCC Identity Form/Passport and a BTCC Technical Log Book. These show the car is eligible for a number of historic racing events including the Dunlop Saloon Car Cup Series and the Super Touring Car Register Series.

Please visit the documents section of the gallery of this listing to see these.

If you’d like to inspect the car prior to placing a bid – something we would encourage – then please use the Contact Seller button to arrange an appointment.

With a guide price of between £50,000 and £70,000, this is not an everyman modern classic. Yet, if you want to be competitive – and you probably wouldn’t be considering bidding on it if you weren’t – then this is a turn-key, fully prepared, proven race winner with an impressive pedigree and an unrivalled provenance.

It might also prove to be a shrewd investment; while nothing in life is certain, the value of some successful historic racing cars has rocketed in recent years, and regular market watchers will have been amazed to see how well some of them have done. That this is a unique car with a well-established race record will do nothing to harm its future value.

Viewing is always encouraged, and this particular car is located with the seller in Stratford-upon-Avon; to arrange an appointment please use the Contact Seller button at the top of the listing. Feel free to ask any questions or make observations in the comments section below, or try our ‘Frequently Asked Questions’.