What we have here is a nice blend of JDM, OEM, a little USDM look, loads of stance, some flushness and above all character. I’ve never met Rajesh Mannoesingh before our photoshoot with his Integra but for some reason it didn’t feel like a first meeting. I checked out the car before on various social media channels and at the Kick-off meeting in Amersfoort. I fell in love with it after Rajesh put new wheels on it and at that time it all fell in one place and it convinced me to contact Rajesh for a photoshoot.
We were in contact for a few weeks and talked about locations to shoot, tried to make several appointments but the weather wasn’t working in our favour. We met up finally last weekend in Emmeloord and drove to the location we agreed upon. Little did I know that the road to the park we were heading at, had some killing speedbumps so I felt a little sorry at first. But after all, If you’re going low you’ll have to handle the scraping as well.
The cul-de-sac where we ended up, lead into a park and the afternoon light through the trees formed some nice higlights and shadows on the Integra. This was exactly what I had in mind when we were planning the photoshoot.
I love it that the green and yellow coulors of the environment is nicely in contrast with the silver colour of the car.
Photographically I can recommend everyone to shoot with a circular polariser on your lens. This way your completely in controle of the reflections on the car itself and through the windows. I usually try to remove all reflections but when I noticed how the sun reflected on the passenger side window I rotated the filter intentionally so that I did get reflection.
Don’t get me wrong here but a simple photo at a meeting does not express the character of this car. And I don’t mean that it isn’t there but you really need to take a closer look than just standing in front of it. This is when you’ll be amazed by the perfection and personallity of it.
When we got together at a local groceriesstore I took a few minutes to walk around the car to soak in the details and felt how much space there was between the wheels and fenders. I can only imagine that you know the answer to that already. At that very moment I also realized that I had never did a static shoot of a DC2 ever before. I had a same impression of the Impreza of Gerben which I featured a while ago.
As we were finishing up at the first location we decided to go to an industrial area which was not that busy so we could do some rolling shots. Fellow Warriors shooter Allard came along again so we were both able to capture some action shots. As I was shooting some details of the Honda he captured me in my habitat.
Let’s talk about a few specs as well. As the stock B18C pushes out a solid 180bhp, it wasn’t really necessary to invest in upgrades under the bonnet allthough Rajesh will not leave the engine bay as it is right now.
As we drove to the industrial area we noticed Rajesh taking the corners quite rapidly dispite the lowness of the car and the limited space between the arches and tyres. The handling was upgraded with Tein Flex coilovers and for extra grip and fitment Rajesh chose for Buddy Club P1 camber arms on the front and back.
As I said in the beginning of the post, the wheels have the most impact on me. It really finishes the car. We’re talking about the 16×8 XXR Platinums of course and with 5mm spacers at the rear and the stretch on the Falken Ziex tryres the wheels fit perfectly.
If you take a further look at the exterior you’ll find the JDM ITR grill, front bumper lip and OEM-clear housing headlights. You might nitice that there are no windshield wipers, that’s becaus Rajesh was planning to paint them. I think it looks pretty clean without them anyway. Rajesh, I suggest you keep it this way!
Allard was able to capture this combo shot from the same pov with with diffirent focus points. As you can see the OEM mirrors were replaced with the Spoon carbon style version and the stock interior went through some changes as well. The signature green Takata harness is nicely in contrast with the red ITR Recaro’s.
Although there are more specs to talk about, I really think that isn’t the most important thing to clarify. The SiR-g has its own character and looks really clean and sober. No overkill with the camber, no undrivable lowness and no ridiculously amounts of money spent on performance upgrades which he doesn’t really need. It’s smooth and perfectly in balance with all the style and performance guidelines if you ask me.
I would like to thank Rajesh Manoessingh for meeting up with us to do a photoshoot. I hope you like the shots and article along with them. I would recommend everybody to keep checking Wangan Warriors and Allard’s facebook page for some more photography we will be sharing in the coming weeks. As I said, this was the first static shoot of a DC2 Integra and I couldn’t have wished for a better one!
-Rens Adams
Photography by Rens Adams & Allard van Grafhorst