Honda Integra is back! Iconic Japanese sports coupe rival to the famous Toyota Celica, Nissan 200 SX Silvia and Subaru Vortex confirmed for production - but will Australia see it?

Honda has shocked the car world this week with the announcement that its legendary Integra nameplate will return on a production vehicle next year.

Details are scarce for now, except that it will debut during 2022 as a model under the company’s North American-market premium brand Acura, just like most of the previous Honda Integra generations were.

That’s the good news. The bad news is that history is no guarantee that Australian Honda fans will see the reborn Integra, or if even it will be made in right-hand-drive configuration, given that this is initially targeted to consumers in the USA and Canada.

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Revealed via skywriting, the surprise announcement was made at the annual Monterey Car Week event in California today, was accompanied by a teaser rendering of the new logo on a vehicle.

Speculation has been rife over the last couple of years that Honda was up to something cool and interesting in the sports car field, with plenty of rumours circulating that the Integra nameplate would be exhumed for it.

Acura North America vice president, Jon Ikeda, promised the MY23 Acura will be a focused and exciting driver’s car.

"The Integra is back," he said. "I’m thrilled to say Integra is returning to the Acura line-up with the same fun-to-drive spirit and DNA of the original, fulfilling our commitment to ‘Precision Crafted Performance’ in every way ­­design, performance and the overall driving experience."

Created as a more upmarket and sportier version of the venerable Civic small car, the Integra shared no visual panels, and so became a natural candidate for the fledgling Acura sub-brand that launched in the mid 1980s.

Offered locally for 20 years from 1986, most Australians only remember the Honda Integra as a compact three-door liftback sporty coupe in the mould of its contemporary Toyota Celica competitors, but in fact – for the first three generations – it was sold as a four-door hardtop sedan as well as a five-door liftback in the original iteration (1985 to 1989).

That vehicle came to Australia as the Rover 416i, when Austin-Rover and Honda were in deep collaboration with each other.

The third (1993) and fourth (2001) generation Integras offered the legendary Type R series, though only the former was actually a lightweight high-performance sports variation with exquisite steering and handling capabilities.

If indeed it does make it to Australia, will the next Integra continue as a two-door sports coupe to battle the Subaru BRZ and Toyota 86, or follow the trend to SUVs by being a high-riding coupe-crossover as per a BMW X4? We know which we’d rather see…

Time will tell, so watch this space, and let’s hope that Honda Australia is given the opportunity to relaunch one of its most fondly remembered models of all time.