Well, this is the one that many of you have been waiting for…
During my visit to Japan and in the following days since my return, I’ve been posting up a couple shots of some Spoon Sports builds that I captured and they’ve generated a good amount of traffic. It’s not surprising because Spoon Sports has long been a staple in the Honda enthusiasts community. I wasn’t even sure I was going to visit Spoon this time around because I didn’t really plan to. We had all talked about it collectively but we honestly didn’t put too much emphasis on it because we weren’t sure where our trip was going to take us. I wanted to go. I’ve been wanting to go since our trip to Japan last year but if we didn’t go, it wasn’t too big of a deal. I kinda knew that I would find my way over there eventually one of these days so I didn’t make too big of a deal out of it. As a viewer, I know some of you guys wanted some new shots of the recent happenings over at Spoon because its a popular brand in our community. How I ended up there is an interesting story because there was a very strong chance that I wasn’t going to make it….
Everything had seemingly fallen into place leading up to the Monday when I would go visit Spoon Sports. We had knocked out Tokyo Auto Salon in a matter of two days, visited our friends over in Gunma, got a little bit of late night Tokyo Wangan action in, and I had a free day to go to Spoon. Not only that, it was a golden opportunity to go because Aaron from Go Tuning Unlimited was over at the Spoon offices helping Ichishima out and he could show us around. Go Tuning is the official U.S. Spoon Sports distributor now so Aaron works closely with them on special projects and to also help further Spoon’s brand development in North America. I actually hit up Aaron too to make sure he would be there because I didn’t want to just show up and not know anyone there. Ryan knows Yuki Imamura from Spoon but we weren’t 100% he would be over there so it was kind of a toss-up. Ryan actually had to go to Spoon because they needed him to look over some cars that they wanted him to wire-up for 2014 so it was a trip that was also important for business. Kinda cool that they would ask for him to be involved because I think it is a dream of many for a major Japanese tuning company to ask someone from over here to work on some of their projects. That is a level of respect that you can’t really compare to because you would never think that they would ask anyone from over here to work on a private project of their’s. Anyways, everything had pretty much been set-up for us to have a good visit but there was one problem…. I had become the victim of a pretty serious flu and was just feeling terrible early Monday morning. I mean, I had the runny nose, flem, cold sweats, hot flashes, fever, you name it, I had been suffering from it all night. If you remember from the previous post, I was already feeling pretty terrible during our late night excursion into the highways of Tokyo and was just hiding in the car because I was so beat up from the flu. It progressively got worse that evening and I was not in the position to really do anything. The only other person that was probably worse off than I was was Ryan Der. Der is usually a gamer for anything we do but he was so sick that he didn’t even get out of bed the entire day! I had never seen Der in such bad condition but he had decided that he was going to stay in the room all day and try to sleep through the illness. Once I heard that I too was doubting myself and whether or not I could make it through the day feeling the way I felt. There was maybe a 30 minute period of time when I just rolled back into bed and wanted to sleep like Der. The other Ryan was fine and just wanted to get out of the hotel room because he didn’t want to get sick. I had my own room so I was suffering in my own privacy but I ultimately decided that I should make the best use of my time in Japan and not waste the day….
So I got up, got dressed, and packed up my camera gear. It was going to be a tough day but man, I just said “fuck it” and tried to make the most out of it. Der was still going to stay in the room and rest but Ryan and I set off on our journey to Spoon Sports. Ryan had been there years and years ago but things have changed a lot since then. They had moved a lot of stuff around over at Spoon and had also remodeled Type One. Type One is where all the work gets done to the cars and where all the motors and what not get assembled. Spoon Sports is just the office where they process orders and where all the logistics and what not take place. Ryan vaguely remembered how to get there so I mapped it out on my smart phone and we hopped on the train. Spoon wasn’t too far away from where we were at. I think it was roughly a 35 minute trip total with us taking the train and then making a short walk there. Type One is down the way from Spoon so it was also pretty convenient. I’m not gonna lie, I was a bit worried about not having enough energy to complete my visit to Spoon. I had snacked on something and taken some Tylenol Cold and Flu medicine which helped a little but the random hot and cold spells with the runny nose was really getting to me. Once I got going though I guess it wasn’t too bad. The train provided some comfort because I could sit down and the walk over to Spoon after was mildly refreshing because of the cold air…
I think we got there around 1 pm and that is where the coverage picks up. I apologize if some of the photos are a bit erratic or not up to normal standards. I tried my best to capture what I could with whatever energy I had that afternoon. Most would not have even made the attempt to go but like I said, I didn’t want to waste an entire day while I was there and wanted to take advantage of the time I had. Spoon was a destination that I wanted to check off my list and I’m happy that I pulled it off….
There’s been quite a bit of content prior to this post that includes a ton of great photos from my trip to Japan, so please take the time to go through all of it before or after you see this post. Thanks…
The Chronicles 2014 Japan Trip Coverage… Part 1: An Intro, An RWB Meet, and TAS ’14 Coverage…
The Chronicles 2014 Japan Trip Coverage… Part 2: Tokyo Auto Salon Coverage Begins…
The Chronicles 2014 Japan Trip Coverage… Part 3: Tokyo Auto Salon Coverage Continues…
The Chronicles 2014 Japan Trip Coverage… Part 4: The End of Day 1 of TAS ’14…
The Chronicles 2014 Japan Trip Coverage… Part 6: The Final Day Of Tokyo Auto Salon 2014…
…and here is the much anticipated visit to Spoon/Type One. I know many other sites have captured images from their visit but hopefully you will see that I have captured it in traditional STICKYDILJOE.COM style and you enjoy all the new, cool stuff over at Spoon. PLEASE DO NOT STEAL MY IMAGES AND POST THEM AS YOUR OWN. If you do so, please provide adequate photo credit or a direct link to this site. It is getting worse everyday with all these random IG pages using my photos and attempting to use my content to generate traffic for their pages. Respect the people that provide original content and keep the content original. If you see these photos anywhere else, you know that they are taken or stolen from here. I pay out of my own pocket to travel to Japan and pump out coverage that is free for you guys. No one hires me to go out there and do this stuff. Thanks to those who are respectful and who do understand that it is a privilege to see rare content like this.
Moving on…
Okay, so as usual, we got lost for a little bit upon arrival. Der is usual or navigator and is pretty good with directions but since it was out of commission, Ryan and I were on our own. Luckily I have a pretty good map program on my phone that told us exactly where we needed to go and even with that, we still got lost some how. It wasn’t too bad though and just a slight detour but eventually we made our way over to Spoon Sports. It helped that Ryan still remembered his last visit and recognized some of the streets that lead to Spoon…
Upon arriving at Spoon Sports, we are greeted by Yuki who lets us know that Aaron from Go Tuning is upstairs. We take a short elevator ride up to another floor where Aaron takes us over to a conference room area to chat…
It was nice to sit down and drink some hot green tea and chat with Aaron about all the new stuff that Spoon is working on…
One of their new developments is the Spoon Super Taikyu (S-Tai) Ver. 2 front bumper for the S2000 platform which has been designed via Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) for better air flow and overall aero dynamics…
While we were talking, Spoon Sports head, Tatsuru Ichishima, walked over to greet us. I was gonna snap a pic but it didn’t seem like the right moment and well, that was it… Oddly enough, when we got up later to talk with some visitors from Spoon Sports Europe, Ichishima came out of nowhere and snapped a photo of us talking. Aaron and Yuki wanted to take us out to lunch so they gave us a quick tour of the Spoon facility before we took off. There really isn’t anything crazy going on over at Spoon, since it is pretty much their corporate office and shipping department. All the cars are over at Type One where all the mechanical work and maintenance is done…
Spoon products neatly organized in their shipping area where orders are put together…
One thing that I noticed was kinda cool was that they had random Spoon-themed toys scattered throughout parts of their shop. It wasn’t done in a messy way or anything but the building carries a very distinct “Spoon” theme…
This little area that you’re staring at is where a Spoon engineer chips ECUs…
Many Honda enthusiasts’ dream is to have a shopping cart filled with Spoon Sports gear. This is how Spoon actually mails out a majority of their stuff. Post offices and mail carriers are very small in Japan so they can get away with packaging like this. In America, if it ain’t in a box, somebody is going to step on that shit and break it…Sometimes maybe even when it is in the box, haha…
So after a walkthrough of Spoon with Aaron, we took off for lunch. Yuki drove us over to a local spot where we had Unagi (Eel) bento boxes. It was quite good but the spot was so small and dimly lit that I didn’t bother to capture it on my camera. We chatted, had some green tea and then headed back to Spoon. We were going to Type One next but since Yuki had work to get back to, they had someone else take us over there to show us around…
Daisuke Jomoto drove us over in the Spoon Sports van while Aaron was telling us about how his trip was going in Japan…
A couple minutes later, we arrived at Type One. Aaron told me that I pretty much had free reign over here and could take photos of whatever I wanted. He even said they would move cars around for me if I needed and that was pretty awesome. Never in my dreams would I imagine Spoon ever accommodating me for anything and they treated me like I was a special guest….
The bottom floor featured a couple lifts where they do installs and this well-organized room where they assemble engines. The neat thing about this room is that it has a giant window that faces the main street. If you were just passing by, you could literally just stand outside and watch them build motors all day. It would be awkward and creepy, but you could totally do it if you wanted to…
Across from the engine assembly room was a room that specialized in transmissions…
Above are just a couple of S2000 transmissions that were present at Type One…
Upstairs is where the magic happens… I mean, all the photos that you have most likely ever seen of the Spoon Sports builds are inside Type One and not inside the Spoon building. This is where installs also take place and where customer cars are worked on as well as their own projects. This is also the area where they store their race cars and builds for their private collection…
As I walked up the steps that lead into the second floor, the first car that immediately caught my attention was this Spoon EG6 Civic. I didn’t even think they messed with old EGs anymore but in fact, they do. This isn’t a new race car or anything. I asked Aaron about it and he told me that this EG6 is actually a build that will go into Spoon Sports’ private collection. It is an important build for them and they even have a donor car just to get parts from because they want to make this Civic as mint as they possibly can….
The interior is gutted and coated in their traditional Battleship Grey tone. The chassis is stitch-welded throughout with a full cage also in place. The original dash is in place but the A/C, radio, and original instrument cluster are long gone. There is no passenger seat and only a single Spoon kevlar bucket resides….
Here you can see the back half of the cage and the sheet metal fuel cell cover. Notice how there are punched dimple dies in every area possible to reinforce the chassis…
The outside, of course, wears the traditional blue/yellow Spoon Sports livery. As a Honda enthusiast, you just can’t help but smile at the sight of this car because it just screams tradition and original Spoon goodness, especially since it is a mint EG6 shell…
Here’s another angle of the EG6. There isn’t a motor yet so I didn’t bother to get a shot of the bay but it is also coated in Battleship Grey. Notice the FD2 CTR resting above in the distance. We will get a much better look at that car very soon as that FD2 is one of the reasons why I went to Spoon in the first place…
It just wouldn’t be a traditional Spoon Sports build without the Spoon brake set-up…
The next car that I wanted to take a look at was the Spoon S2000 that featured the new Open Air Top concept. The top was a major topic of the Tokyo Auto Salon show where it debuted but I never got to get a good look at it since it was so crowded at the show. This S2000 demo vehicle also featured the new S-Tai Ver. 2 front bumper….
I’ve heard a lot of people nickname this concept top the “Super Shredder top” and I can totally see it…haha. With the purple/blue tone of the car and the metal framing of the top, it totally resembles Shredder’s helmet from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Chatting with Aaron, he let me know that this was just pure concept and something that they wanted to attempt. The top, as it is now, would be ridiculously expensive to mass produce because of all the metal framing and what not. They just tried it because it was a wild idea that Ichishima had and they wanted to see it to fruition…
Here is another angle of the car with the top and the new Spoon S2000 rear bumper/diffuser combo…
Prodrive GC-05N wheels in white with Spoon Sports Monoblock brakes…
A Type One engineer prepping a K-swap into a customer’s Honda Fit project…
Some display Honda valve covers and motors at Type One…
This B16A was opened-up so customers could view the motor internally…
Another featured individual throttle bodies and header combo….
It was awesome to see the Spoon Sports Super Taikyu S2000 (2013 Spec) parked against the glass walls of Type One… I don’t know how I feel about the Version 2 bumper on a street car like the Open Air Top S2K but on their race car, the bumper looks perfect…
Traditional Spoon Mooncraft top with the newer rear bumper replacement and GT spoiler…
Love how the dual fuel filler intake looks on the trunk of the S2000…
It’s all business inside the Super Taikyu S2000. Digital display, carbon dash inserts to hold various operational switches, MOMO steering wheel and Works Bell quick release…
Spoon carbon kevlar bucket seat in the S2K…
Nothing fancy under the hood, just a Spoon-prepped motor ready for war….
Another end of the wall featured various bumpers for their vehicles; From top-to-bottom is a INGS+1 front bumper for their FD2 CTR, Spoon S-Tai Version 2 for S2000, Spoon S-Tai Version 1 for S2000, and a red NA1 NSX bumper….
Somebody online asked me how they work on their cars at Type One….well, here you go. I guess the answer would be; “they just do”….
The next build that I wanted a detailed look at was the new turbocharged Spoon Sports FD2 Civic Type R. I had caught wind of this car during the week of Tokyo Auto Salon and was intrigued by the fact that Spoon would dive into unfamiliar territory with a Honda that featured forced induction and nitrous oxide…
I asked if they could bring the car down from storage so I could get better shots of it and Jomoto was more than helpful. He talked to the guys at Type One and they immediately hopped into the car and moved it down for me using their wall-mounted lift….
To say I was happy would be a complete understatement…I was honored. Seeing this thing almost made me forget all about my flu and how shitty I was feeling… The Spoon front bumper, rear diffuser, and canard set-up, and just how the car sat, was incredible. Turns out that this FD2 is actually headed over to the U.S. very soon. I’m not sure but it might already be here by the time you read this. This is a high-horsepower boosted CTR that will represent Spoon Sports this year in America’s Redline Time Attack series. Unlike it’s more traditional, “pure”, builds, this car is prepped to keep up with the other cars in the competition and will see further changes once Go Tuning gets a hold of it. For now, here is a detailed look at it in its final form before it gets its North American makeover…
The interior is about as raw as it gets. It still wears its original white tone inside but has a custom gutted upper half of the dashboard with a massive tachometer in the center. Surprisingly, this FD2 doesn’t even have a weld-in cage and just has a bolt-in unit…
Again, it’s pretty raw inside. From this angle, you can see the Edelbrock nitrous oxide system and fuel pump laid-out in the rear…
No creature comforts other than a red Bride-produced 5Zigen kevlar bucket…
Carbon fiber rear window replacement anyone? Also note the carbon corner piece near the front window….
The flared rear quarter panel isn’t really apparent until you take a closer look at the car and see past the bright yellow. The twin rear canards is also quite distracting as it isn’t a set-up you see often…
The rear flares provide additional room for a wider wheel and meatier tire for maximum contact on the circuit. If you’re wondering what wheels they are, those are rarely seen 5Zigen wheels that I don’t even know the particular model name of…
The FD2’s turbocharged K20A motor with hood-exit dump pipe….
All turbo piping is wrapped-up exhaust wrap to lower temperatures….
Also helping to reduce high engine temps is this makeshift ram-air hood scoop. It looks a little out of place but it does the job….
This three Autosport connectors help to wire-up the motor to a Motec engine management system…
I love this FD2 from this angle….something about them really stepping out of the box with this Civic build that shows that Spoon is evolving with the times…
I took the opportunity with my private time with this car to also get some more shots, including this one with the rest of Type One in the background. This is probably my favorite shot that I plan to convert into a large poster in the future. Hopefully you guys will enjoy it too and support the site by getting one…
Got a quick look upstairs in their storage area and looked at their other FD2 CTR race car. This one in a more traditional format. It was way too tight up there to get any good shots of the cars so I moved on….
Found the opportunity in the elevated space above to capture another shot of the soon-to-be-completed Spoon Sports EG6 Civic. Hopefully I can go back to Spoon later and see this thing in its final form….
…And here is another angle of the Spoon Super Taikyu S2000 race car…I couldn’t imagine living in Tokyo and passing this building every day. I think I’d just stop by and see what they were up to daily, haha….and I’m not even as big a fan of Spoon stuff as some of you guys….
I mean, how could you not, just looking up at the second floor window and seeing that S2000 just sitting there?…Haha… Well that’s a wrap on my visit. After that we went back to the Spoon office to chat a bit more before they were kind enough to drop us off at the train station…
Ryan and I even scored these nice Spoon Sports jackets from them…
Overall, it was an incredible experience. I was finally able to make it over to Spoon and to see Type One and I was honored to be treat with such great hospitality by Aaron, Yuki, and the rest of Spoon Sports. Huge thanks to them for giving me the tour and just allowing me to do anything I wanted while I was there. I can’t say that most would get the same opportunity so I am humbled and blessed to be in their presence. After we got back on the train, the adrenaline rush of seeing all that cool stuff wore off and I was back to being a sick, miserable mess. Ryan wanted to go shopping and walk around Shibuya and I couldn’t even muster enough strength to do it. I helped him out with directions on how to get there and then we parted ways so that I could return to my room to rest. We were supposed to reconnect a couple hours later so that we could go out and explore different parts of Tokyo but I ended up napping for like 5-6 hours. By the time I got up, it was too late to go anywhere. I hit up Ryan to see how Der was doing and he said that Der didn’t even move the entire day and just slept the entire time. I got up and walked across the street to grab some dinner before going back to the hotel and knocking out for the rest of the night. Most of the day seemed like it went to waste but the couple hours that I spent at Spoon Sports made it all worth it. Before I end the post for today, check out the goodies below…
Here are two larger, higher-resolution versions of some shots of the Spoon builds above. Clicking the link should take you to a larger size…
Spoon Sports Turbo Civic Type R…
Spoon Sports Super Taikyu S2000 (2013 Spec)…
Thanks for looking!! I’m out… More content to come soon!!
AWESOME!! Good stuff, Joey. That hood scoop on the FD2 seems so random, but the car is cool in spite of it.
Really thrilled and thankful for the coverage you man Joey! Thank you man. Couldn’t help to notice the USDM wing on the EG hatch haha.
Wait what? a brand new Fit GK is having a K-swap at Spoon?! Holy moly….
isn’t the fd2R used to be 5zigen team race car? its still hv the fender flare, ings+1 side skirt, rear bumper, carnards, & diffusers. interior and engine bay pretty much the same except some change to spoon goodies.
yeah, its the same car all they did was paint it and reroute the exhaust. just goes to show what spoon is about and has always been about. nice coverage joey
this is why you don’t buy fake sh*t for fcuks sake
Should have went to visit Seeker while you were at Spoon and Type One. It’s just a little walk from there on the same road. Everyone was friendly when I went to visit them. Was great to see the fd2 turbo in person
man i was there a wk earlier and asked the guy working there if i could buy the track jacket but he said they weren’t for sale- i would have taken the one off his back lol. had to settle for some stickers.
I’ll be there this weekend and I shall try to get that track jacket.
That FD2… Just another reason for the Kaido Racer video game. Would love to test drive that beast. How could we get it in GT6 though? It would be a great addition..
Been waiting on this part of coverage! So epic you were able to gather so much from just this one visit to the infamous shop itself. Now All I need to see is the coverage Ive been waiting to see for forever…that good ol’ loop shit!
that’s crazy, i talked to aaron for like 20 minutes at TAS and didn’t know who he was lol. i tired to buy one of those jackets too, but no go at TAS haha
awesome! that FD looks realy mean and super bad-ass, not just Spoon ordinary beauty but also super functional as a racecar. In fact the whole garage is extraordinary. thanks for providing such a nice photos.
Reblogged this on KlanHonda.
Hey man, awesome stuff! So cool that you actually get to walk around their workshop and spend some time just indulging yourself! By the way, I do wonder what happened to the Honda CRZ? The sports hybrid that Spoon did some prep for the endurance race driven by Dai Yoshihara. Was reading on for some coverage on that.. 🙁
Its here in the U.S. at Go Tuning Unlimited.
will you ever post a larger resolution photo of the one with the boosted type r? (the one you plan on making a poster of) I’d love to have that as my desktop