While the previous four installments of my Japan photo series consisted of a vast mixture of content from Tokyo Auto Salon to shops throughout, the final portion is dedicated to a shop that I’ve been wanting to visit for a very long time; M&M Honda Racing. I’ve been following their stuff since the very beginning when I first started The Chronicles, and have been interested in their unique way of building Hondas for the better part of a decade. You’re probably asking yourself why I haven’t visited them before, being that I’ve been visiting Japan yearly since 2013 and my simple answer would be this:

It’s fucking far.

Like really far.

Of course, distance has never stopped me before. I’ve often taken bullet train after bullet train back and forth from Tokyo to Osaka and basically everywhere in-between. I guess I’ve just left my journeys around the Kanto and Kansai regions. M&M Honda is located in a completely foreign area to me in the Kyushu region, smack dab in the middle of an area known as Fukuoka. I remember chatting with David from M&M Honda once and he invited me out. I thought about it but I remember him mentioning that I’d probably have to take a flight out there. Flying domestically around Japan just sounded like a pain with luggage and all, but I also completely neglected the entire notion of me having a Rail Pass, which meant I could take the Shinkansen (bullet train) everywhere in Japan…

My schedule is pretty jam-packed every year though, Tokyo and Osaka and keep me pretty busy, so let’s just say that I haven’t made it out to Fukuoka because I just never got around to it. I can keep making excuses but distance has never been more of a factor than my own lack of planning. In January of 2019, I really wanted to set out to see some new things. Osaka is fun but I need to continue to see things I hadn’t experienced before so on the evening before our final day in Japan. I mentioned to Yuta that we should go to Fukuoka. David from M&M had randomly inserted the idea into my brain via a Instagram comment and I took it as a legit invitation to go… Yuta is always pretty much down for whatever… so we went. I even dragged Yasu along with us, even though he doesn’t have a Rail Pass like we do and had to pay over $300 round-trip to go with us, but Yasu is just a down-ass dude and I respect him for that. We say we’re going and he makes it happen. I think I have him to thank for a lot of my adventures in Japan that would seem otherwise impossible because he’s a go-getter…

We woke up early on Friday morning, picked-up our shit, hopped on a bullet train and we were off to Fukuoka. The rest, as they always say, is history…

Let the photo journey conclude and finally cap-off this Japan photo set from January…

Upon entering their relatively small facility, the first car that stood out to me among this sea of modified Hondas was a (once) living legend…the M&M Honda Integra Type R that we Honda aficionados have long known but had only seen in images on the Worldwide Web…

Look familiar?…

Well, in case you didn’t recognize it…you may remember it looking more like this…

…and like this…

…and in its later incarnations, like this…with the INGS+1 front and all…

It was definitely one of the Integras that we ‘older’ guys grew-up dreaming of building one day. It had style, had all the right parts, and it was a functional track machine…

Just look at it, it’s spectacular. I mean, if this build were around today or built today, it’d still be relevant and maybe at the forefront of what would be considered a ‘notable’ or ‘popular’ Honda build. Especially since we are in the bolt-on over fender era…

Sadly, of course, all great things must come to an end. And as epic as this build was, it has seen much better days….

Today…

…it looks like this…

Just buried now in the lot at M&M Honda. A ghost of its former self, a relic of the past, a literal shell of its past-self…

The flares are still bolted in place, the graphics still very much present although worn, the rear wing and engine are gone but even the ever-lightweight Racing Hart CP-035 wheels in white still mounted to the rear hubs…

As it turns out, the car never left M&M Honda. It actually belonged to a loyal customer of their’s and the engine is now in a different shell…

But more on that later…

Right next to it was a DC2 Type R just like the former legend, but a more modernized version wearing M&M Honda’s Hyper Widebody kit but this one was different because it wore a Mugen front face and the front over-fenders have been specially made to fit with the Mugen bumper…

You see, the Hyperwidebody kit, front fenders in particular, were designed by M&M to only be paired with the classic C-West DC2 front bumper. It’s actually shaped to bolt-on directly to it…

Cool to see two white Integra Type Rs next to each other, one a ‘narrow body’ and one the Hyper Widebody version..

Oh yeah, that B18C that was once in that legendary yellow DC2R? Well, it now resides in this white Hyper Widebody R. And you’ll be happy to know that the heart is beating strong…

M&M Honda Racing in 2019. Still very dedicated to its craft of producing functional race cars in a small town based in Fukuoka, Japan of the Kyushu region…

The owner of the yellow DC2 Type R also moved on to a more modern platform in this M&M Hyper Widebody DC5 Integra Type R. Perhaps the now up-to-date version of his old yellow R…

The Hyper Widebody kit for the DC5 chassis is developed to form around the Mugen front, which you can obviously see has been modified as well with two additional vents up front…

The interior reveals that this DC5R began life as a much blander Satin Silver. M&M has done away with all creature comforts minus the dashboard of course, and factory Type R door panels…

Color-matched roll cage fitting snugly inside the bare cockpit of the Integra…

A trio of Defi gauges are mounted where the temperature control panel once stood, a lap timer supersedes any need for music from the factory radio, and a STACK tachometer sits atop the dashboard…

Under the hood is a K24 engine built by M&M Honda utilizing a full catalog of TODA Racing products including, but not limited to, their oversized pistons, rods, and full head package. Powersteering remains intact…

…but any OEM intake manifold is now non-existent as it has been replaced with TODA Racing’s “Sports Injection” individual throttle body set-up…

The Mugen front bumper has the two added vents because there is actually ducting behind it to drive air directly into the TODA ITBs…

The single Recaro bucket seat inside the DC5…

A view of the bare shifter box and the digital Innovate Motorsports LM-2 Air/Fuel ratio meter right next to it under the dash…

Randomly saw this perspective and captured it, think it would be artsy and fancy but its actually just a reflection of the owner’s DC2R on the AIM digital display inside his DC5R…

A proper look at the AIM dash display mounted on top of the steering column…

Varying perspectives of the shifter and M&M ECU which rests on the floor of the Integra…

The TODA Sports Injection kit as it is known with extended carbon fiber horns…

Cut rear bumper with a M&M carbon rear diffuser installed with additional side canards…

I stared at the front set of wheels for a while trying to figure out what they were, originally thinking they were a set of WEDS TC105N but they actually aren’t. They also weren’t of the SSR variety. I looked a little closer and wrapped around the 295/30 Advan A050 tires up front were Work MCO Racing Type CS wheels, a wheel you’d unlikely have heard much of, being that you don’t typically associate one-piece forged wheels with Work. This must be a recent addition since the DC5 was featured in Super Street magazine previously running a full set of Volk Racing ZE40s. A pair of the ZEs are still mounted to the rear…

Perhaps the most aggressive a Mugen DC5 front has ever looked…

Protruding out past the altered rear bumper and carbon diffuser is a titanium M&M Honda Racing canister exhaust. Nice touch color-matching the GT wing as well…

One of the coolest things to see were all the old remnants of old Advan rubber stuck onto the wire mesh of the 60mm wide over-fenders. Proof that this car is driven and driven quite hard…

Many will probably say that the DC2 Integra was a much more iconic build but the newer, stoutly DC5 Type R is no slouch either. And you have to admit that it looks pretty beastly and ultra aggressive, even if you aren’t into bolt-on wide body panels…

After getting a thorough look through the Integra, it was time to move onto the FD2 Civic Type R…

The M&M Honda FD2 demo car wears an entire arsenal of their aero package, including its ‘Type MR Version II’ front bumper…

If you think the DC5 is wide, the FD2 is actually even wider, measuring an additional 70mm of width on each side…

18×10.5 Work Emotion T5R wrapped with 295/30 Advan A050. Behind the 5-spoke Work wheels are AP Racing brakes…

I guess I forgot to get a shot of the engine bay because I was probably too busy doing video but this FD2 also runs a set of TODA individual throttle bodies but instead of a K24 like the DC5R, there’s a K20 head/K24 block mash-up under the hood…

After playing some more car Tetris, we were able to pull the Hyper Widebody DC2 Type R out for a few quick snaps…

The DC2 Hyper Widebody kit measures in at an additional 65mm. This particular one ran a set of SSR Type-F but looked like there was still plenty of room for more wheel and tire…

As mentioned, this kit is designed to be paired with a C-West front bumper and I wonder if this particular C-West piece is the same one off of the old yellow Type R that sits a couple feet away…

I thought we were all wrapped-up for the day shooting some of their cars but then they asked if I wanted them to pull the M&M S2000 out and well…who am I to say no? Any opportunity to see more cool shit is always welcome. This isn’t the first time I’ve seen the kit of course, as I’ve seen the kit a few times in the U.S. and originally saw it debut at Tokyo Auto Salon on their blue S2000, which also sat in this lot but I didn’t get photos of…

Their builds all seem to have a lot of consistency in the parts they use so in the engine bay of the S2000 is an F20C with a matching set of TODA Racing throttle bodies…

M&M Honda Racing front strut bar…

Nice touch with the blue valve cover branded with the M&M Honda decal…

80mm wide front fenders for the S2000 Hyper Widebody kit and 100mm rears. For this S2000, which is their circuit version (the blue is the ‘street car’), they opted to run custom orange Work Meister M1 wheels…

Even though the car was a bit dirty, it still looked great sitting outside while the guys chatted with Yuu Majima from M&M Honda Racing…

What a great day for some Hondas in Fukuoka…

…and I must say, a perfect way to cap off our adventures in Japan. For now of course…

Thanks for looking. Stay tuned for much more. We’re definitely not slowing down on content over here, that’s for sure. What a great way to start the year…