When all was said and done, I think the only takeaway from this year’s ‘I Heart Honda Festival’ was that it was just an all-around good time. I don’t even know if a deep dive is necessary. For a Honda enthusiast, this was an almost perfect setting to get together with your fellow Honda enthusiasts for an afternoon of appreciation for one of Japan’s famed tuning brands. It’s not everyday you get to meet Tatsuru Ichishima so people definitely took advantage of the opportunity to meet the man behind Spoon Sports. He seemed super stoked to meet everyone, skipping lunch even and just downing a few drinks here and there to get him by so he could get back to signing autographs. Hopefully this event returns next year and the years to follow (preferably not so close to my event of course *ahem*) and continues to grow. I don’t know if Ichishima will come out every year, it’d be great if he did, but you just never know since he’s such a random guy with a quirky personality. Anyways, thanks to the guys from Spoon Sports USA for the invite and letting me tag along as well at the end of the day to go on the track to get some photos. I had a blast and it was a nice little getaway of sorts before the madness of Year11, which, shameless plug, is happening this weekend. See everyone there! Enjoy the rest of the photos from the ‘I Heart Honda Festival’ for now until then…

The former Endurance Race GD1 Fit from Spoon Sports heading out for some parade laps with the other Spoon Sports race vehicles…

J*Blood front and some rather wide front fenders…

A shot of Tatsuru Ichishima in his Spoon Sports race suit after he came back from the parade laps to sign some more autographs at the Spoon Sports booth…

It’s not everyday you see an old Honda Beat roadster in California…

Phil Robles’ spectacular Pandem widebody Civic with a turbocharged K-series swap, Quaife sequential transmission, and Desmond Regamaster EVO II wheels…

Big Steve from Falken Tires has stuffed his LS400 back into hibernation while he enjoys his Civic hatchback…

Chris Marion in the background tearing down the KW Suspensions booth while his Integra Type R awaits…

The Spoon Sports USA-built GK Fit hasn’t been seen much since its debut at the SEMA Show because it has been on display at a local Honda dealership for the last two years…

The Ballade Sports K-swapped Honda S2000 wearing Spoon Sports Aero Bumper Version 2 front with matching Spoon Sports fenders, over fenders, and rear bumper…

Another shot of Kevin from GReddy’s Civic hatchback…

As the event neared the end, Der and I were invited by Aaron from Spoon Sports to stay behind after to get some shots of the Spoon builds on the track. This was a pretty awesome opportunity to get some potentially cool “track photos” at Autoclub Speedway so we were stoked. Not only did we have free reign of the race track, there was also no one else around to bother us or get in any photos! This rare opportunity came about because the guys from Spoon wanted to get some footage for a video package they were putting together for the ‘I Heart Honda Festival’. All we had to do was figure out a way to not fall out of the bed of the truck we were riding in on the track…

The four Spoon Sports vehicles heading out onto the oval section of the track from the pit area…

The most difficult part in the beginning was trying to communicate to each respective driver to make sure we had the angles and shots that the videographer, Brandon McCray, was looking for…

The center-driver FD2 Civic Type R race car is most certainly a car you’d be plenty familiar with if you followed The Chronicles for an extended period of time…

Not much has changed on either of these two Spoon race cars. The FD2 CTR spent some time overseas on a tour through Asia while, as mentioned earlier, the Fit has been on display at a local car dealership…

The cars were essentially on a ‘parade lap’ so they weren’t too aggressive with their driving…

Eventually we were able to get a set of hand-held radios to communicate…

Dai Yoshihara had left for the day so Chris Eimer, the main fabricator behind the creation of the center-drive, took over and drove the FD2 around the track with us…

The latest project from the guys at Spoon Sports USA is the new FK8 Civic Type R which they have outfitted with newer Spoon Sports SW388 wheels and Spoon Sports’ brand new full front bumper replacement…

Spoon Sports USA S2000 with a re-imagined, minimalist interpretation of the classic Spoon colors. The top is the prototype Spoon hard top which was shipped over from Japan a few years back to be showcased here in California…

Spoon Sports FK8 and AP2, both sitting on the newly recreated Spoon SW388 wheels…

I was pretty happy with how this particular shot came out…

Aaron from Spoon USA leading the pack in the Honda Fit…

Brandon stopping to provide some more instructions to the driver’s…

Spoon Sports FD2 Civic Type R…

Spoon Sports AP2 S2000…

Interesting to see how big the Fit looks next to the S2000…

FK8 CTR and FD2 CTR from Spoon Sports…

A closer look at the new Spoon Sports FK8 front bumper…

The Spoon Sports Honda Fit driven by Aaron Wang that afternoon…

One of my personal favorites of all-time. I’m really glad I have had so many opportunities to see this car compete and evolve since I first saw it at Type One in Japan five years ago…

Aaron specifically asked for the ‘four wide’ shot…

I wasn’t sure how I felt about the front when I first saw it but it is definitely growing on me now after seeing it in-person….

After we finished-up with the photos and video from the track, the sun was setting which provided some great lighting for the cars that remained…

Interesting that every car that remained that late afternoon which didn’t have a Spoon livery was white…

Chris Eimer’s FK8 Civic Type R and Tommy Ha’s gorgeous ASM-themed S2000…

The aggressive rear of the Spoon S2000 along with the incredibly peculiar hard top…

The setting sun definitely made for some great photos…

The rest of the photos you’re going to see below were actually shot on 35mm film. Der has been trying to get me to try shooting with film forever and even showed-up to the shop with an old Canon Elan SLR. We had no idea if it was going to work or not but we quickly realized that my current Canon lenses are compatible with the old Elan. They both use EF-mount lenses so I was curious to see what modern L-glass would look like paired with film photography. I shot an entire roll of film that day but only about ten photos came out. Apparently the shutter is wonky on the old Canon Elan so it wouldn’t always open when I tried to capture something, resulting in some shots that were just completely black. I guess that’s what happens when you purchase old cameras—you just never know if they’ll function or have issues until you test it out. Nonetheless, the shots that did come out were pretty good, so I decided to throw them up here as well for you guys to see. These are completely unedited and captured on Kodak Gold 200 film, enjoy!…

Tatsuru Ichishima with his Spoon Sports race suit on…

TK getting a photo of Ichishima…

Daijiro Yoshihara also stopped by to sign some posters and merchandise for the crowd…

I couldn’t pass-up the opportunity to capture a shot of Phil Robles’ Civic on film…

Kenji’s SSR EX-C Neo wheels which require a magnetic key to take the center caps off…

Took a few hours but eventually I was able to get a photo of the Spoon Sports cars together after the lines had dissipated…

Ichishima seemed pretty eager to sign merch and meet people. Most of the times, he’d sit there and sign for about an hour but for the ‘I Heart Honda’ event, he stayed the entire time from start to finishing signing away at everything in sight…

I brought the Canon Elan onto the track to see what I could do with film in the back of a pick-up truck…

Brandon McCray capturing video while I shot photos…

The ‘four-wide’ shot with perhaps some better spacing in the future….

And that’s all for the film photos. Hope you guys enjoyed all the content this week. Year11 is this weekend, see everyone there!!…