Perhaps no other Japanese aftermarket tuner is so well known for their strong brand presence in the JDM world. Spoon Sports is the world's most renowned specialist for Honda high performance cars that made headlines in the early 2000s thanks to movies like Fast & Furious, popular Japanese manga and anime Initial D and The Real Driving Simulator Gran Turismo and Japanese auto review programme Best Motoring. Their cars were featured numerous times, solidifying their status as the standard of old school JDM culture. Their tuning philosophy, products and service and hospitality have won many fans around the world with distributors in major markets.

While Honda sports car owners use Spoon parts it is their 'demo car' known from the 90s that has the strongest image in the minds of enthusiasts. Going through many iterations in Spoon's ongoing research and development to push the limits through racing and rigorous testing in order to make better parts, the 'demo car' served as the iconic pin up poster trophy that would be the example of many Honda build. Particularly the Civic models, EG6, EK4, EK9 , Integra Type R DC2 and S2000.

Out of these perhaps the EK9 Civic Type R with the iconic black carbon fibre bonnet in Sunlight Yellow and black SW388 wheels is still the Spoon flag carrier, thanks to this version's appearance in many Best Motoring videos and one of the character cars in Initial D modelled after the Spoon EK9. However, Honda Type R models have always been identified with the Type R specific 'Championship White' colour.

We had the privilege of taking their newly restored car made by TYPE ONE, Spoon's customer tuning shop in Tokyo for a through test to experience how a mechanically fully restored Civic feels. The concept is called 'Renovation Car'. Using the full array of Spoon tuning parts, it is a OEM plus 'Restomod' tuning specially for the street.

Join us as we analyse why Honda high performance cars in particular the Type R models are considered one of the finest JDM stock cars and how Spoon improves on this platform to give the driver the most fun driving experience.

01:50 Introduction to EK Civic generations
04:00 Technical details of stock EK9, B16B engine
05:42 Spoon engine refresh
07:00 What is VTEC
10:16 Spoon parts details
12:08 What makes Type R engines special
16:25 What is Spoon's 'Renovation Car' ?
20:36 Why EK9 Type R cannot be replicated
22:52 How to restore tune your Honda
23:34 Drive impression
28:23 Conclusion


JDM Masters crew: @captbradford @japonic_official

Special thanks to this episode's camera and still photography crew: @aonaminnie

Spoon Sports Official Home page: https://www.spoon.jp/
Instagram: @spoon_typeone