Thursday 9th February 2017

Spoon Honda Civic Type R: Time for Tea?

The drift king, Tsukuba, and a 260hp Civic weighing 900kg - hold on!

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2017 marks 25 years of Honda Type R, so you can expect plenty more VTEC appreciation over the coming months. That begins this weekend in fact, with a Type R road trip including Integra, Accord and various Civics to Retromobile in Paris. Keep an eye on the site and social media for more on that soon.

Until then, a little video to get us in the mood. Those who played (and indeed play) a lot of Gran Turismo will be familiar with legendary Honda tuners Spoon and its bonkers creations. Here is one of the silliest, driven at Tsukuba by Keiichi Tsuchiya way back when for one hot lap.

This Spoon EK9 Civic Type R makes 260hp and weighs 900kg. So that's 140kg less than standard, with another 75hp. The power gains are through stroking the B16 1.6 to a 1.8, then adding even more aggressive cams, lighter moving parts, Spoon's individual throttle bodies and its ECU as well. Oh yes, and fully balancing the engine. Don't ask about servicing.

Combined with shorter gears, new suspension and super sticky Yokohamas, the result is spectacular. The car looks completely locked on line everywhere, without a hint of understeer or wheelspin. The braking points are heroically late and the lap time is, well, really fast.

The noise? We probably couldn't do it justice with words. Just turn it up loud and wait for the downchanges...

Watch the video here.

 

[cib24]

Yes, the 90's is when Spoon was at the top of its game. That particular car was amazing. They also made a 12,000-13,000 RPM B16 engine that can be found online as well and was pretty nuts.