Tatsuru Ichishima is to us, the Japanese equivalent of Carol Shelby. After opening the doors to Spoon Sports in 88' exclusively for Hondas and service shop Type One a little over a decade later, Mr. Tatsuru's been at the forefront of high performance Honda tuning ever since. His philosophies lie around achieving the utmost balance via harmonious synchrony of all components. With such an appealing menu and constant appearances in Hot Version/Best Motoring, it's no wonder why Ichishima-san is the iconic figure that he is today.
At this year's Honda Day Englishtown, the organizers were able to partner up with Spoon Sports and ship the infamous 1985 Spoon Civic EA-T to the show all the way from Japan. Even Yuki Imamura, their R&D director, and Dai Yoshihara the 2011 Formula D drift champion were able to attend.
Inside their display booth, a full engine cutout of a high performance naturally aspirated B18C could be found. One of Ichishima's favorite motors of all time.
Not only that, but also a full S2000 front suspension assembly complete with Spoon's damper, bushing set and upper control arm gusset plate.
Included was also the Spoon monoblock caliper, pads and rotor, stainless steel brake line and aluminum lug nuts. All for good measure!
Inside their display booth, a full engine cutout of a high performance naturally aspirated B18C could be found. One of Ichishima's favorite motors of all time.
Not only that, but also a full S2000 front suspension assembly complete with Spoon's damper, bushing set and upper control arm gusset plate.
Included was also the Spoon monoblock caliper, pads and rotor, stainless steel brake line and aluminum lug nuts. All for good measure!
Jorge made sure to have his collector's Gen 1 Spoon steering wheel signed. Simply put a surreal experience.
Joeham too was there to witness history being made. An avid Spoon enthusiast himself that's had his fair share of his Tatsuru's parts. Most notably the epic sounding Spoon N1 that he had mated to a USDM B16A2. She was a real screamer!
Joeham too was there to witness history being made. An avid Spoon enthusiast himself that's had his fair share of his Tatsuru's parts. Most notably the epic sounding Spoon N1 that he had mated to a USDM B16A2. She was a real screamer!
Having a Spoon themed EG in the US was something that had been done a few times before but nothing close to the extent that rhd-jon (on the left) achieved with his Captiva Blue EG6. It was during that sweet era that both Dan and Jon got their Spoon crane tattoos complete with their certification badge numbers. Does it get any more hardcore than this?
It wasn't just Mr. Imamura that was impressed by the dedication of Spoon fans, Spoon president Tatsuru was just as well and made sure to take pictures with his personal camera while they grinned in excitement. Although Jon's EG6 has been since parted and sold, his love for the brand will be forever strong.
Ichishima was also excited to see Dan's fully Spoon'd out DC2 inside and out. Seeing the engine bay up close and giving thumbs up, he gladly signed his valve cover, center console block off plate and dashboard.
From driving the Spoon DC2 in Gran Turismo to owning one in real life and having it certified by the founder himself is a dream come true to say the least. It's only on par with Soichiro Honda's vision–the power of dreams.
A missed opportunity for the rest of us but we can only hope that in the future another chance pops up. Until then we'll just have to hoard Spoon parts to get our fix!
