Tag: Spoon Sports

Automotive by Narita Dogfight

Locale: Oh, Don’t Mind Me – Another Visit To Type One

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Visiting Type One never gets old for me; there is always something new there to see every time I go.  So I make it a priority of mine to stop in each time I go to Japan.  Granted, without a car, it makes for a bit of a walk; but I had access to a car this time because I was with my friend from JDM Clips.  I might add that having makes visit tuning shops so much easier.  Obviously, you go to car shops because you own a car, so it’s not a big concern for shop owners to be close to train stations.  If you’re just visiting Japan, going places not near train stations can be both difficult and expensive without an auto; especially if you’ve never been there before.  I have absolutely no problems walking a few miles to get to clutch shops, but needless to say, having a car was a giant win.  Like any typical foreign fan boy should, I like just walking around the shop and looking at all the stuff I’ve seen dozens of times already – it never gets old.  Plus, the shop gets a lot of traffic, so chances are you’ll see different rides there every time you visit.  I already featured that extremely cool matte black S2000 that I saw last time, which you can see here; but I never got around to posting up some of the other cars that were in the shop on that trip.  I know there are many sites that post up stuff from Spoon and Type One once or twice – but who else posts new shots from the shop over and over! hahaha – hopefully the viewers share the same love that I do.  Click past the break to take a stroll through the shop and check a few more of them out.

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Automotive by Narita Dogfight

Encounter: Spoon Sports Endurance S2000

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I’m sure you’re familiar with the saying, “Some of the best things in life are free”.  A saying most likely referring to memories or moments in time.  For the most part I’d agree, as it’s happened to me several times.  The things in life that are the most special often happen unexpectedly and in the most obscure places – take this encounter for example.  If you want to get technical with it, this moment wasn’t technically free, but I can say that it was both unexpected and obscure; crazy any way you want to look at it.  On our way back to Tokyo from Motegi, my friend and I had decided to pull over at a rest stop for a bite to eat and a little refill of caffeine (in the form of some Emerald Mountain Blend).  The long drive back on the expressway had started taking it’s toll on us and after spending an entire day shooting an endurance race, the last thing you want to do is drive for 2 hours back home.  As we pulled into the parking area, and drove towards the back to park, we noticed a trailer with a pair of Nissan’s resting atop.  As we got closer we realized it was the two Okabe Jidosha Taikyu team’s cars.  I suppose they had the same idea as us and stopped for a little break.  Not one to miss a photo-op, I grabbed my camera and tripod and snapped a few shots before we went into the restaurant (You can see one of the shots here – I’ll post more later).  As we were eating our curry and whatever the hell else I had ordered, we kept trying to pick out who was involved in the racing team.  I’m pretty sure it’s impossible to tell just by looking at someone, but we tried anyway.  We finished up, grabbed some coffee from vending, and made our way back to the car when we saw this.  Click past the break for more – I promise you won’t see stuff like this anywhere else.

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Automotive by Narita Dogfight

Close-Up: Diamond in Ogikubo – Type One Tuned S2000

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Spoon Sports: a staple of the Honda tuning community.   Any time I travel to Japan I make it a point to try and visit Spoon and Type One because, well, it’s Spoon.  Aside from Mugen, no other company works closer to Honda than Spoon and the results are amazing.  A few weeks ago my friend and I dropped by Type One to see what they had cooking.  The day before the Twin Ring race we didn’t expect much, but fortunately they had left a few employees back at the shop to take care of the weekend customers.  I’ll save the full ‘Locale’ feature for another day, but I’ve been itching to share these next few photos with you guys.  I posted a teaser on the official NDF Facebook  page a few weeks ago and you guys went ballistic over it; this is really a cool car.  Anyway, when I was walking upstairs I was so intrigued by this one white S2000 that was for sale that an employee was showing to an interested customer, that I didn’t even notice it sitting to the side of the shop.  When I finally saw it I could hardly contain myself.  The guys at Type One have always been really cool with visitors, so I wasn’t reserved at all with my picture taking.  Although it is a customer car, I was laying on the ground, getting behind lifts, and moving stuff out of the way to get better shots of it.  I even caught the guy upstairs smirking a little at me – probably thinking why the hell I cared so much about it.  Click past the break to see more of Japanese Darth Vader’s S2000.

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Automotive by Narita Dogfight

Close-Up: Type One Toyota FT-86….?

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Yeah, that’s right – another FT-86 post.  So I posted on the NDF Facebook page a few weeks back picture of a FT-86 wheel with Spoon calipers attached.  Needless to say it baffled many people – including me when I saw it.  I still don’t have much information on the car, other than whoever owns it is affiliated with Spoon and Type One.  I’m pretty sure it’s not too difficult to fit certain brake systems onto other cars, as it can be universal in some regards; requiring little retro-fitting.  This may be the case, but it’s still wild to see a Spoon product on anything other than a Honda.  Right?  I first spotted this at Twin Ring behind the Spoon garage area at the 2nd round of Super Taikyu.  Click past the break for a few more encounters!

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Automotive by Narita Dogfight

Close-Up: Spoon Endurance S2000

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Those of you who know Spoon, know that they are no strangers of the endurance.  So it comes as no surprise that they compete in the Super Taikyu series in Japan.  What may come as a surprise though, is that this is the last time we may ever see a Spoon car in the traditional blue and yellow livery.  As of the 2012 race season, Spoon has decided to do away with the iconic paint job that has adorned their cars for 25 years.  This S2000 (AP1), seen at the official test day at Fuji Speedway,  is their 2012 Super Taikyu entry and will be competing in the ST-4 class.  This year’s drivers include Taketoshi Matsui, Yasunori Nakajima, and Tatsuru Ichishima – Mr. Spoon himself.  As of last weekend, the first round of Super Taikyu has already concluded, and unfortunately Team Spoon did not fare well.  You can see the official results here.  Hopefully, within the next couple days here, I can get to posting that coverage.  Round 2 of Super Taikyu takes place at the end of April at Twin Ring Motegi.  You can expect live coverage of that via NDF’s Facebook page, as I’ll be traveling to Japan to meet up with JDM Clips for a super terrific Japan motor sports tour.  For now, click past the break for a closer look at Team Spoon’s S2000.

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Automotive by Narita Dogfight

Close Up: Spoon AP1

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Way before the build of the iconic Grand Prix White AP2 demo car, Spoon had built their AP1 race car.  The S2000, hailed as one of the greatest roadsters ever built.  It would seem almost sacrilegious for the masters of Honda tuning to not bless one with their precision.  A few years ago I got the chance to visit Spoon and see for myself the craftsmanship that went into this build.

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