A True Honda Expert’s Take on the New Honda Civic Type R

PSA to all Honda tuners: Spoon Sports begins 2017 Civic Type-R tuning and development.
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If there’s any team that knows the Honda Civic Type R lineage better than the back of their hands, it’s the guys at Spoon Sports. Since 2014, Spoon and factory driver Dai Yoshihara campaigned a hardcore Unlimited Class FD2 Honda Civic Type R in Global Time Attack, even setting a 1:45.585 record lap at Buttonwillow Raceway. Spoon’s turbocharged FD2 Type-R is also, to my knowledge, the only front-wheel-drive road racing car with a Formula 1-style center-seating position. Despite the innovations the team accomplished with its Civic, it’s time to look ahead. Enter Spoon’s latest toy: the all-new “FK8” 2017 Honda Civic Type-R.

Spoon shared a video about a week ago showing off its brand-new Type-R. And it looks like the company picked it up not too long ago—not only is the car completely stock, but Yoshihara also admits it’s actually his first time climbing into one.

Spoon wants to first get familiar with the Type-R’s factory setup in order to establish a baseline and see where it can go from there. And even though Yoshihara’s first impressions of the new 2017 Civic Type-R is on the street, the linear power delivery immediately caught his attention, noting an N/A characteristic despite the Civic’s new turbo setup. What’s more, Dai was impressed with the significant difference in ride quality between the settings of the Civic Type-R’s adaptive dampers (I know, adaptive suspension on a Honda Civic? Welcome to 2017).

But don’t expect this Type-R to remain stock for long—we’re looking at Spoons next development vehicle and perhaps even its next Global Time Attack race car. Stay tuned as we expect Spoon and Yoshihara to share a track impression of the new Type-R very soon.