You need to upgrade your Flash Player and/or Enable the Active Scripting in IE
Silver Spoon
Story Taro Koki | Photos Len Clarke and TPJ
One thing for sure about Spoon is that they can deliver the goods. They are not considered the best privateer Honda tuner for nothing. Spoon is all about action, and getting results. When they entered the Japanese Super Taikyu Series earlier this decade in the S2000, they took the title. When they decided to make a hard top for the S2000 – they did it. When they decided to make three S2000s with the same body kit and exact same tuning specs they did that too.
Big boss Spoon prez Tatsuru Ichishima picked me up early in the morning so we could be at Hakone by 5:30 am. Hakone is famous for its mountain hot spring Onsens where people of all ages go and enjoy the bath. We were there for a different reason.
Two other identical S2000s also tuned by Spoon joined us at the bottom of the Hakone Turnpike, a toll road often driven by touge racers and motorcyclists early in the morning. Usually for photo shoots you get the drivers to drive about 15 mph, just fast enough so the background goes out of focus and it looks like you’re going pretty fast. It’s a common industry trick often used for the effect. After that, if the trees are too clear in the back, the art department goes to work. Nowadays with Photoshop, they can make a sumo wrestler run like Ichiro. But in these photos we took at Hakone, trust me we are really hauling some serious ass.
I’ve worked with Ichishima in the past for many projects but this was the first time for me on the touge with a Spoon S2K Coupe. There was no way I was getting woken up by him at 3:30 am just to come to Hakone for pretty holiday snaps. I’d already had the lecture from him about how the S2K Coupe is aerodynamically superior compared to the stock S2K and blah blah blah. But I needed proof. How am I going to write about it without driving it? A car review without the ‘test’ is like a restaurant review based on the recipe not the actual meal. So, I was ready to take this baby to the limits. It was test time.
With Ichishima, an established race car driver, in the front convertible S2000 with the photographer looking back and shooting at the three of us going at it Intial D style … I should have taken a picture of the photographer yakking his breakfast noodles after the photo session just to prove how hard Ichishima was driving. I’d hurl too if I had to look backwards through a tiny lens on a winding road.
After driving in the stock convertible up to Hakone, the first thing I noticed after swapping cars and getting in the silver S2K coupe is the sheer power delivery. Yes it did help that the Silver one had Bridgestone RE55S sports tires but boy that Spoon-tuned F22C with a Spoon ECU that puts out 260hp and slams your head back against the seat. The engine mounts, air cleaner, intake, exhaust manifold and exhaust are all from Spoon. Why use any other when you have the best? The engine note sounds like soul music going thru the tunnels as the sound echoed throughout the mountains.
The lightness of the body at 2,400 lbs also has a lot to do with the increased torque response you feel after stepping on the gas. This car is light and nimble. I thought the stock S2000 was nimble until I got behind the wheel of this car. Anyone who’s ridden a rollercoaster would know that feeling. But as with all Spoon cars the quickness and handling is not violent. The mild set up is always a characteristic of a Spoon-tuned car. The gear ratios are set up so the powerband is never lost going through the ups and downs on the touge. The engine torque has plenty of leeway so you can run the car on a higher gear without losing power. The Spoon LSD, which I wasn’t used to, gave me some trouble at the beginning but after I got the hang of it, switchbacks and J-turns were smooth as silk.
