You remember that one line from The Fast ; the Furious, right? The one where Brian O’Conner mentions that Hector is going to be running three Honda Civics with Spoon engines? If you weren’t really into cars when you heard that, as I’m sure was the case for many of you when you first watched that movie, you were probably wondering what on earth a “Spoon” engine even is.

Today, we’ll be talking all about Spoon engines, and explaining what they are and why it was such a big deal that Hector was going to be using them.

Are Spoon Engines Real?

Spoon engines are absolutely a real thing. These refer to engines made by Spoon Inc., a Japanese tuning company that works exclusively with Hondas and Honda engines. Spoon engines are all based on existing Honda engines but have been heavily modified for a ton of extra performance.

If you’ve played any of the Gran Turismo games before, you’re likely familiar with some of Spoon’s cars already. They’re most notable for producing high-performance versions of the Civic, the S2000, and the NSX. You can easily spot a Spoon race car through its distinctive blue and yellow color scheme.

Spoon doesn’t actually make entirely new engines from the ground up, or even their own motor parts; instead, they focus almost exclusively on modifying existing Honda parts to make them perform at a higher level than they would normally be able to.

Spoon sells aftermarket parts that anyone can buy and install in their vehicles, and it is possible for anyone to buy all the individual parts of a Spoon engine and assemble it themselves. However, it’s generally regarded that someone who does this doesn’t actually have a Spoon engine; a true Spoon engine has to be assembled at Spoon headquarters.

History of Spoon Inc.

 

Spoon Inc. was founded in 1988 by Tatsuru Ichishima, who had previously worked at Honda as a car tester and race car driver. He loved Hondas and wanted to build his own race car based on the third-generation Civic hatchback. The company gets its name from the “Spoon curve”, which is one of the sections of the iconic Suzuka Circuit.

Presumably because of the fact that Ichishima had already worked for Honda, Honda gave him their full backing when it came to setting up his company. Interestingly, he also received plenty of backing from Mugen, another famous tuning company that also works exclusively with Honda products.

Ichishima took the 1.6-liter ZC engine found in the JDM Civic at the time, tuned it to produce over 230 horsepower (at least 100 horsepower over what it originally made) and dropped it into a race-modified Civic. He then entered this very Civic in the Japanese Touring Car Championship. 

The car didn’t win outright, but it performed well enough to catch people’s attention. It was also the first-ever Honda Civic to take part in the JTCC, which in itself was pretty noteworthy.

Since then, Spoon has gone on to make a name for itself in a variety of races, most notably in the area of endurance racing. Spoon cars have participated in and been successful in race events like the 24 Hours of Nürburgring, the Super Taikyu, and the 25 Hours of Thunderhill. 

How Are Spoon Engines Built?

 

As we’ve mentioned, Spoon engines don’t use all-new parts. Every part found in a Spoon engine started out as an OEM Honda part but has been modified for greater precision and performance.

The advantage of modifying an engine like this is that it helps preserve more of the engine’s original reliability.

Since all the components of Spoon engines are originally just normal Honda components, there’s more of a guarantee that everything will work well together once the engine is assembled.

So, what does Spoon actually do to modify engine components? For the most part, it’s all about making sure every engine component is properly balanced. More precisely, this means making sure that all of the engine components are a very specific weight, and ensuring that multiple examples of the same part (like pistons, for example) all weigh the same.

The absurd level of precision that Spoon aims to achieve really can’t be overstated. When weighing the parts that will be used in a Spoon engine, no part can deviate by more than 0.01 grams from the ideal weight. All of the bolts used to hold the engine together need to have an extremely precise amount of torque as well.

At this point, you might be wondering how any of this stuff even makes a difference. After all, what does it matter if one of your pistons weighs a few hundredths of a gram more than all the others? How does that even matter?

Well, it probably wouldn’t matter that much in a normal car that isn’t going to be driven very hard, but for something like a Spoon race car, it’s another story. Being that they’re intended for racing, Spoon engines usually rev very high; for example, the engine in Ichishima’s JTCC Honda Civic had an insane redline of 11,000 rpm.

The higher an engine revs, the more strain is placed on its internal components, particularly parts like the pistons that have to move back and forth extremely quickly. This problem is compounded if these parts are heavier than they have to be, or if one of these parts weighs more or less than the others. 

Making sure that all of these parts are as light as possible and as close to each other’s weight as possible decreases the strain on the engine and allows it to run harder for longer. True, you might be able to get more power out of your engine by just sticking a giant turbo on it, but the engine will be a lot less reliable as a result.

Now, the big question: how much does a Spoon engine cost? As you can probably guess, they aren’t cheap. Depending on the engine you want to buy, you’re probably looking at a cost of between $9,000 and $15,000. For that money, you could buy an entire used Honda Civic in pretty good shape. 

That being said, if you don’t care about having a “true” Spoon engine, you can always buy the individual parts and assemble the engine yourself. It won’t be an official Spoon engine, but it will make as much power as one, and you’ll save a good chunk of money in the process.