In the land where the model was born, something is deeply wrong with the latest Civic lineup.
At the 2006 Geneva Motor Show, Honda revealed that a 3-door Type R would soon be set loose upon European consumers. You many have even seen the photo of President Takeo Fukui posing alongside Honda F1 driver Jenson Button in front of the yellow hatchback. Then in North America, the OEM released a 200hp Si coupe and sedan in '06 and '07, respectively; the first time the trim has ever been offered to the States with four doors.
But what about Japan? The birthplace of Soichiro Honda. The place where the NSX Type R first prowled and proved it truly carried racing DNA. Where there is never a shortage of high technology ... Japan, where Honda has its global headquarters!
Nope, not this time. Many of you reading this outside of Japan probably don't know how bad we've got it this time. It's bad.
There currently is no Civic Type R in an FD/FA/FG chassis in the Land of the Rising Sun, not even an announcement or concept release from Honda to tease the imagination. And making matters worse, the Japanese have been saddled with only four-door sedans. That's right; there's not even a Civic coupe available to buy. Talk about payback for every year of having it good.
Back in the day, we'd see Type Rs around and think nothing of it. We'd secretly laugh at foreigners eagerly taking photos of the cars and getting all juiced up about the R. "Yeah, we get all the cool stuff here and you don't," we believed. We had Type Rs, the white lions of Timbavati, the rarest and finest works of the Honda Motor Company, the only vehicles worthy of the red emblem.
But not this time. This time the world got the good stuff and we didn't. Or so they say...
Oh, how we miss the Championship white and unique exhaust note. If this just reads like too much bellyaching, you'll have to forgive us. It may be this writer's lot in life to sit around and complain about shit to get his point across, hoping that someone will read it and fix things. Don't underestimate the power of the pen.
Don't underrate initiative, either. There was someone else out there who also had the notion that there was something amiss about this scenario. But instead of whining about it like yours truly, he took matters into his own hands-literally.
The president of internationally recognized tuning shop Spoon Sports, Tatsuru Ichishima, decided to make his own Type R. If Honda wasn't going to do it for the Japanese, Spoon would do it itself. Who else could be up to the task but these renowned Honda specialists?
Let's take a closer look at exactly what our friend Ichi-san and his team at Spoon did to turn the modest JDM grocery getter into a Civic credible enough to wear the red H.