FK8 Honda Civic Type R gets the full Spoon treatment

The FK8 Honda Civic Type R is one of the hottest hot hatches out there and was, at one point, the fastest front-wheel drive hot hatch ever to lap the Nordschleife at the Nürburgring. Even today, few can touch it on a good road, but that’s not to say there isn’t room for improvement. Or at least, so claims Spoon.

Having gradually released new parts over the past few months, the venerable Japanese tuner now has a whole host of go-faster accessories for the FK8. The changes go more than skin deep, but we’ll start with the skin itself, which has morphed into something even more outlandish and aggressive.

The front bumper, made out of fibreglass, retains the general contours of the standard piece but with a larger grille. The biggest benefit is that the massive OEM fake air intakes have been replaced by a wire mesh, which Spoon says increases cooling – a bugbear of the Type R. Owners can place an oil cooler or intake duct behind the mesh, and the stock brake cooling duct and fog lights can still be used.

Also made from fibreglass, the rear bumper features real vents as well, both to relieve air pressure in the rear wheel vents and reduce the “parachute effect” caused by having air collect behind the bumper. Both the front and rear bumpers can be optioned with a carbon fibre front splitter and rear diffuser respectively. A roof spoiler is also available in either fibreglass or carbon.

You can also purchase a carbon wing to go with the look, with a more efficient swan neck design that’s all the rage in motorsports; the company says the shape of the supports also apes its crane logo. Finally, there are new sizes for the SW388 five-spoke forged alloy wheels, including an 18-inch version with a 9.5-inch width and a 5×120 mm bolt pattern for the FK8 (the regular Civic has a 5×114.3 mm PCD).

Now we go into the performance aspect of the car, starting with the N1 muffler kit. This has a straighter structure that eliminates the centre Helmholtz resonator and tailpipe, as well as the flow restrictions at the flanges. Spoon says the setup improves overall engine output without sacrificing low- and mid-range torque, but did not give specific figures (as a refresher, the standard FK8 makes 320 PS and 400 Nm of torque).

The company also made improvements to the cooling system, with a new thermostat and an aluminium radiator featuring an optimised core thickness and fin shape. It also sells reinforced driveshafts and stainless steel brake hoses and clutch slave hose that are said to improve reliability, along with brake pads that are claimed to increase the fade resistance of the standard Brembo brakes while keeping the same wear rate.

Moving to the chassis, the tweaks are relatively minor, Spoon electing to retain the Type R’s adaptive dampers. It is instead offering springs that lower the car some 20 mm, with a progressive spring rate that increases the further it is compressed. A set of competition-only lower ball joints also optimise the lower arm geometry to reduce bump steer, while a stiffening plate increases front subframe rigidity.

Further improving dynamics is what Spoon calls a motion control beam, a damper that is mounted transversely across the car and is said to absorb unwanted body movements and vibrations. The company is also an authorised dealer of Hondata products in Japan and is offering the American tuner’s Jailbreak (to unlock the car’s Bosch ECU) and FlashPro software tuning systems.

To keep the engine bay looking fresh, Spoon is selling cylinder head covers that use a new process to colourise the black resin piece, available in Type R red and Spoon yellow. A machined aluminium oil filler cap completes the look.

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