I grew up a Spoon Sports fan, the kind who knew the parts catalog long before I could afford anything in it. Getting the call to photograph one of its cars in November 2005 was about as good as the job got. The car was Spoon’s Acura RL endurance racer, built for the 25 Hours of Thunderhill, and I photographed it a few weeks before its debut at the race. The pictures appeared in the February 2006 issue of Modified Magazine under the title The Real Deal. More than 20 years later, the RL remains one of the more unusual cars to come out of Spoon’s shop.
The second-generation RL, sold in Japan as the KB1 Honda Legend, was a very different starting point from the Civics and Integras most people associated with Spoon. This was a luxury sedan with a 3.5-liter V6, a five-speed automatic, and Honda’s Super Handling All-Wheel Drive system. Spoon started with a bare body shell and prepared it for endurance racing, finishing the exterior in blue metallic paint with its familiar graphics.
The J35A V6 stayed naturally aspirated. Spoon fully balanced the engine and fitted its air cleaner, radiator hose set, baffled oil pan, and custom racing exhaust, with a Spoon ECU managing the setup. Listed output was 320 hp.
Preparing the car for a 25-hour race also meant changes to the fuel system and drivetrain. The build specifications listed a 100-liter fuel cell, about 26 U.S. gallons, with additional fuel pumps. Spoon modified the driveshafts and added an electric oil cooler, while its Full Spec damper kit and straight-rate springs handled the suspension. At all four corners were 18×8.5-inch Volk Racing TE37s wrapped in Yokohama slicks.
Inside, the luxury-car equipment gave way to a Spoon carbon fiber bucket seat, a Spoon steering wheel, and a center console switch panel. The stripped cabin received its own paintwork. Build credits went to Spoon’s in-house research and development team and Speed Shop Type One, its tuning and service shop.
Unfortunately, the RL’s Thunderhill debut ended early. Within the first few hours of the race on December 3, 2005, the car struck debris, bending a wheel and damaging the wiring harness. The team struggled to trace the electrical problem, and the car continued running in limp mode before developing a rod knock and retiring. It was classified 54th.
Spoon had already raced other Hondas at Thunderhill before bringing the RL, and the company would continue competing there and collecting class wins in the years that followed. These photos capture the RL before that first outing, clean, finished, and a few weeks away from the race. Whatever happened at Thunderhill, getting to photograph Spoon’s take on an Acura RL was a memorable assignment for someone who had grown up following the company.
GalleryPhotos by Jason Siu
