Project Spoon: The Lawnmower That Wants To Race

What you see before you is something I built. Although in car culture terms, I use the term 'built' loosely, because I haven't really done much different to how it was when I got it. This lawnmower (it isn't even a real Honda by the way) is still unreliable, unclean, and I doubt makes any more horsepower than it did prior to when I got my hands on it. This 'build' was simply for me to get a feel for working on engines and learning basic mechanical skills. Of course, I'm not the first one to go a bit overboard on a project surely?

To begin with, it didn't start, it had been left out in the rain by the previous owner and that's why he had old it for $30 on Gumtree. However, this turned out to be a quick fix of draining and replacing both the fuel and oil and removing the solids out of the fuel tank. I also cleaned the spark plug for good measure. 

After taking the surrounding parts of the engine (carburetor, fuel tank, muffler, flywheel) off and putting it back together from there, I finally decided to completely take apart the engine. 

It would take a lot, lot longer to get around to this than I planned, particularly with Year 12 studies getting in the way. But during this time, ideas began to circulate in my brain. Rather than just rebuilding the engine, I thought why don''t I restore it too! Then of course, if I was going to restore it I would need to give it an interesting paint job right? People call Honda Civic's lawnmowers right? Spoon Sports tunes Honda's don't they? You can see where I was going can't you.

Finally, in 2020, things managed to start getting done. I finished the paint and restoring the body, axles, handle bars and the rear flap to the best of my ability.

And finally, the engine was rebuilt (just remind me to check that it cranks over before I put the entire engine, carburetor and all back together will you).

​So let's have a look at the finished product then shall we?

Baby Civic Type R

Project Spoon was finished off with stickers in reference to the Spoon Sports race cars. These Spoon race cars often have the number 95 and wear ADVAN tyres to grip the track.

My favourite part of Project Spoon has to be this velocity stack I made from bits of scrap metal that replaces the ugly and bulky airbox. 

One extra change caused by this velocity stack was the breather chamber. The breather chamber is used for any pressurised air to escape from the engine. Originally, this pressurised air was directed back into the air box as a sort of recycling method, but now with the absence of the air box, the air just vents straight out of the engine.

Now, obviously if you were to compare Project Spoon with an actual Honda Civic Type R, the ACTUAL Civic is better in every way shape and form. However, like most lawnmowers, and unlike a Civic Type R, Project Spoon has easily adjustable suspension thanks to the use of a single lever arm. I can easily go from riding over big fallen branches to full on StanceNation slammed style. Forget Air Lift Performance, height adjustment lever performance is where it's at!

Overall, I'm happy with how Project Spoon turned out. It is unique and although it isn't perfect it taught me a lot of basic skills that I wouldn't have known otherwise by just reading stuff online. I'd urge anyone to try working on a 4-stroke lawn mower to start off if they don't have access to working on a car. These engines can be fiddly at times (read: most of the time), but it is a very  cheap way to learn some basic mechanics.

Bonus Gallery