When you have two builds that share as much in common and have lasted close to twenty years as mine have, you amass a great deal of stories. One of my stories involves Mugen spoilers.
My love affair with the Mugen spoiler began in or about August 1996. I took my old CRX (Project '88) in to Honda for its first oil change of my ownership. While waiting, I walked the pre-owned lot checking out some of the cars there. I stopped at a yellow CRX on the pre-owned lot which was decked out in a body kit and spoiler. I'd never seen a spoiler like that one before and it was love at first site.
I spoke to the parts rep at the counter and he wasn't sure what brand it was, but thought it was either WingsWest or some company with a funny name... Mewgenn? Or something like that... Back in '96 the Internet was still in its infancy and Web 2.0 was still almost a decade from truly taking shape. Back in the day, research was done in magazines or in specialty shops.
One such specialty shop I knew of was in Richmond, BC in an Asian mall called Aberdeen Centre. I can't remember the name of it, but they had all sorts of auto accessories (and was just kitty-corner to Herbie's Hobby where I would later find my first Fujimi CR-X model kit mentioned in an earlier post on this blog). Anyways, I went there and asked them about the spoiler I'd seen and they were able to produce catalog photos from WingsWest. I was quoted $400 plus shipping and then I'd have to have it installed.
Fast-forward to 1998. I worked at a Bingo Hall at night (that's right, a Bingo Hall) while going to school in an Auto Parts and Light Warehousing course during the day. One of my co-workers at the Bingo Hall had a yellow CRX with, you guessed it, a genuine Mugen spoiler on it. I offered to buy it many times but she was having none of it. Every time I pulled in the lot to park, I would drive by her car on purpose to look at the spoiler.
Then one day at school one of the guys named Darren - a real macho jerk, you know, one of those "there's no replacement for displacement" type guys... well, he told me had some "honda parts" in his garage from when his brother or cousin raced Hondas, and he didn't want the stuff cluttering his garage anymore. He was going to toss it all in garbage, but since I "was into Hondas" he invited me over to see what I had. I didn't want to go, but my friend Barry suggested I go "just in case".
We drove to buddy's house in Surrey which was on an acreage, and his garage was actually a large barn-like structure with a concrete floor and 15' ceilings open to the rafters. He brought out some boxes with some random parts in them, most that I couldn't identify, but I did find a home-made open-air-intake. And then I saw it, up in the ceiling, draped across two rafters: what looked like a black WW/Mugen-type spoiler.
I said, as casually as I could, "Oh, hey, what's that up there in the rafter... That looks like it might be a Honda part" and pointed to the ceiling. He looked up and said "I forgot about that, you're right I think that's for a Honda." He grabbed a ladder and pulled it down from the rafters but I already knew what he had. In the end I agreed to take the intake and the spoiler and asked how much... he replied "Nothing" because I was helping him clean out the garage and he was just happy to see the parts go to someone who could use them.
I tried test-fitting it and quickly realized I needed some way to mount it on my car. I just didn't think 2-sided tape was going to cut the mustard for this one. But first I needed to know whether or not it was a WingsWest or Mugen spoiler. I found the number for WingsWest in one of my Sport Compact Car magazines or some such tuner rag and gave them a call. I asked him if there was a way to tell which one it was and the guy on the other end of the phone said to give it a squeeze. So I grabbed the spoiler and gave it a squeeze. He said "Is it squishy?" I said "yes" and he said "That's not ours, that's a Mugen spoiler."So, back to the magazines to get King Motorsports name and phone number. I gave them a ring and got the price for the "Stay Set" for the Mugen spoiler. $125 shipped to me in Vancouver and it would take a few weeks. I sent them a money order (before PayPal existed), and a few weeks later I had the stay set... And that's how I got my Mugen spoiler.
Fast-forward another two years and Project '88 and my Mugen spoiler were in Calgary, Project '88 was in storage while I prepped the build with an assortment of ricer items like body kit and hood scoop (no judging, that was 2001 for ya). Fast-forward another few years and I had abandoned the rice for the JDM scene and I definitely wanted to keep the Mugen spoiler, but in an attempt to save costs, I sold that spoiler for an R72P model I found on Yahoo Japan, so that I wouldn't have to paint it when I painted Project '88 that same color.
To recoup the costs of the new spoiler, I sold my "barn-find" black Mugen spoiler on eBay. Unfortunately, when the R72P one arrived, it had some very minor cracking and I wasn't very happy with it because, well, I'm kinda picky. So it went up for sale as well and I picked up a blue one from CyberCRXT, aka Mike, which he assured me was without any signs of cracking and in amazing condition. Unfortunately, it would need paint and install, but I was making money each time the spoilers changed hands, so I was still ahead of the game. Then I was forced to put Project PRO.2 on the back burner for large purchases/installs for the better part of a decade and that only changed in 2014. 
Earlier this past season, I realized that next summer will mark 20 years since I first saw the Mugen/WingsWest spoiler on that CRX at Langley Honda (now Jonker Honda). That means that I will have wanted a Mugen spoiler for 20 years, and have owned four (three genuine Mugen, one WingsWest, which I bought (and subsequently sold for a profit) on eBay. I decided 20 years is long enough, and the decision was made to put "Install Mugen Spoiler" on my build sheet for 2016.
The other day I was taking pictures of the brackets and I couldn't remember if my blue spoiler had the brackets attached or not. So I took the blue spoiler out to check and decided to do a test-fit. The fitment is great but I noticed that it had a dent on the top that made me nervous. It still seems solid, but what would they find when they sand the paint for a re-spray?
That's when the idea struck... Why not keep my eyes peeled for another black Mugen spoiler? Sure, I'll pay roughly double of what I bought and sold them for back in the day, but what I spend now, I will surely save in paint and prep-work. I just need to ensure there were no cracks. Even if the paint condition wasn't great, as long as there were no cracks... so I decided to keep an eye out for a new spoiler and not to pass up the next decent black Mugen spoiler to pop up for sale.I didn't have long to wait. Within days an auction appeared for a black Mugen spoiler with emblem. It wasn't cheap but it is now mine, and I have a head-start on my plans for next season. A big shout-out once again to Shane/RouteJP for obtaining and shipping this to me through his new auction deputy service. (You can find him on Facebook via his page, RouteJP).
2016 is shaping up to be an interesting year indeed!
Remember, this blog was written in chronological order so, you will need to click OLDER POSTS to move forward in time, and click NEWER POSTS to go backwards.
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