Takomo Ignis D1 Driver Review

Are you looking for a new budget driver for under £300? Well Takomo have got you covered with their brand new Ignis D1 Driver. This is their first attempt at a driver, following on from their ever-growing iron popularity.

In case you haven’t heard of the brand before, Takomo is a company that’s based over in Finland. They market themselves as making golf clubs for the everyday golfer.

You may have seen the likes of content creators Grant Horvat and the Bryan Brothers using their irons. In case you haven’t seen already we reviewed the Takomo 301CB irons last year HERE.

Who Are They Aimed At?

If you’re looking for simplicity, this could be the perfect solution for you. It’s a driver that you can buy direct from the website, and it will arrive at your house a few days later. This ‘direct to consumer’ approach makes things cheaper as it cuts out the middle man.

Takomo offer one driver head in two loft options, alongside two shaft options. If other brands’ offerings feel overwhelming, this driver could be much easier to choose and purchase. It also comes in at great value too under £300!

Takomo don’t offer custom fitting yet, so its worth knowing your ideal specifications before ordering.

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The Tech

At first glance this driver looks minimalistic, but it packs plenty of tech as Takomo’s first driver.

The Takomo Ignis D1 uses variable face thickness to keep ball speed high on heel and toe strikes. This effectively increases the sweet spot by 25% compared to the prototype they announced earlier in the year.

The chassis and weighting system has been designed to keep weight low, allowing for easy launch and energy transfer. Cap it off with a lightweight carbon fibre crown and you have a fast, forgiving beast.

An adjustable sleeve is also part of the package offering adjustments up to 2 degrees +/-. An important feature with no custom fitting option, it allows the golfer to have some room for adjustment.

Takomo’s first offering definitely offers some premium features like you would see from leading brands. Including tungsten weights, a carbon crown, and a highly durable, lightweight steel composite all wrapped up with a Ventus shaft and a Lamkin grip. Not bad for a brand new club under £300!

Takomo Ignis D1 Driver Review

Looks And Feel

After seeing many creators play Takomo irons, I was intrigued to see if this driver lived up to the hype.

I was genuinely impressed by this driver’s looks on first impression. It features an all-black stealth head with minimal branding, plus a small Takomo detail around the mid sole and toe section. In comparison to other brands that add too many funky features, this clean design feels refreshing.

The sole features a mix of matt and glossy finishes that look smart and frame the Ignis branding well. It also includes three weights positioned on the heel, toe and rear.

If I were picky, I’d say the weights look slightly cheap, but nothing too off-putting.

On the rear of the sole, there is an orange stripe that seems a little lost on the driver. But I think if they added a bit more orange in other areas could’ve really contributed to the overall look.

The face features a polished black milled finish, framed by traditional black grooves seen on most modern drivers.

On the crown I noticed a hint of carbon under black finish. It’s subtle but definitely noticeable giving off a really premium overall look.

Down by the ball I thought the crown shape reminded me of TaylorMade’s Qi10 with a larger toe footprint. Personally I felt the actual head shape did sit quite closed for my liking, but for the everyday golfer this is something that could be appealing.

My first shots with the club were surprising; I didn’t expect it to feel so hot off the face. ‘Hot’ meaning as if it was jumping rapidly off the club face upon impact. It was resulting in a high towering ball flight simmering through the air. Not something I’ve seen before with budget drivers having tested Benross and Kirkland drivers in the past.

Performance

Pretty good start for the Takomo Ignis D1 driver. I wanted to see how it compared to leading brands. To test this, we put it head-to-head with my Ping G430 LST driver with a stock Ping shaft for a fair comparison. We used Foresight’s GC Quad to collect the numbers during this comparison.

First up it was the Takomo Ignis D1. I noticed straight away that the ball speed was pretty good averaging around the 160mph mark. Spin rates were extremely high on occasions but overall fluctuating between 2500-3600rpm.

This could highlight that the Takomo’s forgiveness isn’t quite on the same level as Ping. Remember, Takomo offers only one standard driver head, while other brands provide multiple options and years of experience. Furthermore even though these strikes weren’t brilliant, I didn’t find the ball veering much offline.

Obviously with such a variety in spin rate, there is going to be an effect on the overall carry distance. On high spinning shots the driver was carrying around 263 yards, and low spinning around 272-275.

For the final shot I attempted to hit it much harder coming off with a centred strike with low spin I did struggle to carry over 275.

In comparison to the Ping G430 LST I noticed straight away the spin was around 700 revs on average lower but overall much more consistent. I was shocked immediately at how much this spin rate change increased my carry distances, averaging 282.5 yards and maxing at 293.

Reviewing the two together was obviously a bit of a mis-match with one being a low spin head and the other being an everyday golfer head. However one thing that did surprise me was the actual ball speed numbers. There was only around 1-2.5mph difference in ball speed, meaning that if it wasn’t for the spin rates this club might actually be able to bridge the 15-30 yard gap.

Takomo Ignis D1 Driver Verdict

Overall, taking into consideration the price of this driver and the package that it comes with, I feel like it was a triumphant effort in Takomo’s first ever driver. It can clearly produce some good ball speeds in comparison to leading brands, and in terms of design itself I thought it was a breath of fresh air. Everything about Takomo as a brand seems like it could one day become part of that leading pack.

However right now, I personally wouldn’t be 100% confident in recommending this driver… yet. Obviously this is the brand’s first attempt, and it does need to go out to the public and be tested by everyone before it can be improved.

But not having that option to be custom fitted for this driver makes it a very hard sell for the price, £299 is still a lot of money for many golfers. I feel if someone was to invest and not get custom fitted then it could be more worthwhile looking at the second hand market.

At the end of the day, the driver isn’t bad, but it needs to bridge a clear gap to match leading brands. If you decide to buy one, you’ll be surprised by its performance and help support an upcoming brand.

Would I Use It?

Unfortunately not, however if they offered a low spin option in a few years I might be tempted!