Yahoo Autos This Is Honda’s New 150-MPH, 190-HP Lawn Mower
In 2014, Honda’s British Touring Car Championship partner modified a HF 2620 lawn tractor, called it the Mean Mower, and set the land speed record for mowers at 116 mph. (We also drove the Mean Mower; it was terrifying.) But only a year later, a Norwegian named Per-Kristian Lundefaret took his modified Viking T6 all the way up to 133.57 mph. Honda couldn’t let this stand forever.
And so the touring-car aces at Team Dynamics went back to the drawing board, fitting an HF 2622 mower with a pile of custom parts created using CAD design and 3D printing. They also added a lot of power by installing a 999-cc four-cylinder from a Honda CBR1000RR Fireblade SP motorcycle, which means Mean Mower V2, as it’s known, makes 190 horsepower-60 hp more than before. With that much muscle, it’s almost at the vaunted 1-hp to 1-kg power-to-weight ratio, which is Koenigsegg One:1 territory. No wonder it’s a firecracker:
While the team expects to break the 150-mph barrier, the prototype retains a stockish look thanks to its front cowl, grass box, and body panels. Perhaps most impressive is that this mower can still cut grass, with revisions to the cutter deck being made to house the chain running to the rear tires, and two batteries powering electric motors that spin carbon-fiber blades. That’s right, it has carbon-fiber blades.
The Fireblade motorcycle also donates its clutch, six-speed gearbox, and full-color LCD display. Shifts are controlled through carbon-fiber paddles on the steering wheel, with the team estimating that the mower reaches 90 mph in first gear.
The mower’s chassis was made from T45 steel rather than chrome-moly for durability and flexibility, given its complete lack of a suspension. The airbox is a custom 3D-printed piece as well, leaving space for the injectors, while the brakes are vented discs with four-piston Kelgate calipers at the front and six-piston units at the rear. Hoosier custom drag tires are mounted on 10-inch Goldspeed ATV wheels, the latter anodized in gold.
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And the guy wearing the helmet for the record attempt? Twenty-three-year-old karting daredevil Jess Hawkins, who works as a stunt driver for the touring Fast and Furious live show. Sounds like somebody who’s cut out for the job.
A version of this story originally appeared on Road & Track.
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