It should never be forgotten that Honda does much more than make cars. As one of Japan’s largest multinational conglomerates, plenty more besides the latest Civic Type R and the new CR-V wear the company’s badge.
It’s one of, if not the largest manufacturer of motorcycles in the world, while the firm is also a big player in the power equipment industry, producing generators, snow blowers, leaf blowers, drills, garden tools and of course, mowers.
• Bikes, mowers and robots: hands on with Honda's non-car products
When those two arms of the business collide, the end result is well worth a look at. Back in 2013 Honda came up with the Mean Mower – a humdrum HF2620 lawn mower powered by a 1,000cc, 109bhp V-Twin engine plucked from a Honda Firestorm motorbike. We managed to get our hands on it, pitting it up against Honda’s then British Touring Car Championship entry at Rockingham.
Now though, a new Mk2 Mean Mower is on the horizon. Honda has teased its new creation online, and while the cat isn’t completely out of the bag, some of the early specs underpinning it make for interesting reading.
The Mean Mower Mk2 uses another 1,000cc motorbike engine, but sourced from the latest CBR1000RR Fireblade. That should mean a significant jump in power, up to 189bhp.
Honda claims that it’ll be capable of a top speed in excess of 134mph. That means that while the Mean Mower Mk2 should be capable of doing a fine job of your lawn, it will also outpace a Volkswagen up! GTI. It will also be much quicker than the original Mean Mower, which achieved 116.57mph on a top speed run back in 2014.
Being built once again by Honda’s BTCC partner Team Dynamics, racing driver Jessica Hawkins – one of the Fast and Furious Live stunt drivers – will be behind the wheel of the Mean Mower Mk2 when it hits the track. Watch this space.
Read more about Honda's wide world of everything mechanical here.
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