Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/1142434
HONDA MEAN MOWER P100 Feature "Everything's bespoke," James says. "It's a little bit different with a car because with a car you've got CAD, CFD, wind tunnel testing, prototyping. Then you go to production. That mower is all in one, so it's a prototype vehicle. We experience failures with her. Genuinely success is 99 percent failure with us." Among the many, many one-off parts with the Mean Mower is the 3D-printed airbox, one that's gone through approximately 13 different versions by the time we went for our little joy ride at Honda's Proving Grounds near California City. "We never stop playing, never stop tinkering," James says. "The airbox has gone through so many iterations because it started to waste away with the injectors firing fuel straight into the trumpet." The bespoke chassis is constructed using TiG welded T45 steel—the same stuff they made the Spitfires out of in WWII— chosen as the chassis runs no suspension and the T45 flexes and contorts to the undulations in the road, thus providing some form of suspension. And this 190 horsepower lawn mowing show runs on 10-inch wheels wrapped with Hoosier slick tires, the kind normally found on a junior Formula open wheel car. Going For A Joy Ride With The Honda Mean Mower I love doing stupid stuff, and this job has afforded me more opportu- nities than most in indulging in this pastime. But a 190-horsepower lawn mower firmly ranks alongside the maddest thing I have ever con- trolled, save for a 350 horsepower turbo Hayabusa back in 2008. The Mean Mower is part mower, part bike, and part open-wheel rac- ing car. Much of its development, speed testing, and, ultimately the world-record run was done by a certain Miss Jessica Hawkins—cur- rent W-Series driver and Develop- ment Driver for Heritage F1 (she does the rad burnouts in F1 cars for the fans at shows around the world—not a bad gig). So, that being the case, it's no wonder I can't fit my wide ass into the ultra- snug racing bucket seat as I climb aboard for run number one. After squeezing, pushing, folding and contorting myself as best I can into the seat, I am faced with the small steering wheel and paddle shifter for gearshifts (ala F1 style, baby). The clutch is a foot-operated unit, and it's very on/off, meaning Honda UK claims about 190 horsepower for the Mean Mower. That's probably about enough.