Lawn mowers aren’t made to go terribly fast. They
move slowly, trimming the grass with precision. But Honda’s been on a campaign
to change that. The Japanese manufacturer set a new record for lawn mowers when it
pushed its first Mean Mower to 116.57 miles per hour. But that record has since
been beaten, so now it’s back with the second version that aims to go even
faster.
The result of a collaboration with its BTCC racing
partner Team Dynamics, the Mean Mower V2 packs the 1.0-liter engine from a
Honda CBR1000RR Fireblade SP motorcycle, kicking out 190 horsepower at a
screaming 13,000 rpm (but just 86 lb-ft/116 Nm of torque at 11,000 rpm). That’d be plenty for some cars,
but the ride-on mower weighs just 69.1 kilograms to give it the
same 1,000-hp/tonne power-to-weight ratio as some hypercars.
It also packs the six-speed transmission, clutch,
ECU, and LCD screen from the Fireblade, a programmable shift system with carbon
paddles, Sparco steering wheel, a 3D-printed airbox, the ten-inch wheels from a
Goldspeed ATV, Hoosier slicks, and one heck of a braking system: four-pot
calipers up front, six-pot at the back, gripped vented discs. All this mounted
to a custom T45 steel chassis.
With all those upgrades, Honda figures its new Mean
Mower will top 150 mph. All the while it still has to (technically) be able to
cut grass, so it’s fitted with carbon-fiber blades, electric motors, and two
batteries in a cutter deck modified to accommodate the chain drive to the rear
wheels.
