Honda will show off its Project 2&4 car this year at Frankfurt and 14,000 is the number that stands out the most. That’s the redline for its V-4 engine, which is borrowed from the RC213V. Other impressive numbers: The car is roughly 10 feet long, 6 feet wide and 3 1/2 feet tall, and weighs only 405 kilograms (892 pounds).
The mid-mounted engine, which is borrowed from a racing motorcycle, produces 211 horsepower at 13,000 rpm, but only just 87 pounds-feet of torque at 10,500 rpm. A six-speed DCT transmission handles power to the wheels.
If you ask me (you didn’t) Honda should make this immediately because the world needs more track-day cars — we have enough crossovers already. But that’s just me and I’m wrong a lot.
According to Honda, the car was inspired by the 1965 RA272, which Dario Franchitti once called a “flying gas tank.” Here it is in action.
Honda didn’t say whether the Project 2&4 would ever see production, only that the company will show it off in Frankfurt. Stand B11, Hall 9.0 if you’re there.
Yeah, they often make things like this and take big risks. :)
We’d see a gen1 CR-X put back into production, a new supercharged Element, and a Ridgeline with a V8 before this thing.
I’d buy a 2nd Gen CRX if they put it back into production, especially if it had a modern Honda power plant. Heck put THIS power plant into it! The TQ numbers aren’t far off the original CRX.
One would not have thought the Accord hatch known as Crosstour was a big risk.
Nah. Most racing motorcycles don’t weigh 892 pounds, so that weak torque is ok there.
Not here, though.
Appears to be an exercise in placing the Honda logo on an engineering plaything that will never be produced. Some folks at Honda were trying to out KTM the X-bow. AH, but Honda used a Honda motorcycle engine in their car. I’m sure chuckles were had because KTM chose to use an Audi engine.
So this is what Honda was working on for two years instead of a decent Formula One engine.
You can tell how serious Honda is about selling this by the complete lack of any roll protection.
It looks like an Indy racer from the middle of the last century.
NTTAWWT
Sad thing is they could make something 90% close to this for like $10K. Grab the engine out of the Fireblade, stamp all the structural stuff out of steel… it would be heavier but it would be a fckign riot.
This kind of thing pisses me off a little bit.
They haven’t released anything in the US since the S2000 that has a chance of appreciating. Honda has locked down their reputation as a “safe choice”, but no one will care about what they’re making right now in 20 years, unlike their products of 20 years ago.
We all know that Honda can build extraordinary things, but they’re not willing to spend and probably lose the money to offer anything provocative that might inspire some excitement for the brand in people who want something like this now, but will need an Accord or CR-V long before they can afford it. Instead we get cynical BS like the Crosstour and utter misunderstandings like the CR-Z, cars few want even when they’re new.
This concept is a fantasy that I wish they had kept to themselves. If it had been shown with some semblance of realistic safety equipment, cool, maybe could convince me they want to put something interesting on the road or racetrack. As-is, it’s as relevant as what I drew when I was 9.
Honda, busy torturing car guys the world around!
Honda has to make up for its blemished track record in this season’s Formula One. McLaren is reportedly not amused because of the poor quality of its Honda racing engines. Eddie Jordan even went so far as to say that Honda hasn’t been itself for a long time, as far as pride, reputation, engineering skills.