Honda seeks to reclaim record for world’s fastest lawn mower — seriously
Honda clearly realizes the importance of protecting a hard-earned reputation, especially when it comes to high-speed lawn mowers.
Four years ago, the Japanese motor giant impressed both gearheads and gardeners when it dropped a 109-horsepower Honda VTR motorcycle engine into a lawn mower, strapped Top Gear Magazine writer Piers Ward into the driver’s seat, and sent it hurtling along a racetrack. The Mean Mower, as Honda called it, achieved an average speed of 116.57 mph, which is, like, really fast for a grass trimmer.
The insane effort earned Honda a place in the record books, but some time later a team of Norwegian crackpots snatched the record away from it with an even meaner mowing machine using a V8 out of a Corvette. Placing it in a modified VIKING T5 mower, the team hit an astonishing 133.57 mph.
Honda is having none of it, and is planning to strike back with a mean mower even meaner than its original Mean Mower. How mean is that?
Partnering once again with touring-car partner Team Dynamics, the all-new Mean Mower will be powered by a 1,000-cc, 190-horsepower engine borrowed from Honda’s SP1 Fireblade sports bike.
Behind the wheel for the record attempt — billed by Honda as “coming soon” — will be experienced karting racer Jess Hawkins, who’s aiming to blast past 134 mph to reclaim the record for Honda. In fact, recent modifications could see the machine hit a bonkers 150 mph.
“This time we have moved the game on considerably to build an incredible piece of real engineering, using advanced design and production techniques and calling upon some very clever thinking to bring the performance and power but still retain the look of the production mower,” Dave Hodgetts, managing director of Honda U.K., said recently. “We’re in testing phase now and everything is looking good, with a top speed of more than 150 mph very much in our sights.”
But how does Piers Ward feel about Hawkins going for the record instead of him? “Frankly, I’m delighted she’s on board,” the former record holder wrote in March, adding, “I’ve simply not taken the necessary brave pills to set this particular record.”
According to Ward, Team Dynamics has moved the engine to the front of the mower for better balance and to prevent wheelies, which, although they might look spectacular, would more than likely ruin both the record attempt and the driver in one fell swoop.
And get this — despite the modifications, the original Mean Mower could still operate as a functional lawn mower, trimming grass at up to 15 mph, about twice as fast as a regular mower. But Ward insists that with Mean Mower II, “there’s no reason why you shouldn’t be able to mow the lawn at 100 mph.” Now that’s something we’d also love to see.
In the meantime, here’s wishing Honda, Team Dynamics, and Jess Hawkins a safe ride back into the record books.
Updated on July 9: Added information about new speed target of 150 mph.
Honda aims for 150-plus-mph and the world’s fastest lawnmower record
Honda makes superbikes. Honda also makes lawn mowers. The Mean Mower was thus inevitable. A Hyper-mower if you will, with more than 190 horsepower at the wheel thanks to a screaming Fireblade engine, the Mean Mower V2 has been unveiled with a theoretical top speed over 150 mph (240 km/h).
This monstrous garden care implement was built by Team Dynamics, Honda’s partner in the British Touring Car Championships, and it’s the follow-up to a previous Mean Mower built in conjunction with the Top Gear team back in 2013, which became the world’s fastest mower at 116.575 mph, or 187.6 km/h.
You’d think that kind of record would stand, but Europeans like their lawns mowed at speed, so a Norwegian team went and stuffed a 408-HP LS1 V8 from a Corvette into a VIKING T6, plonked a roll cage on it and blasted down an airstrip at 134 mph (215 km/h).
Britain has always taken its turf seriously, though, so Team Dynamics hit the shed again with the intention of toppling the Scandinavians with something even faster. The heart of Mean Mower V2 is an SP1 Fireblade engine. It’s a 1,000cc, inline 4, producing a little over 190 HP at 13,000 rpm. That’s a far cry from the gigantic VIKING V8, but it’s also much, much lighter and more compact.
The team has also kept a bunch of the Fireblade’s electronics, including the quickshifter, the dash, and the traction control and wheelie control elements. Power is fed to the rear wheels by a long chain reaching back from the front of the vehicle, and the driver gets paddles to shift with on either side of a custom-built race steering wheel.
The chassis is also custom, a tubular trellis job made from T45 steel tube. Not carbon, not chro-moly, as they needed this thing to flex a bit since the mower has no suspension to help keep its wheels planted. The bodywork is standard, believe it or not – the team felt that keeping the mower’s looks was so important that it went and designed and 3D-printed a custom airbox that’d squeeze in under the front cowl.
Does it cut grass? Hell yes it does. The team has had to modify the cutter deck slightly to accommodate the chain drive, but the electric cutter should work just fine. They’re even thinking of fitting it with carbon fiber blades. According to Top Gear, “Last time around, the mower aspect worked, but you couldn’t cut grass at silly speeds. This time, there’s no reason why you shouldn’t be able to mow the lawn at 100 mph. Honda – answering a question no one has asked since 1948.”
Magnificent. The driver this time around will be experienced racer Jess Hawkins, who’s currently working as a stunt driver in the Fast Furious touring show. Godspeed, Hawkins, we’re unreasonably excited by this attempt and hope to see a monolithic speed record set. Why are these guys spending so much time and money on a project so fundamentally silly? If you have to ask, you’ll never understand.
“The original Mean Mower was a great challenge for us and the result was an amazing machine,” says Dave Hodgetts, Managing Director, Honda (UK). “This time we have moved the game on considerably to build an incredible piece of real engineering, using advanced design and production techniques and calling upon some very clever thinking to bring the performance and power but still retain the look of the production mower. We’re in testing phase now and everything is looking good, with a top speed of more than 150 mph very much in our sights.”
Check out the Mean Mower V2 in the video below.
Honda Mean Mower: A 109-HP, 130-mph Lawn Tractor
It’s absolutely terrifying. And we mean that in the best way possible.
You might not be surprised to learn that there is an internationally recognized speed record for a ride-on lawn mower. Our human impulse for speed is such that there’s a record for pretty much anything with an engine.
But you might very well be surprised to learn that the record, which was set earlier this year using this heavily modified Honda mower, now stands at 116 mph. Having recently driven it—or ridden it, or whatever—we’re flabbergasted.
than Meets the Eye—but Not Really
Because this isn’t, as you might expect, a purpose-built record-setting vehicle that’s been made to look like a lawn mower. No, it’s a lawn mower rebuilt to stand some chance of holding together at speed, with the engine from a Honda VTR Super Hawk motorcycle—but it’s still fundamentally a piece of garden machinery. It drives enough like a lawn tractor to make 30 mph feel positively daring and 60 mph outrageously fast. The man who drove it to a speed of nearly two miles per minute, a British journalist named Piers Ward, clearly had either no fear or no imagination. Or more likely, none of either.
The mower was built in the U.K. by the team that runs Honda’s cars in the British Touring Car Championship, Team Dynamics. It’s based on a Honda HF2620 riding mower but has been given a new chassis made from high-strength steel, suspension and wheels from a Honda ATV, and four-wheel braking. The 109-HP, 996-cc V-twin engine was chosen for its combination of power and the ability to fit in the space left by the standard tractor’s 20-HP V-twin. The transmission is a bike-derived six-speed sequential gearbox with electric actuation, and it drives an ATV rear axle via a chain. There’s no reverse gear, but as the mower is said to weigh only 308 pounds without a rider, it doesn’t really need one.
One of the stipulations for the Guinness world record is that the mower still has to be capable of cutting grass. To that end, the Mean Mower has a bolt-on fiberglass cutting deck—it can be separately bolted on or off as required—complete with two electric motors operated from the 12-volt electrical system. (The mower normally runs without the deck.) The company claims the Mean Mower can cut grass at up to 15 mph—twice the top speed of the standard HF2620. The space normally occupied by the clippings bag contains the fuel tank, radiator, and an extra oil cooler.
Simply getting onto it is the first challenge. The standard tractor’s groundskeeper-spec seat was binned in the transformation and a Cobra racing kart seat installed in its place. The idea, of course, is to hold its occupant securely in place, particularly if he or she is a lightweight 14-year-old F1 wannabe. But the squeeze of forcing yourself into the seat (if you’re not a 14-year-old F1 wannabe) is nothing compared with the challenge of getting your feet in proximity to the widely spaced throttle, brake, and clutch pedals—all of which require you to practically bend your legs in half. It’s like trying to find a comfortable driving position in a medieval torture device.
The next worrying thing is the steering. The wheel has been replaced with a suitably zoomy-looking motorsport item, but the rack still has typical lawn-tractor slop in it—you can turn the wheel a good inch in each direction before anything happens. worrying, the column seems to flex as well. It’s only after driving the thing that we discover the standard tractor’s steering rack has been replaced with one from a 1960 Morris Minor. An improvement maybe, but not what we’d call a definitive one.
The engine starts using a standard key and with a deafening chatter. The Scorpion exhaust system has been custom-made for the tractor and is apparently capable of triggering noise meters at pretty much every race circuit in Europe. There are only two instruments: a water-temperature gauge and a tachometer that shows a redline of 9500 rpm. There’s a green light that illuminates when the gearbox is in neutral.
Moving off smoothly takes some practice and, sadly, more than we have time for. Confusingly, the button to change into a higher gear is the one on the left of the steering wheel (opposite from most modern cars’ paddles). With the clutch pedal pressed, first engages with a forceful thunk, but you then discover that the unmodified throttle pedal is almost impossibly sensitive, considering the engine’s lack of flywheel effect. The lightest pressure seems to add at least 5000 rpm. Somehow, we don’t stall.
Despite the steering wheel, the Mean Mower feels far closer to a superbike than a car. This is due in large part to the response and sound of the engine and the improbably massive amount of speed it can deliver in a very short period. But it’s also because you’re sitting directly in the slipstream and feeling the tractor pitch and roll as the g-force acts on it. You’re definitely riding it rather than driving it.
It’s properly, terrifyingly fast. The official estimate of a four-second 0-to-60-mph time feels pessimistic when you open the throttle fully for the first time. Like a bike, you can feel mass shifting backward under acceleration, leading you to instinctively pull yourself forward with the wobbling steering wheel. Fortunately, it doesn’t pull a wheelie, but the first corner—taken at what we presume to be a cautious speed—triggers an odd sensation as the chassis rolls on a pivot dictated by its narrow track. It feels as if it were about to tip over, and as if the center of gravity were as high as your chest.
We’ve been warned that carrying too much speed into a bend will tip the Mean Mower onto two wheels, or even worse. Imagine being known forever as the person who crashed the world’s fastest lawn mower.
Specifications
VEHICLE TYPE: front-engine, rear-wheel-drive, 0-door, 1-passenger lawn tractor
ESTIMATED BASE PRICE:.probably about 100,000 to build one yourself-
ENGINE TYPE: DOHC 8-valve V-twin, aluminum block and heads, 2×1-bbl carburetors
Displacement: 61 cu in, 996 ccPower: 109 HP @ 9000 rpmTorque: 71 lb-ft @ 7000 rpm
TRANSMISSION: 6-speed sequential manual
DIMENSIONS:Length: 97.6 inWidth: 48.0 inCurb weight (mfr-s est): 308 lb
PERFORMANCE (MFR-S EST): Zero to 60 mph: 4.0 sec Top speed: 130 mph (15 mph while cutting)
Mike Duff has been writing about the auto industry for two decades and calls the UK home, although he normally lives life on the road. He loves old cars and adventure in unlikely places, with career highlights including driving to Chernobyl in a Lada.
Honda’s Fastest Lawnmower In The World Reaches 100MPH In 6.285 Seconds And Is Beyond Insane
It’s Lawn Moving SZN here in the USA. I’m down in Florida where the temperature gauge in my car said it was 99 degrees yesterday and we got 4-inches of rain over the weekend. The grass is growing, my dudes.
Honda understands the importance of Lawn Moving SZN here in ‘merica. Dads all across the United States take immense pride in the upkeep of their lawn. Honda wants to be the biggest and the best in the lawnmower game and they’ve taken one giant step forward by releasing the world’s fastest lawnmower, the Honda Mean Mower.
The Honda Mean Mower just broke the Guinness World Record for the world’s fastest lawnmower and it’s honestly comically fast. There’s NO REASON WHATSOEVER that a lawnmower should ever be this fast but here we are.
In order to set the Guinness World Record as the world’s fastest lawnmower, the Mean Mower needed to look like a true lawnmower and it needed to function as one. The Mean Mower goes 0-to-100 MPH in only 6.285 seconds. That’s probably faster than most cars I’ve driven.
The Mean Mower V2 also reaches a back-breaking top speed of 150.99mph which is COMPLETELY INSANITY for a lawnmower. The Mean Mower V2 is powered by a 999cc four-cylinder engine which can also be found in Honda’s CBR1000RR Fireblade SP motorcycle. It pumps out 200bhp at 13,000rpm and has no business being in a badass lawnmower but I’m glad it is.
The 0-to-60mph speed is 3.14-seconds. Blink and you might miss it:
It wasn’t all that long ago that Honda announced their plans for the Mean Mower lawnmower and ambitions to set a world record for the fastest lawnmower. They actually began this crusade back in 2014 when they launched the Mean Mower V1 which had a top speed of 116.57MPH.
This new engine has taken things to the next level. They’ve added around 35MPH to their top speed and the Mean Mower is going 0-to-100 in under 7 seconds which blows my mind…It also cuts grass. Have I even mentioned that yet, that the Mean Mower V2 is designed to cut grass? Because it is.
Cass Anderson is the Editor-in-Chief of BroBible. He covers an array of topics including NFL, Pop Culture, Fishing News, and the Outdoors.
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This Honda lawn mower will go 150 mph
What did Honda’s super-fast Mean Mower need? power, of course.
The Japanese manufacturer, also known for its cars, jets, motorcycles and marine engines, wants to reclaim its title for making the fastest lawn mower in the world. The original Mean Mower could hit 130 mph and set a Guinness Book record at 116.575 mph in 2014. The current record-holder, a modified VIKING mower made by a Norwegian group, hit a top speed of 134 mph a year later.
Honda’s U.K. division and Team Dynamics are working on Mean Mower V2 and targeting a top speed of 150 mph. The new riding mower, a modified Honda HF 2622 lawn tractor, will have almost double the power of the original Mean Mower, using a 999cc four-cylinder motorcycle engine that generates more than 190 horsepower at 13,000 rpm.
And yes, the Mean Mower will still cut grass. The previous model was able to mow the lawn at speeds up to about 15 mph. Mean Mower V2 will sport carbon-fiber blades powered by electric motors.
Watch Honda‘s Mean Mower V2 hit 100mph in 6.29 seconds!
Honda UK have set a new Guinness World Record by accelerating from 0-100mph in 6.29 seconds with their Mean Mower V2.
The world’s fastest lawn mower set the time at the Dekra Lausitzring, near Dresden, Germany, on May 6, 2019 driven by experienced stunt driver, kart and car racer, Jess Hawkins.
On a longer run, the mower managed to hit an astonishing top speed of 150.99mph, much faster than the 116.87mph managed by the first version.
The mower is powered by the 999cc, 190bhp engine from the CBR1000RR Fireblade SP, revving to 13,000rpm, and has a custom made T45 steel frame and a power-to-weight-ratio of 1000bhp per tonne. We’re promised 90mph in first gear.
It also uses several other parts from the Fireblade, including clutch, ECU, six-speed transmission and LCD display. A quickshift gearchange is operated via carbon paddles on the steering wheel.
Four-piston calipers at the front are supplemented by six-pots at the rear, with the entire braking set-up supplied by Kelgate. The quadbike wheels come from Goldspeed, are 10 inches in diameter and anodised gold, and wrapped in special-order Hoosier racing rubber.
Dave Hodgetts, Managing Director, Honda (UK), Комментарии и мнения владельцев: “ The original Mean Mower was an incredible machine; but this time we’ve taken it to a whole new level with version two.
“After taking the top speed record in 2014, we wanted to do something a little different by setting an all-new record for acceleration, and the result is fantastic. Team Dynamics have gone above and beyond in developing and building this real feat of engineering, and hats off to Jess for being brave enough to get behind the wheel! “
The original Mean Mower, which used the 996cc V-twin engine from a Honda VTR1000, made a claimed 97bhp as standard and managed 116mph in 2014, before being beaten.
In order to qualify for the record, the machine had to prove that it was still able to do what it was designed for – cut grass. To achieve this, two electric motors drive special carbon fibre blades on the Mean Mower, so you could technically use it to cut your lawn.