It is powered by the CBR Fireblade’s 999cc engine.
Honda wants to remind the world it doesn’t just make cars. It doesn’t just make lawn mowers. Although you can’t buy one at your local hardware shop, it makes fast mowers. Honda once held the Guinness World Record fastest lawnmower. The manufacturer now wants the title back. . . And then some.
The original Honda record-breaking machine was the Mean Mower. It achieved an average speed at 116.57 mph (186.6 km/h), and a maximum speed of 130 mph (209km/h) when the throttle lever was open wide. The record was easily achieved by using a 1,000cc engine taken from a Honda superbike.
A few years later, a Norwegian crew outperformed the Honda team by LS-swapping (yes! LS-swapping!) a Viking/STIHL mower. The mower smashed Honda’s record with a powerful American V8 at the front. It managed an astonishing 134 mph (215.9 km/h).
You might be wondering if lawn mowers capable of going three-digit speeds are a thing. But that’s not the point. What matters is Honda’s three-years-in-the-making response, and the plan involves another motorcycle engine – this time a 999cc mill sourced from a Fireblade SP superbike. Although it’s not a Corvette motor, the 190-horsepower and high-revving engine should be sufficient to propel this second Mean Machine mower to an impressive 150 mph (241 km/h), which is the target speed for this crazy creation.
This isn’t enough to make you crazy, but there’s more. The mower must still function as a lawnmower. This contraption will go at high speeds enough to allow airliners to take off but a set carbon fiber blades underneath it will spin. This is not at all frightening.
Do you think you could get on this crazy mower to make a quick buck fifty and have sharp blades turning beneath you? We want to hear your worst and best case scenarios.