Honda has created a mutant offspring of motorcycle and street legal Formula One car from the 1960s. The Honda Project 2&4 has been revealed at the Frankfurt Motor Show.
In Japan, motorcycles and cars are often referred to as simply “2-wheelers” or “4-wheelers”. Honda is one of the few manufacturers that not only builds both, bus has dominated the highest echelons of motorsport with both forms. Recently, in an effort to get its two divisions to collaborate more, Honda held an internal design competition across its global studios. The winning design came from a joint effort between its Asaka motorcycle studio and the automobile studio in Wako.
The result was the Project 2&4, a 14,000 rpm railgun bullet with a steering wheel. Powered by a one-liter V4 from a Honda RC213V MotoGP race bike, it spits out 212 horsepower and 87 foot-pounds of torque, all in a package that, at 893 pounds, weighs less than a Subaru 360. Oh yeah, and you control everything from a cantilevered racing seat floating inches above the blurring pavement.
Design inspiration was taken from the 1965 Honda RA272 Formula One car. Honda wanted the core frame and suspension to be exposed, just like its original Grand Prix winner. Like the Project 2&4, it was little more than a chair, fuselage, and massive motor.
In recent years, many enthusiasts have become jaded towards Honda, thanks to a lineup of cars that seems insufferably distant from its performance glory days. Then they come out with something like this and we come running back into their arms. Does the insane 2&4 point to a glimmer of hope that Honda is still interested in stirring enthusiasts’ souls? We can only hope.
why not a 2 seat car?
Complete road legal, worldwide sale, service and spare parts in your network, can be a huge success.
Or simply as a kit car…can be fun no?
Track only cars don’t need passengers, adds weight
Yeahh but consider like a bike with 4 wheels=everyday conmute car.
Make the seat and the cover remove.
Piaggio is investing in four wheels development. So why not make this car? They don’t have a 1000cc engine. Except they use some mv agusta or something like that.
It’s not the best conceived concept, but it is apparently capable of seating two people.
The feature video seems to depict the capability to utilize a second seat.
http://www.autoblog.com/2015/09/16/honda-project-2and4-frankfurt-2015/
Would be cool to see a it sold to the general public but I think cost of production would just be too expensive, similar to what happened with the datsun idx. The juice just wouldn’t be worth the squeeze unfortunately.
The IDX would’ve been doable (from a production standpoint)…it just would’ve been very diluted for production. Fiscal justification proved to be its kiss of death.
Without side impact protection (amongst numerous other issues), Honda as a corporate brand wouldn’t allow this hit public roads.
America is faaar too litigious to sell a vehicle like this. People would line up to buy this thing JUST so they could sue. It’s been ingrained in the culture, sorry.
Honda usually doesn’t promote “pie-in-the-sky” concepts…so, this is a little bewildering.
That would be a great car to race the PPIHC.
Very cool.
Considering that the Formula 1000 is probably the most accessible open wheel track category these days Honda wouldn’t be doing themselves any favours by producing this – it looks very much like it’s designed to up-sell people to the NSX using the racing lineage card.
What’s the red coupe in the background?
The new NSX
Ahhh – thanks. Actually forgot about it… Might have something to do with the price. 🙂
Frankly, looks unbalanced and inelegant to me. & I don’t think calling a 1-liter engine “massive” is justified – – even in motorcycles that just middlin’ sized these days.