Honda Builds the Street-Going Racer of Your Dreams

This is one hell of a superkart. 

Honda Motor Co. got its start building motors for two-wheelers, before expanding into motorcycles and your mom’s Accord. In a bid to recapture the spirit of the company in its younger days, Honda pitted the company’s various design studios against one another for the honor of exhibition at the Frankfurt Motor Show.

The winning design is this irresistible open-wheel, open-cockpit single-seater for the street, which the company named “Project 2&4.,” a reference to Honda’s history with both two- and four-wheeled vehicles. The 215-horsepower fun machine is propelled by a 999 cc V4 engine lifted directly from Honda’s MotoGP racer. The engine sits in the middle of the car, on the right side, while the driver’s seat is attached with a floating mount on the left side. 

It might not be as fast as Graham Rahal’s Honda-powered IndyCar, but it might be even more fun.

The suspended seat is meant to convey the feeling of riding a motorcycle while piloting the 2&4. The concept vehicle was designed by Honda’s Asaka motorcycle studio, which collaborated with the Wako car studio to produce the final result.

Concepts like the 2&4 convey the kind of enthusiasm that pushed Honda from a small Japanese motorcycle company to a global leader in the auto industry, so hopefully we will see production models that are similarly exciting from the company. There is a better chance we will be able to afford Honda’s ground vehicles than its jet.

Photos by Honda