World record attempts in motorsport aren’t anything new, the records are so unbelievably high now though, people are looking at other areas to go down in the history books. Top Gear Magazine opted for a niche market when they took a lawn mower to 130mph. Since then, they’ve been beaten, they’ve decided they want the title back!
We’ll admit that a lawn mower wouldn’t usually pass as being better than used cars but somehow, this one is expected to be much better than a brand-new car at least. However, records are set to be broken after all, aren’t they? Right they are and when Top Gear least expected it, some guys from a Norwegian tuning firm smashed their first record out of the ordinary after using a V8 out of a Corvette to reach 134mph – little did they know that Top Gear dare to challenge them and may soon manage to get their place back in the Guinness Book of Records – and it’s about time they did, too!
Top Gear found themselves back at Team Dynamics looking at what seemed to be an incredibly powerful motorbike engine, just with various bits of metal and plastic arranged around it. Lo and behold, the beast will soon be fit for the challenge, just not by the Top Gear guys – of course, there will be somebody much more experienced to do the final test – instead, they’ll have stunt driver Jess Hawkins take over the final event.
Honda is determined to get its revenge and Top Gear has kindly volunteered to help the manufacturer reach its final outcome. This little mower is special however, despite featuring bespoke parts and Fireblade engine, the mower still features most of its standard bodywork and even the grass box!
The steering wheel is yet another bespoke feature of Honda’s new competition mower. With a more obvious heft and solidity to it, the paddles click with the same satisfaction of an actual racing shift, thus there’s no slack. And, although the chassis might seem like it’s just made of ordinary steel – at least to the uneducated half of us, anyway – it’s actually T45. This is the same stuff they made the Spitfire chassis out of and the reason Team Dynamics has chosen this rather than chromoly is simply because it flexes more. However, arguably more important than the chassis is of course, the brakes. As an upgrade from the set of brakes the last mower had, there will be four-pot disks at the front and six-pot at the rear of the mower and this time round, there’ll even be an inboard pedal box too!