Model Behaviour
June 26, 2008
Meet the Honda Racer, the retro-styled masterpiece that makes the world a better place. There's just one problem...
'It's an old-school-F1-car-meets-Top-Fuel-dragster masterpiece'
I am going to stick my neck out and declare the car you see before you the Official Coolest
Thing Ever. Cooler than James Hunt. Cooler than Steve McQueen thrashing a Mustang. Across the Antarctic. Even cooler than the Gulf Aston.This is the Honda Racer, an 'old school F1 car meets Top Fuel dragster' masterpiece that's set to launch next month to the joy of everyone's inner six-year old. It's powered by a rear-mounted V10 VTEC engine displacing - ready for this? - 20 litres. Yes, two litres per cylinder.
OK, it's a toy. We admit it. But what a toy. The Honda Racer is one of six concepts - a list including that awesome orange-hued Lotus - drawn up by the world's top automotive designers to celebrate 40 years of Hot Wheels, the die-cast toy brand.
The 1/64 version of the car will go on sale next month, but Hot Wheels has built a 1/5 scale model that is set to tour the US later this year. It's almost worth booking the flight to see it.
The Honda Racer was created by Guillermo Gonzalez, Honda's senior designer in the US. "Designing a Hot Wheels car is very different and in some ways more liberating than designing a production car," he says. "The possibilities are without limit."
'The racer is powered by a rear-mounted V10 VTEC engine displacing - ready for this? - 20 litres'
Limitless maybe, but the Racer is more than a mere schoolboy fantasy. The overall shape and styling hark back to the Honda F1 cars of the late 60s - particularly John Surtees' 1967 RA 273, which won the Italian Grand Prix on its first outing - while the paintjob is classic Honda. Give it a shot on your F1 cars, Mr Brawn. It couldn't hurt.
Gonzalez says that the design of the Racer is based on around Honda's 'H' emblem, which makes sense when you view it top-down. The attention to detail is stunning, from the Honda-red valve covers (for the 40 valves, no less) to that tangle of uncovered exhaust pipes out the back, it all make us inordinately happy.
Which is why the campaign to build the Honda Racer at full scale - 20-litre engine and all - starts right here, right now. We know what they'll say - too expensive, too fictional - so we'll compromise: how about a half-sized version (a mere 10-litre engine can't be too much hassle, surely) and we'll supply the tiny driver?
Yes, we realise that the massive engine wedged between the driver and passenger could make things a bit warm. The sheer coolness of the Honda Racer should balance that out, though.
Gonzalez says that the design of the Racer is based on around Honda's 'H' emblem, which makes sense when you view it top-down. The attention to detail is stunning, from the Honda-red valve covers (for the 40 valves, no less) to that tangle of uncovered exhaust pipes out the back, it all make us inordinately happy.
Which is why the campaign to build the Honda Racer at full scale - 20-litre engine and all - starts right here, right now. We know what they'll say - too expensive, too fictional - so we'll compromise: how about a half-sized version (a mere 10-litre engine can't be too much hassle, surely) and we'll supply the tiny driver?
Yes, we realise that the massive engine wedged between the driver and passenger could make things a bit warm. The sheer coolness of the Honda Racer should balance that out, though.
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