M-TEC Company, Ltd., doing business as Mugen Motorsports (無限), is a Japanese company formed in 1973 by Hirotoshi Honda, the son of Honda Motor Company founder Soichiro Honda, and Masao Kimura.[1] Mugen, meaning "without limit", "unlimited" or "vast",[2] (hence the commonly placed word "power" after, denoting "unlimited power") is an engine tuner and parts manufacturer that manufactures OEM parts such as body kits and sports exhausts for Honda. Despite the family relationship, Mugen is not and has never been owned by Honda Motor Company; however, Mugen owner Hirotoshi Honda has been the biggest shareholder in Honda since his father's death in 1991.[3]
The company tunes and races Honda vehicles in the Super GT championship, and, additionally, sells aftermarket parts to amateur enthusiasts. It was part of partnerships that won the Formula 3000 championship in 1990 and 1991, and that eventually led to Mugen's involvement in Formula One, from 1992 to 2000, and up to 2005 was the exclusive supplier of Formula Nippon engines.
Corporate history
The company has a strong racing heritage, as Hirotoshi Honda began building his own racing car in a workshop at his father's house, shortly before he graduated from Nihon University in 1965. Masao Kimura is a veteran racer with more than 50 victories in Honda sports cars and single-seaters and worked for Honda R&D and then Honda Racing Service before helping Hirotoshi Honda establish Mugen.
In 1973, Mugen started its operations and initially offered special parts of motocross bikes.[3] As Honda expanded its vehicle lineup, Mugen's product range also expanded. The company started specializing in tuning Honda engines. Beginning with the 1200cc Honda Civic engine, it went on to develop, and now designs and builds, both two-stroke and four-stroke engines, manufacturing many of the major components itself.
Mugen ultimately intends to build its own road cars and the first step towards this was the creation of bodykits for the Honda Ballade CR-X in 1984. Since then, the company has produced a number of body kits for Honda machinery, culminating with the Mugen NSX prototype in 1992.[4]
Following Hirotoshi Honda's tax evasion allegation in late 2003, Mugen was restructured in early 2004 with the establishment of M-TEC. The new company retained the right to use the Mugen trademark and its headquarters in Asaka, Saitama, in the northern suburbs of Tokyo close to the Honda R&D facility at Wako. Although it is a legally separate entity, M-TEC kept Mugen's existing staff and is headed by former Mugen board member Shin Nagaosa, who was the engineering division manager at Mugen and been involved with running Mugen's NSX racing program.
Mugen Racing
Single-seaters
Working with Honda, Mugen has gradually expanded its sporting involvement to all levels of the sport. In 1986, Formula 3000 was introduced into Japan and Mugen joined forces with Honda to build an F3000 engine. It was introduced in the 1987 season and leased to 14 teams. The following year, Mugen won four of the top five places in the Japanese F3000 championship. In 1989, Mugen entered European F3000 with the MF308 engine and won the championship with Jean Alesi, driving an Eddie Jordan Racing Reynard. The same year the company produced its own prototype 3.5L V8 Formula One engine, codenamed MF350.
In 1988, Mugen started tuning Honda engines for use in Formula Three, winning the Japanese series with Akihiko Nakaya, and in 1990 expanded their business to Europe. The same year, Mugen won its first Formula Three championships in Europe, taking the French title with Éric Hélary, and the British crown with Mika Häkkinen at the wheel of a West Surrey Racing Ralt, which repeated the title in 1991 with Rubens Barrichello.
As F3000 became a spec-series in Europe starting in 1996 with the Lola-Judd combo, the Japanese series responded by making Mugen the sole supplier to the Japanese championship, now redubbed Formula Nippon. M-TEC lost the supply contract for the 2006 season, with the rules changing to allow
Vehicles
M-Tec has also built concept Honda vehicles, using the company's own performance parts. Some models (e.g.: Mugen Civic RR) are also sold in Japanese domestic market. Mugen also sells individual parts for newer vehicles that includes the 2017-2021 Civic Type-R (FK8), as well as 2016-2021 Civic Hatchback (FK7). These parts include aerodynamic body parts such as front lips, rear diffusers, and wings. This also goes for earlier gen vehicles, and is typically well known to be sought as an OEM aftermarket purchases for countries such as the U.S that do not receive Mugen produced vehicles like in Japan.
List of Mugen vehicles
- Honda Stepwgn
- Honda City Turbo I and II
- 1984 Mugen Honda CR-X
- 1991-1996 Mugen Honda Beat
- 1992-1995 Honda Civic SiR I and II Mugen (hatchback model and sedan model)
- 1996-2001 Honda Integra Type-R Mugen
- 1994-1997 Acura/Honda Integra Mugen (bugeye version)
- 1997 Mugen CRX Del Sol
Formula One statistics
Complete Formula One results
(key) (results in bold indicate pole position)
Formula Nippon/Super Formula results
Complete Japanese Top Formula racing results
Source:[12]
(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)
JGTC/Super GT results
Japanese Grand Touring Championship (JGTC)
(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)[13][14]
Complete Super GT results
(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap) Note: Non-championship (NC1, NC2) races are major races that do not count towards the championship.
See also
- Honda in motorsport
- Red Bull Powertrains, the next time Honda pulled out from F1 its engines were taken over by RBPT instead of Mugen
External links
References
- Nigel Burton. History of Electric Cars Crowood, 2013^
- Honda HRV Mugen debuts - Sport variant of India bound Hyundai Creta rival RushLane, 2019-07-24, retrieved 2019-10-25^
- Steve Cropley. Mugen founder Hirotoshi Honda on why he didn't follow in his father's footsteps www.autocar.co.uk, July 29, 2018, retrieved 2019-10-25