The ‘Project 2&4’ concept brings Honda’s car and motorcycle expertise together in one high-powered, cabin-less sports vehicle. Matthew Stock reports.
What happens when you mix a car with a motorcycle? Honda’s new concept design might be the answer.
Project 2&4, so named after Honda’s two-wheel and four-wheel racing roots, made its public debut at the Frankfurt Motor Show.
Designer Martin Petersson says it combines the freedom of a motorcycle with the maneuverability and stability of a car.
A ‘floating seat’ design amps up the thrill factor, putting the driver as close to the action as possible.
“We focused much more on where we put the driver to give you that motorcycle experience of being exposed. In a car you’re always inside a box somehow, but on a bike you’re really outside and you’re open to all the elements and all the sounds, the smells, the vibrations, heat, rain; whatever you can imagine, right. And that’s the part of the motorcycle side that we wanted to get into this vehicle,” Martin Petersson Motorcycle Designer at Honda said.
The open cockpit features a transparent heads-up display in front of the driver that doubles as a wind deflector.
Its high-power comes from the same engine developed for Honda’s MotoGP racing bikes, namely a V-4 four-stroke engine with a peak power of 212 horsepower at 13,000 rpm.
The body design shows off the core frame and functional parts of the vehicle, much as would be normal for a bike.
“This is very much designed with a motorcycle philosophy. So I’m a motorcycle designer normally, and for us it’s completely normal for us to work with frame components, technical components, mechanical components; and we want to show them because we think they’re sexy pieces,” Martin Petersson added.
Project 2&4 was designed to showcase Honda’s initiative to inspire creativity, with no immediate plans to put it into production.
But Petersson said if there was enough buzz around this concept a similar design could see the light of day.
