What Is Mugen Motorsports And How Is It Related To Honda?

Honda is a brand that's known for reliability, but it has another side: race-winning performance, and the performance side of Honda birthed a very special child named Mugen. Mugen uses Honda automobiles as their build platforms, creating high-performance versions of so many iconic cars, but it's much more than just a few mods. Mugen was founded by Hirotoshi Honda, the son of Soichiro Honda – the man who founded the worldwide automaker. Hirotoshi is a major shareholder in Honda, but he's never worked directly for the company. He's turned down attempts to fold him into Honda life. Instead of working for his father's company, Hirotoshi traveled the world when he was young, gaining experience and enriching his love of cars and motorcycles. Then, in 1973, Hirotoshi founded a company that has made its own indelible mark on the automotive industry.

Mugen, which translates to "without limit" tunes engines and produces aftermarket parts for Honda automobiles and motorcycles. They also participate in motorsports, racking up over 50 motorsport titles since the company's founding. Mugen's race success and their aftermarket parts business is directly tied to the success of Honda's automobiles, but they're technically two different companies. Since the early days of Honda automobiles, Mugen has been extracting all sorts of additional power from Honda engines, creating aftermarket parts that get inspiration from the racetrack, but they've also come up with a few vehicles and products of their own along the way.

Since its founding, Mugen has been developing engines and vehicles for all sorts of different classes of racing. From the Super GT Championship to Formula 1, they've put their touch on a variety of different powerplants – they've even developed all-electric motorcycles for competition on the Isle of Man TT. Even in the early years, before establishing Mugen, Hirotoshi helped his father work on an S800 race car. Then, once Mugen had been founded, they developed a pumped-up version of Honda's 1169-cc, four-cylinder engine, increasing output from 68 horsepower all the way up to 133 hp. Not long after that, Mugen got their first race win with their MF318 engine under the hood of a Formula FJ1300 race car.

They did quite a bit of work on motorcycles too –- specifically dirt bikes. In 1976, Mugen created two custom dirt bikes and went racing. They won a national title in their first racing season which would help set them up with a proper motocross team of their own in the 1980s. Success in various race series helped cement Mugen's early popularity, including their wins with the Honda CR-X in SCCA GT-4 series and the Civic in the Japanese Touring Car Championship (JTC3 Class). And all those wins meant that there was a big desire to buy Mugen parts amongst Honda enthusiasts.

Mugen parts have been and are well respected throughout the Honda community. They're highly sought after with a sense of authenticity behind the racing brand's products. Cars like Evasive Motorsports' S2000R restomod use modern Mugen parts, while many OEM Honda and Acura products throughout the years have used the brand's cache to attract buyers as well. In the early years, Mugen sold parts like body kits that replicated the look of their race cars. More recently, they've developed wild concept cars and many SEMA show builds that caught our attention. Today, they continue to offer a number of performance modifications and race-inspired accessories to upgrade your Honda.

Currently, Mugen offers items like bucket seats, race harnesses, forged wheels, suspension components, and exhaust systems — all for Hondas (and Acuras). More than just piecemeal parts, many of the parts they offer are part of a larger package, like the Civic Type R Mugen Group A. With the current Honda Civic Type R, Mugen claims their aerodynamic improvements offered in the Group A lineup increase downforce by 25 percent, and with wind-tunnel testing as a part of their development processes, we tend to believe the claim. Mugen may not be a part of the Honda corporation, but the success and reputation of both brands is uniquely intertwined.