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| Mugen Motorsports | |
| Company type | Private |
| Industry | Automotive |
| Genre | Car tuning |
| Founded | 1973 |
| Founders |
|
| Headquarters | Asaka,Saitama, Japan |
| Website | www |
M-TEC Company, Ltd., doing business asMugen Motorsports (無限), is a Japanese company formed in 1973 byHirotoshi Honda, the son ofHonda Motor Company founderSoichiro 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 theSuper GT championship, and, additionally, sells aftermarket parts to amateur enthusiasts. It was part of partnerships that won theFormula 3000 championship in 1990 and 1991, and that eventually led to Mugen's involvement inFormula One, from 1992 to 2000, and up to 2005 was the exclusive supplier ofFormula Nippon engines.
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 fromNihon University in 1965. Masao Kimura is a veteran racer with more than 50 victories in Hondasports 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 tuningHonda engines. Beginning with the 1200ccHonda 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 theHonda Ballade CR-X in 1984. Since then, the company has produced a number of body kits for Honda machinery, culminating with the MugenNSX 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 Mugentrademark and its headquarters inAsaka, Saitama, in the northern suburbs ofTokyo close to the Honda R&D facility atWako. Although it is a legally separate entity, M-TEC kept Mugen's existing staff and is headed by former Mugen board memberShin Nagaosa, who was the engineering division manager at Mugen and been involved with running Mugen's NSX racing program.
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 withJean Alesi, driving anEddie Jordan RacingReynard. 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 inFormula Three, winning the Japanese series withAkihiko Nakaya, and in 1990 expanded their business to Europe. The same year, Mugen won its firstFormula Three championships in Europe, taking the French title withÉric Hélary, and the British crown withMika Häkkinen at the wheel of aWest Surrey Racing Ralt, which repeated the title in 1991 withRubens Barrichello.
As F3000 became a spec-series in Europe starting in 1996 with theLola-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 allowToyota associateTOM'S to join Mugen as engine supplier.
Mugen continues to enjoy success in the Formula Three circuit with its tuned 2.0 L Honda engines, having won 9 titles in Asia (8 of which in Japan) since 1988, as well as 19 titles in Europe (15 of them in Britain), and 13 in Latin America.
As of 2017, Mugen Formula engines still enjoy use and success across the various Europeanhillclimb championships, employed in former Formula chassis and dedicated hillclimb prototypes.
| Formula One World Championship career | |
|---|---|
| First entry | 1992 South African Grand Prix |
| Last entry | 2000 Malaysian Grand Prix |
| Races entered | 147 |
| Chassis | Footwork,Lotus,Ligier,Prost,Jordan |
| Constructors' Championships | 0 |
| Drivers' Championships | 0 |
| Race victories | 4 |
| Podiums | 16 |
| Points | 182 |
| Pole positions | 1 |
| Fastest laps | 0 |
In 1991 Mugen prepared HondaV10 engines forTyrrell (based on engines used byMcLaren in1989 and1990), but the following year these engines were renamed Mugen MF351H and were transferred to theFootwork team, with driversAguri Suzuki andMichele Alboreto. Although Honda withdrew from the sport at the end of 1992 season, Mugen remained affiliated with Footwork in 1993 and created a B version of the MF351H, used by Aguri Suzuki andDerek Warwick.
At the end of the year, Mugen switched toTeam Lotus with plans for a newLotus 109. The team—with driversJohnny Herbert andPedro Lamy (later replaced byAlessandro Zanardi)—was underfunded and the 109 chassis was late arriving. The Mugen engine, codenamed MF351HC (also known as ZA5C), was not able to show its full potential and failed to score a single World Championship point during 1994 despite coming close on 3 occasions. This was the only season in which Mugen engines (and Lotus) did not score a World Championship point during their time in Formula One.
After Lotus closed at the end of the year, Mugen switched to theLigier team, which was then being run forFlavio Briatore byTom Walkinshaw, with driversOlivier Panis,Martin Brundle and Aguri Suzuki, although it was initially planned for theMinardi team. The 3.0 L engine, conforming to the new regulations, was codenamed MF301H. The 1995 season was promising with points being scored at nine races and the team securing two podiums, one courtesy of Brundle finishing third at the Belgian Grand Prix and the other by Panis finishing second at the Australian Grand Prix. The team secured 24 points and finished a respectable 5th in the Constructors Championship. The following season with Ligier resulted in Mugen's firstFormula One victory as well as Ligier's last Formula One victory at the1996 Monaco Grand Prix with Panis at the wheel. Despite this unexpected success, the Mugen powered Ligier car only scored three more points finishes during the rest of the season two 6th-place finishes from Diniz and one 5th-place finish from Panis; the team suffered 17 retirements during 1996.
Ligier was taken over byAlain Prost in 1997, and the newly namedProst Grand Prix ran MF301HB engines withJarno Trulli leading theAustrian Grand Prix before suffering an engine failure. The Prost team managed two podium finishes during the 1997 season at Brazil and Spain, scoring points in 8 races over the season securing a final total of 21 points and a 6th-place finish in the Constructors Championship.
With Prost establishing a relationship withPeugeot and switching to them from 1998 onwards, Mugen looked for a new partner and reached a two-year agreement withJordan Grand Prix for which Mugen produced the MF301HC engine. The first half of the 1998 season was an absolute disaster; it was so bad that at one point Mugen officials met with Eddie Jordan and his team during the1998 Monaco Grand Prix to find out why up until then the team had failed to score a single World Championship point.[citation needed] The relationship continued at Silverstone where the team scored their first World Championship point of the season courtesy of a 6th-place finish from Ralf Schumacher, followed by points finishes at the next 3 races. It was not untilSpa-Francorchamps, when Jordan's fortunes changed for the better with driversDamon Hill andRalf Schumacher scored a 1–2 finish securing Jordan's first ever Formula One victory and their only 1–2 finish during their existence after a crash-marred start. The team would score points on two further occasions with Ralf achieving a 3rd-place finish at the Italian Grand Prix.Gary Anderson would years later reveal that, by that season, Honda's headquarters had increased their involvement in developing the engines that otherwise still carry Mugen branding.[5]
The 1999 season resulted in further success withHeinz-Harald Frentzen winning twice in France and Italy combined with podiums in Australia, Brazil, Germany and Belgium, at one stage of the season Frentzen was even challenging for the Drivers' title, although he failed in doing so due to better performance from McLaren and Ferrari. Jordan and Mugen ended the season in 3rd place in the Constructors' standings with 61 points which was their best placed finish in their history.
The2000 season which was Mugen's final year in Formula One was not as successful. While Frentzen did score 2 podiums in Brazil and the USA, Jordan only scored 17 points which was over 44 points fewer than 1999 and the team suffered over 16 retirements. Jordan and Mugen ultimately finished 6th in the Constructors' standings and, crucially, 3 points behindBritish American Racing (which ran fully factory Honda engines in their return as an engine supplier) who finished in 5th and with 20 points. After another season (the other being 1992) of having both Honda and Mugen engines racing together, Mugen left Formula One at the end of season, leaving only Honda to supply the engines to Jordan as well in 2001 and 2002.
Mugen-built engines were also used for theRC101B/RC-F1 2.0X, a car built by the Honda R&D Center without direct support from Honda headquarters (previous cars built by the R&D Center used older Honda engines when they supplied engines for McLaren) and for theHonda RA099, an official Honda test car to prepare for Honda's factory engine supply operation.
In 1998, Mugen built four NSX models, two for the Mugen/Dome partnership, one for Team Kunimitsu and one forNakajima Racing. The cars were fast but unreliable at first, until the Nakajima NSX scored the car's first win at the fourth round in Fuji. This was followed by three more wins (one of them by the Mugen/Dome team), which led to a second place championship finish forTom Coronel andKouji Yamanishi. In 1999, the Honda took three more wins, one of those with the Mugen/Dome team ofJuichi Wakisaka andKatsutomo Kaneishi scoring a victory at the opening round in Suzuka and finishing the third best team in the championship. In 2000, the Mugen/Dome team was champion withRyo Michigami, but the car's performance was limited by regulation changes and Michigami reached the title without a single win. Still, Honda won four races, one of them by the second Mugen/Dome car.
In 2001, Mugen concentrated once more in the JGTC, the NSX winning two races, and finishing second (Mugen/Dome) and third (ARTA) in the series. More importantly, in June, the company announced development of a new 4.0 L V8, dubbed MF408S, for the main prototype class in the24 Hours of Le Mans andAmerican Le Mans Series. At the time, Mugen acknowledged that international sportscar racing was a new category for them. The concept of the MF408S was high power, compact size, durability and reliability. Mugen chose a 4.0 L (N/A) Naturally aspirated engine because they felt through their experience in Formula Three that restrictor size was key to performance. The idea was to save fuel with a smaller displacement engine, since, theoretically, restrictor size will bring power in any engine to a similar level. The main engines in use at the time were producing around 600 hp, including the turbochargedAudi andCadillac, as well as the larger displacementBMW and theRoush-preparedFord. Mugen excluded a turbo as this necessitated use of intercoolers to extract maximum performance, which added to the weight and reduced performance.
2002 was a good year for Mugen at the track. The Mugen-prepared NSXs won five rounds, with the Mugen/Dome team winning two races outright, which gave them the Team's championship title. The debut of the MF408S was in aPanoz chassis in the 2002Sebring 12 Hours, first round of ALMS.
In 2004, M-TEC decided to drop down to GT300 and help train Japanese drivers for GT500 speeds. By grabbing promising drivers early in their careers, M-TEC would then be able to mold them and have definite access to future champions. M-TEC driver,Hiroyuki Yagi, was sourced from theIntegra Series. Giving the drivers experience was more important than developing the car to take the championship. To this end, M-TEC simply detuned the car for the GT300 class without optimizing it for the new power level. Winning the GT300 series by one point over theARTA Garaiya was simply an unintended bonus for a dedicated, championship-level team.
Breaking into theUnited States is another goal for the M-TEC team and the Mugen name. Currently, the authorized dealer of Mugen parts in the US is King Motorsports. Team directorJunichi Kumakura thought racing the NSX in the United States was a great way to promote the company in a previously unvisited environment. When asked what else M-TEC would like to accomplish in America with the golden NSX, competing atSebring andDaytona were marked as attractive goals.
Engine Name: MF458S
Mugen have become the dominant force in electrically powered motorcycles competing at theIsle of Man TT Races. In the eight years since their introduction into theTT Zero, the average speed of the Mugen Shinden around theSnaefell Mountain Course has increased from 102.215 mph (164.499 km/h) in 2012 to 121.91 mph (196.20 km/h) in 2019.[7] By 2019, Mugen has won five TT Zero races using its Shinden bikes.[8]
Making their competitive debut at the2012 Isle of Man TT,John McGuinness took the Mugen Shinden Ni to second place behind theMotoCzysz ofMichael Rutter at an average speed of 109.527 mph.[7]
At the 2013 TT Mugen again finished runners up toMotoCzysz, with Rutter and McGuinness repeating the previous year's result.[7]
Mugen's development has continued at subsequent races in theTT Zero Category. Fielding two machines at the2014 Isle of Man TT,John McGuinness secured their maiden victory ahead of teammateBruce Anstey who took second place on the other Shinden San.[7]
At the 2015 TT McGuinness and Anstey again took the first two spots on the rostrum.[7]
Mugen continued their dominance in theTT Zero class at theIsle of Man TT Races in 2016, whenBruce Anstey took the honours, although their other machine, ridden byJohn McGuinness, retired during the one lap event.
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Anstey andGuy Martin came first and second respectively, both riding Mugen machines.
The Mugen motorcycles achieved first and third place with Michael Rutter and Lee Johnston respectively, split by Daley Mathison riding for theUniversity of Nottingham. Rutter broke the 120 mph barrier to set a new lap record of 121.824 mph (196.057 km/h).
2019
Mugen achieved their sixth consecutive victory with Michael Rutter again increasing the lap record average speed to 121.91 mph. John McGuinness followed his team-mate home to complete a 1-2 finish for the team.
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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.
| Year | Team | GPs | Wins | Pole position | Podiums | Fastest laps | Points |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1992 | Footwork-Mugen Honda | 16 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 6 |
| 1993 | Footwork-Mugen Honda | 16 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4 |
| 1994 | Lotus-Mugen Honda | 16 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 1995 | Ligier-Mugen Honda | 17 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 24 |
| 1996 | Ligier-Mugen Honda | 16 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 15 |
| 1997 | Prost-Mugen Honda | 17 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 21 |
| 1998 | Jordan-Mugen Honda | 16 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 34 |
| 1999 | Jordan-Mugen Honda | 16 | 2 | 1 | 6 | 0 | 61 |
| 2000 | Jordan-Mugen Honda | 17 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 17 |
(key) (results inbold indicate pole position)
Source:[12]
(key) (Races inbold indicate pole position) (Races initalics indicate fastest lap)
(key) (Races inbold indicate pole position) (Races initalics indicate fastest lap)[13][14]
(key) (Races inbold indicate pole position) (Races initalics indicate fastest lap)
Note: Non-championship (NC1, NC2) races are major races that do not count towards the championship.
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