Japan is a closed society. Some might even say it is repressed. On the face of it, all seems well. Everything is scrubbed clean and shiny, people are polite and well-mannered, and are inclined to obey the law at all times, children study very hard and aspire to obtain stable jobs with large corporations, and car manufacturers are ‘socially aware’ and build ‘responsible’ cars. It’s so peachy, you’d be hard pressed to believe it’s true. And in some cases, it isn’t. Behind some of those placid, inscrutable oriental faces – trained to bob and smile dutifully at most times – there lies the urge to break some rules, have some fun and stir some hell. And as far as cars are concerned, that’s where specialist tuning houses like Mugen come in, but we’ll come to that in a minute.
Honda have been on something of a roll, with the Accord. First, they gave us the very smooth and refined 2345cc i-VTEC inline-four, with 142 horsepower – which should be perfectly adequate for most people. For those who weren’t satisfied, Honda then brought in a V6. The Accord 3.0 VTEC V6, with a 2997cc, six-cylinder engine that makes 221 bhp, and has the capability to do 220 kph down a long, straight stretch of road. In almost all independent magazine tests worldwide, the Accord V6 beat cars like the Toyota Camry V6, Nissan Maxima, Ford Falcon Futura, Mitsubishi Diamante VR, Holden Commodore Acclaim and Hyundai Grandeur XG. Which also means it’s beaten pretty much everything there is, in its segment. And yet, there’s just no pleasing some people. Mohan Mariwala (who heads Auto Hangar and Linkway Honda, dealerships for Mercedes-Benz and Honda cars in Mumbai), for example, who’s gone to the trouble of sourcing Mugen bits for his Accord V6.
So coming back to Mugen, the company is often perceived to be the ‘performance tuning division’ of Honda (the way AMG is, for Mercedes-Benz), but is actually an independent operation. Hirotoshi Honda (Soichiro Honda’s son) owns a major stake in Mugen and is also involved in running the company. Based in Asaka, in the northern suburbs of Tokyo (close to the Honda research and development facility in Wako), Mugen have long-term plans of building their own road cars someday, but for right now, they have a single-point agenda – to make and sell the best performance-enhancing parts for Honda cars. With movies like The Fast and the Furious, computer games like Need for Speed – Underground, and a bustling street racing scene in Japan and the US, there is no dearth of young people who can’t wait to snap up all the skirts, spoilers, engine management chips, sports exhaust systems and big alloys which Mugen want to peddle.
Honda’s VTEC (Variable valve Timing and lift Electronic Control) engines are already known for high-revving performance and high specific power outputs, but stock Honda engines also take into account factors like fuel efficiency and noise levels. Mugen have scant regard for such mundane concerns. Performance is their holy grail and they go all out to extract the last bit of oomph from any given set of pistons. When we first tested the (stock) Accord V6 in March this year, I had come away impressed. That Honda’s 221 bhp has this way of blasting you to insane speeds in no time flat, without breaking a sweat and without ever seeming to work hard, which is so... um, grin inducing.
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